Greek Tony’s Pizza and Sub Shop
1732 East 116th Street
Carmel, IN 46032
For a year, I rented a place near Tony’s and I frequently visited for my ritual Friday night pizza. Although it does not make my list of top 2-3 pizza places, it is a solid local choice offering a good variety of pizzas that are heavily covered with toppings and a good thin crust. Although I always carry out, the inside is very casual with a dated décor including checkered table coverings and environment that just does not feel all that clean. You serve yourself your own drinks and the only service is someone dropping your food off at your table making Tony’s a carry-out destination for me. On this trip to Tony’s, I decided to try a couple of subs from their large range of choices.
What I Ate:
Tony’s subs can be ordered as a half ranging in price from $4.30-$4.90 or a whole usually around $9.
Stromboli Sub (half): I am always on the lookout for a good Stromboli and recently had a good one that I reviewed at Lennie’s in Bloomington, Indiana. The Stromboli at Tony’s was a more traditional Stromboli on a soft white bread that tasted so fresh that it reminded me of bread made in house even though Tony’s does not seem like the kind of place that would make their own. The Stromboli had a heavy layer of Italian Sausage that had good seasoning and was ground to the texture that I like on a Stromboli. Although the ingredients listed green peppers and onion, there was so little on the sub that the meat overpowered any taste the vegetables may have given. The sub had a thin layer of cheese that was sufficient but the sub was very dry with only a small amount of red sauce. All of this combined with the sub being served lukewarm on a day when they were not busy left me disappointed.
Italian Sub (half): Although I favor a good cold Italian sub, on this day I decided to try Tony’s toasted version. Like the Stromboli, this sub was served lukewarm at best. I tasted the meats individually on this sub in an effort to try and determine what they actually were and what kind of quality they had individually. I believe the meat on the top in the picture is a Capicola which comes from the shoulder or neck and usually packs nice flavor as a fattier meat. The quality was low missing most of the flavor that one would enjoy from a good Capicola. Below that was just a basic pepperoni and my least favorite meat, bologna. A good quality bologna has potential but this was just some average process bologna you could buy anywhere.
Under the meat was a heavy layer of head lettuce, which for me is always a big turn off. If that wasn’t bad enough, some of it was turning brown as it was clearly on its last day. Under all the ingredients was a layer of what must have been 5-6 tablespoons of mayo that shot out from all sides when I took my first bite completely overpowering any other ingredient on the sub making it almost tasteless. I have had some bad subs over the years but this one ranked among the worst I have ever had and I ended up throwing almost all of it out even after scraping off a good amount of the mayo. Where were the onions or some vinegar and oil like you find on a good Italian like you might get at Jersey Mike’s? Dreadful!
Would I Buy It Again? Yes for pizza, but no for Tony’s subs. When the best part of your meal is the bread, much like the breadsticks at Olive Garden, it is not saying much for the product. The subs were lukewarm at best when served and either had too much in condiments or too little sauce in the case of the Stromboli, and lack proportional distribution of ingredients as any good sub should have. If you visit Tony’s, stick with the pizza.
-EatHSE
