Mr. Subb

Today I was looking for a cheap meal in Colonie Center, so I went over to Mr. Subb. Mr. Subb is not too bad, though it does not rank quite as high as Subway or Quiznos.

The tuna sandwich is smaller than Subway. Mr. Subb only uses half a wrap, whereas Subway uses a whole wrap. I wondered to myself, "How much can a wrap possibly cost?" The portion of tuna was similar to Subway. It was topped with cheese, pickles, lettuce and tomato. The wrap did seem to have a funny taste to it.

Mr. Subb does not have the see-thru counter like Subway, which is one of the things I like best about Subway. At Subway, I can see everything that is going into my sandwich. At Mr. Subb, the food prep is hidden behind a counter. I believe Mr. Subb does offer the same kinds of veggies on its sandwiches as Subway, and based on my experienced at Mr. Subb, the veggies are of good quality.

Mr. Subb has a frequent buyer's card, which does not seem as generous as Subway's. I need to eat 12 small subs at Mr. Subb to get one free sub. Subway uses the points system, where every dollar I spend earns me a point for each dollar spent. I can eat 7 6-inch subs at Subway and get a free 6 inch sub, assuming a sub costs $5.

Price: A small tuna at Mr. Subb is $3.49, which is comprable to Subway.

Panera Bread

Today I had breakfast at Panera Bread. I must say I was a little disappointed with my bacon and eggs sandwich. It ranks below Dunkin Donuts.

Panera caters to the crowd that likes more exotic foods, whereas Dunkin is more like a high school cafeteria. Panera offers Vermont Cheddar on its sandwiches, Dunkin offers American. Panera uses real eggs over easy which are cooked every night, while Dunkin uses powdered eggs. Even though I prefer real eggs to powdered eggs, I did not like the Panera eggs. They may have been cooked overnight and then zapped when I ordered my sandwich.

Panera offers a greater variety of food of pastries and sandwiches than Dunkin Donuts. However, it's food is significantly more costly than Dunkin. The egg and cheese sandwich at Panera cost $3.79, however, at Dunkin, it would have been $2.49.

Panera does have a more upscale atmosphere than Dunkin. I appreciate that the coffee fixins comes complete with lemon wedges and honey, neither of which is offered at Dunkin. For those with laptops, Panera does have 802.11b wireless access. Perhaps because Panera is not as heavily trafficked as Panera, the floor is not dirty with the mud and snow from the outside.