5 Changes We Would Make To Subway's Cookies

Subway has long hung its hat on being a place for customers to "eat fresh," which most prominently manifests in the fact that it offers both bread and cookies that are baked on-site each day. In fact, Subway claims to sell more freshly baked cookies than any other restaurant company in the U.S., fast food or otherwise. Between that, regularly introducing new cookie-specific innovations like the Footlong Cookie, and making a big to-do out of celebrating things like National Cookie Day, it's clear that cookies are a crucial component of Subway's business. But is the company doing all it can do to create the best cookie experience for its customers?

Whether you love Subway's cookies, think Subway's cookies are the worst fast food cookies, or fall somewhere in the middle, there's no denying that there is room for improvement. From the way the cookies are prepared by workers and delivered to customers to tweaks that can be made to the product itself, we have a few suggestions that we believe would significantly elevate Subway's already strong cookie game, perhaps even putting it at the top of the cookie (fast) food chain. 

When Subway cookies are good — that is to say, soft in the middle and slightly crispy on the edges — they are really good. Unfortunately, they aren't always good. The inconsistency of Subway's cookie quality is such that it caused one Redditor to ask, "Why are getting the cookies made the right way like playing the lottery?" 

As confirmed by multiple responses to that question, it comes down to there not being a strictly adhered-to standard for how long Subway cookies are baked. There is an alarm that goes off that is supposed to indicate when to remove the cookies, but it isn't always followed by the workers. "I have a coworker who takes them out about 3 minutes before. I have another one who leaves them in two minutes after," one reply read.

One of the most important tips for baking cookies is to not bake them for too long; but underbaking them isn't a good solution, either. There clearly needs to be some sort of organizational mandate that dictates that the workers must remove the cookies at the precise time, every time — whether that means someone having to specifically step off the sandwich line entirely until the cookies are done to ensure that happens, or whatever the solution might be. But this wishy-washy five-minute swing before and after the timer goes off is resulting in inconsistent quality, and that needs to change. 

As wonderful as it would be to get fresh-out-of-the-oven cookies from Subway every single time, that is neither realistic nor cost-effective. This is still fast food, after all. However, there is a way to ensure that your cookies at least feel like they are oven fresh, and that is to have the worker either microwave the cookie for a little bit or give it a quick trip through the toaster to make it warm and gooey. This is all well and good, but it shouldn't be relegated to a secret ordering hack or something you have to specifically request (or think to request) in the first place.

Whenever you order the cookies from Subway, the worker should automatically ask you if you'd like it warmed up or not, the same way you are asked every time whether you want your sandwich toasted. We'd say the cookie should just be warmed up automatically, but not everyone necessarily wants a soft, warm, melty cookie — especially if they're taking their order to go. But the offer should be made every time, so that you are always given the option.

Obviously, the most important type of cookie for a restaurant to get right is the classic chocolate chip cookie. And in that aim, Subway understands the assignment, scoring well in our ranking of fast food chocolate chip cookies. But too many of the cookies on Subway's permanent menu all share the same basic vanilla cookie dough type of base. The only exception is the Double Chocolate cookie and its brownie dough. We understand only having a handful of cookie options, but there needs to be more variety among them.

At one point, Subway had sugar cookies, which are greatly missed if online chatter is to be believed. That seems like a basic enough general crowd-pleaser of a cookie to have on permanent offer that would present a different baseline flavor profile than the others. Having a peanut butter cookie would also be an appealing, generic type of option to have on the menu at all times. 

It just feels like having four of your five permanent cookies all be more or less the same type of cookie, just with different chips and mix-ins, is needlessly limiting. And it shouldn't come down to rotating seasonal options for us to get more varied cookies, especially since Subway tends to only do one at a time (not to mention sometimes having no limited-time varieties at all).

In our list of overall changes we wish Subway would make, we longed for the cookies to be bigger, reasoning that it would allow for more mix-ins as well as a more satisfying gooeyness when the cookies are warm. Given that Subway positions itself as something of a deli/bakery, it stands to reason that it would likewise feature larger cookies like you'd typically find in such a setting versus the standard fast food cookie size it currently offers. It would certainly make Subway stand out among its fast food competitors in that department.

While we're at it, we don't hate the idea of Subway also offering mini cookies, either specifically for the kids' meals, or as a better way to get a bulk amount of cookies than just the current 6-Pack Cookie Box it offers.  People still pine for McDonald's bite-sized McDonaldland Cookies that have now been gone for over 20 years, so Subway has the opportunity to swoop in on that nostalgia and offer its own miniature cookies — only better, because they'd be freshly baked.

And following on from the previous entry, having miniature cookies would present an even better opportunity to offer a number of different types of cookies. Perhaps even let people mix and match a dozen of them the way you can with a dozen donuts at bakeries. Subway could become a place where people make a special trip just for the cookies with options like that.

This might seem to fly in the face of what makes Subway cookies special in the first place, but hear us out: we think it should offer prepackaged cookies in addition to the freshly baked options. In our ranking of cookies from popular fast food chains, our first-place finisher was none other than rival sub chain Jimmy John's (Subway was unfortunately last, by the way). This is noteworthy because Jimmy John's cookies come prepackaged, but that doesn't do a single thing to take away from their quality. They might not taste or feel like they just came out of the oven, but they are nonetheless soft, delicious, premium cookies.

We don't think Subway should ever completely abandon having fresh-baked cookies on offer. But there's no reason why it couldn't have both. The fresh-baked option would be best for people who are dining in and want to enjoy the cookie right out of the oven (or heated up to seem like it is), while the prepackaged option would be for people taking their orders to go who don't want to have to worry about how long it is before they eat the cookie, how long it has sat out, etc. It would be the best of both worlds, and another thing that would be completely unique among fast food chains that offer cookies.