Mad Mac's Gourmet Sandwich Shop — Restaurant in Forest Park

This establishment has lost a longtime customer. Other times I been here, all my orders were to-go orders. Today, 2/19/2025, I decided to come here with my family for a quick bite before our way home. We arrived at 5pm thinking “okay we have an hour to eat something real quick and leave” well the lady at the register, she’s so nice, such a sweetheart, and remembers me every time I come. Well after we place our order, I noticed the chairs that belong to the regular tables were already up, but the chairs to the long tables on the wall were still down. In my mind, I thought ok they’re ready to close. So we sat down, waited for our order, when we got our order, it was packed to-go, so I asked the lady at the register if it was okay for us to sit and eat at the long table along the wall, she said “yes it’s okay” and proceeds to give me paper plates for us to eat our food on the table. At this point, it’s 5:20pm. When we were eating, I felt a vibe, like if we were being rushed and didn’t belong here type vibe. So when my brother comes to the table with his food from the place next door, it was around 5:30pm, the cook says “EXCUSE ME, WE CLOSE AT 6” we all looked at her and didn’t say anything because we knew they closed at 6. So now, we’re all done eating, except for my brother, he’s still eating but almost finished, and here comes the cook again “EXCUSE ME, WE’RE CLOSED” right before 5:40pm. In my mind, I was confused because they don’t close until 6pm and it’s before 5:40 and now you’re saying you’re closed? I didn’t bite my tongue and told the cook “I thought y’all close at 6pm?” and she looks back, confused, then looks back at me and says “we close the dining room at 4pm and the kitchen at 5:45pm so we’re closed” and I told her “well, we didn’t know that” and the cook then says “well, who told you all you can eat here?” I told the cook myself that “the lady at the register said we can eat here and gave us plates” and she proceeds to just walk off and say “have a great day” as we walk out, I said “no” because I didn’t appreciate how she treated us. The whole time that cook had a whole attitude. Like if she felt bothered. We’re paying customers. The lady from the register was nowhere to be found right after we got our food. If having customers in your dining area before closing time is an issue, then you all need to readjust your closing times, or there needs to be signage or communication stating such, because there was no sign that says the dining area is closed at 4pm and the kitchen closes at 5:45 and no customers are allowed inside anymore, nor does it say any of that on google. If your employees are ready to get in their cars at 6pm and leave, then that’s an issue. 6PM IS YOUR CLOSING TIME, not employees go home time. I did not appreciate the rush, or the attitude we got, just because we were eating here during normal operating hours and there was no sign stating such. I definitely won’t be back after this...

I received the turkey burger with parm fries and a drink... First off, the drink machine's CO2/syrup ratio is disproportionated. Sprite was out upon tasting drink, but even after replacing, sodas still had a flat taste due to the machine itself. Which a lot of places do now, sadly, to stretch the product. Secondly, I'm not sure if I was not completely paying attention or what, but there was a madd amount of mustard on my buns! I've never, in my entire existence, heard nor seen this type of mustard being placed on a TURKEY burger omg. But again, it might have been my mistake for not noticing the mustard being described on the menu, so I gave them the benefit of the doubt. Because of so, I politely pulled out my own mayonnaise (bc I'm from Louisiana and have to have 'real' mayonnaise on my burgers and sandwiches. Which is 9 of 10 times Blue Plate, or Duke's 10%). But upon scraping all this mustard off the buns I'm noticing that the buns became extremely saugy before I could start to eat it due to the heavy amount of mustard used on buns. I just sucked it up, scraped off the mustard, and attempted to eat the burger. Again, it just may have been my overlook 🤷🏾‍♂️ After that obstacle, another appeared after I bit down into the meat patty. I'm sorry, but I'm serious about my food and an even more serious food critic...PLSSS stop buying these frozen turkey patties. It literally tastes like a middle school cafeteria lunch meat patty. You are truly doing yourselves a disservice by charging folks $10 for a frozen patty, horribly combined with this mustard in between two awesome onion buns. Now to the fries. Honestly, this is why my rating got up 3 stars. The hand cut, natural fries with parm and seasoning were on point. So I was happy they saved the meal bc I couldn't even get through half of the burger. I'm willing to change my rating when I come back again for the beef burger. Hopefully, it will be actual fresh beef patties 🤞🏾 anything less is below standard. Keep up the great...

Found this little sandwich shoppe one afternoon while working remotely. I ordered the Reuben with garlic parmesan fries and a cup of the soup of the day which was Beer Cheese. The soup was delicious, very smooth, hot, tasty. The garlic parmesan fries were awesome! House made fresh French fries with just the right amount of garlic and parmesan, these fries are a must.

Now for the sandwich... I want to preface my comments with the understanding that a Reuben is my all time favorite sandwich, and I use it to gague the quality of a sandwich shoppe.

I had high hopes for the sandwich, after looking over the menu it appeared that this would be a well made quality sandwich. I was mildly disappointed. What I received was the same Reuben you will get at any sandwich shoppe. The marbled rye was okay, the dressing was 1000 island (real Reubens have Russian dressing), the saurkraut was descent and the corned beef was a bit dry. The corned beef is what makes this sandwich and in this case they went the cheap route with top round corned beef, not brisket. The brisket has more marbling and thus more flavor. The verdict on the sandwich... nothing to flip over, but it was good for what it is. I would suggest that the shoppe use the talents of the kitchen staff to improve it.

Overall I liked the atmosphere and ended up staying to work for a while. The sound is a bit loud due to the lack of any acoustic absorbing material. I could hear everything everyone was saying in the whole place.

Final thoughts... the food was good, room for improvement and potential to be great. A little bit of acoustic absorbing material in the ceilings and the atmosphere would be great. I enjoyed myself, and will be back, but a word to the owner...WiFi! How do you not have WiFi for your customers? I had to use my cell as a Hotspot so I could work. I would have stayed longer and spent more money if you had WiFi, but I had to go somewhere else to...