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A close-up of a sub sandwich on oat bread, filled with shredded lettuce, red onions, steak, crushed chips, and a creamy orange sauce, resting on white parchment paper.
Moon935/Reddit.com

Ever since Subway first launched in the 1960s, the chain’s sandwiches have been known for their customization options. Hacking together your own creations as you move down the line is what the restaurant is all about, and arguably even kicked off the Chipotle-and-poke-shop-fast-casual revolution.

But today? In the age of the internet? Individual creations are immortalized these days, and thanks to the innovations of many, there’s an unofficial roster of Subway secret menu items. Here are all the hacks from the secret menu at Subway you need to know about.

Pizza Sub

A close-up of a meatball sub sandwich, sliced in half, with melted cheese stretching between the pieces on sandwich paper in a green basket.
TownIdiot25/Reddit.com

Here’s a classic. We’ve all done this, right?

  • Order a sandwich with pepperoni, marinara sauce, provolone, mozzarella, and any veggies that call to you.
  • Toast it up.

Deconstructed Breakfast Taco

  • Order a breakfast sandwich with egg whites, steak, guacamole, tomatoes, spinach, red onions, and chipotle Southwest sauce.

Autumn Roasted Chicken

  • Order a roasted chicken sub with bacon, Swiss, green peppers, spinach, cucumbers and BBQ sauce.
  • Order a side of sliced apples and add them. You’re not going to ask ask the employee to do this because you have compassion for somebody stuck on the line of a busy restaurant.

Chicken Cordon Bleu

  • Order a sub with roasted chicken breast, ham, Swiss cheese, a few slices of bacon, and honey mustard. 

Old Cut

A sub sandwich with lettuce, tomato, and mayonnaise sits on a sheet of branded Subway sandwich paper, cut in half and placed on a white surface.
r/pics/Reddit.com

Subway’s “Old Cut,” named very literally for the old way they used to cut the bread, is only moderately different from what they do today. Apparently the chain used to cut the bread more like a hot dog bun, with a hard V-shape. 

I can’t imagine this makes much difference, but go nuts. Just ask for Subway’s bread cut “the old way.”

Sweet and Sour

A close-up of a sandwich with shredded lettuce, cucumber slices, red onion, grilled chicken, and sauce in a partially sliced hoagie roll, placed on white paper.
NoticeMeDad/Reddit.com
  • Order a Sweet Onion Chicken Teriyaki sub.

  • Add some red wine vinaigrette alongside the sweet onion sauce.

Tuna Melt

Subway’s got tuna. Subway’s got cheese. Subway’s got a toaster. That’s all you need right there.

Chicken Parmesan

A sub sandwich on white bread is open-faced on white paper, showing melted cheese, tomato sauce, and a few pieces of onion. The filling appears sparse and unevenly spread.
r/subway/Reddit.com

The chicken isn’t fried, but it’ll do.

  • Order a sandwich with roasted chicken, marinara sauce, parmesan cheese, and mozzarella cheese.

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Spicy Nacho Steak

A hoagie roll filled with melted cheese, steak, crushed chips, and a drizzle of sauce, served on a sheet of white parchment paper.
Ricearoni1245/Reddit.com
  • Order a sub with steak, chipotle Southwest sauce, shredded Monterey cheddar, onions, and peppers.

  • Toast it.

  • Grab a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos and stuff ‘em in.

Eggs Florentine Flatbread

  • Order a flatbread with egg whites, spinach, olives, banana peppers, red onions, and black olives.

  • Apparently you’re supposed to use Italian dressing in place of hollandaise, though I’m not sure how that makes any sense.

Wing Effect

This is a meat-folding technique … or lack thereof. The “wing effect” really just refers to not folding the meat as usual, so that the extra edges hang outside of the bread.

Though some locations may know this by name, the employee I spoke to looked at me like I was speaking ancient Egyptian. It might be best to just describe this one.

Meet the Writer

Wilder Shaw is a staff writer at Cheapism who has written for publications like The Washington Post, Thrillist, Time Out, and more, but you most likely recognize him as Trick-or-Treater No. 2 from a 1996 episode of “The Nanny”. Give him a shout on Bluesky and Instagram.