I always appreciated Subway (and still do somewhat) as an alternative to unhealthy burgers and fries fast food. The only thing I really like there tho is a turkey sub and now that they’ve hiked the price from $5 to $6 for the foot-long, I don’t buy them any more. The $4 sub of the day combo is about the only thing I go for now; turkey day is Wednesday where I live.
But what the heck are those chicken ‘patties’ they use in the oven-roasted chicken subs that don’t look (nor particularly taste) like any part of a chicken? I think maybe they shred the chicken and glue it back together using a chicken patty shaped mold(?) If anyone has the inside scoop, I’d seriously be interested to know…
It’s processed meat. Look at Butterball packs of turkey or chicken breast in a supermarket, that stuff is the same idea. It’s basically you have pieces of a meat that get turned into an almost liquid mixture and then put into a loaf form and sliced.
In the Subway instance you just take chicken like that and instead of putting it in a loaf and slicing it you mold it into a faux-breast appearance.
On the subject of the V-cut, the far superior (and far smaller) sub chain, Erberts & Gerberts, uses an even better cut. They hinge cut the loaf like everyone else, but they scoop out a long pocket of bread in order to hold everything in. You get the scooped-out bread, which they call guts, wrapped up with your sub, too. It’s the same method Thornton Melon uses in Back to School.
Well, I have to admit to occasional cravings for a foot-long meatball and pepperoni, which I guess goes against that philosophy. Other than that, I kind of like the tuna salad. Most of the ones made with cold cuts seem to pretty much taste the same regardless of whether they start out with beef, ham or turkey. OTOH, Subway is one of the few fast food options where I wouldn’t feel I was destroying my body if I had to eat them every day for a week or two.
Sorry, no idea on the chicken patties. I’ve never had a sandwich with them because they frankly look disgusting.
The good: that vinegar. Oh, that vinegar! If I get a sandwich from Subway that’s not tuna, I usually have them put extra vinegar on the sandwich, and no other dressing. No oil, no mustard, no mayo. That vinegar is addictive. Also, I can choose to have just about whatever I want as a salad…that is, they’ll put everything in a bowl, put dressing on it, and give me a couple of crackers. I don’t have to pick things off of bread. I can get what is essentially a chef’s salad whenever the place is open. When I don’t want to eat a lot of carbs at a meal, but I need something FAST, this is a good alternative for me.
The bad: the cheese selection. Yeah, they have mozzarella, but it’s just grated, and they won’t put much on. Whatever happened to offering provolone? Provolone used to taste so great on a BMT, or on a cold cut trio. White American cheese is so…meh. I can’t eat pepper jack and don’t like it anyway.
The ugly: the sodium levels in a lot of their sandwiches is downright scary.
Mmm…reconstituted chicken puree. Not surprising that it loses taste in the process.
I’m still wondering why the turkey cost jumped 20% suddenly. My guess is it’s one of their more popular products (more inelastic demand) making it a go-to for recovering higher fuel/transportation and health care costs.
I don’t mind eating at Subway, but it’s my least favorite of the national and local sandwich chains around here. Compared to other places, the quality of the ingredients just seems to be noticeably lower, and perhaps the best (though not the only) example of this is the OP’s chicken “patties.”
I went to Subway for the first time in a looong time (got a gift certificate for Christmas; finally using it up) the other day, and they don’t seem to be doing the faux-chicken patty thing any more. They had presliced strips of chicken that were doled out with a scoop instead.
I eat at Subway at least twice a week - turkey on wheat, lots of veggies, with mustard and vinegar. 280 calories (without cheese). My local shop still has provolone, Lynn.
When I was a teenager we had a sub shop in our town that served amazing meatball subs, and they would do it by cutting the roll in half first (crosswise, so you have two 6" rolls). Then they would scoop out the bread from the cut end, kind of digging a well that was about the diameter of the meatballs. Then they would fill this hole with the meatballs, sauce and cheese. You could eat the sandwich starting at the open and and nothing would ever fall out!
I asked about this one time, and I was told that the local franchise owner has the option of carrying this cheese or not. It turns out that provolone is quite a bit more expensive.
They have the business model and profit margin nailed down, and will keep reinvesting in stores and ads so that no one will catch them… just like Mcdonald’s did/does. Doesn’t matter who is best… it matters who has the biggest presence and biggest ad budget.
I eat Subway chow from time to time, but I feel like I am bothering someone if I want more peppers or more olives. etc. I just don’t like the skimpy approach to toppings. I see each pepper slice and cheese slice as something which was carefully planned out with Subway accounting, and see the board of directors bickering about the margins, etc. when my sammich is being ‘constructed’.
If you notice, whenever they run a month long promotion that all footlong subs are $5 dollars they make sure to mention that this includes only regular subs. They do this so that they can determine that certain subs are specialty subs and be excluded from the promotion.
My sub of choice is the Subway Club. It contains Turkey, Ham and Roast Beef. Each meat on its own is (or was) part of the $5 dollar footlong promotion. It contains no more meat than any other sub. Of course, subway has decided (probably due to its popularity as a low fat option) to make it a specialty sub and exclude it from the $5 dollar footlong menu. Typically its costs between $7.50-$8.00.
A few months back Subway ran a national campaign tv and radio campaign where they announced that “for a limited time” the Subway Club was going to be added to the $5 dollar footlong menu promotion. This had me a little excited. So, I went into Subway and ordered my sandwich, and it rang up at $7.50. I then pointed out to the employee that the Subway Club was now a $5.00 footlong and directed him to the sign which was right behind him announcing this. He then informed me that if you look at the sign closely it states that the special is only in effect during lunch. This was not part of the advertising campaign.
They ruined a good thing. I was getting the $5 turkey sub weekly, with all the veggies and the vinegar and oil. Then they took turkey off the $5 menu, and I stopped going. I had that chicken patty thing once and it was disgusting. I don’t know how profitable the turkey sandwiches were at $5, but I’m sure there’s no profit from the sandwich that I am not buying. It’s obvious that I’m not alone.
My local (to my work) shop stopped carrying provolone. Pepperjack is the replacement/scab cheese. Boooo. Is this just my shop or has anyone else noticed this.
I have a rotation of two: Spicy Italian and Tuna (I stick to the “Everyday Value Meal” or whatever its called now, used to get the BMT, but that’s not on the EVM board). Subway is a once or twice a week deal for me. If they ever build a Lenny’s near my office, Subway loses my 2nd weekly visit.
I presume the company is as bemused as I am to learn how many people apparently view a single dollar (for a sandwich large enough to feed two) as an instant deal-breaker.