Mortadella Head — Restaurant in Somerville

Edit: After my initial 1 star review the management offered me a gift card worth more than my initial visit even cost so that I could give the place another try. This time I ordered a half roman pepperoni pizza instead of a sub and I thought it was very good, much better than the Italian sub I had my first visit. Crust was buttery, crispy, and chewy, sauce tasted very bright and fresh, the amount of cheese was pretty much perfect, and the pepperoni was delicious. I only wish there was slightly more pepperoni, but overall still much improved and I appreciate that the management took my previous experience seriously.

My partner and I were honestly amazed at the issues from ordering a single Italian sub here. The wait for a single cold sandwich was 25+ minutes, which from the other reviews here, sounds like it could have been even worse. When I finally walked up to the counter, before I even had the chance to say something, the employee said "Elijah, by chance?" and then handed me the sandwich I ordered after it sit behind the counter for who knows how long.

They never called my name.

Even in the time we were there, another couple had to go up and ask for an update on their order as well, which was taking extremely long. The staff seemed to simply ignore him for 5 minutes before they even asked if he needed something. The staff at the front, despite there being multiple people there, were incredibly inattentive. They spent more time talking to each other and laughing than actually serving anyone or trying to check in on slow food.

The wait might have been excusable if the food was as good as I'd hoped, but by the time we finally got to try the Italian sub, half the bread was soggy and mushy from sitting so long, the whole thing was dripping juice everywhere, it had far too little meat, and little to no salt. It was actually shocking how flavorless the whole thing was for all the pickled vegetables and cured meat that goes into an Italian.

The Subway I worked at in high school had better seasoned Italian subs than what we had here. I'm almost never one to write reviews, but this was disappointing to...

Mortadella Head, the notoriously attractive sandwich and pizza shop that made waves through social media for their beautifully handcrafted sandwiches, has yet again not lived up to what is advertised. I have gotten take out twice, and subsequently been disappointed - you guessed it - twice.

Last year I ordered a chicken parm and chopped caesar sub as takeout. When we opened up our sandwiches after arriving home, my chicken parm was just a chicken cutlet with cheese. Zero sauce. The chopped caesar? No caesar dressing. I chalked this up as a one time mistake and my girlfriend and I ate our (sauceless) sandwiches.

Today, my girlfriend and I decided to give it another go, thinking our lackluster experience from the prior year was due to the influx of customers and orders from their rise to social media stardom, and that the shop’s operations would have matured with the demand. This time, we ordered a chopped caesar, buffalo chicken caesar salad, and garlic parm fries. The chopped caesar? It was great. The buffalo chicken caesar salad? It was a chicken cutlet sandwich with caesar dressing and what appeared to be a dab of buffalo sauce. Not a salad. The garlic parm fries? Swimming in butter/oil which made them extremely soggy, not to mention there was little to no garlic or parm (see attached).

Regrettably, this is the first review I’ve ever left a restaurant in my entire life. I recognize the privilege I have in being able to order takeout and enjoy it with the ones I love. I don’t complain and if something is wrong, I run with it and recognize that everyone makes mistakes. Unfortunately, I am left writing this in an effort to hopefully promote some change and potentially highlight that despite appearances, experiences may vary drastically, even a year apart from one another. I wish nothing but the best for the success of this small business and hope they succeed in the future - they definitely have some great food despite my experiences.

All...

Drove 40 minutes to figure out what this place was all about, we walked in and were instantly greeted by a nice woman behind the counter who we had informed it was our first time stopping in and she said to let her know if we had any questions and take our time at this time people were walking in we let a few go past as we were discussing choices then out of nowhere the gentleman behind us says " you know it's 2 pie Tuesday, right?" Well no sir we don't (there was a sign saying buy any specialty get a cheese free but we were focused on the menu) after small talk with him we decided to give the pizza a shot he suggested a round(yes there's options) BBQ chicken so we did and I needed to try the Italian sub which then the lady behine the counter says "on regular or garlic bread?!" Like is that even a question lol went garlic (was $1 up charge) it was a 40 min wait which gave us time to explore a bit it was about 40 bucks for 2 lg pizzas (thanks to 2pie tuesday) and sub, on the way back to the car I saw the slip said Buffalo pizza and ran back in to correct it it was getting busy but a nice woman out back saw me and instantly asked what I needed I informed her she went right to the cooks and slips hanging and made sure it was fixed. When we got the food I wanted to confirm it wasn't Buffalo the initial woman who took our order assured us that it was correct and then offered extra BBQ sauce on the side (it's james river sauce which I didn't figure out till we got home and I could not have been any happier) we should have tried the pies when we got them hot but I feel like they couldn't have been any better either way to me that was a 20 out of 10 and the sub was stuffed with fresh meat and sliced thin to enjoy in ever bite .... long story short the food was a 11/10 and the service and atmosphere was just as great WE...