Place: Subway
Items: Fresh Salads
Price: $4.99
Call it our case of B.M.T.-itis. For months, women’s basketball star
Lisa Leslie extolled the virtues of Subway’s new Fresh Salads on TV.
Usually we’re suckers for tall women, advertising saturation and new
lunches. But how could we use up a lunch on a Subway salad with the Pizziola
– and its hundreds of fellow sandwich permutations – whispering
sweet nothings to us?
Finally, we faced our duty to America’s lunchgoers and ordered the
salads: Mediterranean Chicken, Classic Club and Grilled Chicken with Baby
Spinach (OK, we still had no interest in the meatless Garden Fresh). Now will
we ever choose them over the B.M.T. again?
Tom: Because there are over 17,000 Subways in the world,
I figured I’d better go to two. Good thing. My first sandwich artist
made my salads just like he makes sandwiches—like a painter who can
only work in oils. He heaped some lettuce in the bowl then stared into my
eyes—waiting for me to guide him down the line. No salad bar looks like
that sandwich line, so I was at a loss as to what to put on. I didn’t
even see some of the things that could make an actual salad rather than a
Subway sandwich without 6 inches of bread.
My second artist handled bread or plastic bowl with equal aplomb. A couple
handfuls of baby spinach, a sprinkling of
assembly line with iceberg leaves, spinach, grape tomatoes,
shredded cheese and more.
My favorite was that chicken-spinach marriage. I had
the huge poultry chunks warmed up, then nestled into the protein-goodness
of eggs, bacon bits and cheese. And as I discovered with Wendy’s recent
spinach salad, I LOVE spinach. The Club was a very strong second with its
sliced and diced turkey and ham, though I was left with a layer of tasteless
iceberg. The Med? It might have been the best at any other franchise.
Tom: These taste like Subway subs with
whatever dressing you apply. What’s next? Maybe they’ll come full
circle and offer a salad with a side bun so you can “make your own sandwich.”
I say stick with what got Subway its 17,000 outlets in the first place—the
sandwiches!
Chris: Did we see the same movie, Ebert?
These salads were unique creations that add to Subway’s enticing lunch
lineup of always fresh, endlessly customizable items. I may doubt you, Tom,
but I’ll never question Lisa Leslie again.
Rating: Tom: 2 sporks. Chris: 5 sporks.
Food facts: Grilled Chicken and Baby
Spinach Salad with Atkins Sweet as Honey Mustard dressing: 620 calories (70%
from fat), 48 g fat, 13 g saturated fat, 39 g protein, 11 g carbohydrates,
1480 mg sodium.
E-mail The Lunch Guys:
tomandchris@thelunchguys.com
sliced carrots and shredded cheese, two spoons of bacon bits, two spoons
of crumbled egg, six grape tomatoes and a platter full of chicken, and I had
a salad worthy of, well, Subway. Unfortunately, while the Club, Med and Chicken
with Baby Spinach salads all are fine, they are neither filling nor, in most
cases, all that healthy. I don’t there should be a question as to which
has less fat and calories: the salad or a meatball sub with gooey melted provolone
cheese. In this case, it’s the sub, so what’s the use of ordering
a salad?
Chris: What’s the use?! Tom, this is a case where
I have to disrespectfully disagree. You’re as nuts as the pack of almonds
that graced my Grilled Chicken with Baby Spinach wonderment. These were among
the best salads I’ve had from a national chain, and as for the health
issue, the carb count was drastically low. Actually, it’s no wonder
that a place that specializes like no one else in meat and veggies assembled
to order, fresh before your eyes can make a killer salad. And my worst fear
was not realized – these weren’t just breadless sandwiches in
bowls (as the $1.50 “make any sandwich a salad” option is). Subway
has dedicated salad bins along the
