Generally speaking, when the name of a food item contains the word “bomb,” it’s usually a very good thing. Furthermore, whenever you have a sandwich that combines multiple types of meat with cheese and grilled veggies, you’re in for a great time.
So you can only imagine our level of excitement when we saw a pastrami bomb sub on the menu at Chief’s Place in Penacook.
Long ago, before this Insider was even a member of the Insider team, the Monitor night crew used to all order from Chief’s every other Thursday night. It was a big deal. It was called Chief’s Night, and there was a cult following around it.
For all the long nights toiling away in the newsroom until 12 or 1 a.m., the Chief’s food provided some solace – but we never tried the pastrami bomb back then. That’s why we had to try it, now that we’re in the toy department of New Hampshire journalism that pays us to write about eating food.
We went by during lunch hours last Thursday with nothing particular in mind for a meal. A quick glance at the menu board revealed that you can get steak or pastrami bombs, which come with cheese, peppers, onions, mushrooms and salami.
Since we’re extremely familiar with steak bomb subs, we opted for the pastrami variety this time. Apart from all the regular bomb fixings, we had them add some mustard, too – you really can’t have hot pastrami without mustard, in our book.
The sub was served piping hot. Even after the 10-minute ride from the restaurant back to the office, the pastrami bomb was still steaming by the time we bit into it. It didn’t burn the mouth – it was pleasantly hot.
A welcome surprise was that there was no grease at all in this sub. Usually when you have grilled vegetables, melted cheese and cooked meats all packed into one sandwich, you need a bib and a few napkins on your lap, but not this time.
The flavors were mild but well balanced. There was a slight fear during the ride back to the office that there may have been too much mustard, but that fear quickly subsided after taking a few bites. The mustard – standard yellow, it appeared – was there and noticeable, but it was a light layer, just enough to add a subtle kick,
The pastrami itself was tender and rich, and it didn’t get lost in the mix. The salami, however, wasn’t as much of a factor as we had hoped. Sure, it was in there, but we would have been happy with more. After all, you know what they say – you can never have too much meat on your sandwich.
The roll, usually just a hassle and a vehicle to get the good stuff down, was actually a plus in the case of this sandwich. It wasn’t toasted, but it wasn’t moist and mushy, either. The outside was crusty and added a slightly crunchy texture, which was welcome in this otherwise pretty soft sub.
There’s nothing wrong with a soft sub – if we didn’t like them, we wouldn’t have ordered this. It’s just worth mentioning that none of the contents of the pastrami bomb contain any sort of crunch, so you’ll appreciate the crispy roll.
If you like grilled veggies, you’ll really like this one. The folks at Chief’s don’t cheat you on the peppers, onions and mushrooms. Nope, this sub comes full to the brim, borderline overflowing. There were plenty of stray cheesy mushroom and onion pieces to pick off the wrapper after the sub was done.
The big takeaway here is that this is a tasty, filling sub. If this is the only thing you eat all day, that should be fine.
To check out a full menu or to order online, go to chiefspizzarestaurant.com.
Chief’s Place
348 Village St., Penacook
753-9500
11-9 M-Th., 11-10 F-S, closed Sundays
October 14, 2017
I wish you would include the address, phone and hours at the end of every review. Three lines of type that would make readers’ lives easier. I don’t live in Penacook, have no idea where this place is.