Subway - Really?

It has been discussed around here many times, that there are plenty of options in the area for ones "Sub" fix.

From the below average to bad chain sub shops ala, Subway, Jimmy Johns, Quizno's, to the average like Jersey Mikes and Potbelly's to the many excellent (non-chain) places like Alpine, Bari, Riveria, etc. There is never a shortage of places.

Today, in what can now be seen as a moment of weakness and maybe a few too many commercials in-between my Olympics watching (subliminal messages maybe?), I found myself in line at a Subway. I have not been into one in a fairly long time, but standing there waiting my turn, I had the chance to read over the menu, and observe the "sandwich artists" in action.

Oberservations

#1 - Much of their meat is processed, turkey based, crap. Their "$5 Footlong" cold cut combo, is just a bunch of "flavored" turkey lunchmeat...crap..... If you want "real" meat, those sandwiches will cost you $7+ for a footlong and will still provide you with overly processed, flavorless, meats or stuff that comes pre-processed in little trays that they throw in the microwave and plop on the bread....eww.

#2 - Choose any bread, it doesn't really matter, they all taste about the same, which is to say like, well, nothing.

#3 - Most of the "Sandwich Artists" really, really, really hate their jobs, and seem to have no knowledge on how to actually make a nice sandwich. Have they ever eaten one? "Would you like mayo on that Tuna?", gee no thanks, isnt it MADE WITH ENOUGH MAYO?

#4 - The veggies actually are not that bad and at least offer you a decent choice. Heck, maybe one of their salads would be the best choice, or a veggie sub (disregarding the bread)

Lastly, I guess like I said, the subliminal effects of the Ads touting their "Fresh Avocado" brought me in the door with some hope. Fresh Avocado my butt. I expected them, for the $1.50 upcharge, to at least throw a few slices of some avocado on the sandwich. Instead when one of the patrons in front of me in line ordered it on her sub I saw them pick up a bag of Avocado "goo" and squeeze it on the sandwich. It looked to be about the consistency of mayo, maybe slightly thicker, put I could not see even the slightest chunk of what could be considered a piece of actual avocado. God forbid it clogs the nozzle I guess. I can't tell you how it tastes. maybe it is OK, but after seeing it dispensed I wanted nothing to do with it.

I ordered and ate a "Subway Club" which fully reaffirmed just how below average Subway is. It was after I finished, that the remorse set in and the realization that for much less than the $8 the Subway cost me, I could have had a Bari, Alpine, Riveria, etc.

thetrob wrote:Lastly, I guess like I said, the subliminal effects of the Ads touting their "Fresh Avocado" brought me in the door with some hope. Fresh Avocado my butt. I expected them, for the $1.50 upcharge, to at least throw a few slices of some avocado on the sandwich. Instead when one of the patrons in front of me in line ordered it on her sub I saw them pick up a bag of Avocado "goo" and squeeze it on the sandwich. It looked to be about the consistency of mayo, maybe slightly thicker, put I could not see even the slightest chunk of what could be considered a piece of actual avocado. God forbid it clogs the nozzle I guess. I can't tell you how it tastes. maybe it is OK, but after seeing it dispensed I wanted nothing to do with it.

This reminds me of the Taco Bell commercial I saw last night, touting their new Chicken Cantina Bowl, which apparently features "guacamole made from real Hass avocados". However, this raises the question: then WTF is that green stuff in the caulking gun they've been squirting into the seven-layer burrito all this time?

I mean...I hate to say it, but this is your fault for going to Subway. I assume you're a person of moderate, if not above-average intelligence, and therefore, you should have known that walking through that door was a mistake.

But hey, shit happens.

But....but.....but....but.....it worked so WELL for Jared!

I avoid Subway and especially Jimmy John's like the plague. My father likes Subway and I have eaten at the latter exactly two times and I will never forget the last time when my friend said he felt like he had just wasted his entire five dollars. And, believe me, he is the king of wasteful purchases.

Subway's offerings are calories of last resort; when you're body is seeking some thing to sustain itself but nothing else is open. Anyone who walks into Subway when there's anything else open and available has no standing to complain about it.

spinynorman99 wrote:Subway's offerings are calories of last resort; when you're body is seeking some thing to sustain itself but nothing else is open. Anyone who walks into Subway when there's anything else open and available has no standing to complain about it.

As for complaining about bags of Avocado "goo", I'll speak in Subway's defense. I often buy the Wholly Guacamole product at Costco which is essentially Haas avocados pureed with a little jalapeno, garlic and onion. Looks like "goo" but it's the real thing and tastes great (although I never eat it alone, I use it as a base to which I add roughly diced avocados and pico de gallo).

*shrug* I can't stand the smell of Subway, and I don't like their bread. If I'm in the mood for pillowy white American bread and mass market processed meats and cheeses, Jimmy John's is the only one that satisfies my itch. Hell, I like Jimmy John's better than Jersey Mike's. Subway, I avoid like the plague. Yes, I'll admit it. Sometimes, I just like that generic nitrate-laden water-injected cheap-o deli meat. I'm the guy who buys olive loaf and p & p loaf because he likes it. But I don't like Subway.

Not scared to admit I dig Subway once in a while. Here's why:
For 5 bucks, I can go and get a footlong blt with a bunch of veggies, and the ones I go to have a pretty decent hot giardiniera. I can then take it home, and put real turkey on it for a pretty decent club. Other than that, all of their meats are chemical interpretations of food, so, dealbreaker. Their tuna is made with white, greasy, sugar as opposed to mayo -dealbreaker. They use that sugar laden goo in their chemical interpretation of seafood salad, too. The bread doesn't gross me out, but I can tolerate it. When they ask me what kind of bread I want, I always say the exact same thing, "Whatever you grab first, it doesn't matter." Each bread "flavor" is essentially the same white or brown (er.."wheat") loaf with a few different things sprinkled on top before it is put in the oven.

That is why Potbelly's is my go to Sandwich chain and it brings backs memories of the original in Lincoln Park -

epicFades wrote:I mean...I hate to say it, but this is your fault for going to Subway. I assume you're a person of moderate, if not above-average intelligence, and therefore, you should have known that walking through that door was a mistake.

But hey, shit happens.

I think everyone lets their guard down once in while. The key to avoiding these mistakes is when that little voice in your head says to you "C,mon,How bad can it be"?,immediately search your long-term memory and call up the last time you succumbed to temptation and think about the outcome. In my case it was lunch at Cici's Pizza Buffet.

Subway, sure...ok I understand that too, but will admit that every once in a great while a JJ's hits that special spot.

The only thing remotely real at Subway is the tuna, but then it still goes on that fake bread. The bread comes in little sticks of dough which use a variety of chemicals to make them rise into that sweet airy mass they pass off as bread. I watched a Subway employee once take a 12" loaf of "bread" and roll it up into a gooey orb that was the size of a ping pong ball.

weinstein5 wrote:That is why Potbelly's is my go to Sandwich chain and it brings backs memories of the original in Lincoln Park -

I hate to say it, but today's Potbelly's is not even close to the original in LP. The food quality has slipped significantly.(Hey, they had to do something to keep the cost down!) Personally, i cannot get the turkey toasted or the gaminess of that sup-par meat held together with protein glue really comes through. But if you put enough giardiniera on it, that too will be a consumable sandwich. And, I'll add, definitely better than Subway.

I had high hopes that this would be a thread about where to get a good sub sandwich in Chicago.

Good subs seem out of fashion, having been taken over by fast food joints. Maybe they weren't ever in fashion and I'm just romanticizing my youth. In any case, where are places to get a great sub/hoagie in Chicago?

Darren72 wrote:I had high hopes that this would be a thread about where to get a good sub sandwich in Chicago.

Good subs seem out of fashion, having been taken over by fast food joints. Maybe they weren't ever in fashion and I'm just romanticizing my youth. In any case, where are places to get a great sub/hoagie in Chicago?

I want to like Fontano's but their quality has slipped. Nemo's does certain things well.

Artie wrote:

epicFades wrote:I mean...I hate to say it, but this is your fault for going to Subway. I assume you're a person of moderate, if not above-average intelligence, and therefore, you should have known that walking through that door was a mistake.

But hey, shit happens.

I think everyone lets their guard down once in while. The key to avoiding these mistakes is when that little voice in your head says to you "C,mon,How bad can it be"?,immediately search your long-term memory and call up the last time you succumbed to temptation and think about the outcome. In my case it was lunch at Cici's Pizza Buffet.

Your probably right. Not sure why I was expecting anything different. Heck, I admit that there are times when I enjoy the occasional McDonalds, Taco Bell, BK, Pizza Hut, Dominos, yes, even White Castle. I know what they are and expect no more or less. I know there are other options, usually close by, that would be better, but occasionally you just need to, I don't know, reaffirm the mediocrity.

I guess it just gets me that a sandwich, for the most part, seems pretty easy to do well. Heck, I'm not talking even talking about a Bari, Riveria, Alpine, etc. I'm just talking about a simple sandwich. The meat doesn't have to be great, just taste like what it's supposed to taste like. The bread doesn't have to be "artisan", just be a step above Wonder Bread, again taste like something.....anything.

Darren72 wrote:I had high hopes that this would be a thread about where to get a good sub sandwich in Chicago.

Good subs seem out of fashion, having been taken over by fast food joints. Maybe they weren't ever in fashion and I'm just romanticizing my youth. In any case, where are places to get a great sub/hoagie in Chicago?

Bari's
Alpine
Riveria
Grazianos

I find Subways only slightly less palatable than this thread.

I'd trim that list down to just Riviera and Graziano's, personally.

thetrob wrote:

Darren72 wrote:I had high hopes that this would be a thread about where to get a good sub sandwich in Chicago.

Good subs seem out of fashion, having been taken over by fast food joints. Maybe they weren't ever in fashion and I'm just romanticizing my youth. In any case, where are places to get a great sub/hoagie in Chicago?

Bari's
Alpine
Riveria
Grazianos

I'm a fan of Bari's. Have never been to Alpine and Riveria.

Darren72 wrote:

thetrob wrote:

Darren72 wrote:I had high hopes that this would be a thread about where to get a good sub sandwich in Chicago.

Good subs seem out of fashion, having been taken over by fast food joints. Maybe they weren't ever in fashion and I'm just romanticizing my youth. In any case, where are places to get a great sub/hoagie in Chicago?

Bari's
Alpine
Riveria
Grazianos

I'm a fan of Bari's. Have never been to Alpine and Riveria.

My ultimate sandwich would be Riviera Meat with Alpine cheese on Bari bread.

seebee wrote:Not scared to admit I dig Subway once in a while. Here's why:
For 5 bucks, I can go and get a footlong blt with a bunch of veggies, and the ones I go to have a pretty decent hot giardiniera. I can then take it home, and put real turkey on it for a pretty decent club. Other than that, all of their meats are chemical interpretations of food, so, dealbreaker. Their tuna is made with white, greasy, sugar as opposed to mayo -dealbreaker. They use that sugar laden goo in their chemical interpretation of seafood salad, too. The bread doesn't gross me out, but I can tolerate it. When they ask me what kind of bread I want, I always say the exact same thing, "Whatever you grab first, it doesn't matter." Each bread "flavor" is essentially the same white or brown (er.."wheat") loaf with a few different things sprinkled on top before it is put in the oven.

While I certainly am no friend to Subway, their tuna seems to be pretty straightforward:

"TUNA Tuna, regular mayonnaise, water, salt."

"MAYONNAISE, REGULAR Soybean oil, water, whole eggs, egg yolks, vinegar, salt, mustard, lemon
juice concentrate, spices, dried garlic, dried onions, calcium disodium EDTA."

No sugar to speak of. Perhaps your local Subway has gone "rogue" but it appears that their posted ingredients list seems harmless enough.

Bari Italian, hot

d4v3 wrote:The only thing remotely real at Subway is the tuna, but then it still goes on that fake bread. The bread comes in little sticks of dough which use a variety of chemicals to make them rise into that sweet airy mass they pass off as bread. I watched a Subway employee once take a 12" loaf of "bread" and roll it up into a gooey orb that was the size of a ping pong ball.

The bread is crappy, but no more crappy than most supermarket bread:

ITALIAN (WHITE) BREAD Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, iron, thiamin
mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, sugar, contains 2% or less of the following: soybean oil,
wheat gluten, salt, dough conditioners (DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, ascorbic acid, potassium
iodate, azodicarbonamide), yeast nutrients (calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate),
wheat protein isolate, yeast extract, vitamin D2, natural flavor, enzymes. Contains: Wheat

All is right again in my sandwich world.

Was in the neighborhood, so a quick stop by Riviera yielded a Will Special and a Proscuitto w/fresh Mozzerella. I split them with my son.

Sorry, no pictures.......they didn't last that long.

It is hard to believe that there is any yeast at all in Subway Bread. Maybe just for flavoring (though I can't detect any in the flavor). The leavening action is entirely chemical. That is why it goes from frozen to fully baked in 18 minutes.

spinynorman99 wrote:The bread is crappy, but no more crappy than most supermarket bread: . . .

That's a really low bar.

=R=

spinynorman99 wrote:

d4v3 wrote:The only thing remotely real at Subway is the tuna, but then it still goes on that fake bread. The bread comes in little sticks of dough which use a variety of chemicals to make them rise into that sweet airy mass they pass off as bread. I watched a Subway employee once take a 12" loaf of "bread" and roll it up into a gooey orb that was the size of a ping pong ball.

The bread is crappy, but no more crappy than most supermarket bread:

ITALIAN (WHITE) BREAD Enriched wheat flour (wheat flour, barley malt, niacin, iron, thiamin
mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), water, yeast, sugar, contains 2% or less of the following: soybean oil,
wheat gluten, salt, dough conditioners (DATEM, sodium stearoyl lactylate, ascorbic acid, potassium
iodate, azodicarbonamide), yeast nutrients (calcium carbonate, calcium sulfate, ammonium sulfate),
wheat protein isolate, yeast extract, vitamin D2, natural flavor, enzymes. Contains: Wheat

I think the problem with the bread is the hope/promise that it IS better than supermarket bread.

If I were to buy a loaf of Wonder Bread (or such) at the supermarket, I KNOW what it is (or in this case isn't). I don't bring it home, use it, and then say, "WOW, that bread really sucked". Maybe, I wanted the wonder bread, a few slices of oscar mayer bologna, some processed american cheese slices and a squirt of Miracle Whip because I was trying to re-live a childhood memory of lunches long ago.

Subway teases you with the promise that the bread looks, smells and tastes like something it that it never really is

Darren72 wrote:

thetrob wrote:

Darren72 wrote:I had high hopes that this would be a thread about where to get a good sub sandwich in Chicago.

Good subs seem out of fashion, having been taken over by fast food joints. Maybe they weren't ever in fashion and I'm just romanticizing my youth. In any case, where are places to get a great sub/hoagie in Chicago?

Bari's
Alpine
Riveria
Grazianos

I'm a fan of Bari's. Have never been to Alpine and Riveria.

They are close to each other, about 10 minutes apart depending on Harlem avenue traffic.

Riviera is a small Italian food specialties store at Harlem & Belmont with a Deli in the back. Their sandwiches are all reasonably priced at $4 or $4.50. Sandwiches I would guess are in the 9"-12" range.

Alpine is a Italian Deli / Sandwich Shop at North Ave & Lathrop in Elmwood Park. You can get their subs in 6", 9", 18" and the prices range from about $3.50 - $10.80. Their most popular is the "Alpine" which is Ham, Salami, Capicollo, & Provolone Cheese.

I will confess, that I actually eat a lot of Subway. My nephew (who lives with me) works at Subway, and brings home all the leftover cookies, bread, and tuna (which is actually made fresh every few hours). With enough vegetables added to mask the sugary sweet bread, the sandwiches are not that bad for fast food. Again, I never eat anything but Tuna at Subway. You couldn't pay me to eat the fake turkey. I think thetrob hit the nail on the head with the bread "bait n switch'. Subway is really good at making their product look good, but it all tastes like Holsum.