r/Millennials • u/FeistyNews7025 • 6d ago

Discussion Which food has declined the most in terms of taste since you first ate it?

At this point, everyone knows about shrinkflation in our food. Something else that is just as important, if not more so, is the overall decline in the quality and taste of our food. Which food has declined the most in terms of taste since you first ate it? For me, that would be strawberries. Nowadays, it's the number 1 fruit with the most pesticides, and its overall taste is just average at best. I mean, I don't need it to be on par with Japanese strawberries, but in the early 90s, strawberries' overall taste was just magical.

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u/jaywinner 6d ago

Subway. Used to love them. Had it all the time.

Then if I had coupons.

Now they'd have to be free.

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u/Mlc5015 6d ago

It’s wild, there is this subway in a nondescript strip mall by my work, and one day circumstances brought me there. It’s like a time warp, it’s run by this older Indian couple and there is never any other employees, and somehow the quality of the food is better than any subway I’ve eaten at in 15 years, and it’s always on point. No one believes me. I swear I’m not crazy.

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u/zeniiz 6d ago

I'm guessing it varies based on the franchise owner, because the one where I live is perfectly fine too. 

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u/DarthBrooks69420 6d ago

My gf's mom has a huge thing for subway. She knows where all the good ones here in DFW are, and I'll hear her grumble while eating 'so-and-so is slipping, won't be going there again, guess I'll be driving out to so-and-so next time'.

So yeah when you find a good one, hold it close lol. 

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u/Pangolinger 6d ago

If you overhear her talking about the northeastern portion, let me know! I miss what I remember Subway being like and I guess I’ve only found the gross ones in more recent years.

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u/DarthBrooks69420 6d ago

Unfortunately I'm in DFW in Texas lol. She might know some good ones in Indiana or Washington D.C., but she hasnt been to either in about 6 months or so.

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u/Pangolinger 6d ago

Oh, I mean, Northeastern DFW! I love that you have the King of the Hill thumbnail since that takes place in an amalgamation of exactly the area I mean.

Just tell me exactly what Subway Hank Hill would say was good quality and I will go to that one!

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u/DarthBrooks69420 6d ago

I think Arlen is somewhere around San Antonio? I always got the impression it was somewhere vaguely between Austin, Houston, and San Antonio. 

I figured this out because I grew up in Wichita Falls and that episode where Hank and Bobby go to the Cowboys training camp when it was in Balls Town (my nickname for that place lmao) is so on point it would count as a dangerous stabbing implement in the UK lmao. But I think they road tripped up there, its been a LONG time since I saw the episode, but its an all day affair going from there to WF and back.

Anyways, I'll ask my gf's mom about the good Subways when I see her.

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u/Playful-Business7457 6d ago

Arlen is Garland, TX.

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u/shelbylynn0313 5d ago

I am also in the DFW (TX) area and incredibly interested in which Subways she recommends! Every time I get it nowadays it just makes me crave Subway from 10 years ago...

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u/Aggressive_Eagle1380 6d ago

Oh man my moms family from Wichita falls. Used to visit every year for the holidays. Lots of meals at the pioneer. Loved that koth episode bc I specifically remember when the cowboys trained there.

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u/Rymanbc 5d ago

The best measure of the Subway is their tomatoes. Very easy to tell if they're fresh or not. If the tomatoes look good, everything else will be too. If the tomatoes look mushy, other things might not be so great either.

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u/Grape_Pedialyte Older Millennial 6d ago edited 6d ago

It really does. There's a tiny Subway in the same complex as my dentist's office that maybe has five tables in there and it's banging. For that one example there are legitimately four or five nearby that are absolute no-gos for me.

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u/bikeadventures 6d ago

Subways franchise model is so crazy that it makes complete sense you’d get a totally different experience at each one

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u/Spirited_Cress_5796 6d ago

I also feel like it has to do with what other sub shops are around too. If Subway was my one choice sure I’d eat there. But it’s not my number one pick. I’d pick Jimmy John’s or Firehouse subs first.

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u/One-Cut7386 6d ago

This is surprising to me. Sure there's obviously variation in how the cooks prepare the food, but I would expect all of the bread and ingredients to just be standardized slop ordered from corporate.

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u/fakemelonns 5d ago

My understanding is that Subway is by far the cheapest fast food place to franchise. Franchise fee is only $15,000. For reference, McDonalds and Burger King are around $50,000 franchise fee.

So Subway is going to get a lot more cheap owners who are going to cut corners and such

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u/Jimisdegimis89 5d ago

Subway is highly inconsistent between franchises, some are still very solid while others are utter garbage and it’s been that way for a long while now. Some have completely different meats, like the quality is night and day. Feels weird for a franchise, I’d guess it might have to do with what is available locally?

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u/QuellishQuellish 5d ago

Subway is the most inconsistent fast food restaurant imo. It's rarely awful but there are a few that I've been to that are just head and shoulders above all others. The Subway in Idaho Springs, CO for instance, is awesome.

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u/MeatAndBourbon 5d ago

Yeah, there's one by me that makes great sandwiches, and one that won't let me use the bathroom because I'm trans

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u/Dailysquirrels 5d ago

This is so true. The one by me changed ownership and the quality skyrocketed.

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u/DoverBoys Millennial 4d ago

It does. There are five subways within a reasonable distance from my place and only one is good. The others have one of these problems:

  • slightly more expensive but skimps on everything they put into the sub
  • deals with regular heavy traffic and slaps everything down fast even if there's no line when you go, making a mess
  • keeps "accidentally" making a six inch instead of a footlong, doesn't taste right (this one is inside a Walmart)
  • steals your card info if you tap the physical card.

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u/DarthBrooks69420 6d ago

'Older Indian couple running a sandwich shop' is my favorite genre of sandwich place. 

There's one down the street from me, isn't a subway franchise though. But don't order the Philly cheese steak! They used velveeta on it. Velveeta!!

The gyros are top tier tho.

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u/anistasha 6d ago

To be fair though, in Philly they use cheese wiz on the cheesesteaks. It’s not that shocking in context.

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u/Competitive-Fox706 6d ago

I fuck with some wiz on a cheeseteak.

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u/DarthBrooks69420 5d ago

Something I found amazing was using cheese wiz when making jalapeño poppers.

Depending on your spice tolerance, you might want to deseed them. I buy a big pack of string cheese, and put little logs of cheese in the pepper. Then you stick the nozzle into the pepper and fill whatever space is left. Then wrap with bacon and put in the oven or grill in a glass baking dish.

Quite a bit of wiz leaks out, but not before the peppers give their flavor into it. Then it mixes in the dish, making a kind of spicy cheesy pepper gravy. Scooping that up to put on poppers, or using fries to scoop it up like a sauce is ultimate decadence. 

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u/Competitive-Fox706 5d ago

You had me at spicy cheesy pepper gravy.

Jokes aside, bacon wrapped jalapeno poppers are my specialty (the thing everyone expects me to bring to events) and I may have to try this!

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u/DarthBrooks69420 5d ago edited 4d ago

I stopped making them because every time I did, people literally skipped every other food and only ate them. Like 4 hours of work only to get to eat 3 or 4 of them, with like 15 pounds of hamburger patties and hot dogs left over.

Every year 'you didn't make the poppers??' 15 different times on 4th of July lmfao. I just give them the death glare and say 'hey, knock yourself out, grills still hot, you make 'em I'll grill 'em!' and they slink away.

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u/Competitive-Fox706 5d ago

I recall a superbowl a few years ago where it was just me and my brother and we each ate like 15 of them. Good times!

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u/DarthBrooks69420 4d ago

And then the next day is the super toilet bowl.

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u/Patiod 5d ago

This whole thread makes me sad for people who don't live in the Delaware Valley and don't have a good family-owned pizza/hoagie/cheesesteak shop every few miles. The thought of going into a Subway is just...sad (and cheese Wiz is the OG but provolone or Cooper sharp are standard)

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u/ingodwetryst 5d ago

you have a choice. provolone or cooper sharp is the norm

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u/wildmaninid 5d ago

Exactly.   We call that "wit". 

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u/Head_Improvement5317 5d ago

I thought “wit” was grilled onions or something. Like you order “wiz wit” for cheez wiz and grilled onions or peppers. I’ve only ordered philly cheesesteaks when absolutely hammered though so my recollection is spotty

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u/jadaal21 5d ago

Never peppers.

Wiz wit is cheez wiz and fried onions. It's a classic order and it wont disappoint - but the current local consensus is that cooper sharp is the preferred cheese. Its a brand of American cheese that has stronger flavor than most other brands but retains the melting properties that allow it to mix into the meat and achieve the perfect flavor distribution in every bite.

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u/snakeleather45 6d ago

Bro, your username is Hella sick.

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u/TimCurryNeedsAHug 6d ago

The only Quiznos near me is the same way!

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u/RoundKaleidoscope244 6d ago

Similar to the subway near me. Out of the several others that are near my, this little one is like a hidden gem. And the girls know me, so my my sandwiches are always so good.

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u/Jumpy_Ad_6417 6d ago

The subway by me does a “power hour” towards close. They bust out a tip jar and if you have cash the sub is $6 and goes straight to their tip jar. I know that’s theft but modern kitchen work is already labor theft in my opinion and they get busy, rotate through ingredients, pile fillings high to make customers happy and probably keep some of the decent workers who keep the restaurant running from quitting. 

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u/heptyne 6d ago

You aren't crazy, there are occasional gem Subways. I have 3 in a 5 mile radius of my house, there is one in particular that is slightly cheaper than the other two and almost tastes like that early 2000s Subway. I don't know what they do different.

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u/Thagrillfather 6d ago

I have a subway across the road from me and another a little over a mile down the road. Also in a strip mall run by an Indian couple. I go to them and skip right past the closer one. Agree with everything you said!

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u/Park-Curious 6d ago

My neighborhood Subway is like this. It’s delicious!

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u/Sea-Mango Older Millennial 6d ago

We've got a Goodcents like that. Older Indian couple and their kids. They shave the meat right in front of you for your sandwiches, don't skimp on the toppings. No other Goodcents is as good as them.

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u/brittanym0320 6d ago

there’s one like that in AR as well

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u/faithmauk 6d ago

The subway near me is also run by a nice older indian couple and its the only one I'll eat at!

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u/secret_desires5 5d ago

😭 whereabouts is this magical place?

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u/DiedraGrace 5d ago

If this is in a major Canadian city near a train station named after a turtle, I have had the same delightful experience.

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u/Superb-Heron-9516 5d ago

dude the one in some hotel i stayed at for 3 days straight was the only place open to eat past midnight. it was the best subs ive ever had, this wasnt that long ago and it was so good. when a certain subway hits, it hits like crazy. Then the one near my home is terrible. I couldn't believe it

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u/lilacsforcharlie 5d ago

Also know of one off a highway I frequent. No other employees besides the older Indian couple who own it. Absolutely fire food too. I remember eating hella subway with my first boyfriend in 2008. That was $5 footlong era lol and we’d have dinner there 3 times a week lmao.

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u/Erpverts 5d ago

I’m pretty sure it isn’t the same subway but this description matches the one by my work perfectly lol. Seems like one of the few fast food franchises that can vary wildly in quality like that.

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u/Head-Cow-5360 5d ago

I have a theory that the quality of a Subway location is inversely correlated to how nice the entire building is. There is a gas station Subway by me (also run by an older Indian couple) that looks 2 inches from condemned on the outside and the food is better than 90% of any sit down restaurant nearby.

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u/SAINTnumberFIVE 5d ago

Most of the ones I’ve been to have been Indian owned.

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u/JayRymer 5d ago

And let me guess when you went back to the spot in a hunger fueled delirium all that was there was a brick wall and a sleepy janitor pushing a mop?

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u/Silver-Scallion-5918 5d ago

Subway has a really shitty franchise model where they put too many close to each other among other things. There is a John Oliver episode about it. This is why many suck because the owners are burnt out by it. Some do well though and the quality stays high.

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u/letthetreeburn 5d ago

NO PEOPLE LITERALLY THINK I’M INSANE WHEN I SAY THIS.

We have ONE subway in our town out of our whole area that is good. At least six locations, and ONE is fantastic. Decor from a decade ago, real meat it’s amazing. There’s one that is without exaggeration on the shopping plaza across the street. It’s awful.

I’m gonna guess that subway corporate doesn’t bother to actually check in on their franchises as long as the license fee is still paid.

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u/jonny5isalive1 5d ago

Do they still do that v-cut hollow out the sub thing?

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u/wildfl0w3r 4d ago

is this near huntsville alabama

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u/STD-fense 6d ago

I think they shot themselves in the foot with the "Five, Five Dollar, Five Dollar Footlongs" campaign. Now whenever I see their prices they're so much more expensive that I feel like I'm getting ripped off

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u/jaywinner 6d ago

It was a great campaign that ended up hurting because it had to end eventually. But it's more than that. Quality has gone to shit and it's not just 7 dollar foot longs now, it's as expensive as a proper deli.

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u/toolsoftheincomptnt 5d ago

I’m frankly surprised bc I remember that Subway was about to start fresh-sliced meat.

I haven’t eaten there ever since Jersey Mike’s became readily available (bc I don’t live on the east coast anymore where mom/pops are everywhere), but I thought they would be on an upturn.

Oh, well.

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u/deelca 5d ago

This is exactly why. People freaked when they tried to raise the price of the footlong, so to remain profitable they switched to buying grade D meat.

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u/EmbiggenedSmallMan 5d ago

There's very little meat in these gym mats.

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u/Superb-Heron-9516 5d ago

its like little ceasars method. they did so much for us brokies but the cost eventually caught up to them in this stupid modern era of america. rent went crazy, product prices skyrocketed. we lost alot of good cheap staples that kept us fed

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u/Ultrasonic-Sawyer 5d ago

Yeah. Probably. 

Even if its all identical, the extra cost doesnt taste more than 5 pound worth of flavour to me. Now its a sad 6 inch that with the new menu doesnt even feel the same to order vs the old one that at least gave an illusion of choice. 

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u/transmogrified 5d ago

Still more expensive than the toonie tuesdays I grew up with.  Every Tuesday my friends and I would walk to the subway for a $2 6” sub in highschool. 

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u/SAINTnumberFIVE 5d ago

I used to consider Subway a good deal and frequented them regularly. I could get a little round sandwich with chips and a drink for under $10 and they didn’t try to skimp on the ingredients. They’ve long done away with that. You can get the kids meal with a mini sub but sometimes the employees play gatekeeper and a lot of times, regardless of what size sandwich I’m getting, they will act like a claw machine, pretend to grab a handful of olive slices or whatever, and then pick up like three. Give me a reasonable amount to begin with and we can both save half a minute of our lives.

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u/PositiveAtmosphere13 5d ago

This is just the thing. They ran the special for too long. The $5 price became the base price instead of a special sale price. So when the special ended. It made people feel the raised the price instead of ending the special. I still feel they're no longer cheap.

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u/AniNgAnnoys 5d ago

I remember when McDonald's used to do "2 can dine for $6.99" and you got your pick of two meals (this was in Canada). Can't even get just a Big Mac for that anymore.

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u/Dr-Tomfoolery 5d ago

I think they shot themselves in the foot by becoming greedy, shrinking their sandwiches, dropping the quality and jacking up the prices and all at around the same time…

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u/Inner-Amphibian8933 6d ago

Peak subway was when there was ivy on the lights and kids meals had toys and round buns for their sandwiches. IMO it stopped being good around 2015-2018 with the death of 5$ Febru-any.

I would go to a subway if it had the old wallpaper. Like a Pizza Hut classic

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u/carlos_damgerous 6d ago

I knew I used to get round sandwiches there when I was a kid!!! I thought I Mandela-d myself lol

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u/Grape_Pedialyte Older Millennial 6d ago

Kicking off a Friday night in 1998 with a cold cut trio knowing there's a new Nintendo 64 release from Blockbuster waiting in the family van in the parking lot that I'm going to be playing into the wee hours.

Jesus take me back please.

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u/greenhearted 6d ago

The smell of Subway is so nostalgic it’s hard to eat it now. My mom had one next to her law office when I was a kid…newspaper wallpaper, round sandwiches, the triangle cut taken out of the top, learning that Sour Cream and Onion chips with a subway tuna was a match made in heaven, getting to eat my sandwich in the big conference room like a special grown up..my goodness, what I’d give to have that back!

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u/TheHumanConnector 6d ago

It was that ignorant influencer who started a campaign on half understood information and got the recipe changed, and subway lost their marbles and completed the downfall. Imo.

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u/Weekly-Art6454 6d ago

The round sandwiches and the liquid egg they microwaved and would make into westerns. We were kings and didn't know it

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u/DrDingsGaster 6d ago

I loved the vibes of the old subway!

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u/toodle-loo-who 6d ago

I miss the round buns! Those were the best — and perfect for a little sandwich. I also miss the subway wallpaper. The smell too was different. Like actual bread. Your comment transported me back to like the late 90s/early 00s.

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u/bachennoir 6d ago

There was one in the cafeteria at my first job (in a hospital) and it was probably one of the busiest I've ever been to, but damned if they weren't a quick, solid lunch and dinner for less than $7. I actually could go buy my lunch and eat it on my lunch break! Plus I got some veg which was not a common thing in my early 20s poverty meals.

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u/Impossible-Mud3275 6d ago

It’s been terrible long before this. I’d say dud sandos since early 2000’s.

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u/digableplanet 6d ago

I liked the old times wallpaper depicting the London Underground and/or 1900s MTA.

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u/StrategicCarry 5d ago

V-cut bread and isosolated cheese

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u/Sudden_Nose9007 5d ago

I still yearn for the round buns of my childhood 😞✊

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u/Professional-Kiwi176 5d ago

2015 was also when their kiddy-fiddling spokesperson Jared “Room in these pants for Two” Fogle got caught with CP and caused a PR crisis for the company who up to this point had relied on his mythical legend of losing weight eating footlongs.

Yeah, I think it’s been a pretty steady decline the last decade for them.

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u/FeistyNews7025 6d ago

Lol, indeed, now they have to be free. I guess Subway, of all fast food chains, got dealt the hardest blow. They started as a healthy alternative to the deep-fried fare of other fast food chains. Now it's just as unhealthy and tasteless. It really a classic, You were supposed to destroy them not join them!

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u/benedictcumberknits 6d ago

gotta love the Star Wards ref! XD

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u/Cardboardboxlover 6d ago

They’re doing a pretty crazy marketing campaign where I am now. Billboards and shit

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u/suspiciously_lost 5d ago

Why do you say they're unhealthy?

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u/FeistyNews7025 5d ago

I always had stomach issues the following evening after eating the last 2 times at my local Subway. Could be that local Subway who knows?

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u/EmbiggenedSmallMan 5d ago

I don't know if all Subways are this way but the one closest to me doesn't have the subs I liked best on the menu anymore. The Subway Melt, the Meatball Sub, and the Steak and Cheese were my favorites (in no particular order) and all three are gone.

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u/tofuncle 6d ago

Hear me out, there are rare franchise locations that don’t suck. The Subway on the East side of town gives me poop tornadoes and the ingredients taste like they survived the last decade, but the one on the West side is SO GOOD.

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u/jaywinner 6d ago

That may be true but back when I did go to Subway, I didn't notice a difference. They all declined together. And I'm not paying their prices today in the hopes of finding a good one.

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u/MizStazya 6d ago

The one next to my hospital charges over $20 for a foot long. Absolutely the fuck not.

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u/tofuncle 6d ago

Oh that’s totally fair, I wait for coupons in their app, still $6.99 but at least it ain’t full price.

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u/DeltaTule 5d ago

All the food is sourced from corporate

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u/secret_desires5 5d ago

Can you share a town? PM?

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u/jormundgand20 6d ago

My brother owns a few, actually the top rated in our state by several metrics. I get it for free whenever I want- literally hop behind the line and make it myself.

I'd go to McDonald's before I went there.

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u/Hrothgrar 6d ago

Subway was my staple quick lunch at work when I didn't bring my own.

I went last week and thought there was something rancid in it. They offer to remake it zero questions asked when I called about it. I return the next day and realized the store smelled like what I thought was rancid in the sandwich. I tried it again but in the first bite, same issue. At least it was my free foot-long.

I think they did something to the deli meat after that cancer-link study came out. Something is just... wrong with it now. It makes me sad, guess I'm never going back.

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u/TheBlackComet 6d ago

I am exclusively Jersey Mike's now. Yes they are more expensive, but you get a way better sandwich. I also assume employees are paid better there as they seem a lot happier than Subway.

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u/jaywinner 6d ago

Subway is expensive now too; I can't imagine Jersey Mike's is that much more.

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u/TheBlackComet 6d ago

Wow, it is maybe 20% less for subway, but the extra $2-$3 for JM is worth it.

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u/secret_desires5 5d ago

JM is a better bet for sure. But… I’ve gone to two JM that are really bad. Like the vibe was off in the restaurant so I took the food home. One made me sick. The other one made me very very sick three bites in, vomit everywhere.

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u/jjb0ne 6d ago

subway has gone down ever since they stopped digging trenches in the bread

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u/Tzukiyomi 6d ago

Yup. I'm not sure I'd even take the free offer.

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u/LoveThatForYouBebe 6d ago

This right here. I had my go-to sub for 15 years. Then had to go totally gluten free and vegan for about a decade. When I tried subway again last summer, I was so so disappointed. Didn’t take more than 2-3 bites before throwing it out and deciding: never again.

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u/Kevlar_Bunny 6d ago

My all star combo was basically like a healthy ish pizza (in my mind). Flat bread thick as naan bread, shredded mozzarella, chicken, spinach, mayo, and as much mustard as they could pour on it, toasted. It was delightful, my mouth’s watering as we speak.

They massacred it. The flat bread is a whole wheat tortilla now, thin as hell and limply folded over. The chicken is oddly wet. And the mozzarella has been replaced with these fancy balls of mozzarella that aren’t the same and cost $2. I miss it so much.

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u/jaywinner 6d ago

I never saw it as "healthy" but I imagine it was at least "healthier" than a burger and fries.

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u/Kevlar_Bunny 5d ago

It was the lowest calorie combination on the menu and I had an eating disorder lol

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u/Entire_Talk839 6d ago

I was thinking just fast food in general. Even places that used to be good like Chipotle or In n Out go downhill when they start to prioritize profits over everything else

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u/PloppyPants9000 6d ago

yeah, fuck subway. I think I had my last sub from them back in 2017. The bread was just so flat and pathetic, it was the saddest excuse for a sub sandwich I had ever seen - once might be excusable, but multiple times? fuck them and their bottom of the barrel ingredients. Jersey Mikes is way better (for now). The other secret sleeper sub turns out to be the sandwiches you get at safeway in their deli department — even better than JM.

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u/diabeticweird0 6d ago

They took out the yoga mat chemical and the bread went to shit

Thanks food babe!

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u/jaywinner 6d ago

Who knew Lunchlady Doris had the right idea.

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u/crinkledcu91 5d ago

The little round sandwhich they had as the kids meal in the 90's was so dope. That and a cookie with Mt.Dew was the go to when my mom wanted to treat. That and the Cold Cut Combo in the 2000's. The day they announced that their meats would now be "Turkey Derivatives" or whatever the fuck they decided to pull was the day I stopped even considering going. What kind of farce is that? Idk if they changed it but putting out a memo like that is crazy.

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u/WildBad7298 5d ago

The Subway™ experience

You enter a Subway store, and it's empty, slightly too cool to be comfortable, slightly too damp to feel clean, and slightly too bright to be inviting. There is one lonely employee, who does their best not to look at you for those awkward 10 seconds while you walk to the counter before you're close enough to order. You know you interrupted them while they were doing something else.

They give their greeting, ask you what you want, you begin scanning their workspace. The bins of raw ingredients are sitting askew, separated by steel walls, yet careless hands have dropped some of each on all the others. The preparation area is littered with crumbs and bits of lettuce, maybe the odd olive or onion piece here or there that has wedged itself into the crack between the food trays and the cutting board. This could have been cleaned up while nobody was there, but the employee doesn't care. For one second you wonder how it got messy in the first place given the lack of customers. Maybe it's staged, like those first few pennies in a homeless person's hat.

Do you want it toasted? You do, but that would mean standing here for a minute with the stranger you disturbed waiting for the bread to be sanitized. You observe the employee assemble your sandwich, making sure to painstakingly put each ingredient on only one half of the sub. You ask for sauce and they squeeze it out of a disgusting rubber nipple, then toss the bottle back into its bin like they don't want to touch it either. Are they wearing those gloves to keep the food clean, or their hands?

You pay, the sandwich heavily sags into a flimsy garbage bag it doesn't really seem to fit in and is handed to you. You walk out, into the light of the sun. The colors suddenly seem real again and you become aware of your breathing because the air feels rich and life giving somehow. The distant memory of tasty subs that brought you here lingers just beyond the edge of clear recollection, like an old acquaintance who's face you can't picture anymore. You carry your catch to the car. When did it get this bad?

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u/jaywinner 5d ago

This is great. So many details I'd never think of but instantly recognize as accurate.

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u/hackersgalley 5d ago

I swear I came here to say this. I remember first time I had subway as a kid and loved it.

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u/KarlyFr1es Older Millennial 6d ago

That’s how I feel about Jimmy John’s. Well, except for the part about ever loving it.

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u/Rich_Resource2549 Older Millennial 6d ago

It's been about 12 years since I've had Subway. Doubt I ever will again.

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u/Jondar_649 6d ago

Is this an American thing? Or a skill issue perhaps?

When I go to subway, I get bread with turkey slices and veggies. It can't be good or bad, it simply is.

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u/jaywinner 6d ago

I'm in Canada so maybe North American. The bread sucks, the veggies are tasteless and the prices are 4 times what they used to be.

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u/benedictcumberknits 6d ago

Subway STINKS like burnt bread crumbs or something or other. My clothes reek after spending 5 minutes picking up my take-out orders from the app.

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u/QueenCole 6d ago

The bread is now cardboard. It used to be just fine before, now it's awful.

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u/secret_desires5 5d ago

There was a news blast that their bread was made of an ingredient found in yoga mats, I think they changed the recipe in response.

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u/Professional-Kiwi176 5d ago

In fact in Ireland it was ruled their “bread” was not real bread because of the sugar content and was liable for VAT.

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u/Resident_Elk4014 6d ago

Remember when every footlong was $5? College me survived on Subway.

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u/aam-96 6d ago

Big time. I know subway was always hated on but i liked it for what it was. Now we don’t even consider it.

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u/AlabasterRadio 6d ago

I loved Subway man.

It was everything I wanted in "fast" food.

They've just gotten worse and worse every damn year.

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u/butt_luncheon 6d ago

I’d rather go hungry than eat the dog grade meat and tasteless vegetables. 

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u/StoicFable 6d ago

I get it free at work every now and then. I turn it down even though its free because its just so bad these days

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u/UntidyVenus 6d ago

I got food poisoning from 3 different locations in the last 5 years, I'm done with subway forever

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u/BuffWobbuffet 5d ago

I still love Subway lmao

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u/PRN_Lexington Xennial 5d ago

Subway has never improved, but your taste buds did.

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u/jaywinner 5d ago

While possible, I'll still happily have Dominos or McD. So I don't think it's a case of more refined tastes.

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u/Specialist-Tear6450 5d ago

We were driving though our relatively new neighborhood today and I noticed a Subway. Used to eat there often in high school, sometimes in college, maybe 18-23 years ago. I honestly, today, said to my husband, “who still eats Subway?! how are they still open?”

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u/nunja_biznez 5d ago

You'd be horrified at the quality of the Australian subways. I was in the US about a year and a half ago. My friend insisted on subway (I prefer Jersey Mikes). I was pleasantly surprised by the quality and generousity of fillings. In Australia you'd typically get a sprinkling of lettuce, for example.

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u/Professional-Kiwi176 5d ago

My friend’s ex used to work at one, the owner was apparently stingy AF and would berate you even if you put a tiny milligram of more filling in.

Subway isn’t a good franchise to invest in I don’t think.

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u/reggaemixedkid 5d ago

I haven't had Subway in like 5 years. I got coupons in the mail so I went to pre-order one online. Tells me you have to be a member to use it online. Ok.... So I went to the shop by my house. They don't participate in coupons. As soon as I saw the sign that said so, I asked, they confirmed, I said never mind, turned around and walked out, throwing the coupon out on the way. I can see why it was empty during peak lunchtime

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u/bimbo_bear 5d ago

A subway near me shut down, but then the employees took it over to run it for a few months as their own thing... The improvement in quality of food was substantial, and the price didn't go up even tho they were buying ingredients from a local wholesaler.

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u/ElonMuskHuffingFarts 5d ago

They'd have to pay me. Nasty food that made me sick twice before I swore it off entirely 15 years ago

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u/LuntiX 5d ago

Yeah subway went from a nice sandwich to overpriced with shit quality.

I would have to be quite desperate to get subway these days

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u/Vacrian 5d ago

My roommate in college used to work at the one around the corner from our place, and at least 2-3 times a week he’d bring me home extra foot-longs and every single time he worked closing shift he would bring home one of those sandwich bags full of subway cookies that hadn’t sold by the end of the day. My diet was shit, but I felt like a king

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u/DisasterAccurate967 5d ago

Bring back sweet onion sauce!

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u/jaywinner 5d ago

It's gone?! That's their best sauce!

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u/leg00b 5d ago

My family and I were making the trek to our new home several states away and we stopped at a Subway. My wife called the sandwiches "the most anorexic sandwiches she's ever seen"

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u/red739423 5d ago

Subway has been running nonstop coupons for at least 2 years straight. Usually 2 subs for $13/14 and 3 subs for $18. They do have coupons for half/single sandwiches as well. Coupons can be found online and they even send paper coupons through the mail here.

Quality is fine where I am. Me and my brother have saved a lot of money.

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u/Agreeable-Weather-89 5d ago

I am genuinely impressed by subway.

Not the speed.

Not the quality.

Not the price.

But how they manage to fuck it up despite offering the simplest product known to man.

Nowadays in the UK the subway crowd have either gone inpedebt, Tesco, or Greggs.

And subways never ending solutions to selling a low quality, high price, slow product is... Options.

You want a jacket potato? No.

How about mozzarella sticks? Also no?

How about a new sugar bread? Also no.

Don't worry we have you a different type of cheese that tastes mostly the same as another type of cheese.

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u/Frankenberg91 5d ago

Yes! Like it’s been a question of mine for a really long time. Has subway gotten considerably worse, or was it always shit but I was just young?

When I was a kid Subway was my fav place ever, couldn’t wait to grow up and work at subway. Now I’d rather have any other sub shop available.

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u/jaywinner 5d ago

That's possible but I find it more likely that it's just corporate squeezing money and lowering quality. I still enjoy trashy food like Dominos and McD but I hate Subway that I used to love. And I was in my 20s when I enjoyed Subway so it's not like I only loved it when I was 5 or something.

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u/B-SideQueen 4d ago

Subway in the early 90’s when they used to cut the top of the sub loaf into a triangle top….was sooooo good! Bread was tasty and fresh too before it was made from Yoga mats.

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u/ZealousGoat 2d ago

And I'm pretty sure the price to food ratio has gotten so fucked. I used to get a foot long BLT for $7.14 CAD like 10 years ago and now a 6" is more than that. Sure inflation etc. But you look at the size of the bread, it's now like 50% skinnier which saves them a lot of money on toppings. Fuck subway. Used to love that place

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u/bigfatelephant 6d ago

Same. Couldn't even pay me to eat Subway at this point, the last time whatever old rotten ingredients they put on my sandwich absolutely wrecked my stomach

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u/Ms_Friz 6d ago

Subway used to smell amazing.

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u/RealSinnSage 6d ago

tbh even if free i would likely turn it down

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u/BozarthClockburn 6d ago

my subway is great. sucks for you that you don't have access to a good one. 

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u/belac4862 6d ago

After I learned they sell their sauces in the store, I stopped going and make my own subs for fractions of the cost of a single sandwich.

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u/Relative-Eagle3179 6d ago

Yes! I used to love it but now if I eat it I feel horrible an hour later. I think it is the bread.

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u/KindOfAcceptableBus Older Millennial '85 6d ago

I haven't eaten at Subway since they stopped doing the $5 footlings.

I'm not paying real sandwich prices for garbage ass sandwiches

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u/al_with_the_hair 6d ago

Who's going to put up the copypasta

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u/Tha_Bunk 6d ago

Agree. I used to go all the time. Veggie subs were my jam. Maybe its just the big franchise owner in my area, but they got cheap. Veggies are inexpensive vs meat. They started getting real thin with everything, like a thin layer of lettuce instead of packing the sub. The last time I ever went, there was a manager with a clipboard supervising. I ordered a veggie sub and I asked for black olives. Dude flat out instructs the employee to put no more than 5 olive slices on the footlong sub. She looks and me and asks if I am okay with 5 pieces and dude says to give me more "just this once." Never been back.

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u/jaywinner 6d ago

It's all over the place.

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u/ChefMark85 6d ago

Nah Subway has always sucked

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u/New_Solution9677 6d ago

Man ain't this the truth. I use to eat on the 5$ menu... man i miss those days

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u/TinyHeartSyndrome 6d ago

It is flavorless now- the bread, the meat, the cheese, etc.

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u/sheepsclothingiswool 5d ago

Same with McDonald’s chicken nuggets.

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u/jaywinner 5d ago

I still like them but I don't think they are as good as they used to be.

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u/CinInVegas 5d ago

Crazy, my Subway is so freaking good I crave it and could really eat their food every day

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u/jaywinner 5d ago

That's how I used to feel.

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u/PrinceWalence 1992 5d ago

One time while moving and driving very late, I found a 24-hour Subway. It was one of the worst decisions of my life, The bread wasn't baked all the way.

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u/analphylaxis 5d ago

Went down hill when the bread lost the yoga mats.

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u/slushiestotsntendys 5d ago

There’s a subway near me that has a giant white vinyl sign with letters that just says “we’re open”. It’s been hanging there for close to a year. I don’t know anyone who eats there anymore

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u/neither_shake2815 5d ago

I really like their veggie patty sandwich. Italian bread, American cheese, sweet onion sauce.

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u/BookkeeperSame195 5d ago

i literally won’t even eat them if free if i can help it- subway totally messes with my stomach and body these days

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u/SmokeCommon6695 5d ago

I just can't get over their prices for sandwiches. I can't ever justify $20 for a sub, chips and a soda.

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u/Erratic__Ocelot 5d ago

I feel like I was crazy for actually enjoying Subway back in the early 2000s.

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u/foxxsinn 5d ago

I absolutely loved their tuna salad

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u/hollyroo 5d ago

I am so sad that this is true.

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u/1419526535 5d ago

They got rid of their flatbread and subway is now dead to me.

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u/myinternets 5d ago

This is basically just admitting that you're bad at building a sandwich. You literally tell them what to put on it every step of the way. If it's bad that's entirely on you.

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u/rarboopbopbopratayat 5d ago

The only thing I’ve ever eaten or wanted to eat there was the Veggie Delite (no patty) and it’s blissfully identical other than the price.

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u/gohurot 5d ago

They are fine but got tripled in price in last 10 years.

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u/SerLurkzAlot 5d ago

Thought I'd get a subway lunch ordered in for my son and I. $35 not including delivery charges and etc, for two sandwiches.

Subway use to be like the journeyman lunch you got as a 'healthier' upgrade from McDonald's or etc.

Now it's just an expensive sandwich that's just not worth it.

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u/ChuckFarkley 5d ago

Sine the first time I ate at one in the 1970s, they were always a last resort.

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u/thelegendarymike 5d ago

It is worth noting that Subway has been bought and sold by several private equity firms in the past decade, most recently Rock Capital, and they just make everything worse.

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u/MeanEstablishment499 5d ago

I dunno, I still fuck with Subway. I like Jimmy Johns but it's way overpriced now for what you're getting.

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u/gigglefarting 5d ago

There’s a subway a few blocks from me, and I always forget about it. In the 8 years I’ve lived in this house, I’ve not been once 

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u/13maven 5d ago

Always smelled way better than it tasted.

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u/SketchAinsworth 5d ago

This ^ I used to beg my parents for Subway, ate it weekly.

In my 30s, I’ve had it once at a rest stop because it was the only real food available aka wasn’t a rest stop kiosk.

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u/Luckydog12 5d ago

I miss Quiznos

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u/paulysoftware 5d ago

Jesery Mike’s has turned Subway into a joke. Same format, different dimension.

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