What's with Subway

Jersey Mike’s has it exactly right: you can modify to your heart’s content, or you can say, “Mike’s way,” and they put some default stuff on it. I don’t really care that much, and Mike’s way tastes just fine, so that’s what I order; but if I ever decide I want mustard or pickled jalapenos or whatever, they’re there.

Delis oughtta have something similar. “Turkey sandwich, make it how you usually make it” for people who don’t much care, and let the foodies specify every ingredient.

I make killer sandwiches at home. Dorkness way is:
-Toasted bread
-Mayo/Mustard or Mayo/Sriracha
-Lettuce
-Turkey and ham
-Bacon
-Avocado
-Tomato
-Pickled red onions
-Black pepper

with variations depending on what we have. I like a good sandwich with a good mix of salt, fat, acid, and meat. But if I’m eating out, I’m not looking for a gourmet experience, I just want something pretty tasty, and I don’t want to have to invent a sandwich recipe on the spot. Just gimme something good.

Not literally, I hope.

Did anyone get their free sandwich this morning? Or go to a Subway to see if the promotion was on?

I left out certain ingredients in my list because I don’t want to spoil the (mwahaha) surprise.

My favorite bread is homicidal.

https://www.daveskillerbread.com/products

We have a drive-thru Subway here in Olympia. Instead of a menu and a speaker box there’s a giant touchscreen that you use to punch in your order, and if you’re paying with a card you can run your card there as well before pulling up to the pickup window.

Another thing about Subway; their new initiative has the meats sliced to order, as was the case with some traditional delis. Is that going to improve the taste or quality of the sandwich? I can’t imagine it makes that much of a difference.

There’s a Subway a 2-minute walk from my office. I get subs there often for lunch. I like them. They honor the coupons that come in the mail no problem. However, in every Subway I’ve ever been in (including this one), they must think napkins are made out of gold. No matter what you order, they will put ONE napkin in the bag. If you ask for more (I like juicy sandwiches, and munching on ranch or nacho chips certainly coats the fingers), they will sigh and roll their eyes and maybe give you one more.

It must be corporate directive. It’s the same at EVERY Subway all over the U.S., based on my experience. There must be a happy medium between putting out napkin dispensers, like almost every other fast food places I’ve ever been, and parceling them one little napkin square at a time.

I can’t say anything definitive but, no, it really doesn’t in my experience. It’s mostly for show. I have a proper deli slicer at home. It makes fuck-all difference if I slice my roast beef “to order” vs. ahead of time, as long as I’m not letting that beef sit around for more than, say, three days.

All they had near me for work was buy one get 1/2 off.

Subway is just chasing its competitors like it always has. 20 years ago they put in toasters because Quizno’s had toasters. They put in set sandwiches a few years back because Jimmy John’s has them, and now they’re slicing meat because Jersey Mike’s does.

I happened to go to Subway today, but didn’t try any of the new stuff, just got a good old meatball sub, and I noticed that they put on twice as much cheese as they used to - a six-incher used to get two cheese triangles, now it gets four. I did have to stop the clerk from automatically reaching for the fresh mozzarella instead of the pepperjack I always get with mine.

My daughter worked at a Subway when she was 16. The franchisee was tight-fisted about the black olives (they had to count out 8 olive pieces) and napkins (one per sandwich).

There was a Cuban Cafe in my small eastern Missouri town. Real Cubans running it and made the best sandwich as you describe.

Unfortunately they had an issue with the city government are are no longer around. :disappointed_relieved:

For me, something like this is a good example of a Cuban:

Some versions use thinly sliced roast pork (and can be extremely good, as well), but I like the ones with either thicker slices or chunks/shredded like this one. At any rate, should be house-made roast Cuban pork.

Good lord, now I need a Cubano for dinner today. Gotta start with that roast pork and go from there. Also found a nice recipe for Cuban bread (with lard) here that I need to try to step up my Cuban game (I usually cheat and use a Mexican talera, which does the job but is not quite the same.)

I think that depends on what they were doing before - if they were slicing the meat on-site in the morning, slicing to order might not make a difference if they are using the same meat. If they were using pre-packaged meat then the sliced to order meat is probably not going to be the same meat and that might improve the taste/quality. My understanding is that 1) Subway did not previously slice on-site, the meat was sliced at a central location and shipped to stores and 2) Even with the change, it’s not going to be sliced to order- they will be slicing the selected meats in the morning and afternoon, not when they make each sandwich.

Yeah, that’s what we did at Jimmy John’s some 25 years ago now when I used to work for them. We’d get blocks of meat and cheese that the morning guys would slice up and portion in between sheets of deli paper for use throughout the day.

I find Jersey Giant subs to be far superior to Subway. More meat, better buns. Pricier to be sure but a sub gets you 2 meals. You can easily eat a Subway footlong but Jersey Giant foot longs are much bigger.

I’ve posted before but the Subway subreddit is kind of fun. It’s mostly store employees coping with unreasonable customers and management but sometimes just having fun.

Subway

It was interesting to see the tasty looking vegetarian options in India.
All the delicious vegetarian options in Subway India : subway

I’m a regular at the local Subway, I’ve gotten to know the family that runs it. Father, son, daughter-in-law, sometimes their kids. I’ve been seeing a lot of changes recently, the new menus where you order by number, paper bags instead of plastic, plastic cookie bags instead of paper. I don’t mind the new numbered menu items but never use them. I always order something custom. The paper bags sort of suck when you save half your footlong in the fridge for the next day, the sandwich dries out. The biggest change I’ve seen is they have a slicer now and all the “fresh-sliced meat” signage. At first I feared they were supposed to stand there and slice the meat in front of you after you ordered, but so far that isn’t the case. The owners of this Subway seem to think corporate is trying to make them like Jersey Mike’s. Which is an admirable goal perhaps, but Subway is already the largest fast food chain so don’t rock the boat too much Subway corporate.

My local Subway also switched over to paper outer bags recently. I suspect it was a move by corporate.