Bowie Restaurant Project: (37) Subway (BP)

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

It has since come to my attention that the first of these isn't in Bowie, so it's been removed from the list. The review itself is left here for posterity.


For my visit to the final two of Bowie's seven Subway restaurants, I had to break another of my cherished rules. In particular, don't eat at a gas station. Once again skirting the limits of what constitutes a restaurant, both eateries had seating, so you could, if you want, arrange a lunch with somebody at either of the locations.

Now that I've hit all of the Subway locations, I expect in an upcoming post to rank them. I imagine these two will be vying with the Wal-Mart location for the bottom entries.


Subway, 16501 Ball Park Road
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 12/16/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1/2 out of 5 stars

Christina has collected a bunch of Subway coupons. They allow you to buy one 6-inch sub and get another free (with the purchase of a 21-oz. drink). One way to do this is to get your two subs as a footlong. All told, you save a little bit of money, and you get a drink thrown in. I went ahead and added some variety to my lunch by getting two different subs. I will give the Subway credit for accepting the coupon (unlike the one in the Arundel Mills food court).

However, I was in for trouble when I went to get my drink. Let me let you in on a little secret. There are few places where you can get an Orange Coke (California Tortilla being the only one that comes to mind). But you can achieve a similar effect by filling most of your cup with Coke, then adding a splash of Minute Maid Orange soda. Except here, where the soda sprays all over your hand. And then, look, the Subway shares its soda dispenser with the gas station. That makes sense, I guess. Except for the fact that the gas station uses 22 oz. cups, and the lids available don't fit the Subway cups. Sigh.

One advantage that eating at a Subway inside a gas station gives you (I can't believe I just typed that) is that you have a much wider soda-and-chips selection than anywhere else, because you can shop at the gas station convenience store. Still, I didn't need much prompting to dish out my first sub-one-star rating, and the sad, sad experience of the drink dispenser (combined with the fact that I was getting my food in a gas station) was enough.

Subway, 6021 Highbridge Road
Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 12/23/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 1
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Along an approximately four-mile stretch of Route 450 there are four Subways. This one constitutes the westernmost Subway in Bowie. The BP station it lodges inside is more spacious than the Sunoco reviewed above. And...the drink selection is better. Because they have Cherry Coke, I didn't spray myself with any orange soda. But again, there are other, better, non-gas-station choices very nearby. That may explain why this location wasn't in foursquare until I added it today. One star, only because I didn't find an excuse to drop it further.

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Bowie Restaurant News
In perusing the City of Bowie's "2012 Development Sites and Highway Projects Outline", I noticed a "McDonald's at Ball Park Road" project, right near the Sunoco Subway reviewed above. In 2011, it had the "stormwater management concept plan approved." I'm sort of hoping I finish this project before they build this one. In the annals of things we don't need, there's a McDonald's across Route 301 from one of the other ones. At least it isn't an eighth Subway, though.

It is now being reported that the Bang Bang Mongolian Grill won't open until February.

I have learned that Hunan Gardens is carry-out and delivery only. This information drops me to 76 restaurants on my list and means I am one away from halfway finished. (Although I expect more to be added and removed before I finish.)