I agree, well its a shame.

Switzerland has great bread, great cheese, meats, and food. Why can't they put them together?

Wait a minute....I got a brilliant idea

A sandwich without the infernal gherkin would be a vast improvement.
Now cucumbers on bread, perhaps an english eccentricity, is OK, but not after marinating the wee phallic blighters in industrial waste...

And there should be freedom to decide whether or not have butter (kilos, really) in your sandwich....

...and be made from bread that doesnt crack your teeth and taste like leather. It shouldn't have oodles of mayo on it either.

The meat should be recogniseable lumps of meat and some some reconstituted garbage.

If it's a fresh sandwich with good ingredients, it should taste good naked.

dave

Errrr, I agree on the previous things, just a little confused about the naked part.

Are you asking for a naturist fooderie? Now that im sure wouldnt be allowed in Zurich, though I think you get a halway house at the limmat!

Yea! Fight the Monoculture! Tell it like it is! Zurich used to have loads of coffee shops a while back, now they're disappearing as the caramel-latte-frappi-mochacino brigade step forward for their mass produced premium individual lifestyle products. >gag<

The big chains push the independent operator out of the prime locations and resultantly there's no choice. The big chains would never offer a free espresso, remember your name, have time to chat. The environmental and social effects of the big chains are dubious at best - as someone already mentioned, just pick up Fast Food Nation for the evidence.

A pretty standard response from Swissies when questioned about the lack of decent sandwiches, as Mark pointed out above, is Nein Danke. The next comment will be "We have a food culture here" meaning people like to sit around a table, enjoy the food - not fodder - and socialise. Which I applaud. What do you do with your sandwich? Sit on your own? That sucks.

Disneyland in France had a problem with catering when they opened, because they expected everyone to act American: ie, graze on the hoof. The French turned up at lunchtime, couldn't find any dining areas and to boot there was no wine on offer. Yikes! Vive la difference!

Ps, should you be a Starb*cks fan, here's a wheeze: complain. They're obliged to offer you another coffee/sandwich or a voucher for next time. Repeat ad nauseam...

There used to be a Subway in Geneva but it went out of business a few years ago. chris

Since this thread has become active again I thought I'd update it with my experience. I went to New York Food the other day and got a ham and cheese sub. It was very light on the meat and cheese - I felt hungry after finishing a foot-long version for about CHF15. Was a little bit disappointed compared to Subway

I have had a couple of the meat salad subs from there at about 11pm when i was beyond reason, and they were dreadful : stale bread and soggy salad. Which is a shame.

dave

Why don't you make your sandwich yourself?

Nothing is better than a selfmade-sandwich that contains exactly what you want at that moment? i think a knife and a fridge is in every office... the salad gives you fresh leaves for about three days, every morning at the bakery a fresh bread... and it doesn't cost you more time to fix your sandwich because you don't have to discuss afterwards about what you didn't like at the sandwich you just bought...

by the way: for people in the basel area: try the egg-sandwiches from the MIBA-Laden by the Gewerbeschule.

Next time I am in a hurry, passing through town, or discover that I don't have fresh bread in the house I'll be sure to suggest it to myself.

The existence of fast food in itself is not an easy thing - it's a choice. Sometimes I make that choice, sometimes I don't. Often I have a very good reason for making that choice (like lack of time). This is a point which is often missed by those who seem to think that we must always eat in restaurants or at home. Unfortunately a lot of that kind of attitude prevails in this country, and I find it more than a little irritating.

Sorry - this is not a personal dig at you - I've just heard that many times from the Swiss and it hits a nerve.

Quite right. In Australia for example sandwiches are almost always made fresh, exactly the way you want them, in front of you. This was usually what I ate for lunch when I lived there. I was horrified to go to other countries and see that people accepted it as normal to eat a sandwich made in a factory and sold in a plastic container. I'd never seen it before except at late-night service stations.

Bottom line - fast food doesn't always have to be poor quality, and a sandwich that you buy can be just as good as one you make yourself - it all depends whether the business providing you the sandwich cares or not.

I think this thread was about the fact that subway sandwiches were a bit different in that they are made fresh - the bread is freshly baked, and you choose the ingredients.

hmm... i know what you mean...

sure, sometimes i choose fastfood too, because i don't have to time or i'm just too busy for doing something else... but then, i don't expect the same quality from fastfood-food than from selfmade food or food from a restaurant. that's the choice. take the time for do something good and cheap or don't take the time and pay more for gettin less.

maybe it's because we don't have the same good fastfood-brands like subway in switzerland... maybe the choice somewhere else isn't that hard. what would mean that you're right. we need better fastfood-restaurants in switzerland

Careful now basilea - you are Swiss and a statement like that might be considered treasonous by your fellow countrymen

hey that i'm swiss doesn't mean that i have to have the same oppinion like every else swiss person...
i really think that it would be nice to have a few diffrent kinds of fast food restaurant in basel. instead of about five mc donalds...

Here in Fribourg there are a couple of Deli France sandwich bars , lovely soft freshly baked baguettes on the premises and not many gherkins around!

It ‘s strange that there appears to be few international franchises (apart from the golden arches) that cover Switzerland nationally, we have Deli France in Fribourg but it’s not in Zurich, I know that Bern has Starbucks but there isn’t one here and I seem to remember that there is an Early learning centre somewhere but again it’s not here in Fribourg, You would of thought that with the investment of bringing a Franchise here to CH a condition would be to give it some pretty good exposure nationally, ..... or am I wrong on this?

Nick

In St. Gallen there is a great sandwich restaurant that'll make the sandwich in front of you on freshly baked bread. These places exist, but perhaps not in the quantity and with the convenience as some of you would like.

Perhaps there isn't enough demand for these 'better' fast-food restaurants that are being proposed here?

I prefer the shish kebab as my sandwich of choice. grilled lamb, salad and lemon juice placed in a warm pitta. Not too expensive, fresh and healthy(ish)

There used to be a Subway in Zurich, I remember around 98 / 99 buying in sandwhiches from a Subway that was in the road to the side of the Central Plaza hotel - long gone now though.

The main reason for searching out this thread was that I heard a rumour today that a new Subway is opening in Zurich near to the HB, anyone know anything futher?

Theres the New York Pizza place in that same location near Central that does subs.

I don't know about a Subway in HB, but it will be interesting to see what happens to the clothes shop with that same name (and similar logo) that is inside HB.

dave