The One Jersey Mike's Sub You Should Never Bother Ordering

Jersey Mike's is known for its myriad subway sandwiches, which the chain proudly describes as "a sub above." Many fans reckon it's the best sandwich chain around, and with over 16 different subs to choose from at the time of writing, you'll never be pressed for options when visiting your local Jersey Mike's. However, with this many choices, at least one is bound to be a bit of a dud. And, as we discovered, its weakest offering is the Cancro Special. A cold sub consisting of roast beef, provolone cheese, and pepperoni between Jersey Mike's usual sub bread, their site suggests ordering it "Mike's Way," which adds onions, lettuce, tomatoes, red wine vinegar, olive oil blend, oregano, and salt. However, you can fully customize the Cancro Special with your desired toppings either online or in person.

This combination might sound good on paper but while ranking 10 Jersey Mike's subs, Daily Meal discovered that, although the pepperoni aims to add some interest to this rather plain roast beef sandwich, we could barely taste it. Pair the rather basic roast beef and provolone with the understated red wine vinegar topping that comes on the sandwich when not customized, and there just isn't anything to write home about. It wasn't inedible, but the Cancro Special simply doesn't hold up when there are much more interesting options.

If you're unfamiliar with the history of Jersey Mike's, you might wonder how a sandwich came to be called the Cancro Special in the first place. Its name comes from the last name of Jersey Mike's current CEO, Peter Cancro. While the shop was originally started by a man named Mike in 1956, one of his employees, Peter Cancro, purchased it from him at just 17 years old in 1975. A year before, a delivery person ordered the Cancro (which was not yet named as such) and it intrigued both Peter and his brother John, who tried it and enjoyed the sandwich so much that it was added to the menu and named after the Cancro family.

While the Cancro Special is a little piece of Jersey Mike's history, it isn't the tastiest sandwich on its own. It could be improved with some yellow or spicy mustard, which you can easily add if you customize it. For an extra $2.75 (in the Cincinnati area at least), you can also add extra pepperoni, which might help the spicy meat stand out a bit more.

Alternatively, you could forgo the pepperoni entirely and just add a more interesting sauce to the roast beef and provolone instead, saving yourself a bit of money over the Cancro too. Either way, you'll get a slightly more complex bite thanks to the mustard; just be sure to avoid making any common Jersey Mike's ordering mistakes in the process.