Every Subway Bread Option, Ranked
If you want a top-notch sandwich, the quality of the meats, cheeses, crunchy veggies, and savory sauce are crucially important. But if we're separating the wheat from the chaff, we've found that it can all come down to the bread. Subway has a few loaves for your choosing in most North American locations, and we were curious to sample what we could find and provide an evaluation.
While there are other hoagie chains out there like Jersey Mike's and Jimmy John's, Subway is indisputably the leader of the deli sandwich pack. Subway's place in the fast food hierarchy isn't just limited to its sandwiches. It's ubiquitous around the globe, with over 30,000 locations worldwide — the most of any international chain. Yes, there are more Subways than there are McDonald's. So, maybe Subway doesn't really need to flex with its bread considering its dominant place in the hero sphere.
But it's a bit odd to us that Subway has almost completely eschewed embracing the gimmicky food trends that other major fast food chains have chased in the past decade or so. There were the 2019 spicy chicken wars between Popeye's, Wendy's, and Chik-fil-A. Taco Bell's kitchen wizards are consistently churning out Wonka-esque menu items. KFC recently brought back its heart-attack-inducing Double Down. With Subway, unfortunately, you can't really expect many surprises or whimsical delights when it comes to their bread options, but we gave them a try and are happy to share our thoughts.
What's in the bread?
Subway has made some moves over the years when it comes to their bread. We'll acknowledge that its rapid toasting machines have gone over well with consumers — but we feel as though they were merely incorporated to stomp out competition from Quizno's.
We truly yearn for the days when Subway would cut its bread a different way. Currently, the Sandwich Artists slice the bread horizontally. But going back to the 20th century, Subway's methodology was to carve out a V-shaped trench on top of the baguette, remove the wedge, and add the veggies, cheeses, meats, sauce, and seasonings. Then, the wedge would be placed back on top. This process may have been a bit more labor- and time-intensive, but it made for a better sando in our opinion and was a lot less messy for the eater. You can still request that your sandwich be prepared this way, but anticipate that your Sandwich Artist may still be in apprentice mode and not yet familiar with this old-school technique.
There really are just three types of bread available at Subway at the moment: white, wheat, and flatbread. Yes, some of them are seasoned on top, but the dough foundation remains the same. We deeply miss its honey oat bread, though. Would it really be that difficult to develop bread that goes the extra mile? Would it hurt to come up with some interesting new dough flavors beyond white and wheat?
White bread
We would rank Subway's white bread option lowest on our list because there isn't too much to say about it. It's right there in the name. Subway's version of a white bread loaf is plain and simple. You can buy freshly baked 12" loaves for $2, but call ahead to be sure that those prices are accurate for your local location.
We will applaud the versatility of this carb-loaded shell — it will accommodate any and every Subway order, whether you have obscure preferences such as Seafood Sensation with extra pickles and pepperoncini, or if you're going off the lunch menu with a Black Forest ham sandwich, or getting a start to your day with an egg loaded breakfast sandwich.
Considering that its freshly baked white bread is tabula rasa for any type of cuisine, it's disappointing that Subway doesn't offer more interesting filling options in the United States. Why not give bánh mì a whirl? Or try out tortas? Maybe even go the vegetarian-friendly grilled cheese route and skip past processed American and mix up a melty blend of cheddar, Gouda, and Jack. Its white bread can accommodate just about anything, so it puzzles us that there aren't more interesting options available.
Jalapeño cheddar
We really want more from Subway's jalapeño cheddar bread loaf, and it shouldn't be so hard for Subway to make that happen. Subway could go the extra mile with this particular loaf of bread. In its current form, this is simply Subway's white bread topped with a modest sprinkle of cheese and a mere five pickled jalapeños, typically — consider yourself lucky if you get more.
As far as the cheese goes, it's touted as being cheddar. But since there's so little of it, you wouldn't really know the difference between that, Gruyere, or Parmesan. Maybe if these loaves were covered with twice the amount of cheddar and jalapeños we could notice a strong difference between this and the standard, run-of-the-mill Subway order of Italian white bread. It all chalks up to us asking, "Why even bother?" The hint of spice you get from the jalapeños is barely noticeable, the cheese is minimal, and both of those ingredients you can just add to the filling of the sandwich anyway. We would be willing to pay a tiny bit more for a more flavor-packed loaf if it were incorporated into the dough and made this a unique baguette.
Flatbread
It's really a pity that Subway in North America doesn't have a falafel offering because that would be an ideal situation for its flatbread. We would love to see it rolled up with some shawarma — chicken or beef would each be appreciated along with a smear of hummus or a dollop of garlicky toum sauce for some Middle Eastern flavor. An Indian curry or a Mexican stew would also be good choices for this flatbread and entice us to come back to Subway more often.
As with the baguettes, you can get Subway's flatbread in either 6-inch or foot-long form, depending on your appetite. There's a bit more fat in the flatbread compared to the loaves — it comes in at 9 grams for 12 inches — but that helps it stay fresh and fluffy.
We think there is a lot of potential with Subway's flatbread, so it doesn't merit the lowest ranking. But it's truly a blank slate. When it's served fresh, it's nicely chewy and neutrally flavored. We would really like to see Subway expand its culinary horizons and give its flatbread a chance to really shine.
Wheat bread
We're not going to pull any punches here. A Subway sandwich is never going to live up to the decadence of a double cheeseburger, a slice of pepperoni pizza, or a fried chicken tender dipped in ranch sauce. But the chain's sandwiches are an option that will fill your belly, and you have the benefit of being able to customize them however you like. And we've found that its whole wheat bread option is not only heart-healthy, but a lot tastier than the white bread option offered by Subway.
Wheat bread has somewhat of a reputation for being tough, crusty, and granular in texture compared to white bread. Whereas white bread is a very neutral flavor base for a sandwich, wheat bread is known to make somewhat of a statement. We would argue that these are good characteristics, though, to help add a layer of flavor to your sandwich. We've found that Subway's wheat bread is remarkably soft when it's freshly baked. There is also a touch of sweetness to the whole wheat bread at Subway that you might find in a handful of Cheerios. It's subtle, but it's there.
The added bonus with this wheat bread compared to the white is that it's a lot less absorbent. So, it can hold up in the rapid speed toaster with a meatball sub and not turn into a soggy mess 15 minutes later when you bring it home.
Italian Herb & Cheese
If you're hard pressed to pick a bun from Subway, our top pick is the Italian Herb & Cheese, because it has the most flavor from the selection and provides a boost to many of the filling options. There's a slight umami presence to this bread, along with a hint of sweetness in the bread dough, some bitterness in the yeast, saltiness in the cheese topping, and vibrancy from the dried herbs. We did find that the herbs were more present than the cheese, though. So, if you want a lot of cheese in your Subway sandwich, get it by stuffing your sandwich with fresh cheese, and don't expect this bread to deliver on that front.
Obviously, this seasoned bread would be the ideal casing for a hot and tempting meatball sub that's layered with marinara and mozzarella slices. But, don't rule out Subway's Italian BMT either. It's made up of Genoa salami, Black Forest ham, and spicy pepperoni, but we think that the more herbs and spices you can add to the mix, the better.