Downtown Sandwich & Ice Cream — Restaurant in Menominee

I checked out the Downtown Sandwich Shoppe while on vacation with the family in northern Wisconsin. While there's a lot to like, the experience was far from perfect.

Things I liked: I loved the building where the restaurant is located. It is a century old red brick building with painted tin ceilings across the street from the marina. It's not your run of the mill sub shop. They serve Cedar Crest ice cream (a personal favorite) in homemade waffle cones. The cheese curds were a hit with the kids. Lots of cheesy goodness without too much breading. I really enjoyed the fish taco. Slathered with tartar sauce, it was far from authentic, but it was a generously portioned fish filet, crunchy on the outside and moist and flaky on the inside. Just writing about it has me craving another.

Things I didn't: I've seen better organized Chinese fire drills than how the order counter was operated. The person taking the order seemed confused at times and sure enough, one of the sandwiches was incorrect. The order taker didn't know the prices of the menu items, so he had to look at the board for each item he entered an item into the cash register, making the checkout process painfully slow. Avoid the lemonade unless you are a die-hard fan of watered down Country Time powdered mix. To their credit, they allowed me to exchange it for another drink. In a setting like this, it would be nice to have lemonade with actual lemon in it. The soft taco supreme was a pretty pedestrian ground beef taco overwhelmed by your typical Taco Bell-esque toppings. Things like sticky chairs and tabletops were a disappointment. I didn't see anyone cleaning off the tabletops while we were there and it showed. The kitchen seemed short staffed. The wait for our order was around 15 minutes for a lunchtime order on a Saturday.

Overall verdict: despite some service issues, this is a much better option than a Subway or Cousins. It's a fantastic venue with excellent ice cream and a fish taco...

Very good sandwiches, but, personally, I don't know what half of the meats that are posted on the menu, eg, mortadella. When I did research, it seemed to me that some of these meats could just be done away with in the name of efficiency. Also, the restaurant does not accept credit cards; only cash and checks. In 2017, when a company doesn't even honor MasterCard or Visa (never mind the other cards), it raises my suspicions of what else they could be skimping on. There was a recent renovation that occurred within the last year, but when I've eaten there in the afternoon, it often seems that it's been awhile (at least three or four patrons) since the tables were last wiped. Customer service can be very spotty. If they are busy, typically around lunchtime, the staff's demeanor can be (but not always) a little more on edge. In my last visit, I asked for a ranch for my cheese curds. In the past, it had been free and not very large (perhaps about the same size as one would get at Culver's, which tend to be larger than the fast food norm), but the price was right. In this last visit, the lady handing me my order quickly shot back "40 cents." I just told her to forget it. I had the order for takeout; upon opening my cheese curds, there couldn't have been more than a dozen in there for $2.90. While they are good / decent, I felt that it was still overpriced. All in all, it is a fine place to eat once in a while, but I'm finding my return visits to be fewer and...

review_stars 03/21/2021 - MenuPix User Everybody around here loves the food including me. Today I was so upset with the disregard the kids that work there have for the customers. I had to call 5 times before one of them even answered the phone this all started at 4pm. When I did get thru I ordered 2 Family size subs and asked for the total only to be put on hold and no one came back to tell me so I hung up and called back like 6 more times before someone picked up again I was already on my way there. As I sat there there were 3 customers 1 being a family of 5 and they all got there food but yet my order has not been brought out. After sitting there a half hour the girl came and told me they were out of roast beef this was 5pm after all that I took my money back and went to jimmy johns it took 5 minutes to get 6 subs. The own should tell that girl if its required to have a mask on in there that it is not ok for her to go to the back and take it off while she is preparing other peoples food, and when the phone rings they should answer it as I watched them making phone and not answer the phone. This place would probably make way more money if they would always have an adult on side to teach these kids how to care for...