REVIEW – Eureka, I found a nice mix of customer service, great food and good value, but I had to drive to Fresno to get it. After a very horrible experience at a Madera sandwich shop that shall remain freakishly unnamed, my wife and I decided to hit the road and we found Jersey Mikes at the El Paseo Shopping Center at the corner of Herndon Avenue and Riverside.

The first thing we noticed was that at 8pm there were customers both sitting at the tables eating and customers waiting in line to have sandwiches made. When it was our turn to get our sandwiches made the girls behind the counter were very helpful and pleasant to deal with. We told them we had never been in before and they walked us through the process. What we ended up with was two great big GIANT sandwiches with piles of meat and toppings. While their GIANT was not 16 inches, it was packed and weighed three times more than the GIANT at Jimmy Johns, and is currently on a limited time special – buy one and get a second for five dollars.

I ordered an Italian, on which I was actually able to get yellow mustard and wax peppers. We were going to add avocados to my wife’s sandwich but that topping was going to be an extra three bucks. This would be my only complaint. The avocados were more here than they are at Chipotles. Of course, avocados are a little outrageous everywhere right now. But when we got the sandwiches opened at home, we realized these things didn’t need any more toppings of any kind. The sandwiches were cut into four pieces and I could only eat half of mine.  My wife only ate a quarter of her sandwich. So we both have lunch for tomorrow.

This is the sandwich shop we need in Madera. Keep your plethora of Subway’s or the freaky chintzy Jimmy Johns. This place is good enough to fit right in as another option when you are tired of Deli Delicious or Togo’s. I think I would even put this place’s ingredients against the Sub Shop Deli on R Street near the HOPY intersection in Madera. That’s saying something because the SSD was the sandwich I grew up on in the 80’s and has always been my favorite.

As great as these two sandwiches were, the thing that made this experience so pleasant were the two employees.  They showed us our choice of bread and what the sizes were. Giant was the only way to go and these ladies put more meat on these things than I have ever seen on a chain sub. Then they showed us the pickles. Oh my G**, there is another place that says they have the world’s greatest pickles. They lied, because I have tasted the best pickles and they come from Jersey Mikes. They are freakishly sour and crunchy.

If you are looking for a really freakishly great GIANT sandwich you need to take the 9.6 mile drive to Jersey Mikes in Northwest Fresno. And when you get there you might even want to try Chronic Taco’s which is right next door. It is better than Chipotle with better price points. But that’s a topic for a future review.