Shotgun Sub Shop

Not going to lie, there are days I want a grilled cheese and the line is too damned long — so I look at Shotgun and say, «Oh yeah! They have that awesome sub!» This is always how I wind up choosing Shotgun.
The good news is? Their turkey on pretzel bread is one of my favorite subs in the city! The guy running the joint couldn’t be nicer, you always leave with a sub the size of your forearm, and it’s not just filler crap — it’s all nice ingredients and well assembled, as opposed to messy hideous over-​lettuced subs you get at some places.
I have loved their turkey sub so much I haven’t even tried anything else. Does that make me an awful human? No — but I certainly stick to things I love when I find them.
The pretzel bread totally makes this sub — trust me!

It doesn’t get more average than a sub at Shotgun. I had high hopes seeing that they were owned by the grilled cheese folks, but those hopes were quickly dashed. Honestly, not far from what you get at Subway. I had the Shotgun.

I have been on the hunt for a good NY-​style sub in town, and I had high hopes when I wandered by one day and was told the owner was from Jersey and the subs were what he would eat back home.
So I took a chance. Twice. It is way overpriced for what you get, and even then it’s not as good as others in the area. The seasonings are close, but that’s about it.
The roll has been super hard each time I tried it and incredibly skimpy on the meat and cheese. For $ 5 for a tiny sandwich, you’d think it’d have more meat and cheese.
For my money, I’m going elsewhere.

There are days when I don’t want anything fancy or huge for lunch, but that can sometimes be a tall order around here. This shop keeps it simple, though. The best part of the sandwich — by far — is the bread: doughy ciabatta or pretzel bun. The meat is good, the toppings are good. It’s a good sandwich.
I’m confused as to why the build-​your-​own price for a full-​sized sub is $ 1 less than the «specialty» subs (couldn’t I just build a sandwich with identical toppings?), but maybe I’m missing a key detail. Regardless, this place hits the spot when I’m craving a sub.

Food’s pretty good, but the price could certainly be knocked down a bit to make me want to return regularly.
Speaking of returning, it’s pretty hard to do when the place is closed everytime I walk by… (between 11:30 and 12:30 on week days).

I think I got one tiny slice of roast beef on my sandwich. For $ 8. I had to take the thing apart to find the meat at all. Mostly just veggies on a bun, and really nothing special in the flavor department. Very poor value and a disappointed customer.

I can’t understand how the cart I just ate lunch at is the same cart these other reviews are referring to. Apart from the vast difference in quality (more on that in a moment), the existing reviews are factually inaccurate. For instance, one of them puts the price of a sub plus a soda at $ 7.50, but I can assure you that the sub alone is $ 7.95. $ 7.95 for a sub that would have disappointed me if I’d paid five bucks for it at Safeway. Seriously.
This sub managed to disappoint me in just about every way: it was woefully undersized for the price, the ingredients were bargain basement quality (old, limp iceberg lettuce, flavorless roast beef, and bland mustard that they claimed as a house-​made specialty item, but tasted worse than most store-​bought brands), and it was even poorly wrapped. Everything about this place screams «amateur hour» to me, so I was pretty shocked to read that this is a spinoff of the successful grilled cheese cart next door. If you’re going to charge eight bucks for a sub, you need to tick at least two of these boxes:
[ ] huge and filling
[ ] high quality ingredients
[ ] tastes good
but this cart managed to miss all three. Skip it. You can get better food at almost any of the carts right next door.

Shotgun Sub Shop is a new cart from the folks who run the Grilled Cheese Grill. I’m an unabashed fan of their grilled cheese sandwiches, and I’m happy to say that their subs are even tastier!
They have a good variety of different subs on the menu. I got the Omar, which was turkey and bacon, along with some typical sub fixings on pretzel bread. It was pretty incredible. The artichoke mayo went really well with the meat, and all the veggies tasted crisp and fresh.
Definitely give these guys a visit, and try something on the pretzel baguette. They’ll substitute it for the ciabatta if you’re interested in trying another one of their selections, like their namesake sub.

Far better than Subway and a fresh alternative to the meat/​cheese/​bread and fried foods from most other carts. The only reason I’m not giving 5 stars is I just can’t say yet that this is the best Sub in Portland, but maybe I’ll upgrade the rating later, once I’ve tried a few more spots. It is the best I’ve had so far.
It’s funny… I had been wanting a nice sub all last week, because I was not doing my health any favors eating at carts all the time. I could go to Subway, but is it really healthy to eat such formed and processed meats, so much sodium and fat (esp. in the 12″ subs) and… bread that contains fertilizer to make it rise better and turn brown (
)? Probably not. I could go to Bunk or B.A.S., but that’s mainly meat/​cheese/​bread and, in the second case, an insane wait. So, imagine my happy when I just wandered past this cart, which had just been opened by the same nice folks who bring you Grilled Cheese Grill next door. They had just opened that week… just when I had gotten this urge… whoa… synchronicity, man. The Dude approves.
I chose a «build your own» (they have 6 standard sandwiches or you can just make your own) of roast beef, lettuce, tomato, pickle, onion, peperoncini, black olive, cucumber, vinegar & oil (avocado and jalapenos available also). I chose the pretzel baguette (ciabata also avail.), which turned out to be a fairly dense, chewy loaf with a nice dark crust that was flavorful, not tough, but also crispy at the edges. Overall, the sandwich was a good size, maybe 10″ (half sandwiches are available in the standard sandwiches, not the custom ones). The veggies were fresh and very tasty, especially the cucumbers (I usually HATE cucumbers, but these were so fresh and good!). The meat was not the formed variety and was tasty and, while there was plenty there, this sandwich is clearly not competing on the stupid quantity of meat front. Overall, a nicely balanced, fresh, tasty and healthy sandwich (also thanks to my skipping the cheese and using vinegar & oil instead of mayo).
With a soda… how much did this come to… I think it was $ 7.50, which is about the same as Subway, but a lot better quality and flavor here. I will be back probably weekly, as it will be so nice to break up the onslaught of fried and boiled cart foods with something light and fresh. All this and I did not have to eat food made with the blood of werewolves, unicorn hooves, FERTILIZER, and the tears of wasted teen dreams mixed with acne cream, as I would have at Subway… YAY!