Shorty’s Deluxe

More like a 3.5. My wife and I ordered a hot coffee, an iced vanilla latte, and a few sandwiches. The food was solid—the sandwiches were expertly made, with flavors that blended perfectly without any single ingredient overpowering the others. I ordered the sausage egg and cheese sandwich but I preferred my wife’s egg and cheese only. However, I did have a mishap with my order, and I have to say, it likely wouldn’t have happened if the young lady at Shorty’s wasn’t wearing AirPods while taking orders and preparing food. In a food service setting, attention to detail must be the highest priority, and being fully present with customers should be the bare minimum. While the food was remade, the follow-through service wasn’t great. I won’t share exactly what happened, but after a mistake like that, I would’ve expected something overwhelmingly valuable to make up for the mishap. Instead, it felt like an afterthought. Customer service at the café needs to be a priority—there’s no excuse for distractions when handling people’s food. I’d love to give this place another shot, but they need to step up their service to match the quality of their food.

I worked in the food service industry for over a decade so I hate giving a restaurant a poor review. I've gone to Shorty's several times now and I have to rate it due to the poor customer service and hygiene of the staff. On the most recent visit, my son and I ordered our sandwiches and lemonades in advance and when we came to the store, it was not ready and we waited almost 35 minutes for our order. There were several other patrons who had ordered waiting too. While we waited, one teen diligently worked to get the orders ready while two teens listened to their music, laughed and texted, put their literal fingers in our lemonades and acted bothered to talk to several patrons who asked questions about the seating area and menu. This is attached to a child's play place and I can see that being valuable for the neighborhood but there were kids running everywhere without adult supervision and parents who didn't buy food at the cafe taking table space. The sandwiches themselves are very flavorful with high quality vegetables, bread and meat and extremely generous portion sizes. The homemade lemonade is tart and refreshing. However, as I watched the poor teen employee in the kitchen try to keep up with orders while the other teen employees put their shoes on the counter, talked and socialized with friends, and not keep up with orders. When I asked what the hold up was, they said it was for the online orders but only one person was making sandwiches. I love having different local food options and restaurant groups in the neighborhood, but the staff need training on food safety, hygiene and customer service and you may need to hire additional staff if people are guaranteed a time for their order and then wait. There was also no acknowledgement or apology to me and the other patrons about the delay in the order. This is the third time in a row I had this experience and the restaurant wasn't busy. There was only two to four other customers. Not sure if they were also fulfilling delivery orders or carryout, but my carryout orders were not ready.

I really don't love giving this place a dismal review but we came on Sunday evening (opening weekend) at 5:30pm and they were out of sandwiches and coupons that were advertised in their announcement e-mail. All of that is totally fine though, I ended up ordering a salad for takeout. The salad was completely wrong thought--what I thought was bacon (for a California sun salad) ended up being beets, there was no avocado or egg, and no other ingredients except for a bitter iceberg lettuce and a few cherry tomatoes. It was not only the wrong salad but just an overall bad-tasting meal. I do have photos of the salad (and of the salad in the trash) so that the owners know I'm not just trying to get free food. I sent an extremely polite e-mail telling them I was rooting for them and that I love their sister restaurant Hi-Fi but that this was a pretty big mistake and I'd appreciate a refund. No response, so now I get to waste my time with the credit card company. Not my favorite intro to a restaurant.

Took 30 minutes to get a cold soggy sandwich. Rude and slow service. Don’t waste your money here.

One of the best sandwiches I have ever had in my life. Be sure to come by and order an 1/8th of the Joey and another eighth of the Ritchie. 1/4 of the sandwich is more than enough to leave you satiated but is sure to leave you coming back sometime soon.

Refreshing take on a sandwich shop, one where the bread doesn’t hemorrhage the roof of your mouth. The circular sandwich style makes portioning intuitive, 1/4 of the 12” circle is ideal for a filling meal that leaves you full but not stuffed since the bread is of an airy consistency.

Place is connected the Mulberry Cafe so there’s children running everywhere. Adults were using this connection to essentially stop watching their own children. Food took way too long for pre-made sandwiches that were just okay - bread was soft and just kinda mushy. Not much flavor. Was supposed to come with bacon and that wasn’t there either. There were two teenagers running the place and making the food so didn’t expect much. Housemate lemonade was delicious but wasn’t a fan when I saw the cashier put her hand all over the straw instead of providing one with a cover. She was touching the pad for the payments and messing with her hair constantly. She wasn’t unfriendly but clearly in over her head. My friend got the wrong drink and while they offered to fix it, we had already been there probably 30 minutes for two quick drinks and pre-made sandwiches. While we were waiting to order, one toddler literally pulled the sign off the wall so a nail and thumb tack fell on the floor. The adult with the child was paying zero attention so I let him know she has a thumbtack in her hand. He then told the cashier “the sign fell off” and my friend let him know that she actually pulled it off because no one watching her.

We stopped in for lunch today. We had sandwiches, a salad, and one of the dipping sauce. Very good! Salema was so friendly and gave us the scoop on the menu and options. I loved that she offered to toast my sandwich on this cool December day. Ingredients and bread were so unique, fresh and delicious. Salad was exceptional! The Richie and Johnny were tasty sandwiches. Will be excited on the next visit to try the soups. Great addition to Del Ray!

This new sandwich shop has just opened in the Delray section of Alexandria. The sandwich shop has muffuleta inspired sandwiches that are named after a punk rock band the Ramones. There are seven sandwiches and they have some that are vegetarian friendly. The sandwiches are available in 1/2, 1/8 and 1/4 inch sizes. You can also take home a whole round size sandwich. If sandwiches are not your thing, you can try one of their 7 salad options. Again they have vegetarian options. During my visit I tried the Marky sandwich and the Gabba Gabba salad. The sandwich was delicious and flavorful. I was not able to finish the salad but it was delicious as well! The dressing is already mixed in the salad. I will definitely be back to try out other sandwich options. I also saw on the menu that they have two soup options. The shop has a small seating area if you prefer to eat there.

Excellent sandwiches! They're like a muffaletta served on a focaccia - delicious! I had the ''Joey" which is like an Italian sub, and the chicken & rice soup, will definitely come back. The woman behind the counter, Salema, was awesome, too! Explained everything to me and was an overall bright spot in my day!

Can't wait to make this my new post-church lunch spot! Absolutely delicious sandwiches with perfect bread and some of the best soup I've ever had (seriously, I don't know WHAT they're putting in the chicken and rice soup but it's something special). Add in super friendly staff and this is a no brainer! Great addition to the Del Ray neighborhood. My only regret is that I couldn't try their cookies since they didn't have any available the day I went. Need to come back to see if they're on par with the rest of the menu!

Pricing is a bit of a sticker shock for a sandwich. Paid nearly $20 after tax for two extremely small sandwiches (added together equivalent in size to what I'd consider one normal portion.) They even raised prices by a dollar since opening judging by the signage? Maybe par for the course for Del Ray now a days, but I wouldn't opt for this over "cheaper" places.

The salad was fantastic ... 54and 3rd... but there was hardly any meat on sandwiches and slim toppings 90% bread. the bread was pretty tasty. he had muffaletta and turkey the soup was ok... service was good but slow!