I stopped by here earlier this week for the first time in what seems like forever. (It'd probably been at least a year.) I'd been going to places (Jersey Mike's, Subway, Gabriel's) much closer to where I live for some time, but I figured that a visit to LaSpada's was in order since I wanted a change from the usual and since it'd been so long since my last visit.
Unfortunately, I was unable to order what I intended to get prior to my visit. I asked for a chicken Philly sandwich, but the woman behind the counter said that the shop had run out of chicken. (Weird.) That made things pretty difficult for me, seeing as how I don't like cheesesteaks. I decided to just go for a BLT and some curly fries. Including a soda I also picked up, I believe the total was in excess of $11. (Eeeek!) The sandwich was pretty good, though it had an excessive amount of bacon on it. I didn't take a picture of it, but believe me when I say that it had enough bacon for two people on it. The sandwich was very good, but I would've been slightly embarrassed eating that much bacon in front of someone and almost got kind of grossed out by it, myself. I think that I enjoyed the fries more than I did the sandwich.
Back to that price I mentioned ... I paid for the 12" sandwich - not the largest one. (Yes, LaSpada's has a larger-than-12" sandwich available, though I wouldn't dare order one. That sounds like too much sandwich ... even for me.) Even though the BLT was good, I could get a pretty decent one at Subway, et al, for at least several dollars less. (A 12" BLT combo probably runs about $7+ at Subway. It probably isn't as good as one at LaSpada's, but it also is significantly less expensive.) So, be careful what you order here as I'm guessing that the largest-sized sandwich plus a side (several from which to choose) and a beverage may cost nearly $15. To me, that's a lot of money to spend at such a place as this.
For those who haven't been there, LaSpada's is in a, to most, sketchy segment of Lee Road. It's not an area I frequent very often by any means, though I have been coming to this part of town a little bit more than usual lately (visits to Home Depot near I-4 as well as a few trips to Java Girls). The shop isn't even that nice, either. (Actually, as Brandi B. said ... "It's kind of a mess.") It definitely qualifies as a "dive"-y place to eat, though the food is pretty good. I left this most recent visit feeling pretty disappointed, though that mostly is because of the disappearance of the shop's chicken. Not sure what happened with that. They'd better hope they don't run out of steak for cheesesteaks, or else they might have a mutiny on their hands. The customers might storm the counter with torches, a la the villagers in Frankenstein ...
Hopefully during my next visit (probably not anytime immediately soon), I'll be able to order what I want. I don't want to settle on an overloaded-with-bacon BLT, as tasty as it was. I definitely remember my past experiences here being much more positive than this most recent one, so my 4-star review is a reflection of those as well as the great sandwiches I've had in the past. read more