Hoagie Haven

When I went down to Princeton, NJ a couple weeks ago for CT’s Dad’s 60th Birthday, we remembered that our friend, Hungry, from Tasty Eating, raved about a local sandwich shop called Hoagie Haven. Unfortunately, that was a super busy weekend, so we weren’t able to try it. Since we returned to celebrate Diwali, CT & I made a pact that we would go to HH no matter what.

It is a tiny shop with a ton of options, not to mention, super cheap!

As we were waiting in line, I saw a card for a speciality sandwich called “Body Bag.” An Italian Hoagie and Provolone Cheese Steak with Hash Browns, Eggs, Ketchup and/or Hot Sauce. I was too scared to order it, but the name is definitely spot on.

I went with the whole #1(Provolone Cheese, Capicola, Ham, Salami). I also got lettuce, tomato, oil & vinegar on it. The sandwich was HUGE! Check it out against the normal sized banana. All for $7 including tax. Luckily, CT, her dad, and our friend, ST, shared some with me. It was a good Italian sub, but nothing remarkable. The bread to meat ratio was way off as you can see. Just one layer of thinly sliced meats and cheese.

CT chose a half #18 Buffalo Chicken Cheese Steak($4.50). This meat was the standard frozen kind similar to Steak-umms. The Buffalo aspect was some squirts of hot sauce on the sandwich at the end. I wouldn’t order this again.

CT says: It didn’t taste bad, but was really nothing special. From the moment they started making it, I was disappointed that the chicken and buffalo sauce weren’t pre-mixed; I prefer it pre-mixed so that the flavors can meld together. Also, they didn’t put enough buffalo sauce on top to really taste it. Plus, there was no cheese! I’ll admit I didn’t specify a kind of cheese, but given it was a “cheese steak” I had assumed there would be something. As I write this, I wonder if they considered the “blue cheese dressing” the cheese part? In any case, it wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t order it again either.

ST ordered #35 Grilled Cheese($2.50). She said she liked it. I guess it is hard to screw up grilled cheese especially when it costs less than $3.

Before we left the house, CT’s mom made a request for chili cheese fries. I think they were about $3. Unfortunately, they didn’t travel that well on the short ride back home. There was also very little chili on the fries.

CT says: They were good enough for me. Nothing spectacular, but I like chili cheese fries, so I happily ate them on the side. It might have benefited from a few minutes in the oven at home, but the defeats the purpose of getting take-out.

All in all, it was a good lunch. As Hungry mentioned previously, it is important to order the right things at Hoagie Haven. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that this time around, except for maybe the grilled cheese. Luckily, they have such a huge menu that we will try something different next time including Hungry’s custom sandwich. The total bill came to $17 including tax. Amazing! You can barely feed one person in NYC let alone 4 for that price.