Hole In the Wall Great Sandwiches — Restaurant in Arcata

The last three times I’ve been to this restaurant I’ve been incredibly disappointed with the drop in quality. It feels like every employee has simply no regard for upholding any sort of quality control for their sandwiches. This used to be the best sandwich shop in Arcata / northern humboldt county. Each of the last three trips I’ve had to this shop each held a different egregious customer experience that have urged me to write this review.

The first time I went and there was a line out the door, no problem I’m happy to wait to get the food I want. Recently this company had added the ability to pay with a credit card which was a welcome addition to a once - cash only - business. I only had my card at the time, I notes there was no note or any sort of warning that their credit card machine was out of use. I waited in line for 40 minutes while two seemingly stoned employees made a ton of mistakes along the way, messing up multiple orders, mis-ringing up orders, etc.. I got up there finally and game the employee my order - he straight up told me “man, you don’t want that today, our avocados are really gross” - so I changed my order to something else. Finally after my sandwich taking another 15 minutes to make, bringing my time at the shop to nearly an hour, the kid then informed me that they didn’t have use of their CC machine. I asked him what we could do about this because at this point I was nearing on late for work. He couldn’t help me and thusly i had to go to the bank and get cash. Finally when I got back there were more people in line at the register so I had to wait further to get my change from my cash payment. This meant a total time to get my sandwich was one hour and twenty minutes... for a sandwich that wasn’t what I originally ordered on a bread I didn’t want.

I waited several weeks to return because of that awful experience. It finally a friend wanted to go so I tagged along. This time the two guys working behind the counter were so rude. They criticized my friend for his vegetarian choice of sandwich, they forgot to put cheese on my order, they were again out of the bread I wanted, and at the register the guy working over charged me for my order and when I caught him on it didn’t know how to do a void payment. He finally figured it out but of course I got charged twice at my bank and then had to wait for funds to return to my account on the next business day.

Finally today: my wife and I went in. Again busy day, no problem, I’m used to that at this point. To my surprise one of the workers actually offered to get some sandwiches going while his co-worker helped a large group in front of us. I thought this would speed up time... but no. This employee took longer to make our two sandwiches than the other gentlemen did to make 5 sandwiches and ring the customers up. The guy asked me my order 3 separate times after seemingly going to the back to make the sandwich. They again were out of “all rolls” and so they only had sliced bread which was not great and tasted stale. He forgot the cheese on my wife’s sandwich. He put whole stems of cilantro in the sandwich, he put hard avocados on my sandwich to the point where I took them off. Finally he cut our sandwiches into these small triangles so that all of the ingredients fell out and pretty much turned into salads. This order cost me $30 and o barely ate the sandwich it was so bad.

I want to love this place. It has been a staple of Arcata lunch spots for so long and have, at times, had the best sandwiches in town. I’m sorry to see this place go so deeply down the drain. I’m not sure...

Food is great but second time coming here and service was not so good. I did not write a review the first time but now that Ihave come a second time to give you guys an opportunity to redeem yourselves. Yet, again I am not acknowledged when coming into your establishment. I was clearly next in line but since your employee finds the need to be joking around instead of understanding it's a lunch rush and that people have to get back to work. So of course he doesnt know who's next. But being that I was up at the front behind the people who just finished ordering and being skipped twice. I was upset and as I should be. The comeduan then continued to make jokes. Also the employee who was making a to go order saw me and didn't say a thing about my being next in line. I think tgat you need to make it alot more clear of where you are ordering and waiting for orders. Third tine is the charm and since I love your sandwhiches I will give it another go. If I receive the same service then Don's it is for my lunch time sandwhiches...

They don’t wear gloves. I went in looking for a nice lunch, and was greeted by a kind woman at the register. She had just finished handling the payment of the customer in front of me. She took my order and rushed to the other end of the counter and proceeded to manhandle the sandwich with her bare hands. I couldn’t help but be grossed out as she proceeded to stuff the bread of the fillings with her greasy, dirt filled nails. I asked if they ever wear gloves, she just said no. I couldn’t help but think, that’s nasty… nasty regardless, but in a pandemic!?!! Even more so! I felt uncomfortable knowing I no longer wanted to eat this, but payed for the sandwich. It was unfortunate because that was super expensive for a sandwich shop to begin with, but especially because I felt that the sandwich wasn’t even sanitary enough to eat. I asked around if anyone wanted it, they didn’t. I threw it away, and will never go...