Allie P.
Yelp
What an appalling experience! My first and last time at Potbelly. By the end of the 20 minute (!) ordeal of ordering a sandwich to-go, I was literally looking around to see if maybe this was being filmed for some kind of prank show or something. Alas, it was real. Another customer who came in at the tail end of my fiasco left with his to-go order after me and actually stopped by my car to knock on my window and ask if I'd "had trouble in there" as well. He wanted to call to complain. I'd already asked for the manager's number, and received a card from the shop. Unfortunately for us, the number for the "General Manager" rings right back to the shop and was answered by the employees who just gave us the poor service. If Mr. Porcello had cared enough about the status of his restaurant to have his actual contact phone number on the card, I would have given him the play-by-play. Instead, here's what you fellow diners need to know:
* Service was insanely slow in spite of there only being one customer ahead of me in the 20 minutes I was waiting there at the counter.
* One employee was rude, unhelpful, and grumpy. He intentionally ignored customers. A second was apologetic but ineffective. A third made a cameo appearance at the end, but did not offer any assistance.
* An employee confided that one of the toppings "looked good" today, but had "looked awful" yesterday and often.
* An employee didn't put an adequate amount of sauce on a sandwich because the bottle was empty. When the customer came back to the counter to ask for more, the employee left in the middle of making another customer's food to get some more from the back. The other employees did nothing.
* No sign of gloves, two employees were not wearing hats.
* An order of mac & cheese had to be refunded after the warming vat where it is kept (a container inside a larger container that's filled with warm water, apparently) had a fail of some sort allowing the warming water into the mac & cheese and leaving it "disgusting" according to one employee.
* Although this is a move-down-the-counter sort of place a la Freebirds or Subway or Salata, here at Potbelly *you cannot actually see them working on your food*. They have stacked shelving so high that you can only really see their heads at the food prep part where they are adding toppings. Very disconcerting if you are used to the transparent model. (Maybe how they get away with toppings that "look awful" on some days??)
* No employees ever went near the dining area for cleaning or other purpose even though several people left during the time I was waiting.
* I came in for a 1/2 sandwich and cup of mac & cheese special they had advertised in the window. Just wanted it how they come, no fancy ordering or anything. After a comedic amount of mistakes and delays that there is not space here to elaborate on but boil down to poor customer service, I left 20 minutes later with a full sandwich (not the one I wanted), no mac & cheese. I felt too squeamish for the sandwich by then anyway.
My free advice: at the other end of the strip center is the always fresh and clean and friendly Salata. Keep walking past Potbelly.
