The place has to be good - there are always so many people there! Right? Right?
I will admit, the meat on the Famous Philly was pretty good. My issue is with the fact that it was surrounded by so much bread I had to take a couple of bites to get to it. More on that later.
From the outside, Jersey Mikes looks like a good place to get a quick sandwich. From the inside it feels like a fire hazard. There is one door and there were 50 people scattered around about 2000 square feet. The lady in line in front of me must have had some sort of proximity phobia, because when I walked in she was about as far from the person in front of her as the door would allow, and gave me a dirty look for standing behind her. Famous Mikes has a lot of people working behind the counter, so the service should have been a lot quicker. There is one guy back there that seemed to be doing a little bit of everything - he made a cold sandwich, he manned the grill and wiped off a table or two, unfortunately - that same guy was the only one taking orders. So, while there did not seem to be a time when there were less than at least four people waiting to order, there were several times when there was no one taking any orders, for far too long of a time (I don't know, maybe that makes some people feel like they are waiting for their food for less time - it made the wait seem longer to me).
I ordered a Famous Philly - if you label something famous on your menu, it should probably be one of the better items right? Maybe it is. If so, it's unfortunate for Mike.
Like I said the sandwich was good, but it did have a lot of bread.
Here's my complaint. The grill is on one side of the restaurant, so it seems logical, that a good place to wait for your sandwich would be in front of the grill. At least that is what I, and everyone loitering around in front of the grill thought. But for some reason, once they get your sandwich ready, they wrap it up, walk back to the other side of the restaurant and start yelling names until someone claims their sandwich (which is usually back in front of the grill where they could have just handed the sandwich across the bar). My guess is the sandwich guys are wearing fitbits and are just trying to get extra steps in - either that or they're trying to keep from doing something productive.
One last note - their Cookies are Awesome! I bet the one guy, that was doing everything, baked them too.
I have a new goal in life,;I'm going to find a sandwich in Springfield and become a regular there. read more