Review: KFC’s Smoky BBQ Bacon Filler Sub

This is a review I didn’t plan to write and wasn’t going to write when I decided to try the latest addition to KFC’s menu. However, my experience with this particular item was so far below par that it honestly felt like I wouldn’t be doing others justice by not warning them about the product in question, and so here we are.

I should be very clear on one regard: Yes, I do like KFC, even Canadian KFC, which is so far removed from American KFC that it’s another article altogether. Furthermore, it pains me to some degree that my first-ever KFC review on this site is negative; in fact, I had a fantastic sandwich there just earlier this month: The “Big Crunch Tower,” which basically puts a big hash brown potato on top of their Big Crunch sandwich and adds a few toppings. The only reason I didn’t review that was because I was unable to try it until the very last day it was available; there didn’t seem to be a point to it then.

At the very same location, however, I just had one of their new nine-inch “Filler Subs.” More specifically, I had the “Smoky BBQ Bacon” version, which features two KFC chicken strips, lettuce, cheese, BBQ sauce, and bacon on a sub-style roll.

Generally speaking, it wasn’t bad. That is, half of it wasn’t bad; the bread, lettuce, sauce, and cheese were all fine. The problems came strictly from the meat.

The problem with the Filler Subs, much like the small Snacker but on a greater level, is that they use KFC’s chicken strips, which– to be blunt– are not very wide. As a result, you wind up with a lot of sandwich space which has all the condiments and toppings, but very little meat. As I was eating and I noticed just how much of the sandwich was meatless, I decided to snap a picture:

The red line you see there is where the “hinge” of the roll is, where it folds over onto itself. If you divided the bottom half of the bun into quarters, it would only cover about the two middle quarters, or half the bun, leaving plenty of unused real estate on either side. Here’s another look from a head-on angle:

Suffice to say, it wasn’t as satisfying as it should have been. Moreover, I was so preoccupied with this that I didn’t even realize that my “Smoky BBQ Bacon” sandwich was lacking a critical component: The bacon! No bacon on a bacon sub that has “bacon” in its very name! But by the time I realized it was missing, it was far too late, so I just decided to let it go (save for this review).

The sandwich left me unsatisfied, so I crossed the food court to try to get a sandwich with some meat in it at A&W, but they were all sold out of their “Buddy Burgers.” In the end, I wound up getting some rather tasty shrimp nigiri sushi from Mac’s Sushi’s end of day sale.

So to conclude, I’m not here to condemn KFC, just their Filler Sub. If you want a sandwich there, I would recommend instead going with the Big Crunch, the Original Recipe chicken sandwich, or even just the Snacker– sure, that one has a similar problem to the Filler Sub, but not nearly to the same degree, and sometimes it makes up for covering the bread by extending beyond it.

David Oxford

David Oxford, or “LBD ‘Nytetrayn’,” as he is sometimes also known, is a freelance writer of many varied interests who resides in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. If you’re interested in hiring him, please drop him a line at david.oxford (at) nyteworks.net.

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