No rational person expects fast food, or any restaurant meal, to look exactly like the promotional photos. There might be a passing resemblance, but they won’t look very much alike. Rachel had heard good things about sandwich chain Jimmy John’s from her friends, but they’re meat-eaters and she and her husband are vegetarians. But it’s not that hard to make a tasty sandwich without meat, right? The menu showed a nice sandwich packed with veggies and cheese, but what Rachel and Mr. Rachel got were sort of sad, mashed lettuce sandwiches.

I’ve seen Consumerist before post product photos vs. what the actual product looks like and thought I’d submit this photo of the sad Jimmy John’s sub we received last night.

My husband and I are both vegetarian and after hearing good reviews from our meat-eating friends, decided to try Jimmy John’s for the first time. Their veggie sub is advertised both online and in the store as having alfalfa sprouts, cucumbers, cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, mayo and an avocado spread. The picture posted online is positively salivating-inducing. Sadly, the sandwich we were actually served lacked both the alfalfa sprouts and cucumbers and the lettuce was the browning, shredded iceberg variety.

My husband, who ordered his without tomatoes, basically had a cheese and shredded lettuce sandwich. It was hardly the “gourmet” sub advertised. In fact, the sandwich was so meager that it was barely more than a finger-width wide. When I called the supervisor, he said that oops, they forgot the cucumber, and that the store does not serve alfalfa sprouts. When I reminded him that alfalfa sprouts are still advertised on the ginormous menu in his store, he just repeated again that they don’t serve them.

Luckily he offered us a store credit for the sandwiches as this is definitely not a sandwich I would ever pay $4.75 each for. Needless to say, we won’t be repeat customers of Jimmy John’s unless they beef up (no pun intended) their veggie subs.

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