Alta Strada’s Chicken Parm Sub: Gourmet or Nay?

Looking for a place for dinner, I scanned my brain for a local restaurant I would gladly try. After watching Phil Michelson throw away the 16th at the Phoenix Open I came to the conclusion I would give the Alta Strada Market a try. I went into this with extremely high expectations because the only place with a eatable chicken parm around here is Comella’s and let me be honest I am not trying to eat my lacrosse banquet for dinner. I go and pick up my order and when I walk in it smells absolutely amazing! Like holy smokers what a smell. My quick trip in and out didn’t give me a lot of time to solve the smell but man should I have gotten the smell instead of the sub. I get home and the presentation is on point. Nice red and white checkered paper and a big chicken parm smack dab in the middle. I don’t wait and I dig in. I bite into a hard roll made right in the market. It had a crunchy crust that opened into soggy bread that had the texture of a piece of stale baguette that sunk with the Titanic. I get to the chicken and sauce, the chicken is cut up into little pieces that are perfectly breaded. Bottom line well done on the chicken. The sauce on the other hand was completely horrendous. Having zero flavor except for a slight taste of basil and the bitter taste you get from tomato seeds, this tomato sauce was completely horrible. It ruined the sandwich for me. I didn’t even finish it. I would rather go to Comella’s. Bad bread, good chicken, bad sauce, and good presentation. I give Alta Strada’s chicken parm a 3.8 out of 10.

A review by Miles Olivetti