Jason’s Deli is a medium-sized chain operation, mostly in the Eastern half of the country, offering made-to-order sandwiches, soups, and salads. I wandered into a suburban Dallas location the other day, it was late at night, they were close to the motel, and I like a good sandwich about as much as the next guy. I’ve been in a Jason’s before.
Little known factoid about BurgerDogBoy: he always over orders. No question.
Perusing the menu, i saw (and remembered) that Jason’s offers their version of my favoritest sandwich in the whole world, the New Orleans born and bred muffaletta. (Pronounced Muff-a-LOTT-a).
Generally on a 9″ round bakery roll, with several types of Italian meat, cheese, and olive salad (chopped green olives, vegetables, herbs, spices and olive oil), Jason’s version can be ordered by the quarter, half, or whole sandwich. Each Jason’s sandwich comes with a bag of their private label chips, which are nothing to write home about, Jason!
So I ordered a whole one, the foto below represents a half sandwich. All variety of muff’s are made all over the country, and Jason’s offers their “traditional” version, and also a turkey-based one. (Yechh).
I understand a company like Jason’s has to have a “mass-appeal” menu, so they are going to go for satisfying the ‘lowest common denominator’ of palate, no matter how far out they try and stretch with innovation.
And such is the case with their muff. The olive salad lacks the punch of the home-grown New Orleans one, coming up short on garlic, herbs, and vegetables. Their salad misses the mark on viscosity as well, the New Orleans variety has more olive oil, I can only describe Jason’s as “kinda dry.” Jason’s sticks with a simple meat formula, so the sandwich also doesn’t have the complexity of a traditional muff.
Finally, the bun. While the right size and shape, Jason’s bun has “too much goodness” in it, as overall, the chain strives for a healthier menu. What that means is, the New Orleans bun is the equivalent of Italian Wonder Bread, white and soft on the inside, with a bit of bite on the outside. For my taste, Jason’s was just to “whole grainy.”
Kudos on the pickle spears included in every order. But overall, this muffaletta misses the mark by a mile. I have never had a good muffaletta outside of New Orleans……don’t know why I keep looking.
Jason's Deli Muffaletta