Penn Station East Coast Subs — Restaurant in O’Fallon

I’ve been a Penn Station customer for nearly 20 years, frequenting locations in South County, South City, Wentzville, Creve Coeur all over the region. It had been a couple of years since my last visit, but I recently received a buy one, get one free coupon in the mail and decided to go back because their prices have gotten too high for a family of four. Without a coupon, the cost for my family would have been around $75 for sandwiches and fries, which is just too expensive right now.

Ordering Experience: I first ordered on Friday, March 14, using their new website. Unfortunately, the site wasn’t very user-friendly, especially on mobile. I accidentally ordered a cold sandwich instead of my usual hot one—likely due to the confusing navigation. I gave them another chance the following Wednesday, using another BOGO coupon, but ran into more issues. Unlike the old system, you can’t add more than one type of cheese to your sandwich, and the customization options are limited. The ordering experience feels restrictive and frustrating.

Food Quality: While I understand that things change over time—menus, recipes, and even portion sizes—the sandwich I received didn’t match the Penn Station I remember. The bread texture seemed different, the sandwiches felt smaller, and even ordering extra meat was more of a hassle than before. If the goal of sending out coupons is to bring customers back, the product should resemble what they remember. Otherwise, it’s wasted marketing dollars and a missed opportunity to retain loyal customers.

Customer Service: One thing that hasn’t changed is the fantastic staff. The team at this location is courteous, prompt, and friendly, making the experience as pleasant as possible. I wish every business had employees as professional and positive as they do!

Final Thoughts: While the service was excellent, the food quality and online ordering system left a lot to be desired. If Penn Station wants to win back customers, they need to make sure the product matches the expectations that long-time customers have. Otherwise, people won’t feel a reason to return.

⭐ Rating: 3/5 – Great staff, but disappointing food quality and website functionality, especially given the...

Let's start by saying that these subs are overpriced. Feeding a family of 4 with 3 mediums and one large sub came to just under 50 dollars. This was without any double meat, any chips, fries or sodas.... just the sandwiches. A medium is a 9 inch sub, where for the same price you could get a 12 inch sub at the competition. I don't call the competition name. Directly, but I am sure 100 percent that you know who that is. Now that the price is out of the way, let's talk quality. I was not vastly impressed by the taste of the sandwich as internally the same components can be found elsewhere and used in the same combinations....so no competitive advantage there. The amount of meat provided is not an exceptional difference either that warrants the additional costs. Do they have ingredients that you can't get from the competitor? Sadly no, they have less in fact with lacking olives and spinach. The only difference I can see is that their bread is a different texture than the comparison. The problem here was my bigger gripe as the sub shop is emulating an original east coast deli sandwich, and that means a full sandwich of meat on Italian bread. This bread is not the same and is a more dense perhaps sweeter taste. It is good bread, but overrides the internals of the sandwich in my opinion. Now I do not believe in buying cheaper subs, I just expect more than a change of scenery for the additional cost. By the way, the service here was exceptionally good and I rated 5 for that and the place is clean and very well laid out ( also rated 5) or a sub shop. But sadly the food received an OK rating, I had hoped for better.

SIDE NOTE- it seems a reply to this by the owner was made below to my post, as well as others. I have to say, asking us to use a contact form to reapply all of our concerns is not really being pro-active in care. Clearly our concerns and reports are based on a specific location, you should need little else to understand the concern, and you can also reach each reviewer directly from within this review of you chose to.....not a very valid...

Wow is all I can say. I placed an order and paid online today thinking I ordered it from the Lake St Louis location to pick up. When I got there they did not have my order and I realized I ordered it from the Ofallon location, totally my mistake. Rather than driving all the way over there I reordered and paid another $12 and decided I’d call them after to see if they would refund it. When I called over there I was told I needed to cancel it through the app and the person just hung up. Since I didn’t order it through the app, I was unable to cancel the order and thought they were probably busy and I’d call back later when it wasn’t lunch time. I called back early evening and when the manager got on the phone she just stated to me that she was told they would not issue a refund. I said so I should just say you’re welcome for the $12 and she just said, yes I guess so. So Penn Station, I paid $24 today for a Regular sub. You’re welcome, keep it and I will take my...