Fessler’s Legendary Pizza and Hoagies — Restaurant in Bellevue

This could have been a good review, perhaps a very good one. But this restaurant, Fessler's, blew it with their cheapness and deceptive practices.

To begin, the food here is good in comparison with other restaurants in the same price range, for example Frisch's, Jersey Mike's, and Panera. In fact, it's better than Frisch's, but not better than Jersey Mike's or Panera.

My girlfriend and I went to Fessler's last night. We ordered two hoagies and a large order of fries. My girlfriend asked for extra mushroom sauce, extra onions, and extra pickles on her hoagie. I asked for extra onions and extra pickles on mine. By the way, the onions here are bits of diced onion, not true onion slices.

At this restaurant, you place your order at a counter in the front of the restaurant. When I placed our order, the cashier tallied up everything and told me the total amount to be paid. When she told me the total price, I did some quick math in my head. The total seemed a few bucks more than it should have been. I asked the cashier about it. She paused for several seconds and then finally, sheepishly told me, "We charge for extra sauce and extra onions."

"How much?" I asked her.

She looked at her computer screen and said, "Let me see..." It took her awhile, because the extra charges are hidden in what becomes an increased price for each hoagie, but she finally determined that extra sauce was a dollar and extra onions were 80 cents (per hoagie).

I was not happy about these extra charges. I can somewhat understand an extra charge for extra sauce, because sauce does cost them money to buy or make, but a dollar? But then I started thinking, "Gee, if you get a Big Boy at Frisch's and you ask for extra tartar sauce, they will gladly give you a small cup of it on the side for free. When I order a pizza from Marco's, I can get extra pizza sauce for free."

But the charge for some extra bits of onion... 80 CENTS? To charge anything at all is surprising. This was beyond surprising. It was unreasonable. I said to the cashier, "Not even White Castle charges for extra onions." No restaurant charges for onions on a hoagie or burger. And when you get a hoagie at Jersey Mike's, you can get an almost unlimited amount of onions and nearly all of the toppings they offer.

Now to the restaurant's deceptive practices. First, there is nothing on the menu board that would indicate an extra charge for extra onions, sauce, or whatever. That's not totally surprising - some other restaurants fail to do this. What is very disappointing is that this restaurant does not show line items for the extras - not on the cashier's screen nor on the receipt presented to the customer. They simply inflate the price of the hoagie. What is shown on the menu board as a $8.39 hoagie shows up on the receipt (if you ask for one) as $10.19 because extra charges are now built into the price. Most people won't notice this.

The restaurant is counting on the fact that the vast majority of customers do not figure up what their total charge should be. Most customers do not examine their receipt closely, and here they would not even see any line items for extra onions, extra sauce, or...

I'm giving this one star because I'm not able to give it zero stars. Worst pizza I've ever had. Tasted like a frozen pizza dough with the most mediocre toppings. The only spice they use here is flour.

My girlfriend said this was under new management a few years ago and she's only been here once in nearly a decade and after I convinced her to go, I will never live this down. The sign outside says "Legendary Pizza" which is true since they are the only restaurant I've ever ordered pizza from and then questioned my life decisions. Like spilling acid in chemistry in your eyes and immediately washing them in the eye wash area, I ran home and grabbed ice cream to try and get the horrendous taste out of my mouth. I'm expected to make a full recovery.

They sell other items on the menu, but I feel that would be like asking what method of execution a death row inmate would prefer. The waitstaff was friendly, but I feel after perhaps years of working in the worst pizza place on Earth they developed some weird form of Stockholm Syndrome rendering them unable to differeniate good pizza from the unflavorful cardboard I forced my poor stomach and digestive tract to handle.

I have completed this review. It took me 5 minutes, which was 5 minutes longer than the owner's took in deciding what quality of...

I'd give zero or negative stars if I could. This place is a joke! Their food is trash! The pizza had a chemical taste. The garlic bread was dry as could be. One hoagy was not made well done, like it was ordered. The other two barely had any mushroom sauce. They were very dry. My boyfriend called and told them, thinking they'd make it right. Well, not only did they not make it right. The so called owner was very rude, & basically called him a liar. Said they're the owner & not buying it. That they made the food themselves. Funny, because it looked like a bunch of kids working when we picked it up. & if the owner did make the food, they definitely need to do better. & to call your customers a liar pretty much, wow.... It's the audacity for me. The "owner" screwed up, though. I have family members who eat there all the time. I told them what just happened. & they will no longer be eating there. & are going to tell their friends & other family, not to eat there anymore either. So they didn't just lose us as a customer. They lost many other customers. & hopefully, this review causes them to lose even more customers. That was totally uncalled for! This is not how you run a business & treat...