Subway
http://www.subway.com/

Subway conjures up a lot of strong opinions.  Some people hate it (wibia, for example), some people love it (Jared Fogle) and some people really don’t care (me).  Subway isn’t my first choice for food or a sandwich, but I don’t have the hatred for it that a lot of people do.  Basically, I could take it or leave it and it wouldn’t bother me any.

Recently, Subway introduced a Yogurt Parfait to add to their healthy menu options (and probably to also compete with McDonalds’ Fruit ‘N Yogurt Parfait).  This one is made up of blueberries, strawberries, yogurt and granola.  Not exactly an earth-shattering combination, but a good one nonetheless and one of my personal favorites since I make parfaits at home all the time.  I was at Subway recently and wanted a side other than chips or apples, so I decided to give theirs a shot and see how it measured up to the McDonald’s parfait that I have had in the past.

What I Got:  Yogurt Parfait; $1.49.

First off, I will assure you that my parfait did not look this sloppy when I first picked it up at Subway.  It got jumbled around in the bag when I brought it and my sandwich home, so that shook up the mixture.  With that being said, I can confirm that all the advertised ingredients were in the parfait.

As for the ingredients, well, they were about what you’d expect.  The fruits tasted fresh and the vanilla yogurt was a nice compliment to them.  Topping it all off was the small granola packet and that added a nice crunch to the refreshing tang of the vanilla yogurt and the sweetness of the fruit.

Would I Buy It Again?  I suppose so.  Nothing about this parfait is going to re-define your life as it is about what you’d expect.  It’s neither bad nor good, it just is as it is.  Pretty much the same thing as McDonald’s…it’s a nice change of pace, but it’s not an attention grabber.

Back to the McDonald’s comparison for a second.  The McDonald’s parfait is 149 grams by weight and the Subway parfait is 160 grams by weight.  The McDonald’s parfait is 160 calories and so is the Subway parfait.  So, it appears as if you are getting more bang for your buck with the Subway one.  The difference is eleven grams and no normal human being is going to notice that.  The thing is though, I bet some genius as Subway tried to use that as a major selling point as to why theirs is better.  LOL, who cares?

-IndianapolisEater

Arby’s sent a few gift certificates for me to compare and contrast the two.  There is a Facebook page that you can vote on which one you like better and Arby’s is surely trying to grab the market here.  The Subway version is their featured $5 foot long this month.

This week, I gave both of them a try.

Arby’s Grilled Chicken & Pecan Salad sandwich was $6.99 for a combo here in the capitol city and comes in sandwich (with bread) or wrap (tortilla) form.  When first opening it, there was a hefty scoop of chicken salad on the sandwich and it actually looked pretty good.  Upon first bite, I thought, “this is a pretty decent sandwich for a fast food place.”  All the pieces were cut to be about the same size and that made it easy to eat.  It was a rare occasion that I tasted any pecans as they were so small that they competed with the grains in the bread.  The apples and celery added a nice crunch.  However, the sandwich was a little bland.  I added pepper and that brought it back to life.

I tried Subway’s Orchard Chicken Salad sandwich on wheat bread.  I took the picture with onions and tomato, but removed them for the tasting.  I like the fact that I could customize my sandwich at Subway, however, there was not a lot that I wanted to add.  Subway’s chicken salad has chicken, apples, celery, grapes, dried raisins and cranberries.  It didn’t appear to have any nuts.

There was a lot more mayo on their sandwich.  Also, the pieces were cut up smaller and the apples and celery didn’t have any crunch to them.  I could’ve used a lot more celery in the mix.  It wasn’t repulsive, but I walked away thinking that this was truly a fast food chicken salad.

Winner:  Arby’s.  Not because they paid me either.  I thought their ingredients tasted fresher and it was a quality sandwich.  I didn’t like the dried fruit in Subway’s and just like any other Subway sandwich, the amount of actual meat/salad was disproportionate to the bread/filler.  Arby’s chicken salad needs a little more salt and pepper and extra layer of lettuce would go a long way.  If you love chicken salad and are in a time crunch, the Arby’s sandwich will help you get your fix.

 -wibia

Arby’s and Subway are both debuting a new Chicken Salad Sandwich this week.  What I like about it is, you can vote on Facebook for the one that you like more.

Arby’s sandwich has large chunks of grilled chicken, crunchy pecans, diced red apples, celery and juicy red grapes all blended together.

I had one for lunch yesterday and am going to grab the Subway version this week.  My Arby’s V. Subway Taste-off will be on Wednesday.

First three to comment will get $5.00 gift certificate to Arby’s.

-wibia

A few months back, I was in a Subway and saw that they had breakfast items on the menu.  I thought that was interesting because I had never seen that before, but I just figured they had been serving breakfast for a while and didn’t think anything of it.  Apparently, I should have thought something of it because within the past couple of weeks, I’ve seen several articles out there, including this one, that say that Subway is rolling out their breakfast menu nationally on April 5th.  So, I guess Indianapolis is a test market for foods yet again.  Odd.

Anyway, being the dedicated food blogger that I am, I was compelled to try this out and here are my results.

What I Got:  Western Omelet Sandwich Combo (comes with coffee) for $2.50 and the Black Forest Ham Omelet Sandwich for $3.00

First up was the Western Omelet Sandwich.  Subway offers you the opportunity to have the sandwich served on an english muffin, flatbread or their traditional sub rolls.  Since I at least wanted to pretend I was eating something similar to breakfast, I chose to get mine on an english muffin.  The sandwich does include egg omelet and you can get the “omelet” as an egg white omelet or a traditional omelet (using the whole egg).  I chose to be semi-healthy and get the egg white omelet.  Also included on the sandwich was their traditional black forest ham, green peppers, red onions, your choice of cheese (I chose pepper jack) and your option of the other traditional Subway vegetable options (I added a couple slices of tomato).

Basically, just like all Subway sandwiches, they give you the base of the food item and then you build this yourself.  As far as taste was concerned, my english muffin was slightly stale but the eggs were actually not that bad compared to my expecations.  I fully expected them to be rubbery since the SANDWICH ARTIST (so stupid, Subway) just pulled pre-made “omelets” out of a warmer box and threw it onto my muffin but they were somewhat soft and fluffy instead.  Even though I was surprised that the eggs were not awful, they were also not good either.  The melted cheese (they place the muffin in the toaster prior to serving it to you) was nice but everything else on this sucked.

Next up was the Black Forest Ham & Cheese.  Since I wanted to try for some variety, I got this one on flatbread.  Also included on the sandwich was the egg white omelet and I elected to have them add tomato and banana peppers as well.

For this one, I would classify this as an epic failure.  The only thing that made this even remotely resemble breakfast was that it had the omelet on it.  Everything else was just a normal Subway sandwich on a piece of flatbread.  Boring, stupid, tasteless, etc.  I’m not going to waste any more time describing this one because it isn’t worth it.

Would I Buy It Again?  No way.  Unlike WIBIA, I generally like Subway and am not biased against it, but I don’t know why they felt the need to get involved in the breakfast battle with all the fast food joints.  They should seriously re-consider either getting out of the breakfast business by April 6th or completely re-tool what they are offering because this was stuff was just bad.  Not only that, but it was overpriced as well.  If you really want fast food breakfast, stick with McDonald’s, Burger King or Hardee’s where you can get more variety and also better value.

Oh yeah, one more quick note.  Subway serves Seattle’s Best coffee in their restaurants.  It was the first time I’ve had Seattle’s Best coffee and it was just awful.  I have had gas station coffee at Village Pantry or Circle K that was light years better than this.

This meal actually ruined my next few hours because I couldn’t get the taste of the coffee or the crappy Subway breakfast out of my mouth.

-IndianapolisEater

Similar to our post about McDonald’s locations from a few weeks ago, some entrepreneurial web site creator has gone about and created a map with all the Subway locations in the United States.

What’s interesting about this one is how concentrated the Subway locations are in the eastern United States while they are relatively under-represented in the western states (especially in Nevada).

Also of note is that the farthest you can go without seeing a Subway is 138 miles (in Nevada), which is more than McDonald’s.  So while Subway may have more actual franchise locations (there are about a million within five square miles of my house), they aren’t anywhere near as evenly distributed as the McDonald’s locations are.

-IndianapolisEater

Yes, that is right old friend…it’s over.   I used to like you when I lived in a small town of 30,000 people and you were the new kid on the block about a decade ago.  Now that I am older and live in the capitol city, it’s a new ballgame and you are getting trounced by the likes of Penn Station, Jersey Mike’s, Lenny’s Sub Shop and I will even say that Quizno’s is better.

Your catchy “$5 dollar foot long” song will have no effect on me in the future.  Btw, $5 foot long is just an ok deal.   At normal price, a foot long BMT is $6.39.   If I saw a $1.39 coupon in that circular, I am not sure that would make me go.  What does BMT stand for anyway?

Also, you are a tight wad on your toppings and meat.  Taken from the nutrition facts.
Look at grams alone Subway V Jersey Mikes:
Subway BMT: 12 inch= 484 grams
Jersey Mike’s Regular: #13: 7 inch = 482 grams

You add 5 inches of bread and the sandwich weighs the virtually the same?  Why, because there is no meat!  Let’s not even talk about the quality of the meat either. Speaking of meat, why did you put the meat on top and all the toppings on bottom? (pic above)  Come on, the order of assembly is in the word… toppings.

You are far better at marketing subs than making them.  You should consider a career change.  Also, the Jared Fogle campaign is played out.  He is from Indiana, went to Indiana University so I should like him.  Note to Jared: channel your inner fat man and start endorsing products that actually taste good.

Because of all the reasons above and a million more, consider us broken up.  And no, not even if you were the last sub on earth.

-WIBIA