T-Bone's Authentic Philly Style Cheesesteaks And Hoagies — Restaurant in Birmingham

First of all, let me go ahead and note that this is a business of a certain type that often has some of the problems I'm going to mention. If you don't know what that means and what tends to come along with that and/or are unbothered by it, let me just go ahead and say that this review is 5 stars. If food was all that mattered, then T-Bone's is some of the best eating you can get in the area. Definitely the best Philly Cheesesteak to be had within a good 250 mile radius as far as I'm aware, and I tend to look for places to grab one when I travel around. For that matter I'll go ahead and say that they're probably the best in the state. So then why 3 stars? Let me explain.

First and foremost, the business hours listed? Ignore them. They mean nothing. Whenever the workers feel like it's time to stop taking orders and close, is when they're going to stop taking orders and close. Listed closing time for a weekday? 10pm. What time will they actually close? Typically somewhere between 8:30p - 9:45p. Depending on how the workers feel on any given day. If you pull up at 9:30 while 6 or 7 people are already inside placing orders and they've decided to close, they will literally leave you outside and occasionally look at your like you're crazy. For that matter, hypothetically, even if you wanted to try to be courteous about the disregard for listed business hours, you can't. Issue number two?

Somewhere within that 8:30p-9:45p window, and sometimes before, they wholely cannot be bothered to answer the phone. There might only be a whole two people inside waiting on orders with nothing else really happening, but if they don't feel like answering the phone, they won't. Even if they do answer it, there's no guarantee they'll take your order. Just for experimentation purposes once, I tried to call in an order around 8pm just because it was one of the rare days where I'm not still at work at that hour. Surprisingly, someone answered. Unsurprisingly, I was put on hold. Somewhere between surprisingly and unsurprisingly, I was put on hold for 45 minutes - about the length of time it took me to just drive there - and of course when I got there, outside of the one other order being worked on, there was a whole lot of nothing going on. Surprising actually because T-Bone's tends to stay busy. Once again, the food is great.

That said, as has been hinted at already, issue number 3 is that the service can be pretty bad. At least at the hours I most often go. Go there when T-Bone himself is there and you'll have a fine time. I've been lucky enough to go a couple of times and talk to and see the master himself at work, and it's a whole different operation when I see him out front. Most of the time when I go though I don't see him, and it's a complete roll of the dice what it is that I'm walking into. Most of the time I'd say it's decent enough. Not particularly friendly, not particularly rude. Just... gets it done. That said, there's often an air of "I'm sick of working for the day and ready to go home" that is fairly easy to assess just from attempting basic conversation, so at this point I do somewhat tend to just leave my pleases, thank-yous, and how-are-you's at the door. On the rare occasion I get someone using a friendly tone or that acts as if they won't feel attacked if I ask them how they are or "how's it going," I'll make the effort, but it generally doesn't happen often.

With that said, this review is long enough. There are some other fairly common occurrences that I could break down, but I think the point has been made. So here's the TL;DR of the matter.

Go. Go at least once. Order half the menu and realize that it's probably some of the best food you're gonna have in a lifetime. Discover what a gem of a place T-Bones is. If you're not saddled with non-typical work hours like I am, you might not have to deal with all of the issues that often come with the last few hours of service. I don't go as often as I want to because I don't want to deal with the hassle most of the time, but the food is always worth...

Would have given no stars if it was an option.

I placed a online order for delivery of a philly cheesesteak sandwich because the online reviews went on and on about how great it was. It took 2 hours to receive the order and when I did, it was wrong. The problem with the sandwich was that the condiment I requested was left off, I requested the condiment I did because I have food allergies that prevent me from eating other ones.I called the restaurant to explain that my order was wrong and was asked " what do you want me to do about it?" direct quote. When I stated that I would like to receive the sandwich I ordered in the way that I ordered it, I was passed off to another person who asked again what I wanted them to do about it. The second person first said he could not do anything because I did not pay additionally for the condiment. When I told him I would have gladly paid for it, but it was not available for purchase on his website, He then told me it was not his fault and again asked what I wanted him to do about it. Once again I requested to receive the sandwich I ordered.The man said they would call the delivery service back to redeliver and hung up. That was over an hour ago, and I still do not have any lunch. At this point even if I were to receive my order, by the abhorrent attitude I received I would not dare eat it. I did just tried to eat the sandwich that was sent, but it is perhaps the worst philly cheesesteak I have ever eaten. First there is no steak on this cheesesteak sandwich, there is however some type of shaved beef that sort of reminds me of a shredded Steakum', except without flavor and with the visual consistency of canned dog food. There is also a supremely minimal amount of cheese on this cheesesteak, despite the fact that I did pay extra for additional cheese, leaving the sandwich drier than the sahara. The dryness could have been overcome if the sandwich had been received in the way it was ordered, but it was not. Additionally if the sandwich had been all that other reviewers had promised I would have overlooked the rudeness of the employees, and enjoyed my lunch anyway. But it was not and combined with the lack of the staffs ability to feign politeness to customers, can honestly say I will never recommend this restaurant to anyone. Actually from now on when I am asked where is a good place to eat in Birmingham my automatic reply will be "anywhere but T-bone's" Please note that this was a group order and although I was the only one to experience the customer service skills of the employees, my lackluster impression of the food was not the only one.

Response to the Owners comment.

I'm sorry you must have me confused with the last person that was treated the way I was, because this is the only review I have done. And I did it the day of the incident. I was not refunded nor was it even offered. If I am waiting for what was promised when I phoned, then I am still waiting for the correct sandwich to be delivered - 6...

I don't usually write reviews but this was so bad i felt i needed to. To start the guy behind the register seemed to be to busy on his phone call to take my order. Eventually he looks up at me and starts nodding at me as to say without saying anything that i can go ahead and order. So i try and ask a question about the part of the menu that said specials and he told me they don't have daily specials. I said thats not what i asked i wanted to know what the three items on the menu under specials where. At this piont he lets the person on the phone go and and asks me what i want. I should have left right then but instead i just ordered something from another part of the menu. We waited for about 25 minutes and were watching other customers going back to the register and asking how long it was going to take for there food to be ready so we got back in line to see what the problem was. When my co worker got to the counter in front of me and asked about his food they had already had it ready but they never called for him . So i ask about my food and the girl goes and asked the cook and then he starts making my food. At this point i had already waited 30 minutes and just wanted my money back but they ignored me until my food was ready. While standing at the counter watching my food be made i watched an imployee pull a basket with chicken in it out of the fryer and bare handed pull a couple pieces of chicken out and then lick his fingers. And then i hear another lady behind the counter complaining about customers complaining about it taking to long. She said if they want fast food they can go somewhere else , we cook everything fresh. I can appreciate everything cooked fresh and don't mind waiting a bit longer for that but you didn't start making my food until i got back in line after 30 minutes to complain that it was taking along time. Then i watch you make my whole meal in about 5 or 6 minutes. Bottom line the staff had a bad attitude, took to long, and were unsanitary. Oh ya and when i finally got my food it was so greasy that it just fell apart. Not...