Joe: From calorie count to portion sizes,
we wanted to find out all the differences
between Quiznos in the UK and the US.
This is "Food Wars."
In the UK, Quiznos sandwiches come in four sizes.
Firstly, we have the kids' size,
which is 4 1/2 inches.
Then we have a small sub, which is 6 inches.
A medium sub from a UK Quiznos is 9 inches,
or at least it should be before we got hungry
and ate it by mistake.
And then, finally, we have a large sub,
which is 12 inches, or 1 foot long.
In the US, our Quiznos sandwiches come in four sizes:
the Sammie, a 4 inch, an 8 inch, and a 12 inch.
And I want to give Quiznos props for not calling this,
like, a sandwich taco or something really obnoxious.
Also in the US at a Quiznos, you can get party platters
of either 20 3-inch sandwiches
or 14 flatbreads cut in half.
There are no fountain drinks at a Quiznos in the UK.
Instead, we just have cans and bottles,
which are 330 milliliters and 500 milliliters, respectively.
In the US at a Quiznos,
you can get your drinks in three sizes.
Either a bottle, which is 20 ounces;
the regular, also 20 ounces;
or the large, which they did not have.
Harry: Let's weigh a classic Italian foot-long
from a Quiznos in the UK to see what it comes to.
So, our scales could just about handle that.
It turns out that a foot-long classic Italian
from a UK Quiznos is 520 grams.
Joe: In the US, Quiznos' classic foot-long Italian is ...
about, like, 460?
[burps]
Quiznos was one of the first chains to toast their subs,
so now let's arbitrarily compare the toastedness
between our bread and the UK bread.
In our extremely precise comparison metric,
it looks like the US maybe has the edge
when it comes to toastiness of the bread.
The inside of this is completely soggy,
and the outside, just very average.
Here is everything you'll only find on the menu
at a Quiznos in the UK.
And here are a lot of the USA Quiznos' exclusive items.
Let's start with some sandwich options first.
The first one is this one.
It's a vegan pakora sandwich.
Pakora's an Indian food which is made of
chopped and spiced onions,
and opening this, I got a real hit
of some really nice flavors, actually.
It's actually really good. Very flavorful.
Next up, we've got one which I'm surprised
wasn't on the US menu, which is a BLT.
You can also get peri-peri chicken from a UK Quiznos.
Peri-peri chicken is just, like, a kind of
chili-marinated chicken
which has a little bit of heat to it.
Another slightly surprising exclusive,
in that I'm surprised you don't have it in the US,
is the barbecue chicken.
They've given us a small sub,
but it looks like they've written "smell" on it,
so [sniffs].
For the meat lovers,
we have a barbecue steak and pepperoni sub.
Then we have a classic British filling,
which is this one: ham, cheese, and pickle.
Now, when we say pickle here,
we don't mean slices of pickled cucumber.
What we mean is pickle,
which is a brown, vinegary condiment
made with various vegetables.
Oh, no, they actually do mean pickle.
[laughing]
They mean actual pickle!
Next up we've got the Zesty Steak sub.
I'm not exactly sure what makes this zesty,
so I'm gonna try it and try and find out.
I'd be lying if I said
this was the zestiest thing I've ever eaten.
There's some kind of, like, salsa on the top,
which I guess is supposed to be the zesty component,
but basically not much flavor coming from it.
Perhaps the meatiest option on the whole menu
is the 3 Meat Stack.
So, it looks as if the three meats
are ham, bacon, and beef.
But there's also some olives in there, some lettuce,
tomato, and cheese.
And then, lastly, we have a double cheese melt.
This is basically just a grilled cheese, but in sub form.
The Chipotle turkey on wheat.
Eh, looks all right.
The honey bacon --
oh, there's honey in this, dude!
A honey bacon club.
Yeah, I can get down on that.
The Southwest chicken, on their jalapeño bread.
[fight sounds]
Eh, I don't know, that one looks kind of rough in there.
This veggie sandwich is packed with veggies, man.
Veggie on wheat, for all you health nuts out there.
The black Angus.
This one ...
I don't know about this one.
I think having black Angus, I guess, like, shaved steak?
Ooh, the spicy Monterey.
Turkey club, overflowing with turkey clubiness.
Next up we have toasties.
Now, toasties are a very popular lunch snack in the UK.
It's what we call a grilled cheese.
So if you go to the UK and ask for a toastie,
that's what you'll get.
Toasties at Quiznos come in the form of
cheese, ham and cheese, and tuna mayo.
In the US, you can get a Quiznos sandwich in Sammie form.
And what that kind of looks like is a --
I don't know if it's a pita bread,
but it's kind of folded over.
You saw it earlier.
Could we go for the instant replay of the Sammie?
That thing.
You can't get those in the UK, from my understanding.
And I don't know if you can get every sandwich Sammied.
You can get the classic Italian, the black Angus,
the lobster, and the slow-roasted chicken.
I have to say, like, I thought it was stupid,
but this actually, like, looks more manageable
if you just want to try something out.
It's been sitting for a while, but, like,
looks a little bit like a gordita.
Next up we've got crispy chicken fillets.
These are basically just breaded and fried chicken tenders,
and they come in portions of four, six, or eight.
On the side in the UK,
you can get a portion of criss-cut fries.
These come as small or large,
and they're just potato that's cut into a crisscross pattern
and deep-fried.
Our last hot side option is garlic bread.
It looks like it's made with the same bread
that Quiznos uses for most of their subs in the UK.
However, there's some garlic butter spread on top of it,
and then it's toasted as well.
You can also get this with cheese.
Tater tots in the US
of a regular and jalapeño bacon.
Yeah. Whoa.
I bit right into a jalapeño.
OK. Slow down, Joe.
Pizza time.
Peter: Pizza time.
In the UK, Quiznos offers a range of pizzas.
We're going to go through them one by one
to show you what they are.
Let's start with this one.
Now, this one is the chicken Baja,
which is a barbecue-sauce-based pizza
with some bacon, some barbecue chicken,
some kind of Baja sauce, I presume,
and some red onion as well.
Our next pizza option is the peri-peri chicken.
This one's pretty straightforward.
It's peri-peri chicken, peppers, and onions.
From there, we're moving on to the veggie supreme.
This is a vegetarian-friendly option
with some peppers, mushrooms, onions, and olives.
Then we're moving on to the barbecue chicken pizza.
This one has a barbecue-sauce base,
some barbecue chicken,
and then, once again, peppers and onions.
I personally hate it when they use barbecue sauce
as the base instead of tomato sauce.
Like, it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Then, finally, we have the classics,
Margherita and pepperoni.
Really not much to say about these.
[Italian folk music plays]
Quiznos in the UK also offers a range of wraps and salads.
The following things can be used in either form:
Chicken Caesar, barbecue chicken and ranch, tuna,
honey mustard chicken, peri-peri chicken,
and Mediterranean salad.
Soups.
What is this, chili?
Chili?
Ooh, cheddar bro --
I don't even gotta open this to know it's cheddar broccoli.
Sorry, dude.
[fart sound effect]
Yeah. Ugh.
It's not that this is a bad version of the soup,
it's that cheddar broccoli, or cheese broccoli,
I mean, this smells exactly like a fart.
And everyone's favorite, chicken noodle.
Salads.
You can get a side garden salad.
The lobster is supposed to be, like, a thing for them,
so you can also get lobster salad.
See that?
Actually looks pretty good.
This is the, uh, I think the chef salad.
The Italian salad, which I think is
everything that comes on the Italian sandwich
thrown in a bowl.
And then finally we have some snack options.
Quiznos in the UK offers these Real-branded crisps,
which come as sea salt or cheese and onion flavor.
We can get a fruit and oat cookie from a UK Quiznos.
The packaging advertises this as a "giant" cookie,
but to me this is just a regular-sized cookie.
So I don't know if all the workers at Paterson's
are just very small
or if they need to change their terminology.
And, finally, we have two muffin options,
chocolate or blueberry.
These fantastic chips are available at Quiznos in the US.
Miss Vickie has a bunch of different brands.
On top of that, at Quiznos,
you can get so many other types of chips.
Let's get a few of those on the screen right now.
Quiznos in the US: We got your chips covered.
Getting great audio, [chip bag rustling]
'cause I put this [chip bag rustling]
right in front of the mic. [chip bag rustling]
Unfortunately, Quiznos in the UK
doesn't disclose any of its nutritional information.
So I'm just gonna sit here and, like,
think about Pokémon, I guess.
What's Pokémon?
At a Quiznos in the US, a classic Italian 12-inch sub
is 1,260 calories.
63 grams of fat, 22 grams of saturated fat,
3,760 milligrams of sodium,
and 115 grams of carbs.
If you're worried about sodium, I got some bad news.
Throw in a bag of the lovely Miss Vickie's sea salt chips,
arguably the best flavor
of Miss Vickie's chips, the sea salt.
It's like, sea salt and who cares?
Love these chips.
And a large Coke.
Yes, I'm aware that's a regular,
can we get someone in post to make that bigger?
Thank you.
Add these two things,
and now your meal is 2,040 calories,
84 grams of fat, 25 of those grams saturated,
4,290 milligrams of sodium,
and 264 grams of carbos.
For those of you with a sweet tooth,
if you want to substitute the chips for a cookie --
for a cookie --
[comedic music]
[sighs]
For a cookie [clears throat].
Now that you've got the cookie instead of the chips,
with the large Coke still,
you're going to go up to 2,133 calories,
81 grams of fat,
33 grams of saturated fat,
4,100 milligrams of sodium,
and 279 grams of carbs.
[birds chirping]
Is it au jus or au juice?
Au jus?
Ad: This life-saving device stops --
Are you f---ing kidding me? This video is two seconds long.
Great, thanks guys.
Video: Au jus, French.
Au jus?
In the US, a French dip, 12 inch, with
au jus, right?
Is 1,140 calories, 45 grams of fat,
14 saturated fat,
3,370 milligrams of sodium,
and 119 carbs.
Now, Conner, I gotta get personal for a second here.
The last time I ate at a Quiznos
was probably 12 years ago.
I worked in an office job that I really hated,
and in the lobby was a Quiznos.
And I went there one day with a coworker, got a sandwich,
and on the way out, that coworker said to me,
"What'd you think?"
And I believe my exact words were,
"You'd have to pay me to eat at Quiznos again."
12 years later,
they're paying me to eat at Quiznos.
Dude. This is pretty good.
This is not the most calorific sandwich on a Quiznos menu.
That distinguished honor goes to
the 12-inch Italian meatball.
It's 1,390 calories for one 12-inch sandwich.
This sandwich is pretty good.
This dipping thing, this don't work.
I don't want this cold dip coming with my sandwich
when I get home, I don't want to do all this in the Quiznos,
and I certainly can't do this in the car.
Quiznos, listen to me,
I'm about to give you a million-dollar idea.
So check this out.
You guys, with some food science,
do what the McGriddle did. Right?
With the syrup in their pancake buns.
You do the same thing.
You inject this juice into the bread of the sandwich,
so it's all in one.
That'd be amazing, dude. I would totally get the sandwich.
Is this not a bad idea?
No dipping, right?
I just saved the brand. You're welcome.
I think I deserve a Quiznos black card.
Now, our American audience might be wondering,
"Quiznos, didn't they go out of business?"
And the answer is, not really.
And apparently they might be making a comeback.
Research on the brand shows that between 2007 and 2017,
Quiznos went from 4,700 US locations
to fewer than 400.
They had a fierce competitor in Subway, Jimmy John's,
and several other small sandwich chains.
They were hit hard by the Great Recession
and had to deal with several lawsuits
from many of their own franchisees.
Ooh.
In 2014, Quiznos actually filed
for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US,
but it looks like some of their stores stuck around.
According to a recent article we found in QSR Magazine,
which does read awfully like a press release,
Quiznos is "moving forward with new designs, menu items,
and drive-thrus," so perhaps the future is bright.
Hate to break it to you,
all these sandwich places are almost exactly the same.
So there's no reason why Quiznos can't be
just as popular as any other ones, right?
Especially now, like, doing kind of a comeback.
What they have to do --
pay attention, Quiznos, more information coming your way.
What Quiznos has to do
is go after each sandwich chain individually
and just position themselves as not being that
and picking the thing that sucks about it
and just being like, hey, we don't have that.
Like, you want to beat Subway?
"Quiznos: Yoga-mat-material-free in the bread."
There you go. Give me another sandwich place.
This is easy. Go on, give me one.
Jimmy John's -- dude, correct me if I'm wrong,
but, like, Jimmy John's, their whole thing was, like,
they make sandwiches super fast, right?
In order to do that, it's like,
one person slices the bread,
then the next person cuts the meat, right?
And the next person adds the cheese, right?
It's like, five people touch your sandwich
to make it go faster.
"Quiznos: Your sandwich won't be touched
by five stoned teenagers."
Potbelly's? Nobody wants to eat in an antique store.
"Quiznos: Our furniture isn't a hundred years old."
What's left?
Oh, Jersey Mike's?
"Quiznos: We're not from New Jersey."
[jazzy music plays]