Champs Deli Bakery & Cafe — Restaurant in Orlando

This review is coming from someone who worked over two and a half years at Champs Deli. The first thing I would like to clarify is that there are several locations called Champs. All have different owners and different menus. This Champs has been in business for over 18 years at this same location. They are the original Champs not like others pretend to be. Champs does not have a kitchen with a hood and therefore by law can not cook inside the premises. Anything that needs to be cooked like bacon, sausage, pork, chicken and grits are precooked at Gloria's house and brought into the restaurant when they arrive in the morning at 6am which is also illegal. Gloria is the main owner of Champs. She worked previously at Red Lobster as a waitress for over 20+ years and was able to save $40000+ in which she invested in Champs. George on the other hand is a chef by trade. George used to work as Chef for the Disney's Contemporary Hotel. George had about $5000 and that was his initial investment to open Champs. Neither one of them has had any type of managerial experience other than themselves ... "Learning the Ropes" as they came along. So why do I rate Champs with such low score? First of all cleanliness is essential in any restaurant business. If you go to Champs you will see that Gloria wears the same clothes all week long and most of the time does not wear gloves while preparing food. Their hygenes are terrible. Dentures are stored inside the pastry display on the bottom shelf. Food is prepared at their personal home where 3 dogs reside. Many times food arrive with dog hair. Portions are ridiculously terribly small. Subs look empty and I will guarantee you that you will still be hungry when you finish the sub. If you order for delivery, your order will be placed at the end of all in-house orders. Therefore sometimes taking delivery over an hour to get to the client. And finally, everyone that is hired to work there are usually homeless or just live on the street. It is the combination of these plus the fact that when I added my total earnings per day averaged to less than $4.00 an hour, led me to quit my job and do something else. There are many places downtown that give you better deals like Latin Square in which serves you a very solid breakfast for only $3.99. My conclusion, is think twice before you...

This is a place that is authentic. It knows exactly what it is, and it does it well.

Don't go there with the expectation of fine dining, or a heavily standardized process. This is truly a Mom and Pop type of shop. The food is not complicated or sophisticated. Its cluttered. It could be cleaner. And I'm sure all the other complaints are accurate.

BUT. Its good food, it filled me up with the messy Pulled Pork BBQ Sub-of-the-day combo. George and Gloria introduced themselves and made me feel at home in a way other restaurants can't, like I was visiting an old family friends kitchen for lunch.

For 6$ I got more than food served fast, I got a moment of calmness and hospitality sitting on the patio on a shaded street and making small-talk with George.

It won't be a place I go to daily, but it will be a place I go to again -for when I need a quick and cheap meal, or just when i need a moment to remember the simple...

I love to try as many "Mom and Pop" places that I can to not only support local business, but to encourage the local food scene over the chains in their success. I came in for a quick lunch on a whim to the small deli here, but it's really more of a convenience store masquerading as a deli. I had a Grilled Ham and Cheese and it was something that I could made at home using cheap store bought items and the quality sadly reflected that. Their homemade chilli was delicious, so I'll give them credit where it is due. It is on the sweet (rather than spicy) side. The food came out pretty quickly and I paid a little over $6 for the quick lunch, however, I'd recommend other smaller local eateries for better quality food at similar (or slightly higher) prices. The value will...