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Good food but poor service at Subway


Subway

Nakumatt Junction

I have not been impressed with America’s offers into our market. And by offers I mean KFC. For some reason, this eatery seems to be thriving, enough to have started opening up multiple chains. They now have a branch on Kimathi Street.

I assume, for reasons beyond my understanding, that they are doing well.

Okay, maybe these reasons are to do with their delicious fries (which are slender and seasoned, just how I like them, though lacking in terms of quantity) or their ice cream (soft but firm with just the right amount of gooeyness – the way Steers used to do their perfect cones what seems like a millennium ago).

Court closed

Needless to say, I was not looking forward to my next visit to Kenya’s version of one of the Land of the Free’s most loved fast food institutions: Subway. Subway is famed for its sandwiches, which come in two sizes: six-inch and a foot long.

They had not originally planned to come to Kenya, but I suppose they saw the automatic attraction Kenyans have to anything foreign. Remember what the lines at KFC were like when they first got here? And I figured it was a smart business move.

The Subway at the Junction is located in the middle of the walkway between Planet Yoghurt (which is getting emptier and emptier) and Nakumatt, in the middle of a little island that’s impossible to miss.

The timing is excellent; the food court at the Junction has just been closed down and so the places to eat are fewer.

Attendants said the place is always full.

Subway works on a pick-what-you-want system. It uses four steps: do you want a six-inch sandwich or a foot-long one? What meat do you want on it? What toppings and accompaniments (potato chips – or crisps)? You move through the line like it is a cafeteria queue and pay at the end.

Toppings

Subway has a special weekday offer where if you get specific six-inch sub, you get it for Sh300 and a soda. Which is the way I went. I had roast beef sandwich while my friend had chicken teriyaki (then chicken tikka, because apparently, an ordinary male is likely to get full on a foot-long sub).

The sandwich was good. It was better value for my money than the oily chemical fake of KFC chicken; definitely better than the hotdogs up at the cinema.

There are more toppings and sauces that make you feel like the Sh300 (up to Sh800 foot-long) is worth it.

They offer tomatoes, pepper, jalapenos, cucumbers, red onions, pickles, olives, honey mustard sauce, ketchup – a wide variety that does not increase or change whether you put all the topping on or none at all.

The service isn’t anything to write home about. My order was mixed up and I did not find the waitress friendly, especially if you are a first-time visitor.

But that did not take away the tastiness of the sub.

However, make sure they give you fresh bread.