Everyone Had the Same Reaction to TikTok Showing Subway Steak Preparation

Stacey Ritzen
·2 min read
23

Despite its longtime tagline "Eat Fresh," it's hardly a secret that Subway restaurant locations don't cook food so much as prepare it, and instead thaw or reheat many of the ingredients that go into the chain's menu items. And yet, social media users are reacting in horror to a viral video that shows how Subway steak is prepared.

The protein is used in Subway's Steak & Cheese sandwiches, which is essentially the chain's answer to the Philly cheesesteak. However, while in Philadelphia, the local delicacy is made from thinly-sliced ribeye cooked on a grill top, the steak Subway uses is a bit different.

As you can see in the following video posted to the How Food Is Made TikTok account, Subway steak, on the other hand, comes precooked in a plastic container.

In the short clip, which has amassed over 7.5 million views, an employee can be seen dumping the meat wad into a separate container and breaking it up by hand. The meat is then portioned out into 2.5 ounce servings, where it will then be made into some lucky customer's sandwich.

"All done fresh is the only way we do it here," quipped the person who recorded the video in a caption.

Suffice to say, the video is not exactly making people run out to order a Steak & Cheese.

"Wait it’s not fillet mignon carverd fresh daily," quipped one user, while another added: "Damn I thought it was wagyu this whole time." A few former Subway employees also chimed in, with one stating that they "still have nightmares about prepping the Teriyaki Chicken." "I worked at Subway and I promise you making the tuna is worse," said another.

Perhaps, most savagely the official Eggo account weighed in, commenting: "I will never recover from this."

As the New York Post points out, the chain was forced to launch an entire website in 2021 called SubwayTunaFacts.com in response to a lawsuit claiming that Subway didn't use real tuna. (As the website points out, the lawsuit has since been dismissed.)

According to a 2019 U.S. Product Ingredient Guide, the seasoned beef used in Subway's Steak & Cheese sandwiches contains ingredients including beef, water, salt, modified corn starch, sugar, dextrose, sodium phosphate, tomato powder, yeast extract, natural flavors, natural brown color blend, garlic powder, and onion powder.