What to order · Updated September 2026
What to Order at Subway: Every Footlong, Judged
Subway is the only chain on this site where the kitchen is you. Everything arrives in a bin; the person behind the glass is assembling a sandwich you designed badly. That makes the menu unusually forgiving — almost any sub here can be fixed — and it makes the pre-built subs unusually worth scrutinizing, because you paid two extra dollars to have someone else make the choices.
Prices below are national averages for a Footlong. Subway is close to 100% franchisee-owned across roughly 20,000 U.S. stores, which means the board price is a suggestion — a two-dollar swing between two locations in the same city is normal, and the MVP Rewards app routinely undercuts both. Calories come from Subway's published nutrition data for the standard build on Italian bread.
The number to watch here is not calories. It's sodium. Six of the subs below clear 2,000 mg in one sandwich, and the Spicy Italian hits 3,040 mg — well past the FDA's daily sodium ceiling, in a Footlong that costs $8.99. Subway's reputation as the lighter option survives entirely on the calorie column and collapses the moment you look one column right.
Every item, judgedThe verdicts
Subway Club Footlong
Order itTurkey, ham and roast beef with American cheese — 46 grams of protein for 620 calories, which is the best ratio on the entire board. Nothing here is bound in mayonnaise, and that single fact is why it lands 200 calories under the B.M.T. while carrying more meat. Order it on wheat, toasted, and it's the closest Subway gets to a sandwich you'd defend out loud.
Italian B.M.T. Footlong
Order itGenoa salami, pepperoni and Black Forest ham. Subway's flagship since 1976 and still the most-ordered thing in the building, which for once is the crowd being right — cured meat is what this chain's cold line actually does well. The bill is 2,600 mg of sodium. Eat it at noon, not at nine.
Steak & Cheese Footlong
Order itFifty-two grams of protein and 20 grams of fat is a odd profile for a cheesesteak, and it's the reason this one is worth $10.99. It is not a Philadelphia cheesesteak and people who go in expecting one leave annoyed every single time. Go in expecting hot steak on bread and you'll be fine. Get it toasted with green peppers and skip the mayo the default build wants to add.
Buffalo Chicken Footlong
Order itFrank's RedHot, peppercorn ranch, 44 grams of protein, 680 calories. The most underrated sub Subway sells and the cheapest route to a hot sandwich that isn't mostly bread. Ask for it without the ranch and you drop closer to 500.
Veggie Delite Footlong
DecentThe cheapest Footlong on the menu, and at 460 calories with 310 mg of sodium in the 6-inch it's the only thing here that doesn't read as a sodium delivery vehicle. It is also, unavoidably, a foot of bread and lettuce. Add the veggie patty for a dollar and a half and you have lunch instead of a garnish.
Tuna Footlong
DecentForty-eight grams of fat, because Subway's tuna is roughly half mayonnaise by construction and the chain has never pretended otherwise. But here's the part nobody mentions: at 1,240 mg it has the lowest sodium of any meat sub on this page, less than half the Spicy Italian. If salt is what you're managing rather than calories, this is quietly the pick.
Meatball Marinara Footlong
DecentCheapest hot sub on the board and the only one where the sauce soaks the bread on purpose. Nine hundred and sixty calories buys 118 grams of carbohydrate, which is the highest count on this menu and tells you what you're really eating. Fine as a $9 lunch. Not fine as a $9 lunch you expected to be light.
Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki Footlong
DecentThirty-six grams of sugar. That's a Footlong sandwich carrying nearly as much sugar as a can of Coke, and reviewers consistently describe reaching for water halfway through. The chicken itself is good and the protein number is real at 52 grams. Order it with half the sweet onion sauce and the whole thing snaps into balance.
Chicken & Bacon Ranch Melt Footlong
DecentSeventy grams of protein is the highest figure on this page and it costs you 1,140 calories to collect, which is the trade the ranch and the bacon are quietly making on your behalf. Worth it if you're eating once today. Hold the ranch and you keep most of the protein for about 300 fewer calories.
#4 Supreme Meats Footlong
Skip itThree thousand four hundred and forty milligrams of sodium — the highest number on this menu and roughly a day and a half of the recommended limit in one sandwich. It is also the Subway Series' best seller, which is a marketing achievement rather than a culinary one. Five Italian meats against the B.M.T.'s three, for two dollars more and 200 more calories. Order the B.M.T. and add pepperoni for a dollar if you want the volume.
Spicy Italian Footlong
Skip itPepperoni and salami, 48 grams of fat, and 3,040 mg of sodium in an $8.99 sandwich. It reads as the value play on the board and it is, if the thing you're getting value on is salt — 140 more calories and 440 more milligrams than the Italian B.M.T., which costs a dollar more and tastes better. The heat, for the record, comes from the pepperoni and not from any actual spice.
Cold Cut Combo Footlong
Skip itTurkey ham, turkey salami and turkey bologna — the same bird in three costumes, $1.50 cheaper than the B.M.T., and the first sub Subway's own employees name when asked what to avoid.
Footlong Cookie
Skip itOne thousand three hundred and thirty calories and 101 grams of sugar, which is more than double the American Heart Association's daily added-sugar ceiling in a single dessert. As a thing to split four ways at a desk it's about 330 calories a person and fun. As the thing you eat after a Footlong, it doubles your lunch. Reviewers also keep noting it falls apart when you pick it up, which is what happens when a cookie is a foot long.
Frequently askedFAQ
What is the healthiest sandwich at Subway?
The Subway Club Footlong — 620 calories, 46 grams of protein and 1,760 mg of sodium for $10.49, which is the best protein-per-calorie figure on the menu. If you want lighter still, the Veggie Delite Footlong is around 460 calories and the 6-inch carries just 310 mg of sodium, the lowest number on the board by a wide margin. The thing to watch at Subway is not calories but salt: several subs here clear 2,500 mg, and the Spicy Italian hits 3,040 in one $8.99 sandwich.
Is the Subway Series worth the extra money?
Usually not. Subway Series Footlongs run $11.49 to $12.99 against $8.49 to $10.99 for the classics, and what the premium buys is a pre-decided build rather than better ingredients — you could ask for the same combination on a classic sub and pay less. #4 Supreme Meats at $11.99 is the clearest case: two dollars over the Italian B.M.T. for two more cured meats and 840 more milligrams of sodium. The four Cali Fresh builds are the exception, because they include smashed avocado that costs $1.50 to add to anything else.
Is a Subway Footlong better value than two 6-inch subs?
Yes, clearly. A Footlong runs about $3 to $4 more than the 6-inch rather than double it, so a $9.49 Turkey Footlong split two ways beats two $5.99 6-inch subs by roughly $2.50. The Footlong is also the only size eligible for the Footlong Pro double-protein upgrade, which is worth the $2 to $4 on steak, roast beef and chicken and a waste of money on ham or the Cold Cut Combo, where a second sub costs about the same. One catch: a dressed Subway sub does not survive a night in the fridge. The bread goes soft under the vegetables within a couple of hours, so split it with someone rather than saving half.