Subway Jacket Potato

I tried the new Subway jacket potatoes recently — I went for the Meatball Marinara, and to be honest, I was really disappointed. When you think of a proper jacket potato, the essentials are simple but crucial: butter and cheese, and a generous helping of both. That’s the foundation that makes it creamy, rich, and comforting. Unfortunately, Subway completely missed the mark. What we got were about ten thin strands of cheese and hardly any butter whatsoever. It looked more like a token garnish than an actual topping.

The potato itself was cooked quite well though — soft on the inside with a decent skin — but without butter, it was dry and lacked flavour. Once we added our own butter, it did taste better, but that’s something you shouldn’t have to fix yourself when you’ve just paid for it. To make matters worse, the meatballs were lukewarm at best, nowhere near the piping-hot comfort food you’d expect from a jacket potato meal.

And for £9, it just didn’t feel worth it. That’s a pretty steep price for what’s basically a plain jacket potato with a few meatballs and barely any cheese. At that cost, you’d expect a filling, indulgent lunch — something hearty and satisfying — but it fell flat in every department.

It feels like someone at Subway HQ saw the success of Spudman or Spud Bros and thought, “We can do that too,” but they’ve missed what makes those jackets so popular: generous amounts of butter and cheese that soak into the potato and make it rich and comforting before the toppings even go on. Without that, it’s just a dry spud with a bit of sauce.

Subway’s subs are usually great — tasty, filling, and reliable — so it’s a real shame this didn’t live up to that same standard. With a few simple fixes, it could be brilliant. But as it stands, it feels like a rushed, overpriced imitation that doesn’t deliver.