Potbelly — Restaurant in Arden Hills

On the evening of August 22nd, 2023, my husband and I decided to place an online order with the Arden Hills location. We normally go to the Blaine location and will definitely stick to Blaine going forward after last night's experience.

First, we placed our order online for pick up 40 minutes later. When we arrived at the store, there was a sign on the door saying online orders only; glad we placed our this way in advance. We walked into the store, and there was one young man washing dishes and one young man making orders. No one looked at us or even greeted us. No orders were on the online order rack, yet this young man was making orders one after another, but literally throwing them on the back counter, not bagging them or bringing them to the online order rack. There were over a dozen sandwiches sitting on the back counter along with soup that was now all getting cold. After standing in the store for about 10 minutes, six other customers had walked in and were now also waiting for their orders, also never greeted, etc. Finally, I walked up to the young man and asked if we could get our orders bagged before they were all cold, in which he responded that he didn't know what he made or who they were for and returned to making sandwiches and now ignoring me. About 15 - 20 minutes in total of standing in the store with everyone else, what appeared to be the manager came to the front and finally started bagging orders. When he called my name, I said thank you, and he never responded back. So I kindly responded to let him know that the appropriate response back is to say, "You're welcome." as he rolled his eyes and I turned and walked out. I placed an online order 40 minutes in advance and still had to wait 20 minutes past this requested pick up time to get my food. I get the entire world is having a difficult time with staffing, but that does not allow for those who are working and representing the company to not be kind, polite, or even engage with their customers! The food was okay, despite not making any of our sandwiches how we quite ordered the and being cold, but it was the best part of the whole ordeal. Swing and a miss at this location. Go to the Blaine location if you want Potbelly, we've NEVER had an experience like this at...

Worst experience of our lives. Two of us went to Pot Belly for lunch on this rainy day, we were looking forward to using some points that we had accrued from catering a corporate lunch. The GM was the rudest woman I have ever met, while we were in line, we mentioned that we were together for payment's sake, to which she responded very aggressively that they are understaffed and we would have to wait. I then added yeah, no worries, we just wanted to let you know that we are paying together. She then copped an attitude and said, I figured you were since you walked in together. (Walking in together does not equate to paying together). We waited patiently and then when it was time to pay, there was confusion over using the points on our account. We had checked off which item we wanted to redeem per her instruction, scanned it, and she barked back at us, I'm telling you what's on my screen, I then told her well this is what is checked off on his screen. Her rudeness was through the roof at this point, I was uncomfortable, and my fiance called her on attitude. She then proceeded to me that we were the problem and instead of taking a minute to help us figure out what the confusion was, she told us that she is number 14 in the country and does not need our money, that we could go and her and her employee would eat our food. What an awful experience. What an awful manager, instead of trying to help us, immediately jumps to telling us we can leave because she doesn't need our business, even worse, that she would eat the food. So disappointing, will surely never be back to this location for personal use or catering company lunches either. Will...

Add me to the "I had to order online because they weren't open to walk-in traffic" group. That's happened to me multiple times. It's always a toss-up whether they'll be open. I get it--it's hard to keep employees. It's hard to keep customers, too. If you enjoy dining as an adventure, this is the place for you. Today's visit--during which I was the only customer in the place-- went like this: Me: Hi, I'd like a regular ham with provolone on wheat, please Employee 1: (grabs white bread) Me: I'm sorry, I said wheat, please. Employee 1: (grabs wheat bread, pauses, asks) "what size did you say?" Me: Regular. Employee 1: what kind of sandwich? Me: Ham with provolone. Employee 1: (squints up at the menu and says uncertainly) Provolone? Me: Yes. And a chocolate shake, please. So the sandwich takes its little ride through the toaster, and ends up with Employee 2. Employee 2: what do you want on it? Me: Mayo, tomatoes, lettuce, light onions, pickles and italian seasoning. Employee 2: we're out of tomatoes Me. Oh, okay, let's do avocados then Employee 2 nods. At the register, Employee 1 sets a cup on the counter and says "here's the chocolate shake". Back at my office, I unwrap the order. I have a turkey with provolone on wheat with lettuce, extra onions, one pickle slice, and hot peppers. And a...