Sub'r Bowl Review: Subway

The Sub'r Bowl contender this week is the most well known but least anticipated Subway, the king of Division A and, well, just about every sandwich shop in existence. With more than 33,000 stores, that's now more locations than McDonalds!

Since I had discovered that Subway was offering a "$5 Any Footlong" deal for the month of February, I made the call for this to be the next place to hit. My thinking was, if I have to eat a Subway sandwich, why should I pay full price? The location near our workplace is full of employees with bad attitudes and sandwich making skills to match, so we opted to travel the extra mile or so to the next nearest location. Did I mention they have over 33,000 locations?

Subway does a lot of business, especially around lunch time. Even though we went at 1pm, hoping to be past the lunch rush, the parking lot was nearly full, and, since this location had a drive through, cars were stacked out past the entrance waiting to order. Despite that, we were able to order right away inside the restaurant, and the staff was friendly and fast.

Greg and I both opted for the BMT Italian sub, probably the best known Subway sandwich, with lettuce, tomatoes, olives, mayo, Italian dressing and salt and pepper. He ordered his cold and I toasted, and we each took half the other's sandwich. A small difference was that I ordered banana peppers on half of mine, which I split between my 2 halves. Dave was present and ordered his usual Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki, and Kelley ordered a meatball sub.

Subway offers 5 different kinds of bread, but I went with the classic Italian bread. For the cold sandwich the bread was soft and slightly chewy, and it held up pretty well. The toasted sub was pretty much the same, but there was a small added crunch that I preferred. Inside, both sandwiches tasted pretty much the same, whether toasted or not. The meats were of average quality but had a good flavor, and with the dressing and peppers the sandwiches had a lot of bite.

One problem I had with the sandwich was that it was too "drippy." This was especially true of Greg's cold sandwich, of which there was too much dressing and mayo for my taste. I had asked for only a small amount of light mayo for mine, and I noticed that she also put on less dressing. The effect was that my sandwich had a lot bolder flavor of the meats, which made my mouth water a lot, whereas the cold sandwich, with 3 times the amount of mayo, was more muted in flavor.

For $6 we got a Footlong and any size drink. Fortunately (especially for Greg) they offer Coca-Cola products, and I got plenty of Coke Zero. It was a good amount of food, and I was definitely full after eating the sandwich. You can get chips (mostly Frito-Lay snack size chips) as well as other "healthy" sides, but I didn't feel like I needed any.

I rated the following categories:

• Bread: 3
• Sandwich Stuff: 3
• Price/Value: 7
• Non-sandwich Stuff: 3
• Bonus points: 0
• Total: 16 points

I knew what to expect at Subway, as I've been there many times over the years. They serve a decent sandwich at a decent price. This time out, it was a fantastic deal for $6 for a Footlong and a drink, which would normally be closer to $7.50 without the special. It's certainly the cheapest I expect to pay in this challenge, and they're getting the highest points in price and value. It was an average but solid sandwich that left me satisfied and full.

See also:
Greg's Review