Papa John's spent years selling a sandwich without ever calling it one. The Papadia was pizza dough folded over fillings, and it quietly did fine. Now it's gone. In its place are three proper sandwiches on ciabatta, and the company isn't being shy about it: the launch release called them a statement about where the brand is headed.
So are they any good? And more to the point, are they worth ordering from a place you mostly call for pizza? Let's go through it.
Papa John's Sandwich Prices
One sandwich is $7.99. Order two or more and each drops to $6.99 through Papa Pairings, which is the same mix-and-match deal the chain runs on its sides. Want a drink with it? The sandwich-and-Pepsi bundle starts at $9.49.
| Sandwich | What's On It | Price | Calories |
|---|---|---|---|
| Philly Cheesesteak | Seasoned steak, roasted onions and peppers, pizza ranch, white American cheese | $7.99 | 790 |
| Chicken Bacon Ranch | Grilled white-meat chicken, bacon, diced tomatoes, banana peppers, pizza ranch, white American cheese | $7.99 | 780 |
| Steak & Mushroom | Seasoned steak, roasted mushrooms and onion, garlic truffle sauce, white American cheese | $7.99 | 720 to 820 (reports vary) |
Prices from Papa John's launch announcement. Most stores are franchised, so yours may charge a little more, and delivery apps usually do.
Here's the part nobody mentions. The Papadia it replaced was $7.99 too. Same price, same slot on the menu, completely different food. Papa John's didn't sneak a price hike in with the new bread, which is more than you can say for most menu refreshes.
The Three Sandwiches, One by One
All three start the same way. Ciabatta gets brushed with the Special Garlic Sauce, the one that comes in a cup with every pizza, and then it goes through the pizza oven. That garlic butter is honestly the smartest thing about the whole line. It's the flavor people already associate with Papa John's, now baked into the bread instead of sitting on the side.
Philly Cheesesteak. Seasoned steak, roasted onions and peppers, white American cheese, and pizza ranch where you'd expect a mayo or nothing at all. The ranch is the odd choice here. Purists will wince. Everybody else probably won't notice, because the garlic bread carries most of the flavor anyway. At 790 calories it's the heaviest of the three that we can pin down.
Chicken Bacon Ranch. Grilled chicken, bacon, diced tomatoes, banana peppers, and more pizza ranch. The banana peppers are doing the heavy lifting on paper. In practice the early reviews haven't been kind. The Impulsive Buy gave it a 5 out of 10, calling it hearty but mild, and said the chicken had more of a chicken-salad texture than grilled strips. It's 780 calories, with a sodium count that crosses 2,700mg.
Steak & Mushroom. This is the one that actually tries something. Steak, roasted mushrooms and onion, white American, and a garlic truffle sauce instead of ranch. Truffle on a fast food sandwich can go badly wrong, but pairing it with garlic bread is a sensible move, since the two flavors lean the same direction. If you're only going to try one, make it this.
Two Sandwiches or One Pizza?
Now here's the thing that made us stop and do the math twice. Two sandwiches on Papa Pairings cost $13.98. A Medium Philly Cheesesteak Pizza costs $13.99. That's a difference of about a penny.
So which is the better dinner for two? It depends on what kind of eater you are. The pizza gives you eight slices you can share, pick at, and reheat tomorrow. The sandwiches give each person a full, self-contained meal with nothing to argue over. If one of you always ends up eating five slices while the other gets three, the sandwiches settle that dispute for the same money.
For one person eating alone, it's not close. A single $7.99 sandwich beats ordering a pizza you'll be finishing for two days.
What Happened to Papadias and Papa Bites?
Both left the US menu in 2026 as the sandwiches came in. Papadias are reportedly still around in Canada, but south of the border they're done, and Papa Bites went out with them.
Were they missed? Some people will grieve the Papadia, and fair enough. It was a genuinely odd item that nobody else sold. But it also asked customers to understand what a folded pizza sandwich was before they'd order one. A cheesesteak on garlic bread needs no explanation at all, and that's probably the whole point.
One heads-up if you're using our full price list: it still shows the Papadias while we update it to the new lineup. The prices on this page are the current ones.
How to Get Them Cheaper
The easiest saving is already built in. Never order one sandwich if there's a chance someone else wants one, because the second knocks $1.00 off both. That adds up to $2.00 saved on a pair for zero effort.
Beyond that, check our current Papa John's promo codes before you pay. Watch the total at checkout, though. Some codes won't stack on top of a Papa Pairings price, so try it both ways and keep whichever comes out cheaper. And order direct through the official Papa John's site or app if you can. Third-party delivery apps mark items up and won't take Papa John's codes.
Watching the Calories?
These aren't light. Every sandwich lands somewhere around 720 to 820 calories, which is roughly what three or four slices of a large pizza come to. The Chicken Bacon Ranch also carries more than a full day's recommended sodium in one sandwich.
If that matters to you, the nutrition calculator lets you build out the rest of an order and see the total, and the allergen table covers wheat, milk, egg and soy. All three sandwiches contain wheat and milk, between the ciabatta and the cheese.
So, Should You Order One?
If you're eating solo, yes, and get the Steak & Mushroom. If there are two of you, the pair deal makes a real case against the medium pizza you'd normally order. And if you just want the Papa John's you already know, the pizza isn't going anywhere.
The truth is these aren't going to pull anyone away from a proper sub shop. They don't need to. They need to be the thing you add when you were already ordering from Papa John's anyway, and at the same price the Papadia sold for, they manage that just fine.
Last updated September 23, 2026.