Discontinued Subway Menu Items We'll Never Eat Again

The very first Subway opened its doors in Bridgeport, Connecticut in 1965 by Fred DeLuca and Dr. Peter Buck. Its popularity mushroomed into several locations, before nationwide franchising began in the 1970s. For several decades, the menu was a basic list of sandwiches, along with some signature combination of meats, all customizable with a wide array of veggies and other toppings. In the 1980s, as the competition rose from other sub shops and fast food chains, Subway began to introduce novel items to grab attention — and hopefully lots of money from lots of customers. As the following decades passed, Subway continued to up its game, offering a bevy of new foods, drinks, treats, and meals to meet with changing diets and appetites. 

While a few of these new menu items proved to have staying power, many others soon disappeared from stores ... forever. But there are still fans longing for another bite of some of them. The Takeout is jumping into the time machine. Destination: Subway's past. So you can get a final "taste" of these discontinued menu items we'll never eat again.

Subway made its name selling elongated sandwiches, but in 1992, literally started making the "rounds." In a print ad that appeared in The Boca Raton News, Subway franchisee John Giorgi noted, "We already have the footlong and 6-inch subs and now we can offer our customers yet another option" with its new 4-inch Round Sandwich.

The 4-inch Round Sandwich was outfitted with a single meat, lettuce tomatoes, pickle, and seasonings. Its size made it geared to satisfy smaller appetites. It also had an appealing price point to lure customers to order it. In the TV ad, an employee stated, "It's pretty amazing to think you can get a delicious sandwich on fresh baked bread for only 79 cents." Initial response from the product was positive, and according to the company, one customer loved the bread so much that they wanted to order a dozen to take home. For a time, it also replaced the 6-inch sub as the sandwich that comes with its kids meal — the Kids Pak. The 4-inch round made the rounds into the early years of the 21st century, before the company refocused on its standard sizes of subs.

One of the rarest items to ever grace a Subway lasted one day on the menu, and was only sold at a singular location in Frisco, Texas. After decades of owning the word "footlong" with its sandwiches, Subway branched out to produce footlong cookies, and in honor of National Potato Chip Day on March 14, 2023, dropped The Baked Lay's Footlong potato chip.

In a press release, Scott Finlow, chief marketing officer at PepsiCo Foodservice said, "Surprising our fans with unexpected flavor combinations and unique culinary creations is what we do best." He added, "We're grateful that our partners at Subway share our passion for creating meals that are as delicious as they are memorable."

The elongated, bumpy chip was free for any customer who purchased a Subway Series footlong meal. It was housed in a brown box, and it appears only 50 were ever produced. While Subway has since introduced a footlong churro and pretzel, the footlong chip has yet to resurface.

Subway was pushing plenty of chicken sandwiches by the dawn of the 21st century, and in 2003, introduced something it dubbed "zesty & delicious" — Chicken Pizziola. This sub's base elements were strips of chicken breast, slices of pepperoni and tomatoes, cheese, and smothered in marinara sauce. The chicken and cheese were actually microwaved together before joining its brethren elements within the bread. A 6-inch sub netted 450 calories, 16 grams of fat, and 5 grams of fiber. It initially retailed for $3.49 to $3.99, and a foot long for $5.49 to $5.99.

In his review at the time, syndicated columnist Ken Hoffman, aka the Drive-Thru Gourmet, touted the sandwich's Italian bona fides, pointing out that the marinara sauce recipe came directly from founder Fred DeLuca's own mother. Hoffman said in Florida Today, "The chicken, cheese, pepperoni and sauce come together in a traditional Italian sandwich that can't be beat." He concluded, My grade: A. You gotta problem wit' that?" The Chicken Pizziola remained on the menu for at least a decade. It was last advertised as part of Subway's "The Italian Collection," in newspapers around 2013.

In the summer of 2019, Subway welcomed exclusive sips of Hubert's Lemonade from its fountain and bubbler areas. It also launched a limited time line of sandwiches to pair with the lemonade — the Ciabatta Collection.

Subway's ciabatta bread was baked in-store, and had three signature sandwiches in its collection. The Italian with New Fresh Mozzarella featured Genoa salami, mozzarella, spinach, tomatoes, onions, banana peppers and a brand new balsamic sub sauce. The Chicken Pesto with New Fresh Mozzarella contained rotisserie-style chicken, mozzarella, lettuce, tomatoes, onions, and then drizzled with a new basil pesto sauce. The Garlic Steak & Provolone was decked out with shaved steak sprinkled with a Sub Spice Seasoning, provolone, tomatoes, onion, green peppers, and finished with a new creamy garlic aioli.

These new premium sandwiches cost more than standard Subway fare, but not everyone was buying into these artisanal breads. Our Takeout colleague Kate Bernot noted that, "The ciabatta bread is an upgrade, but the sandwiches themselves don't fulfill its promise." The Ciabatta may have disappeared from Subways in America, but they received new life in North America when Canada introduced ciabatta breakfast sandwiches in the fall of 2024.

McDonald's has always been a leader for fast food chains that serve breakfast ... even if most of it isn't even made in-house. That hasn't stopped competitors from trying its hand at luring early risers into its doors. Subway made a major push into the morning rush hour starting in 2010, and led off with a series of breakfast sandwiches. While flatbreads and even standard 6-inch or footlong breads were available to order, a more familiar option seemed to be the draw — egg muffin melts.

Starting at 7 a.m. each day, customers could choose an egg or egg white omelet to pair with bacon, sausage, black forest ham, or steak, and then top it off with some items from the usual Subway arsenal in the new light wheat English muffin. Chris Martone, Subway executive chef, said in QSRweb, "Customers can have a little fun with this meal by adding anything from sliced tomatoes to spicy jalapeños to our signature Sweet Onion Sauce on a regular or egg white omelet sandwich."

By 2018, after not much success, the chain slowly started to pull the plug on breakfast. Today, select locations still serve breakfast, but only on flatbreads and wraps.

In 2014, Subway created a product with a hard-to-pronounce portmanteau that tried to merge the talents of flatbreads and pizza together. According to the National Post, Flatini, Cristada, and Crustini were contenders, before the company settled on the "Flatizza." Sensing that name was already going to be a tough sell, the TV ads made a point of how to say it — "flat-tee-zah." The 6-inch square Flatizza replaced the round pies Subway was currently serving. The base ingredients were mozzarella and marinara sauce, and topped with options of cheese, pepperoni, spicy Italian, or veggie. The quad-cut pieces of each pie were kept warm within a branded box that stated "cheesy & delicious meets crispy & square."

Barstool Sports' Dave Portnoy did a One Bite Review of the Flatizza. While he initially pegged it as a "sneaky 3.8," and better than anything Sbarro ever made, he said it tasted worse as he continued to eat it, and lowered it to a 2.9. Brand Eating got straight to the point in its review by saying "the crust was horrible."

The Flatizza simply fell flat with customers. A company spokesperson noted in 2015, "The vast majority of our Subway customers continued to choose our delicious subs and salads, rather than Flatizza."

One of the lesser known items ever to grace a Subway menu were Greek-inspired gyro sandwiches. Subway didn't have the ability to produce authentic slices of gyro, being cut off from a vertical rotisserie. Instead, it relied on flat, frozen pre-cut pieces sent from the distributor, which were microwaved in-store. For a 6-inch, two slices would be heated up, and for a footlong, double the amount. 

Any toppings could be placed on the gyro sandwich, which was finished off with a smattering of tzatziki sauce straight from a plastic squeeze bottle. It is unclear how long gyros existed on Subways menus, but they were around for a brief period in the early to mid-1990s. Outside of the Maryland suburbs of Washington D.C., it is also unclear if gyros were offered at other Subway locations nearby or nationwide. The closest it ever got to a return was 2015's Mediterranean Collection, where feta and tzatziki topped chicken or steak.

Milkshakes go hand-in-hand with orders of burgers and fries, but sandwiches? Subway put that idea into practice with a Halo Top Creamery partnership for a limited run of milkshakes. Starting in late July of 2019, and running through early September, these shakes were given the hand-spun treatment at only 1,000 locations, within the six markets of Colorado Springs, Colorado, Hartford, Connecticut, Salt Lake City, Utah, Toledo, Ohio, West Palm Beach, Florida, and Longview and Tyler, Texas.

Len Van Popering, Subway's chief brand and innovation officer, said in a press release, "We are passionate about creating delicious new menu items for our guests that can't be found anywhere else. We share Halo Top's values that taste does not need to be sacrificed to create better-for-you options." The milkshakes came in three pretty straightforward flavors: vanilla bean, chocolate, and strawberry. One of the major selling points of these shakes was taking advantage of Halo Top's light attributes, coming in at 350 calories or less, and netting 29 grams of protein.

These Halo Top shakes stop being spun after its United States test run in 2019. The following year, Subways in the U.K. tried out its own line of shakes, before also going quiet shortly after.

Jalapeño Cheddar Bread was an offering Subway first introduced for its sandwiches sometime before 2003, and reappearing in 2007. Subway had improved upon its previous recipe of Jalapeño Cheddar Bread before its reintroduction in 2014, to ring in that new year. It had a six- to eight-week run in stores to see how it would sell, competing against sandwich shops such as Blimpie and Au Bon Pain, who also offered it up. Mark Christiano, worldwide baking specialist for Subway, said in a statement in Baking Business, "Our new jalapeño cheese bread is our answer to requests for bread that is packed with bold flavor," adding, "We are always looking to keep up with our customers' evolving tastes."

Jalapeño Cheddar Bread reappeared in 2019, when it was the suggested bread for the Southwest Chipotle Chicken Club, which housed chicken strips, bacon, Pepper Jack cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, green peppers, red onions, Chipotle Southwest sauce, and guacamole. While Jalapeño Cheddar Bread has since quietly been removed from menus, some eaters will never forget it, even starting petitions to bring it back. One of those eaters, who realized too late they'd never taste it again, said, "There is not many things I regret in my life. Not savoring that meal is definitely one of them." 

Subway introduced a branded kids meal called the Kids Pak back in 1988. It contained a 6-inch sub, cookie, small drink, and some sort of toy, which initially retailed for $1.59. The sandwich was housed in a fun carton box that resembled a cartoony stacked sandwich. Like many other fast food chains, Subway partnered with popular films and TV shows like "The Santa Clause," "The Simpsons," and "Looney Tunes," to help promote them and lure in customers for toys that came with the meals.

In 2003, Subway revamped the Kids Pak to be a little more health conscious. The cookie and soda were jettisoned and replaced with a General Mills fruit roll-up and Minute Maid juice box, which helped erase 160 calories from the equation. Les Winograd, spokesman for Subway, told The New Haven Register, "We've had a longstanding reputation of offering a healthy alternative to your traditional fast food."

Just four years later, Subway in the United States rebranded its kids meal to become "Fresh Fit For Kids." That kids meal was retired sometime after 2018. Today, the Kids Pak name lives on in other countries, where branded toys remain a big draw.

The fine and sweet breads of King's Hawaiian have been making waves since 1950. In 2013, it lent its baked breaded talents to house sandwiches from Arby's, and has continued to do so in the years since. In 2019, Subway wanted in on some of that sweet bread money, and formed a brief partnership with King's Hawaiian. Subway's chief brand and innovation officer, Len Van Popering said in a press release, "These new sandwiches are unlike anything out there and Subway is offering guests a chance to try this iconic bread like they never have before — freshly baked. We're excited to be the only restaurant in the world trusted to serve King's Hawaiian bread this way."

The breads were a rare custom size for Subway — 8 inches long, and contained a deluxe portion of meat, and twice the amount of cheese found in a 6-inch. For most of that summer in 2019, the King's Hawaiian Bread arose in only three test markets at 300 restaurants in Champaign, Illinois, Reno, Nevada and Richmond, Virginia. Customers could order up any sandwich on the bread, as "Aloha style," or two crafted just for the promotion: a turkey, bacon, provolone one, and a ham & Swiss sub. Apparently the results weren't worthy of an expansion of the product, and Subway bid aloha to its partnership with King's Hawaiian Bread.

Over the years, Subway has introduced many barbecue-inspired sandwiches, and in September of 2019, gave eaters its Naturally Pit-Smoked Brisket sandwich. The meat was noted as being slow-roasted for 13 hours, which happened well before it reached the doors of nationwide Subway locations. The meat was topped off with smoked cheddar cheese and barbecue sauce for good measure.

Len Van Popering, Subway's chief brand and innovation officer, said about the sandwich in a press release, "Our naturally pit-smoked brisket is the real deal. We collaborated with some of the most talented pit masters in the country to create a one-of-a-kind taste experience that features the unmistakable flavor that comes from using real smoke and freshly baked bread. It's a combination that simply can't be beat."

To put the new sandwich to the test, Subway opened a fake restaurant called Monty's in Austin, Texas to give local barbecue eating experts a first taste. When it was revealed that it was actually a Subway sandwich, the eaters were surprised at the impressive results. Although, not every diner gives it a passing grade. Sean Ludwig, founder of the site NYC BBQ, called it an inauthentic, artificial nightmare that left his stomach hurting.

Beyond tuna fish, seafood isn't often an option one finds at sandwich shops. That didn't stop Subway from diving into the ocean for inspiration. As far back as the early 1980s, it offered Seafood & Crab salad, and starting in 1990, a Seafood & Lobster salad. The crab was a processed blend of snow crab and Alaskan pollock. Both were made in-house, where the seafood was dumped into a bowl, had mayonnaise poured all over it, and mixed by hand (covered in gloves, of course). It was served either on bread, or on beds of lettuce as an actual salad.

Scoops of Seafood & Lobster were served up at Subways for at least six years. Seafood & Crab freshened up its name in 2004, going by Seafood Sensation. While it became less of a sensation in continental United States locations sometime after 2017, it can still be found in other parts of the world, like the U.S. Virgin Islands and Australia.

Subway toyed with a garlic bread option in 2006, and then again in 2013. At the tail end of 2018, it stepped up its garlic bread game by adding the words "new ultimate cheesy" before it. Subway described its new limited time bread in a press release as "a garlic butter spread made with real butter and roasted garlic, melted parmesan and shredded mozzarella cheese that create gooey, bubbling perfection."

The New Ultimate Cheesy Garlic Bread had an initial run lasting only 84 days — but apparently eaters took to it so much that it warranted a return in the fall of 2019. Subway's chief brand and innovation officer, Len Van Popering said in a press release, "When we launched the Ultimate Cheesy Garlic Bread last year, our guests responded immediately, and we knew we had a hit on our hands." Not long after, those guests could no longer get their hands on the bread, and would have to travel to Subways in the Philippines, where it was last seen in 2021.