The Kids Menu — What to Order and What It Costs

The kids menu is short by design: a small turkey and cheese and a small ham and cheese, at around $6.49 each, typically packaged as a meal with a drink and a small side.

Both are built on the same bread and the same sliced-to-order meat as the adult subs. This is not a separate supply chain of child-specific food, which is genuinely a point in its favour — the quality is the same, the portion is smaller.

That is the whole list, and its shortness is the main complaint people have. There is no kids cheese steak, no kids meatless option beyond asking for a cheese sub, and no pasta or nugget alternative for a child who does not want a sandwich.

A mini from the main board is roughly five inches and lands in the 470 to 560 calorie range on most cold subs. That is a real lunch for a child of about eight or older, and it opens the entire menu rather than two options.

The kids meal wins on price when the bundled drink and side are things you were going to buy anyway. It loses when you were not, because you have then paid for a drink to get a slightly cheaper sandwich.

The practical rule: under about eight, the kids portion is right. Over about ten, a mini from the main board is better food and usually similar money. Between those, it depends entirely on the child.

Most children want it without the house finish, and asking for that is completely routine. Every sub is built to order, so "just turkey and cheese, nothing else" is a normal request that will not raise an eyebrow or slow anything down.

This is worth stating because parents sometimes hesitate over it, expecting the standard preparation to be non-negotiable. It is not. Nothing on this menu is assembled in advance.

Removing the finish also removes most of the added salt, which is a reasonable thing to want for a small child regardless of taste preference.

A kids sub with a small drink and a side typically lands around six to eight dollars and somewhere in the region of 500 to 700 calories depending on what the side is. That is a normal lunch for a child and does not need managing.

Where it stops being normal is the drink. A full-size fountain drink alongside a kids sub adds meaningfully more sugar than the sandwich contains, and swapping it for water is the one change that actually matters here. The cookie is fine. The cookie is not the issue.

Cold subs travel far better than hot ones, so if the food is going home rather than being eaten in the shop, order from the cold board for everyone.

Order the children's subs last if you are eating in, or ask for everything together if you are taking it away — a cold sub sitting on a counter for four minutes while a cheese steak is grilled is not a problem, but the reverse is.

Extra vegetables are free on any sub including the kids ones. Extra meat and cheese are charged. Most parents ask for the wrong one.

Above about four children, the arithmetic changes in the same way it does for an office. Ordering giants and cutting them into portions gives you more food for less money than individual kids meals, and it removes the problem of one child wanting what another one got.

Reduce variety deliberately. Two subs in quantity — one plain turkey, one plain ham — will satisfy almost any group of children and are far easier for the shop to produce accurately than eight bespoke orders under time pressure at a party.

Order at least a day ahead for anything above roughly eight portions, and ask for it cut and packed rather than whole. A giant arriving uncut at a birthday party is a small logistical problem you do not need.