Fred's Downtown Philly — Restaurant in Allen

I usually go to Tony's. Not because I had a preference, but because we stumbled upon it and didn't find out about Fred's until months later. Tonight we pulled up to Tony's but they had closed early for Valentine's. I was about to go home until I remembered that Fred's was somewhere close and realized it was across the street.

I had no idea they were about to close at 8pm. I assumed it would close at 9 pm. If I had none this at 7:52, I would have gone somewhere else. Some places don't do well with service or food when it's close to closing.

It took us a little long to order because we had never been there before. We ordered 3 #7's with lettuce and tomatoes and we asked for provolone cheese. 1 of the 3 was a 10 inch. The others were 6 inch.

We get all the way home to Princeton and hated that we didn't check the order. I figured with having the exact same thing on all sandwiches there was no room for mistakes. We were wrong.

If there was provolone it was a speck because the entire sandwich was a wet orange color. None of the sandwiches had lettuce or tomatoes. The bread was super wet and soggy which I don't know... May be a Philly thing. Neither of my kids are able to eat meat sandwiches without getting quesy which is why we add veggies to our sandwiches, so 2 people didn't even have a meal.

The last thing is all our sandwiches were the same size. We ordered 2 six inch and 1 ten inch. But they definitely were all 6 inches.

Hubby, son and daughter didn't like the fries, but they were OK to me. From them I heard, tasted old, tasted like old water and no flavor.

I did taste the sauce and thought it had a nice unique taste and flavor. If there were veggies on the sandwich and I would have been able to eat it I think the sauce would have been a nice addition.

Not sure if I'll be back if...

I had an extremely unprofessional experience with this establishment. I placed my order last night around 7 PM, just an hour before they were set to close. When I arrived, the man taking orders mistakenly gave my sandwiches to another customer. Even though they were closing, he was willing to remake the sandwiches for me. When I started to repeat my order, he insisted he already knew what I wanted. I ended up ordering seven small sandwiches since they had run out of large bread. I unfortunately had to order smaller ones to make up for this.

As a business owner myself, I would not have allowed a situation like this to happen, but perhaps he lacked the authority to provide proper customer service, even after giving my sandwiches away. After paying and tipping him, I got home only to discover I had only received four sandwiches despite ordering seven. Which means I had to order more food for the folks that didn't have sandwiches:(

Today , I called to inform them of this second mistake, but once again, the staff member I spoke to was unprofessional and lacked any genuine customer service. He was more concerned with me being annoyed by his inability to fulfill my order twice…Moving forward, I will stick to ordering my Philly cheesesteaks in Philadelphia, where they truly understand...

Fred’s is located in an old strip center. Not the nicest area. Their big competitor in the area Big Tony’s is across the street. Inside is what you think a Philly place would like. Very basic with a lot of hockey and Philadelphia stuff. No frills here. Your order at the cashier and then sit down and they will call your name or sometimes bring it out to you. They have a variety of cheesesteak to choose from as well as salads, burgers, and sandwiches. I have only tried the cheesesteak. On this trip I got the mushroom cheesesteak which is steak, sautéed onions, mushrooms, and cheese on a roll they bring in from Philly. I got the 10 inch. They have a smaller size as well. I skipped the fries this time. They are good though. Steak was tender and cheese and mushrooms blended in nicely. They do offer some sauce options. One is the original house sauce and the other is a hot version. I don’t usually do a sauce on my cheesesteak but the house sauce is really good. The hot version is hotter, but tastes more like a traditional hot sauce. As mentioned nothing fancy about this place. It’s about the food and for me it’s a good as a Philly steak you are going to get...