Penn Station East Coast Subs — Restaurant in O'Fallon

My husband and I have been big fans of Penn Station for quite some time. We’ve been vegetarians for ten years and it can be tough to find good options for casual takeout. Penn Station is our favorite go-to.

We dropped by the Fairview Heights, IL location today (9/20/25 at 12:15pm) for our weekly date, and I went in to order. I ordered our usual —two large artichoke subs, add mushrooms and all the veg. The man at the register asked if I wanted thousand island, and I said yes, because the artichoke sub comes with sauce, and I just assumed that’s what he was calling it.

We got home with our subs and discovered we had gotten two Reubens. Ordinarily, we aren’t the type to fuss, and would have just eaten them, but with these being meat, it wasn’t an option. So we returned to the restaurant, and trying to be kind and accept my part in the situation, I said “Hi, I think I must have miscommunicated. I had ordered two Artichoke subs, not Reubens.”

The man at the register bluntly and rudely replied “No you did not. You ordered Reubens.” I explained that we don’t eat meat and I wouldn’t have ordered those, that there must have been a mistake made between us, but he adamantly insisted it was my fault, that I ordered the Reubens, and if we wanted new sandwiches, we had to pay for them.

We will never go back to this location. The man claimed to be the franchise owner, Cory Lyle. I was shaking and almost in tears when we left—there were customers in the store, and I have never been so insulted, embarrassed, and disrespected by a supposed business owner before. All over a pair of sandwiches.

We don’t want anything. We don’t want coupons or discount or anything. We just want this person held accountable for the absolutely abhorrent way they treated...

I'm in so much trouble! I had heard rumors that for Pennsylvanians away from home and craving cheese steaks this is the place to come. It's absolutely true!! The cheese steak was amazing! So many places assume that if it has meat, cheese, and bell peppers it makes it a cheese steak but there's so much more that goes into a good cheese steak and these guys know it! The meat was deliciously seasoned with beautifully melted cheese and the bread toasted to perfection. I went ahead and ordered their fresh cut fries and was transported back to my childhood at football games getting fries. They're slightly crispy on the outside with that nice soft texture and absolutely delicious! On impulse I decided to get myself one of their chocolate chunk cookies that was fresh out of the oven and I'm so happy I did! Everything was fantastic and after a really difficult morning it flipped the day and gave me a fresh start and energy to tackle the rest of Monday.

Not only is their food phenomenal but the guys that work there are so friendly and helpful! This has now become a regular stop for me and I'm happy to finally have a place to come when I start craving a good cheese steak! I said in the beginning I'm in trouble. I barely had enough will power to only eat half of my large cheese steak so I can enjoy the rest for leftovers. It took every ounce of will power to resist! Future me may have one less bite on their half but I know where to go for more!

Thank you for making my Monday so much better...

I ordered and paid for extra everything on my sandwich and that’s not what I got. I still had the sandwich and the receipt and the GM asked if I could come up there at the moment and I explained that I could not because of the distance and I was going to deal with the disappointment of not getting what I paid extra for. But something last minute came up causing me to drive back to Fairview heights. I called back when I was in the area 3 hours later and spoke to the same GM about the order I called about earlier to see if I could just get the one sandwich remade like he had offered, he told me no because I wasn’t able to come when he first offered but that was 20 minutes away and didn’t want to waste the gas just for that 1 messed up sandwich. I didn’t think I’d be heading back that way that same day but once something came up and I had to head back to the Fairview heights area I didn’t see the problem asking if the offer still was standing. I had the sandwich and the receipt but I didn’t think my offer would be rejected and so rudely at that. As someone who worked in management for fast food for 3 years I didn’t think seeing if the offer could still be carried out just 3 hours later was rude especially considering the way I asked. Very disappointed with that. Hope the attitude gets fixed next time...