What a terrible experience! I cannot believe this restaurant has decent reviews because based on our visit, one star is generous.
To begin with, Hugo's Deli is expensive, especially for a sandwich shop. A meal of a sandwich, chips, and drink will run about $10.00. With three sandwiches, three drinks, three bags of chips, and a corn dog, the bill was $36.00. I suppose I could justify that price for a truly delicious sandwich, but that was simply not the case.
Our party ordered a "pilgrim" (turkey, cranberry sauce, cream cheese and sprouts), a Reuben, and a turkey-bacon-avocado sandwich, as well as a corn dog for the preschooler. The Pilgrim was true to its name because without neighbors who were willing to share their food, I might have starved. It was tiny! When I order a six dollar sandwich, I expect more than a slender, 4 1/2 or 5 inch tea sandwich. What's more, inside was a meager shaving of turkey, so little that I could not taste it over the cream cheese and cranberry sauce (I actually opened the sandwich to check because I thought they might have forgotten the turkey altogether).
The turkey-bacon-avocado was slightly better, but the bacon had clearly been (over) cooked a long while before, and to such a degree that it shattered like glass when you bit into it.
The Reuben was probably the worst of all, though, and was a true crime against delis everywhere. EVERYONE knows a Reuben is a GRILLED sandwich. Always. Yet for some reason, they took COLD, DRY, rye bread, slapped on some COLD corned beef and cheese, squirted on bottled thousand island dressing, and called it good. As they placed it in the tray, I looked at it and the girl asked, "Um, did you want me to microwave that?" I told her no thanks.
But the most egregious, unforgivable thing was that she DROPPED one of our sandwiches ON THE FLOOR. I saw it. She knew I saw it. But she did not even offer to remake it. To be fair, it was wrapped, but STILL!!
I looked at my tray and asked where the corn dog I'd ordered was, and the cashier said "I didn't charge you for it, so if you want it, you'll have to pay." Since she took my order, I thought she'd ring it up right, but that was apparently too much to expect. Instead of making it right, she made me run my debit card for a second transaction, even though it was her mistake. It seemed tacky.
Our stellar dining experience had one final sparkling touch. As we were eating, the three workers were having a loud conversation about how you pronounce the word "gyro." One girl observed (and not in an "inside" voice) that she could never order them because "I ways think I'm getting a 'GYNO,' like gynecologist!"
Lovely.
The restaurant is grungy, worn, and generally unappealing. It's the kind of place that needed a serious update ten years ago, and now it's fallen into such disrepair, a total overhaul would be necessary to make it nice. The environment is what you might expect from an inner-city bus station cafe, but with even less charm.
Hugo's Deli is a mere stone's throw from our house, and were it even just mediocre, I'm sure we'd be back, but it was epically bad and nothing could entice me to return. The whole operation seems to be run by people who simply do not care at all.
Stay away...far, far away. read more