Is Quizno’s hiding nutritional information?
I ate an evil, greasy sandwich (chicken carbonara) for lunch at Quizno’s today and naturally wanted to find out how much fat I had eaten. I was surprised to find that their website only lists nutritional information for three menu items:
- Small Sierra Smoked Turkey with Raspberry Chipotle Sauce
- Small Honey Bourbon Chicken
- Small Turkey Lite
A quick search of the internet turned up some irate blogs and a very interesting discussion on the good old Cool Running site.
It certainly looks like Quizno’s is being shady here. What do they have to hide? Could it be that they are not the “better” choice? It wouldn’t surprise me — it’s happened before. Before Subway switched to “light mayo” several years ago, their tuna salad (the salad, not the sub) was the highest fat menu item amongst all fast food restaurants. It had around 80g of fat, even more than the Burger King Double Whopper with Cheese at 69g.
Subway has improved over the years, but I’m not at all sure about Quizno’s.
December 1st, 2005 at 12:17 am
I can say from personal experience that ALOT of people are concerned about the nutritional value of the food they are eating at Quiznos. Whenever I was asked about it, I was told to forward them to our website without hesitation. I hadn’t actually looked at it until now and I am shocked. I can agree with you in saying that they are being “shady” about their nutritional information and can only think of ONE reason why. When I was in training to work for them as a shift supervisor we were encouraged to push the fact that we were selling “REAL” food which set us apart from the rest, that and the fact that we had “preset recipes” to follow. Ever notice how you don’t get to choose how to top your sub unless you go out of your way to ask them to? This is because we had to follow a script. For most subs(cold cuts and Mesquite Chicken) it went like this:
Hi Welcome to Quizno’s, which sub would you like?
Is that a small (5 inches), regular (8 inches) or large (12 inches)?
Red onions and tomatoes with that? (these are the only vegetables aside from lettuce that we’d put on the sub unless you were to go out of your way to ask, and if you asked we were encouraged to get you to STICK to the recipe we had as a preset)
If you wanted something different we’d have to say something like “Are you sure? That will ruin the taste of the sub because it won’t compliment the sauce, meat and the cheese!” And yes, this was coming from the man who trained us along with all the stores when they first opened, and we were to pass this on to whomever joined the staff after opening.
I would have to say from hands on, personal experience that Quizno’s is quite shady, and dishonest with their nutrition information. I remember looking at the package of “steak” and reading the ingredients before I sliced it.. this is the Angus Steak.. there were some 30 different ingredients including soy, just like the Roast Beef.. EXACTLY THE SAME but with a different name on the label. YET, there is like a 2$ price difference (I doubt it has gone down, we raised prices 3 times in a 6 month period). The only thing I would say is the REAL food are the vegetables and you don’t even get much of a choice of what you “can” have!
Another thing you should know is that a small sub only gets 2.5 oz of meat (unless it has bacon or is meant to come with bacon then you only get 2 oz) 4 (or 3.5 oz) for a regular and 6 (or 5.5) on a large. This amount of chicken or meat barely covers the bread. It may differ depending on who makes your sub, when I worked at the Merivale store I used to put 3-3.5 oz of meat on the small or enough until it covered the span of the bread. I do believe this is because they ALWAYS want you to buy the bigger size in bread. We only used to sell maybe 10 small subs in a day (I know this because I used to cut the bread) and we would serve a few hundred people a day. And yet, all you pay for is 1.5 oz more of meat and 3 inches of bread.
So, next time you are in Quiznos insist on getting the nutritional information and COMPLAIN ABOUT THE AMOUNT OF MEAT THEY PUT ON THE SUB! You will most likely get free subs out of it
(that’s their answer to everything, when in trouble give them something FREE)
May 19th, 2006 at 9:09 pm
I recently went to a Quiznos and was told they do not have nutritional information at the store. I would have to go on the web page.
WHy do they not have this information available to the public?
May 22nd, 2006 at 12:37 am
The reason they dont have any information on nutrition i cause the corporate isbusy cheating anf looting the poor public. Trying to find out ways to trick them into spend all their money in quiznos. There have been 25 cases in chicago alone where people have filed a law suite against the corporate for their egregious ways.
The franchisee or managers have no role play in anything related to quiznos. We do as we are told. Quiznos is expensive as our company is cheating their own franchisees. The franchisees are only doing what they are told to do as they are all under contracts.
There are thousand of franchisees infuriated by the flagrant ways of this corporate. You can check out some of the testimonials posted on the toastedsubsnews.blogspot.com
June 6th, 2006 at 3:00 pm
I just ate a Mesquite Chicken Sub at lunch and tried to find out how many calories were in the Sub when I got back to work. Could not find the info on the Quinzo’s web page! Could not find any calorie counter that accurately represented what I just ate. Hmm! Guess I will stick to local sub shops or pack my lunch next time. I get a little suspicious when companies do not provide caloric information.
September 20th, 2006 at 6:12 pm
Simply by opening up the sandwich, you can make a good guestimate at what you’re putting into yourself. Any bread is high in carbohydrates and refined sugar. Cheese always has a high fat content. EVERY standard dressing is oil or mayo based, and therefore will also be high in fat. What were you expecting? Two pieces of Wonderbread is 180 calories. An ounce of plain, leanish beef is about 75 calories. Guess how much cheddar cheese is. 1.5 ounces runs you about 170 all by itself, and an ounce of cheese is a very, very small amount.
It’s fast food. Take a little bit of responsibility for yourself. I don’t perceive Quiznos as being shady, simply because common sense dictates that no sub, anywhere, is going to be a healthy, organic, preservative-free, low-calorie, low-fat-good-for-you meal. You want something healthy and good for you, and you care about what’s in it, take the time to make it yourself.
If you really want to take a potshot at somebody really shady, try taking on places like Wendy’s that blatantly advertise these “healthy choices” salads that have as much fat and calories as a burger and fries.
September 20th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
My goodness, that was some garbage information! Why on earth should people take potshots at Wendy’s when they have all their nutritional information beautifully laid out on their website. And I must correct your misinformation about the “healthy choices” salads. If I have a salad at Wendy’s, I get the Chicken BLT which is one of their heavier salads. Here’s how it breaks down:
Salad: 340 cal, 18g fat.
Croutons: 70 cal, 2.5g fat.
Low-fat Honey Mustard Dressing: 110 cal, 3g fat.
All the Wendy’s that I’ve been to in Ottawa give the Low-fat Honey Mustard Dressing with this salad by default. I don’t even know if they carry the full fat version. Also, I never eat the croutons. So this leaves me with 450 cal, and 21g fat. It’s very hard to find a hamburger (without fries!) that meets those numbers.
Good god, if you’re going to take the time to rant on the internet at least do some research! Thanks.
September 25th, 2006 at 9:14 am
My blog has a link to Quizno’s calories.
Head to www.bmimedical.blogspot.com and you’ll find a link there to Quiznos Australia where calories are listed.
Be forewarned, there are a lot of calories in Quiznos
September 25th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Wow, Yoni! This is great news and warrants its own blog entry. I’ll post a new article about it since this is such an old thread. Thanks!
September 26th, 2006 at 5:43 am
Thanks for the link on your site!
My blog’s name is “Weighty Matters”.
I regularly post on all things weight related, from nutrtion to fitness, to research and gadgets.
Best regards,
Yoni
September 28th, 2006 at 6:55 pm
I was also kind of shocked that I couldn’t find the calorie count of the new flatbread salads on the Quiznos site. I did a google search and found all kinds of complaints. I wrote to them to ask them the calorie content but I don’t expect an answer because no one else has gotten one either.
Every other fast food place has the calories and nutritional content of their food readily available. Shame on Quiznos.
October 10th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
I, like the rest of you, was shocked by how hard it was to find any nutritional information on Quiznos. I finally found the info for their 8 inch turkey ranch and swiss sub. What i found didn’t look too nutritious. I then looked up McDonald’s information and compared the sub to a big mac and medium fries, what you would get with a combo meal. This is what i found. The sub had 977 cals and the burger and fries 940 cals. Sub was 48g of fat and burger and fries 50g. Sub 107mg of cholesterol, burger and fries 80mg. And here’s the shocker….sub 3249mg of salt, burger and fries 1230. Daily recommended intake of sodium is around 2000mg. Obviously neither of these meals are good for you, but Quiznos is definitely not a healthy choice.
October 14th, 2006 at 11:45 am
Trying to get some info myself.
I eat a lot at Quiznos, the veggie sub. I have had wieght issues and been trying to find something I enjoy eating and is good for you. I work out like a fiend and am only losing little wieght. So I am starting to keep a food log and wanted to know what the heck I am eating in these subs. I have stopped eating out anywhere else and this is the only place I eat out at on a regular bases. The rest of my meals are all home made with fairly carefull consideration. Been a month or so now and I have only lost about 10 pounds. I can only guess that the subs I have been eating have to be sky high in calories cause I burn at least 2000 calories in my two work outs a day.
I am glad I found this thread and got some real info. Its amazing how bad the whole system is trying to turn us into another link in the profit chain.
January 22nd, 2007 at 2:38 pm
must be in the quizno’s culture or in their manual of how to treat their customers. Went to a quizno’s recently here in knoxville, tn and along with a sub, asked for water. the cashier even helped to point me to the right place to get it. Before leaving, I noted that he charged me the cost of a soft drink for the water. When asked if they charged the same for water as for soft drink, he claimed that I had asked for a soft drink. He refused to refund. Not only did he cheated, he lied.