Melba's on Elysian Fields Ave

I have tried to love Melba's and I just can't. Months ago after moving here I began doing laundry there. The ATM, the timer on the dryers and the card readers on the dryers kept malfunctioning and a good number of actual dryers were out of order as well. Frustrated and hungry I went next door to their restaurant and ordered gumbo. BIG MISTAKE. They have the absolute worst gumbo in the entire city. I am aware there's many ways to make gumbo but this wasn't it.

Which brings me to today. I was passing through that side of town and decided I'd drop by and try a poboy instead, after all this is what they're known for. And again I was disappointed and reduced the experience to another BIG MISTAKE. Attached to this review is my receipt. My bread was old and hard, which doesn't make sense because it was also grilled. How can grilled bread be cold unless it's old? The onions I ordered to be added to the poboy were missing --nowhere to be found on the sandwich. But you bet they didn't forget to charge me for it. And the amount of mayonnaise used was so gross. Now I love mayo just as much as anyone else but the poboy was swimming in it. I also forgot they charge a 50 cent convenience fee for paying with a card. Which is crazy because we're in the middle of a pandemic and nobody wants to touch dirty money or an employees' hands.

Not to mention my wait time for just a single poboy with nothing else was like 30 minutes & it wasn't busy. While waiting I observed 2 employees fighting in the prep area and cursing loud, and Marty, the manager was trying to open the safe and switch out cash drawers during shift change --no intervention at all. I get that they charge a little more to keep their business sustainable and pay employees more that minimum wage, but so does Chik-fil-a. And you know what else Chik-fil-a has? Reasonable wait times, good customer service and consistent high quality food. So I don't mind paying an arm and a leg for a sandwich at Chik-fil-a. I'll stick to getting my poboy's from Orchid Seafood on N Broad. I think they actually value my business and I can get a FRESH fried oyster and shrimp poboy for $12 with no extra charge for onions that they actually remember to put on my sandwich and no extra charge to use my debit card. Turn around time is fast too.