Quizno's in Middleton versus Arby's Generally

Three of us wanted sandwiches, so we decided to hit Quizno's at 515 Junction Rd, Madison. We had tried Cousin's sandwich shops a couple weeks before and they don't even deserve a blog entry of their own - just blah blah blah. Don't go to Cousin's.

I have had Quizno's in other cities and they were generally pretty good. Pricey, but good. The service was always good on these previous forays.

Not so earlier this week in Middleton. I ordered the Large Steakhouse Beef Dip, which Quizno's describes as "Roast beef, Swiss, French Onion sauce, Pan Roasted Au Jus". It cost about $8.00.

What I got was a long roll cut in half with appeared to be a mediocre quantity of thin-sliced, seasoned beef. Oh, yeah, there was some kind of cheese on it...I guess it was Swiss, but I'm accustomed to Swiss cheese that let's you it's in there. Maybe this was Swiss Cheese for people with delicate palettes? The roll was bland and just OK. The meat was just OK. The "pan roasted au jus" for dipping was disappointing. Again, bland. I had planned to save the second half for a friend to eat later, but once I finished the first half I felt unsatisfied. So, I ate the second half. I felt more full, but still not satisfied.

The Service: to put it simply, everyone behind the counter involved in taking or making our order seemed to be an out-of-it high school boy who was poorly following a 'sandwiches by numbers' cheat sheet. They also seemed to need a refresher course in customer service... assuming they ever got such a course in the first place.

A companion on this trip asked for no lettuce on his. Quizno's shreds theirs, which is particularly annoying to pick off and it tends to leave more 'lettuce juice' behind even if completely picked off. (can you tell I don't like lettuce, either?) Well, of course, one of the boys dumped a handfull of lettuce on my companion's sandwich. My companion let them know that was wrong and he didn't want ANY of that on his. The boy (yes, I'm using that negatively to emphasis his relative 'youth' in this enterprise) went about picking off the lettuce, which took an annoying couple of minutes. My companion suggested to another boy at the register that he didn't want ANY of it on there, and that for a sandwich shop charging a premium price they really ought to consider making another sandwich. That boy just seemed to hear my companion without really listening, or doing anything constructive with the information. "Blank stare" comes to mind as a description.

I couldn't help but compare this sandwich to the French Dip Sub I frequently have ordered at Arby's all across the U.S. Sorry, haven't tried an Arby's recently enough to write it up here. It is also sliced beef on a roll with Swiss Cheese accompanied by a bowl of au jus to dip into. It usually costs around $6.00 (as I recall). But the Arby's is much better. The roll is wider though not as long. It is a more interesting type of bread, ciabatta-like but not as chewy. The meat is just as tasty if not more so. Though it's been a longer period of time since I had one, I can actually recall that it had Swiss Cheese, so that's saying something. And the dipping sauce was MUCH better, which a little, tangy 'zing' to it.

To be fair, I probably actually got a little but more food by weight for the $8.00 Quizno's than the $6.00 Arby's, but not a third more food despite the third more in price.

Honestly, if I could only eat one of these two sandwiches for dinner tonight, I'd actually pay $8.00 for the Arby's sandwich over $8.00 for the Quizno's.