My second visit to one of these restaurants. I don't get it. Or maybe I'm just not the demographic they are after.

-- Chintzy amounts of meat and cheese.
-- Tasteless bread
-- No salt available, no pepper available, no yellow mustard available
-- Very overpriced for the amount of food
-- Music incredibly and annoyingly loud.

You are not their demographic. JJ's is about decent food (I think the bread is great) quickly and cheaply. It's a step above fast food and if you notice, all the employees are college age or close and so are the clientele. It's better than Subway but not as good as Potbelly's and quicker than either.

Save for "great" bread, I say MSchott got it right.

I tried them in Richmond, by a university. Decent, fast and didn't have that nasty Subway-esque smell either.

JJ sandwiches are pretty good. And the toppings are fresh. Just wish they toasted the sandwiches.

To be fair, I'm probably not the demographic for any sandwich shop chain -- not JJ's, nor Subway (although their meat was far superior to the two JJ's I've visited), nor even Panera's.

Why? Well, the ONLY thing I want for my sandwich is: Bread, meat, occasionally cheese, and the tiniest bit of yellow mustard (not foofoo mustard, but 'Murican mustard ). That's it. No special sauce, no sprouts, no veygies (as one Mexican restaurant in Berkeley prints on its register tapes when you order your tacos without lettuce/tomatoes, "No crud"), no sprinkles, no thank you -- meat, bread, cheese. Pau.

I can make that sandwich at home far cheaper and control the exact amounts and ratios, plus toast the bread to half-way toasted so that it somewhat mimics slightly-beginning-to-turn-stale bread which is when it's perfect for sandwiches.

I suspect I'm idiosyncratic, but no more so than scores of others....

A fan of JJ here, they are greatness for grabbing lunch at the office. A nice size, enjoyable sand which for less than I can buy at most places downtown and they arrived super quick.

I thought I was the only one who finds the Subway smell gross. It's surprisingly uniform no matter where in the world it's located.

What I like about JJ's is that if you don't feel like/can't have bread, you're not stuck with a must-use-utensils salad and can get an "Unwich" instead. It can be messier than a regular sandwich - it totally depends on how well they make the lettuce wrap - but sometimes I don't want the bread and just don't want the bother of a bowl and a fork either. Unwich to the rescue!

Agree that the lack of yellow mustard is perplexing.

I don't get it either. buy your own meat/cheese and bread and keep it at work to make far cheaper and better sandwiches.

In the first, last, and only visit I ever intend to have, it was in no way better than Subway. The tuna sandwich was incredibly bland with an unpleasant aftertaste and the restaurant apparently had no hot peppers, pepper sauce, or similar to make it palatable. I'd had no breakfast or lunch that day when I stopped in at two in the afternoon, so "hunger sauce" should have performed miracles. Instead I tossed it after two bites and went hungry until dinner.

I was amazed to later discover this is a national chain rather than just a tiny midwestern company.

You can add me to the "I don't get it" column. I've been there three(?) times and every time, I felt the sandwich was underwhelming and bland. I actually thing Subway is better mainly because I think the sandwiches have marginally more flavor (or at least do when I load them up with peppers), better bread (JJ's tastes like Wonderbread to me), and it's cheaper.

Their clientele is heavily college-age and male, i.e. lots and lots of calories for relatively little $ and fast. That said, some of the menu is better than the rest, primarily the Italian club and the "hunter's" club which have decent meat portions.

I second this. Bread is tasteless, no soup offerings, limited veg toppings, not toasted, and to me at least every one I have gone into has what seems like 20 high school kids working the line. Potbelly blows JJ away. At least IMO.

Jimmy John's was my favorite place to go eat in college and still is one of my favorite.

But yet you went a second time Cblaisd!

There is one of these near my work. I tried it once. Not worth a 2nd visit for reasons already stated.