I ordered the same 3 items at Jersey Mike's and Subway. Neither sandwich chain was perfect, but one stood out.

For years, Subway felt like the only relevant sandwich chain.

Its 2008 “five, five dollar, five dollar footlong” jingle still lives in my head.

The Connecticut-founded fast-food giant operates over 35,000 restaurants worldwide, with the most recent 2025 industry data estimating an annual $9.2 billion in United States system-wide sales.

Subway remains the largest sandwich chain in the US, both in location count and estimated sales — but size isn’t the whole picture.

Its US footprint has fallen from more than 27,000 locations in 2015 to fewer than 19,000 today, with more than 700 closures in 2025 alone.

Subway’s domestic location count has declined every year since its 2015 peak (though it has seen international growth).

In April 2024, Subway was sold to Roark Capital — a private equity firm that also has a large stake in sandwich-chain competitor Jimmy John’s — for a reported $9.6 billion.

Meanwhile, Jersey Mike’s made headlines in July 2026 after announcing plans to go public.

It hit the New York Stock Exchange with a $1 billion IPO, one of the largest restaurant-sector debuts in recent years.

The New Jersey-founded sandwich chain now operates more than 3,300 locations across the US and Canada.

Earlier this year, the chain also announced plans to expand into Europe by opening hundreds of locations across the UK and Ireland.

By comparison, in 2015, it had just over 1,000 total locations.

Jersey Mike’s financials track with its physical growth.

In 2025, it posted more than $4 billion in US system-wide sales, a major feat for a chain that has far fewer locations than Subway yet has become one of its top competitors.

With all the buzz, I wanted to see which chain actually had better-tasting sandwiches and offered more value to customers.

To do so, I ordered a similar cold club sandwich, hot Philly cheesesteak, and chocolate-chip cookie at each, sticking to the chain’s regular size and default preparations.