Chimika Submarines 吉米卡潛艇堡

Profile

Chimika Submarines is a mom and pop submarine sandwich shop near the Taipower Building MRT. They not only serve submarine sandwiches, but also serve burgers, chicken sandwiches, and hot dogs. Their menu is low priced and most items are under 100 NT. This is more of a Taiwanese rendition of submarine sandwiches, and the ingredients used in the sandwich are very local and home made. Their sub sandwiches are otherworldy, since they put too much lettuce in them, but that can be remedied simply by pulling excess lettuce out of the sandwich. Their 6" subs are worth the price of 65 NT.

Address:  台灣台北市中正區汀州路三段79號
                 No. 79 Ting Zhou Rd. Section 3 Jhongjheng District, Taipei City, Taiwan 100

Phone #: 02-2362-3458
Business Hours: 10:30-9:00

Website: N/A

Accepts Credit Cards: no
Price Range: $

Attire: casual

Good for kids: yes

Take out: yes
Waiter Service: no
Outdoor seating:  no
Alcohol: no

Rating

Food Quality: 2.5 out of 5
Decor:  2.5 out of 5
Service: 3 out of 5
Overall: 2.67 out of 5
Recommendation: Go to Subway instead


Review

 The interior is too cramped for their own good, which might repel customers from eating in causing them to rely more on their take out business. The decor is kinda cool with the yellow and red, wtih their interesting logo that is americanesque. However do to their very cramped taiwanese deli type interior, they get a low score of their decor. I ordered a 65 NT smoked ham submarine sandwich.

 I was flabbergasted when I was presented with this monstrous sandwich that was about 66% lettuce. I did not know how to attack this because I would not get a bite that would join all the ingredients into a single mouthful. I asked the owner how to eat this and they told me to first pick out the lettuce and eat it one by one until the sandwich is at a tolerable size.

Screw that~I'm not a rabbit, and eating leaves of plain lettuce topped with some mustard and mayonaisse did not sound appetizing to me at all. I asked for a plate and pulled all the excess lettuce out and turned the elephant man looking lettucewich into a decent looking sandwich. With this proportion of ingredients, the sandwich wasn't half bad. Their ingredients are fresh and crisp which is only flavored with some mustard, mayonaise, salt, and pepper. I like their bread because its soft and holds everything together, not like the Subway bread that is harder in Taiwan. However, they lack the cheese and the hearty meat that Subway offers. That is why in the end, I feel like its still better to go eat at subway even though they have unforgivingly hard bread. Another reason to eat at Subway is that you can choose not to have these milk based sauces which can reduce the caloric intake if you are watching your weight.

Although their subway sandwiches were sort of disappointing, I saw something on their menu called "Mexican Style Hot Dogs." I am sufficiently intrigued by that name, and if it tastes anything like a Street Dog from the streets of L.A. then I will post about it in the future.