Potbelly — Restaurant in Redmond

Today I had my first and last experience at Potbelly Sandwich Shop. The only positive: the sandwich was decently assembled. Everything else was disappointing: the "extra" onion/lettuce/tomato on the sandwich were almost non-existent; the mayo on the side was contaminated with other ingredients; the hot peppers on the side were badly oily and mixed or contaminated with other ingredients; the cheese on the sandwich is undetectable and the meat is barely noticeable; the soup was run of the mill, bland except for salt and watery; the prices are a joke for the quality level and portion size; the bacon was rubbery and cold; the entire menu of this shop for my gluten and milk protein (casein) free diet without giving up ingredients they won't replace with cheaper alternatives without charging me extra is one thing - the vegetable soup. The topper for me was that when I wanted to substitute mushrooms instead of blue cheese (and surely the blue cheese costs more) on a salad I was told they won't do that and the mushrooms would cost extra. I skipped getting anything for myself and I won't be going back.

Edit: After talking with the regional manager I was encouraged enough that I went back to the Redmond Potbelly. Despite the regional manager's assurances they still insisted on charging me to replace the blue cheese with mushrooms. Worse yet I found that my salad was contaminated with pieces of blue cheese despite asking to not have it on there. My wife's sandwich got feta in it through some similar cross-contamination of ingredients. When I contacted the regional manager about this upsetting experience his response was basically "Thanks for the feedback, I'll keep coaching them."

So my final conclusion about them is: the service, quality, selection, attitude and prices add up to failure all the way around.

Edit2: I went back a last couple of times mainly because they have more to offer my wife than they do me. By getting the manager first, clearly expressing my allergies and being very attentive I was able to get some plain salads with some meat. My wife was still not terribly thrilled with her sandwiches and I don't like to work that hard for a very plain salad. We...

I’m tired of being served food made by someone who doesn’t change out their gloves in the middle of cleaning and making sandwiches. I’ve been to this location four times and only once did somebody actually do this. I ordered a tuna sandwich tonight and there was red sauce all over the sandwich, the sandwich wrapper, and even the bag. There shouldn’t be red sauce anywhere. The problem is not red sauce in particular, but that I have zero confidence that the food is safe to eat. Who knows what else was touched with those gloves? (From what I personally observed in a short time, it was quite a few things entirely unrelated to my sandwich, and I was the only customer there.) Because I’m a nice person I was still polite and even left a small tip, thinking I could probably salvage part of the sandwich when I got home. But when I got it unwrapped, it was questionable at best, and I decided I was better off throwing the whole thing away. Honestly probably the last time I go to this place; it makes me uncomfortable having to point this out to your employees while they make a sandwich—kind of my problem, but also kind of not my job to give an impromptu lesson on health code violations. So whether I speak up or not, trying to get food here has become, on average, an uncomfortable experience, not to mention legitimately a waste of money...

I feel like every experience I have here is a complete joke. I've been comp'd lunch for my entire office twice. Once because they got everyone's order wrong, simple as that. The second time, I called in an order, was put on hold because they were busy, then was again told they were busy before the woman said "just...can you order it online?" To which I replied, "I'm hands free in the car, not really." Then ended up having to walk in since I was already on the way and wait an incredibly long time for one salad. While waiting forever for my one salad that they were too busy to take the order for over the phone, I heard nothing but employees complaining about how it was too busy and they were "at their breaking point." Then I ended up being a good 10 minutes late to work after having to walk all of the way back so my coworker could be there to treat our patients and had to take the car. They comp'd the entire clinic's lunch as an apology, but then I get the orders and one salad was completely wrong, while mine had a huge fly in it. They tried to comp it again, but at this point, after 3 comp'd lunches, a fly, and the worst customer service I can imagine...I think I'm just good to call it quits on Potbelly forever. I'm finding a new place for lunch orders, perhaps Subway or JJ Mahoney's, or even Jimmy John's....any place other...