Alidoro
18 E 39th St. (Midtown)
7/22/16
"I've been hearing this rumor of mushrooms and cheese..." - Elizabeth, as she picked apart her sandwich for the non-existent ingredients
Italian Cheesesteak (Roast beef, provolone cheese, sautéed mushrooms)
The sandwiches were a bit smaller and less filled with.. stuff.. than expected, especially given their steep price.
But there were some great flavor combinations, with the simplicity of the ingredients.
Jackie compared the best bites to this summer's favorite, Shopsin's Prozack (score of 5.0), and the worse, drier bites with Lioni's Mike Piazza (which scored a 3.2). The inconsistency of the sandwich was a very bad omen for the rest of the session (especially since the good-bad bite ratio seemed to be about 1 good bite for every 5 bad bites). But when the bites were good, they were amazing: Marlowe described it as "almost truffle-y," and that it filled his mouth with "umami deliciousness."
However, some were also disappointed at how it failed to live up to the online photo. With that dream-like picture in mind, and seeing the sandwich that sat before him, Alan said indignantly, "we've been led down the wrong road here." He also added that there was "not enough of everything" in its contents: meat, cheese, nor mushrooms.
Yeah, no. Not even close.
While some said that when all of the mushrooms and cheese were involved, it was a high-fours deserving sandwich, those bites were so rare and far and few between dry, bland bites. Others had no mercy, and their disappointment at the meat (some called it beef jerky), bad bread-to-meat ratio that led to its blandness, and overall ingredient distribution and consistency issues all reflected in their final scores.
The point came up that if the sandwiches were made correctly, and every bite had each of the ingredients, it would have made this an amazing sandwich. But Sara, although she opted for the veggie option (Valentino - smoked mozzarella, roasted peppers, arugula, artichokes. I had it too and it was pretty good), made the argument that you can't grade a sandwich based on its potential. What you have is what's in front of you, and really...
You can't eat empty promises.
FINAL SCORE:
3.0/5.0