Rendez Vous Rideau Subway

I was passing through the Rideau Centre on Friday during lunch time and decided to stop by the food court.   Unfortunately, before I could descend the escalator from the Colonel By & Rideau Street entrance, a groups of school kids had been released until 1:30 P.M. to find lunch and roam the mall by their teacher.  Of course most of them headed straight for the food court.

I got in line at the Subway (50 Rideau Street, Ottawa) counter and gradually moved forward.  Sure the line had about ten people in front of me who hadn't even ordered with about another five working their way through the sandwich making process.

Service, with a line up this long, would normally be an issue especially at a Subway or similar fast food counter normally.  But this subway has at least five counter attendants who move your sandwich along in assembly line fashion.  There is also usually one extra employee adding ingredients as they become depleted. This Subway franchise was ready for the lunch rush and was working like a well oiled machine.

I slowly moved forward and was greeted by the first Subway employee and placed my order.

The Order: 1 Foot Long Cold Cut Combo on 9 Grain Wheat.

The foot long sub moved quickly through the assembly line.  First the meat, followed by some swiss cheese then onto the vegetables.  The only hang up was the pickles.  They were out of pickles at the time.  But thank goodness for the mayonnaise!  As soon as the mayonnaise was added, the pickles showed up.   Got the pickles, wrapped the sandwich, paid for it and I was out of there.

The next hitch was the seating at high noon on a Friday at the Rideau Centre.  Forget it!  Not a seat to be seen with all of the nearby office workers chowing down. I chose to return to the office to eat my newly made foot long sandwich of meat and veggie goodness.

Taste wise, the sandwich was an average Subway sub.  A little heavy on the toppings, but moving at speed of light with five different pairs of hands adding items it was to be expected.  The bread though was perfectly fresh as obviously the sandwich bread had a high turnover due to the volume of customers.  The vegetable toppings though were average for any Subway sandwich shop. Nothing gourmet special but not terrible either.

Overall, this Subway sandwich shop is built for volume.  Move the sandwiches along and get those people through.  But the quality is there with nothing amiss.  Just don't expect perfect proportions of vegetable to vegetable, if you want that, go elsewhere.  But then again, this place does not skimp on the toppings either.  For a nutritious lunch with good service, this place is pretty good.  Only trouble though is finding a table in the food court during weekday lunch hours!