You may already be thinking…”Subway? Really??”, and my answer to that is “Yes, really.”
The reason why I chose such a large popular food chain was the fact that while all Subway stores are suppose to taste the same, each one is managed differently, and that is what sets one Subway apart from another. I have been eating Subway for over twenty years. I started eating it heavily when I got my first job in the mid-1990s. When I first started eating Subway as a child, I always got the meatball sandwich. At that time, I was in love with anything Italian. As I grew into a teenager, my tastes changed and so did my sandwich. My sandwich of choice was now the #2 Cold Cut Trio. I would get it with lettuce, tomato, onion, mayo and parmesan cheese. This was before toasting was an option. This sandwich reigned as champion for over ten solid years before I decided to make another switch. In 2008, I switched to the Chicken Bacon Ranch (toasted) with Pepper Jack cheese, lettuce, tomato, onion, light mayo, light ranch, and parmesan cheese. Today, I have a variety of three different sandwiches that I prefer – The Chicken Bacon Ranch, the Turkey Breast, and the Turkey and Black Forest Ham.
While my sandwich choices didn’t change much over the years, the way I ate them has. I now get all of my sandwiches toasted and I now get pepper jack cheese instead of American (pepper jack wasn’t available until a few years ago). The biggest thing that has changed is not how I eat my sandwich, but what I drink with it. In staying health conscious, I have now chosen to drink water with all of my Subway sandwiches, just as I have with many of my other meals. It’s not a money thing, but purely a healthy choice that I have chosen to make. In doing that, most Subway stores that I have been to are very accommodating and offer complimentary water cups for those who choose water over soda. However, the rules behind ‘the water cup’ vary from store to store, as I found out the hard way…
WORST SUBWAY – 122 Town Center Rd # 103, Matteson, IL 60443
I chose the Subway on Cicero in Matteson as the worst Subway that I have visited in the south suburbs. The food has been satisfactory when I have gone, however, their policy on passing out cups for water is outrageous. All Subway stores offer complimentary see-through water cups, however, this particular location feels that when they run out of those cups, you have to pay for a full price soda in order to receive a regular Subway cup to fill with water. Despite the fact that the store didn’t order enough cups, or the fact that as the cups began to dwindle they didn’t get more cups from another store (which managers at other Subway franchises said they do quite often when out of supplies), regardless of any of that, you have to pay for your cup. This store actually expects you to pay for their mistake. This has happened on numerous occasions, prompting me to finally write about it. Now, I can understand keeping down costs and the fact that each of their regular Subway cups probably costs about between $0.10 and $0.20 cents, but if you are going to charge for a cup, why not charge $0.25 instead of full price? I have learned that this is not a Subway policy, but a policy created by this particular store’s management.
BEST SUBWAY – 7212 191st Street, Tinley Park, IL? 60487
I picked the Subway in Tinley Park in from of the Super Target on Harlem Ave as the best Subway in the south suburbs. During every visit, the staff has always been very pleasant and accommodating. The food has been consistently good each time, and being that this store is in a new building, the inside always appears new and clean. One thing I always look at when I go into a Subway restaurant is the quality of their tomatoes. If they are nice and red, that is a good sign that their other ingredients will be fresh as well. Also, this Subway location has no problem with giving me a regular Subway cup if they run out of their regular water cups.
So there you have it. Everyone goes to different restaurants for different reasons. Sometimes it’s the least distance traveled, and sometimes it’s something completely different. I would recommend to all of you who enjoy Subway like I do to make the drive to the Tinley Park location in front of Super Target to experience the difference.
