We've all heard the horror stories of the things that go on behind the scenes of our
favorite fast food places, and unfortunately, your go-to sandwich spot is probably included
in those terrifying anecdotes.
That means there are certain things you really should avoid when ordering.
Toasted bread
The quality and freshness of the bread can make or break a sandwich, and according to
some former sandwich shop employees on Reddit, there's a decent chance you might be getting
day-old bread, especially if they ask you if you want your sandwich toasted before they
start making it.
Toasting it will hide the fact the bread is less-than-fresh, and you may or may not be
ok with that.
If you want to make sure you're getting the fresh stuff, don't order it toasted from the
beginning.
Tell them you don't want it toasted, even if you do.
And then, flip the sandwich script.
Former employees give this advice:
"Wait until they make the sandwich then tell them that you changed your mind and want it
toasted after all."
Unfortunately, that won't solve all of your bread problems.
Subway's wheat bread
Subway proudly proclaims that their bread is made fresh daily, but that doesn't mean
some choices aren't better than others.
According to one employee,
"The regular brown bread gets dry fast.
[...] Coming down to the end of the day [you should] run from the sandpaper wheat bread."
They do note that all the bread is pretty good if it's fresh, so if you're eating with
the lunch crowd you're probably safe, but you might want to take a pass if you're making
a late-night sub run.
There might be another problem, too.
If you order 9-grain wheat bread thinking it's super-healthy, an expose by CBC Marketplace
suggests otherwise.
They found the first ingredient is something else entirely.
"The first ingredient is white flour, and that the sixth ingredient, even after the
yeast, is the 9-grain blend.”
Subway's "oven-roasted" chicken
Most of us probably don't expect the finest free-range, organic chicken when we hit Subway,
but according to sandwich artists on Reddit, their oven-roasted chicken is problematic
for more reasons than one.
They say that for starters, the chicken comes pre-cooked, in giant vacuum-packed bags, which
get boiled in the microwave before the chicken hits your sandwich.
Even though the meat is clearly cooked to death, there are plenty of complaints about
said chicken still being pink.
How is that even possible?
If you're still thinking the chicken doesn't sound so bad, another employee says they were
horrified to find bugs of some sort in the bag.
The real question isn't whether that's Reddit-style one-upmanship or if they were real worms,
but what else is in that chicken?
According to the CBC, the answer isn't what you'd expect.
They ran tests that found more soy than chicken, and Subway sued over the results of CBC's
tests, but the damage?
It was done.
Meatball sandwiches from Subway
Sorry, Subway.
We're not done with you yet, and it's bad news for meatball lovers.
The Subway Meatball Marinara gets regularly trashed by sandwich artists in tell-all Reddit
threads, and they all seem to be on the same page when it comes to the handling of said
meatballs.
One employee summed it up like this:
"I've worked in 4 different stores, not one of them stuck to the rule of keeping meatballs
out for a maximum of 4 hours.
[...] They go out in the morning, back in the fridge at night, and back out the next
day."
Another wrote,
"I have had the responsibility of 'stirring the film off the top' [of the sauce] on more
than one occasion."
Who else gagged a little at that?
Speaking of sauce...
The sauces
Questionable cleaning standards and improper sanitation are a legitimate concern no matter
where you're eating, and this cautionary tale has to do with those bottles of sauce that
sit at the deli counter all day.
Although, to be fair, this is less to do with a particular chain's policies and more to
do with how diligent staff is.
One Subway sandwich artist on Reddit said they knew of stores where employees wouldn't
wash sauce bottles, only refill them.
Fresh sauce ruined by old, crusty gunk?
That's something that could happen anywhere, and while nobody wants a dry sandwich, they're
suddenly not sounding so bad.
Jersey Mike's chicken parm
One former Jersey Mike's employee had plenty to say about their chicken.
In particular, the chicken parm.
The claim?
That their sauce is hiding a lot of grossness.
They wrote:
"Don't get the chicken parm.
It's [...] 100% microwaved.
They even microwave the bread from the day before to make it soft.
[...] Everything chicken at Jersey Mike's is cheap rib meat and miscellany mashed up
into a patty."
They added there are plenty other options that were super fresh, but the chicken parm?
Not so much.
Who makes this stuff up?
Jimmy John's Gourmet Veggie Club
Even chains that have built their reputation on fresh sandwiches might be hiding a shocking
amount of calories, fat, and sodium between their slices of bread.
At Jimmy John's, The Veggie Club might seem like a healthy choice, but you'd be wrong.
Thanks in part to excessive provolone cheese, this hefty vegetarian delight isn't the super-healthy
choice you might think it is.
How bad is it?
Depending on the bread, you can easily end up with a sandwich that clocks in at well
over 1000 calories, has around 65 grams of fat, and your entire day's worth of sodium.
To put that into perspective, the only sandwich to out-calorie the veggie club is the J.J.
Gargantuan.
So maybe just drop the cheese.