Subway

Although I don’t eat them often, usually I quite enjoy an occasional Subway. Unfortunately not so with this branch on Botanic. I’ve tried it a few times in the past and have found it to be relatively good. Sadly tonight’s visit was a dire miss and it was the service, not the food, that’s to blame.
The service was blunt, brisk, sulky and unpleasant. I don’t think the girl who served me actually made eye contact after she initially glared at me. This glare I took to be her way of asking what I wanted. There was no «how can I help you», never mind small pleasantries such as «please» or «thank you». My server just grunted and glared at me. I thought she might possibly be an international student, as this particular branch is located within a university area. Nonetheless, even allowing for the foibles of youth or a tiny bit of a language barrier, it’s not difficult to be civil, especially when you’re working in a customer facing role.
I opted for a veggie patty on Italian cheese and herb bread with salad and black olives. It was tasty, predictable and good, as I often find Subway’s standard fare to be. However, the ‘Ray Of Sunlight’ behind the counter flung the food together with such little care, that by the time it was thrown in my direction I’d already regretted stepping foot in the place.
I actually would have given this Subway a steady 3 star rating in the past, but their paltry customer service and slap dash approach to preparing food has caused me to drop them to 2 stars. Customer service lessons are desperately needed here.

Picture the scene — late on a thursday night/​friday morning, cold and hungry, just sat through 3 hours of murder, mayhem and madness courtesy of King Lear at the opera house, and most chippies are unfortunately shut. So I make a beeline for Botanic and find both Subway and Harry Ramsden’s next door open. Wayhey for my belly. So what’s it to be, a sub or some fish? I hadn’t tried either place so in the interests of science (just science, nothing to do with greed, I swear) I had to try each.
First stop, Subway. Easy to park outside at midnight, not too many drunks around, just a band of very pleasant taxi drivers I think and a few admirably sober students. Sign on the door says open to 4am. Crikey. Inside there’s only a couple of folks sitting in and three members of staff look to be cooking the bread up for the morning. It’s spotlessly clean and all the salad offerings are closed over for freshness. I place my order and go to the till where there’s a really nice local chap on duty who takes my subcard and unlike basically every other subway I’ve been to in the last few months, he bothers to tell me I have enough points to get my food free. Thank you, sir! My subs are put together with great efficiency, one guy doing each, and the salad fillings and sauces are piled on generously. The sign of a good sub? When it has to be squeezed together at the end and loads of bits and pieces ooze out with the sauce. Yes, perfect. Local chappy shares my love of sweet onion sauce but recommends the southwest, too. Note to self: must try it, even if I’m dedicated to sweet onion. Note to subway: please consider selling little tubs of your sauces. Please. I’ve asked before and I don’t think it’d do trade any harm, I’d just like a little extra tasty sauce to have in my fridge. Think about it, eh?
Anyway, my subs are beautifully toasted and piping hot when I leave and make my way into Ramsden’s next door… but that’s for another review. I have to report that the subs were still delicious when I got them home and were enjoyed by all. The tuna was rich and creamy, the coleslaw included with the salad veggies was a nice extra, and my chicken temptation really was lovely. All this for free with my subcard AND friendly efficient service with a smile. What a great little Subway. I wish them all the best.

I’m not a big fan of fast food, and this is what this place is at the end of the day — fast food. It may not be chips and burgers and fried food, but teh fat content in this places food is really through the roof.
I usually go for a a vegemax sandwich which is the vegetarian option, and its usually extremely tasty. I just think they’re massively overpriced. It costs you about £6 to get a footlong, which I think is just way too much.
The staff in here are dead on enough as you would expect from a chain, but they don’t exactly put their back out but nor would I expect them to. This is a handily placed wee shop, being right on Botanic Avenue and is usually frequented by students who are recovering from a hangover.
Pretty basic, just don’t believe the hype.

A Subway review. Sorry for the predictability, but…
I can well imagine that I’m not the first person to have recently expressed an opinion about this supposedly ‘healthy fast food’ place but I’m pretty sure I won’t be the last. So, you think here is a healthier alternative to other well-​known chains. But are we meant to believe that the perfectly shaped mini-​frisbees of salami are the real thing? Have you looked at the chicken and beef before it gets zapped in the microwave?
Everything that is supposedly edible here is processed. The people that served me last time I was in the Botanic branch (Boojum and Oodles were rammed) were underpaid, had been for a long time, and had turned into robots. In my time in the food service industry, I have seen bread deliveries with ‘best before’ dates of a year in the future.
Your fresh iceberg or sliced red onion might give you the impression of healthy… but it’s not. Please don’t go to Subway.

Ok so as this is a subway you may be thinking, well there isn’t much of a story you can tell me for I have been to many subways before and they are all the same. How wrong you are…
This particular branch of the sandwich chain was the home of many wonderful friendships, a lot of giggles, a few tears but most importantly, a fine sandwich. Look I know it isn’t made with the world’s finest ingredients. And I know that when it comes to award winning sandwiches, they are probably never in contention for the title. But they are located beside the library and when you go in and ask for something, you get it.
They are no fuss and although many of them don’t speak perfect English and thus generic conversation making can be very difficult, the food you get is usually what you want and how you want it.
We used to make a ‘Tuesday Sub’ our thing, and sometimes there were just two and sometimes we nearly reached double figures. But we always had craic. And we always had a good sandwich. So for that reason, I give it five stars.

This is yet another Subway but my experience with this late night sandwich joint has a very interesting story surrounding it so I thought it was worth my time and effort.
I had a former housemate, a Queens University student who worked here part-​time to help pay the bills. We headed down from time to time for a quick sandwich and to annoy him at work (I’d like to think I’ve matured since then but to be honest I’m not totally sure I have)
The shop in general is the usual Subway environment. Sepia toned stylized shots of New York, street maps and the like along with bench tables and chairs in a familiar wipe-​clean fashion. This particular Subway also does open very late and infact has security on the door to attempt to prevent the many young hoodlums who cause trouble.
On one occasion however a man entered the premises, walked towards the counter and pointed a handgun at my friend’s head. He demanded money from the safe, to which my friend replied no and wouldn’t budge. I don’t know what sense of loyalty to the firm he had but if I were in his shoes the robbery would have left with a sack of notes.

Let me get this clear to start: I do not like subway one bit. The only good thing they have added to my life is the humorous part of Happy Gilmore where the sub gets driven into Happy’s mouth. That is all! Everything else has been poor in the extreme, but nothing more than this tale of woe…
On my first week of university, we got free discount vouchers! Saying the closest offer we had was this subway, off we went with the intention of screwing the man out of a free upgrade to a 12 inch sub!
Long story short, our voucher excluded the one sandwich I selected (which was the only sandwich in the restaurant excluded!) Aghast at the price when I reached the till, I tried to enquire about the expense I was suffering.
.Instead of talking, the attendant just pointed at the voucher. I said yes, I had the voucher. They pointed again. I said what. They turned it round and pointed again to the area outling my sandwich’s discount exempt status. They at no point spoke to me!
To this day I have been on a one man quest to avoid this dump and persuade all those dear to me to do the same. I will never forgive the outlet which gave me the worst customer service I have EVER experienced.
Rant over.
P. S. Go to a real sandwich shop where the ingredients are fresh and not swept off a factory floor into a large ziplock bag labelled Subway!