DiBella’s Subs (Auburn Hills)
3395 University DriveI’ve spent a lot of time in the Detroit area for work recently. It’s that time of year when I just get a lot of assignments on the road. It will be slowing back down pretty soon….hopefully.
I was in Eastern Oakland County a few weeks ago for a shift where I was meeting a co-worker near Oakland University. I got over there early…like I typically do…so I could find something to eat.
I was hoping there would be a lot local quick food kind of places since I was near the University but that wasn’t really the case…at least what I could tell by doing a quick Google search.
I did find a sandwich place near the entrance to the University. It’s a chain but not one we have on this side of the state and I knew it would be quick.
DiBella’s Subs is an east coast sub shop that’s been around for decades. The sub shop stayed pretty small for most of their history with locations in and around Rochester, NY and eventually Buffalo. They started expanding end of the 2000’s. They operate 44 shops in five states with Michigan being as far east as they’ve gone.
The Auburn Hills location is one of five Michigan locations. The shop is on the corner of University Drive and Squirrel Road right across the street from the entrance to Oakland University. The shop is in a shopping plaza with several other chain restaurants. DiBella’s is in the building closest to the University Drive entrance.
The restaurant is set up for counter service. There is a large order counter that takes up the whole length of the restaurant. I wasn’t really sure where to go at first but a guy working behind the counter just kind of yelled out asking what I wanted. I had sort of looked at the menu online but still glanced at the menu hanging above the kitchen just to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
I put in an order for a 7 inch Buffalo Chicken Sub and grabbed a bottle of Pepsi at the checkout. The total was right around $15 after tip.
There is a pretty large dining room with kind of a classic east coast sub shop feel. No one was using it but there were a lot of carry out and delivery orders coming out when I was there around 3:00 on a Tuesday afternoon.
I could have just sat down and ate but I tend to eat on the hood of my car a lot. I was meeting my co-worker at a parking lot at Oakland University so I just got there early, found a spot in the back of the parking lot and unwrapped the sandwich.
The Buffalo Chicken sub is pretty straightforward. It’s grilled chicken in a Buffalo sauce, blue cheese dressing, lettuce, banana peppers, pepperjack cheese and grilled onions. The bread is kind of their signature and it’s made in house. The super soft sub roll is filled with a pretty good sized portion of chicken. The sandwich definitely wasn’t as hot as I expected it to be. There was quite a bit of blue cheese dressing which really cut down on the Buffalo sauce’s heat.
This was my first experience with a DiBella’s Subs shop and it was a good first impression. There are a lot of sandwich chains out there now so doing something different is where you really stand out. The sandwich I got was a warm sandwich but it wasn’t grilled. The bread was really allowed to shine through here even with the warm chicken. It’s a solid sandwich. A sandwich I would go back for if there were any on the west side of the state.
SW Michigan Dining 