Firehouse Subs Alabaster — Restaurant in Alabaster

Visited here Friday, September 3, 2021, and it was extremely disappointing. I was the second person out of six people who were in line waiting to place their order. One couple was waiting on their food, everyone else had been served and was enjoying their meal. There were four people on the make line and two people at the register: one person was training on the register, and the other was training her.

My wife was at home sick, and I was picking up food for her because she wasn't feeling well. I ordered a medium sandwich with chips.

On the make line there was a young lady named Lydia who had earbuds in both ears.

When Lydia looked up and saw how many people were in line she asked the cashier in training to tell us that it would be 20 minutes until the next order was served. There were literally two orders before mine, and Lydia said it would be 20 minutes... It would take four people 20 minutes to make three Firehouse subs: the medium hook and ladder I ordered, and the two sandwiches for the couple before me.

Upon hearing this everyone in line immediately left, and Lydia went back to listening to her music. I didn't want to leave my wife without food, so I told him I would wait. Of course it took less than 5 minutes to make all of those sandwiches, but Lydia didn't have to make all the sandwiches of the people after me.

Firehouse subs is a franchise, and I'm sure the owners would be interested to know that because of the laziness of their employees, they are losing business. As a business owner myself, and a customer, I'm aware that those six customers will now have a psychological association with an extremely long wait in line whenever they go to that place of business, and as such, they will not return as often, if at all. This is 100% attributed to the fact that Lydia didn't want to do work.

I'm also aware that this restaurant could have been busy filling delivery orders, so it's important to note that no one came in to pick up a delivery order while I was in the restaurant.

I did add a second star to my review because all of the other employees did seem intent on delivering great service and doing...

I have been ordering the NY Steamer sandwich fom firehouse for years. For good reason. Its been a very good sandwich. But something has changed over the past year. Of the hundreds of pastrami/corned beef sandwiches I have eaten over the past 30+ years from all kinds of restaurants, i have NEVER had one wirh so much fat. Tonight makes 3 times in a row of me visiting firehouse and finding a minimum of 50% fat on the sandwich. Open it up and there's a small pile of normal meat w very little fat that is about 25% of the total meat and then underneath it is the bulk of the rest of meat which is long thin slices of mostly fat. Gross. I can't really blame this location bc none of the other sandwiches seem to have this problem. And the employees are always nice and do their jobs well. But the food quality has taken a nose dive in different places and it makes me think it's a top-down chain decision to save money. I may go back, but I'll probably never order this sandwich again. I also tagged the atmosphere poorly. That's bc its ALWAYS smoky inside. Not steam from the steamer. There's a thick visible haze of smoke in the restaurant every time we've gone there. Every. Time. For years... not sure why there's no ventilation for the griddle, but it's not as much fun to dine-in when you're eyes are burning like you're sitting too close to an...

Ordered in app at 12:06 Pickup time given 12:20 Sat and waited til 12:38 Sandwich subpar

I Rode home expecting to give a 3 star review since it was just a delay and I expected to start this review off with the food was amazing (because it always was when I ordered from here while working a couple of miles away a few years ago). however, the bread on the sandwich that I had been craving since the night before was insanely stale and the meat on the sandwich was super fatty. Instead of the sandwich that I was expecting to be the best thing I ate today I got about $13 worth of meh. The only thing I can compare the bread to are the sandwiches you get from the Walmart deli after they’ve been marked down because they’re getting old. I had redownloaded the app because I had planned on making this a regular thing since we moved back to alabaster but I guess I’ll have to commute to homewood next time I want a New York Steamer. I will say my wife was happy with her sandwich so that justifies them getting the 1 star since I can’t...