West Coast Sourdough - Fresno, Shaw Ave — Restaurant in Fresno

Okay so we ate here for the first time over this past weekend. Upon entering, the crew of 4 that was working, were joking, laughing and carrying on (which was okay with us, cause hey, you gotta have fun). Anyway, we were greeted but weren't ready to order because we never been here before. However, the young lady that greeted us just said "when you're ready, let us know"..... there was no recommendation of what was what or what the menu offered, rather she just walked away. Upon figuring out what we wanted, we stood at the for a good two minutes before being asked if we were ready to order. Once the staff noticed, a different girl besides the one who originally asked us if we were ready took our order. For starters, her 'strawberry shortcake sweatshirt' (no uniform) was dirty, hair wasn't brushed and her attitude was horrible! She rudely took our order, then just walked away. Another woman (who seemed to be the manager) took the order from the girl and began to make our sandwiches. So check this out, she did have gloves on, but nobody on the crew was wearing a hair net. Though she handled the food respectfully and was clean about it, I began to look at what the other staff was doing. One girl went into the back of the house, and another began to fix her lunch without washing her hand. She served a cup of soup and cut two slices of bread from the same loaf that is used for customers with no gloves on, just her dirty hands. After noticing that, I continued to look around and noticed how dirty the floor was, both behind the counter and in the dining area. I thought to myself Hmmm..... you got a 4 person crew here and your establishment is filthy. I looked at my wife and told her, look behind the counter and look how dirty it is. She agreed! Anyway..... our sandwiches were made along with a cup of soup (oh yeah and with 2 slices of bread from the same loaf that the other worker cut from with her dirty hands). was served. Long story short, is that the sandwiches were decent enough (just too much house sauce) but the soup was powder based and not to tantalizing at all. As for the 2 slices of bread, they went straight into the trash. I give 2 stars on cleanliness and horrible attitudes alone. Sandwiches...

This is a two part summary.

I ordered the Italian and it was good. Not great, but good. It had a ton of meat on it. But was fairly sad with the veggies. There was barely any lettuce at all. (Pro tip: the cheapest thing you are serving is the veg, specifically the lettuce. Want to knock down cost and make more happy customers? Cut out half the expensive meat you put on the sandwich and pile the cheap lettuce up to make a good looking and tasting sandwich.). Even with that, it was a tasty sandwich.

This is where it goes downhill fast. My wife, like many other people in this world has allergies. I specifically ordered her sandwich without mayo, she's allergic to eggs. The sandwich had mayo on it. (Pro tip: if you work in food service, you have a responsibility to your patrons to serve them food how they ordered it. You don't know what their situation is. But your inattention to detail could send someone to the hospital.). She noticed it as she was taking the first bite. Or it would have been an E.R. visit and Dr. bill's. To be clear, an $8 sandwich almost put my wife's health in danger and could have cost us hundreds in Dr bills.

It's unlikely that we will go back. But it's not really the reason you would think. My wife wasn't even mad. She basically just said "well, we all make mistakes" and shrugged it off as she put a frozen pizza in the oven. But really I read through the other reviews on here and it's almost 50/50 good and bad just in the first month of business. And out of the 8 or so negative reviews, not one time has the owner go responded to any of the comments. (Pro tip: if you own a small business that is public facing you should take the time to interact with your patrons from time to time just to gauge how your business is connecting with its customer base. And if your customers have complaints you should address those complaints as quickly as possible. It takes 10 positive reviews to combat a single negative review.).

Don't do your...

The sandwiches here are absolutely delicious! The veggies are always fresh and the bread is divine. I live down the street from here and went to get sandwiches there very often when they first opened. I can't give this place a good review though. The customer service is just.... not there. It takes forever to get food. They are SO slow. I started ordering online ahead of time, but even then, after waiting until the designated pickup time, I'd still have wait 20-25 minutes for my food to be ready. I feel like the people there are friendly enough, they just don't seem to have any sense of urgency when they interact with customers. There doesn't seem to be any type of system for making sandwiches quickly and efficiently, such should honestly be high on their priority list. Also, there were always a bunch of flies hanging out in the windows and near the door. It made it very unpleasant having to wait in there. And finally, the restaurant is VERY expensive. For me to order an 8 inch veggie sandwich with chips and a drink, it is usually around $25. We pay the same amount per meal at Chili's or Olive Garden, and get much better service and a more pleasant experience. I wouldn't mind paying so much for this place if the service was better, specifically faster, and the restaurant didn't have...