Subway Breakfast

Reader Matt writes:

Neal,

Like many people, I enjoy a good sandwich, and Subway restaurants have never let me down. Seeing as they now offer breakfast, would you be so kind as to try one of these Subway breakfast sandwiches and share your experience? I am most interested in the Western Egg White Muffin Melt I see advertised, but I welcome any input and value your choice in sandwich to review.

Matt

I need to start off by acknowleding that Matt asked this question almost a month ago and I’m just now getting around to answering it. My apologies, Matt. What started out as good intentions — wanting to try multiple combinations in order to give Matt a very thorough response — ended up getting way too drawn out. But not all of this was my fault. I discovered that some Subways aren’t open for breakfast. Others are open, but they’re drive-through only during breakfast hours. And for some reason, I felt like the sandwiches would be best judged by ordering at the counter o’ ingredients and consuming it there in the restaurant.

So my first bit of advice — if you want to sit and eat your breakfast sandwich inside the Subway restaurant, go to one that doesn’t include a drive through. My best luck in the Omaha metro was with the Dundee location and the one just northwest of 76th and Dodge.

Western Egg White Muffin Melt
This was the sandwich that most captured Matt’s imagination, so I wanted to try it first. As someone who is used to ordering my McGriddle or Sausage Biscuit sandwich off the menu with no questions asked, I was caught a little off-guard by how customizable these sandwiches are. It’s great for the picky, but somewhat tricky for the reviewer who wants to review something general enough so as to be able to comment more on the sandwich than on his or her individual preferences.

So I made an effort to stick with the sandwich in the picture, because I figured that was the best representation of what Matt wanted to know about. When I couldn’t tell what was in the picture, I’d ask the Sandwich Artist what most people usually get. I did not ask her if they are still called Sandwich Artists. So I went with the English muffin bread. What kind of cheese? Most people get American, she said. I got the egg whites, because that’s what’s in the picture. Toppings? Most people “take it as it is,” she said, and for the Western variety, that includes onions and green peppers. As far as condiments go, she suggested either mayonnaise or honey mustard. Both of those seemed a little odd for a breakfast sandwich (and neither was traditional — just her personal recommendation) so I got them on the side.

I tried part of the sandwich without the honey mustard or mayonnaise, and I dipped the sandwich in either cup for other bites. Both the mayo and honey mustard did strike me as weird when I was trying them, but the cool sweetness was a good contrast to what was otherwise just kind of warm mush. I couldn’t taste the ham at all, with or without the mayo / honey mustard additions.

Overall, I don’t recommend this sandwich. But at the same time, I’ve never been a fan of English muffins or English muffin-based sandwiches. Fortunately for Matt, I married someone who is an English muffin fan (among other positive attributes) and so she agreed to share her thoughts on the sandwich:

“The black forest ham, egg and cheese muffin from Subway served as a nice light breakfast and, in turn, a good start to my day. If you don’t mind seeing a plastic-gloved-employee pull your pre-cooked egg out of a plastic bin suspended over hot water, it’s not a bad breakfast. The English muffin is low fat and I chose the egg white omelet over the yellow egg, so it was a good low fat option that tasted otherwise. I opted out of all vegetable and condiments, but topped my sandwich with pepper jack cheese, so it still had plenty of flavor for a first thing in the morning meal. Served with a cup of Seattle’s Best coffee for only $2.50 (I think), it’s also very economical.”

She raises a point I forgot to mention already — the English muffin sandwiches are less expensive than the flatbread or 6″ bun options. Also, she came with me on two of these Subway taste-test excursions and ordered the English muffin sandwich both times. Not much speaks to sandwich quality more than a repeat order.

Double Bacon Egg & Cheese on flatbread
This particular Sandwich Artist seemed very lonely, which made me wonder if the breakfast sandwiches weren’t drawing a huge crowd. She asked if we wanted to hear her speech on the breakfast sandwiches. I believe we said “No” or something very similar, which she took to mean “Yes.” She was very, very chatty, which normally might irritate me, but it was kind of endearing, because all of her chatting was based in her enthusiasm for their breakfast menu. And it didn’t feel like a rehearsed routine. I think this woman was genuinely excited about it. So it’s hard to hate on that.

The Double Bacon Egg & Cheese was much more my style of sandwich. The flatbread was very soft. It was good, but it didn’t end up looking much like the browned flatbread in the picture. Maybe this would be rectified with a longer toasting session, but like I said, it was good so I didn’t mind much. I got this with the yellow egg and no toppings, just the double bacon, egg and cheese. This Sandwich Artist recommended the shredded monterrey, and it was excellent. I would definitely eat this sandwich again.

Steak Egg & Cheese on wheat bun
But before I could do that, I needed to try the last one on the list! I once again ordered this without any toppings, which seemed to annoy this particular Sandwich Artist. You’d think artists of all people would recognize that everyone has their own individual vision of perfection. But he kept giving us these incredulous “Are you sure you don’t want anything on this?” and “Really?” lines of questioning. He also reminded me of former WWE heavyweight champion John Cena. If you’ve been to this man’s Subway location, you’ll know exactly who I mean. He was intense, but he also seemed pretty happy to be there.

I ordered mine with Pepperjack cheese, upon the champ’s recommendation, and I was very pleased with it. This is basically a breakfast philly with egg, which seems kind of obvious upon reflection, but the realization caught my by surprise and seemed very profound at the time.

One thing I really liked about this sandwich was that I hardly noticed the eggy/omelette taste. Once upon a time many years ago, when I was living in a tiny studio apartment above the Spaghetti Works in Lincoln, I discovered that I was able to make omelettes. I channeled this enthusiasm into making omelettes every day for several months. Then I got ridiculously sick of omelettes, and here I am about six years later and I haven’t really gotten over my aversion to the squishy foamy texture of omelettes, which for me also includes scrambled eggs and basically any type of egg found on a fast food sandwich. So if you’re like me, and somehow dumb enough to eat omelettes every day for a few months resulting in a seemingly permanent disgust, this is the sandwich for you!

Conclusion
So Matt, I have to admit, I did think it was going to be kind of funny if I took so long to review these sandwiches that Subway decided to give up on the experiment in the meantime, rendering all of the testing irrelevant. But now I’m happy that they’re still around, because they’re good! Obviously, I’m not super crazy about the English muffin variety, but an English muffin lover digs them, so I feel like these sandwiches offer something for everyone, translating to an all-around winner.

Thanks for writing, and I hope this review helps inform your future breakfast decisions. If anyone else has questions about fast food menu items, send me an e-mail to nealo@nealo.com. I will eat things for you.