Philly's Best Pizza & Subs, Columbia MD — Restaurant in Maryland

I recently ordered two specialty cheesesteaks from this local spot in Columbia and had a disappointing experience. I specifically requested one without onions and green peppers for my kids and another with Provolone instead of American cheese. When I picked up the order, both cheesesteaks were made the same, with all the standard toppings, despite the receipt showing my modifications. My kids couldn’t eat their sandwich because even after removing the onions and peppers, the flavor lingered and ruined the meal.

To make matters worse, the fries were old, hard, and completely inedible. When I called the next day to speak with the manager, the employee who answered had no clue what his name was and only referred to him as "boss." The whole experience felt like a waste of time and money. Unfortunately, I cannot recommend this place—there are plenty of better options in the area.

This review was edited to respond to the owners' feedback: Thanks for your reply. I picked up my order a little after 10:30 pm last night, which is now your closing time. Since I arrived right as you were closing, I didn’t have the chance to address the issue last night.

Today, when I called to speak with a manager, the employee I talked to said they didn't know your name they just referred to you as boss and weren't able to provide your name or pass on my concerns. I even saved the sandwiches to show how the order was incorrect, but without being able to speak to a manager, I felt I had to move on.

I hope this feedback helps improve customer service in the future. It’s important for me to feel valued as a customer.

Unfortunately, based on this experience, I won’t be returning as a customer. I doubt this feedback will have much impact given your current business model, but I wanted to share my experience...

This was the 2nd time we called and ordered over $40 worth of food. The mozzarella sticks were so cold they were like hard string cheese. The cheeseburger sub we ordered arrived so soggy it couldn't be picked up and ate. The fries were cold and hard. We got charged extra for sauces that we didn't receive. I called to speak with a manager but the manager was out for an hour they said. So we threw out the food and shared with the dogs. When the manager called back she told me that the cooks said it wasn't soggy. She wanted us to send a picture of the sub. I've never had to prove the quality of my food with a picture so obviously I wasn't able to take pictures of the food since it was already trashed and fed to the dogs. When she got back on the phone she said she could only give us a $4 credit for the food since we couldn't provide pictures. I will never order from here again and I used to order pretty regularly from work. Any restaurant that requires a picture of their horrible food after an hour for a call back, is just petty and absurd. The assistant manager was very rude and acted like we were just trying to get free food. I told her she can keep her $4 and we wont be back. Also, the manager himself didnt even have the curteousy to get in the phone and apologize. The assistant just kept putting me on hold to talk to him each time. The pizza wasn't good anyways so we wouldn't go back anyway probably. Will be posting on Google...

"Philly's Best" should be called "Maryland's Worst."

The wings were undercooked and had little sauce on them. The cheese steak is far from authentic and was short on a key ingredient... cheese! I was raised outside Philly and this is the far from a real cheese steak and was more like meat slapped on a sub roll. The fries were soggy and inedible along with the even more disgusting fried cheese cake desert.

The women at the counter was rude and uncooperative when I mentioned to her that I saw a special on their website while browsing on my phone and waiting for our food. I told her it was the same thing we ordered, fries, 2 sodas and 2 cheese steaks for $18.99. She tried to convince me I saved money but I informed her I paid $30 for a $18.99 special. She rudely told me the difference was only $2.25 and took the money out of the drawer, and with an attitude, handed it to me.

The "dining area", if you want to call it that, is filled with broken chairs and bugs flying around. No AC and floors that needed serious cleaning.

After this disgusting experience I decided it was better to not bother asking for my money back for the food we didn't even eat and left it sitting on the table. I will gladly report his place to the Maryland State Health Department.

I will 100% NEVER EVER EVER come back to this hole in the wall for another knock off cheese steak and under cooked food.

DON'T WASTE YOUR MONEY HERE!...