East Bay Deli- West Columbia — Restaurant in South Carolina

BEWARE if you have kids and want to place an order to go! Wish 0 stars was an option! I have never been thrilled with their customer service or prices (the kid's mac and cheese is at best Kraft and at worst generic - definitely not $4.50 worth of food. ), but their salad bar is decent when I want a quick healthy meal. My daughter and I have eaten here a few times. However, tonight we decided to get our meal to go - BIG mistake!

First, the last two times we've visited, they have been training new people, which is okay, but tonight when I ordered to go they asked for my name. I told them Tamara and the lady looked at me funny and then asked if she could put "Tammy." I was not pleased but did not argue it. Asking to "nickname" a customer is far from professional.

Then, when I finished my order, I mentioned that my daughter's kid's meal should come with a drink (as they do EVERYWHERE else I've been). They pointed out (correctly - I had not looked closely at the bottom of the menu) in a not-very-polite way that it was only for dine-in only. When I checked and saw they had it written, I could not argue. However, I am incensed that I paid the same price as I would normally but I got no drink. I can think of no logical explanation for not giving a child a drink with their "meal" when taking orders to go. There would clearly be no refills, so they are not losing money. Thankfully we were coming home, so she drank water here, but if we had been heading somewhere else she would have had to go without or I would have had to pay more to get her one. I think this is a horrible policy.

Added to the other issues, this is a game ender for us. I will not do business with a stingy, below...

Man, what a disappointment.

I was in Columbia overnight and wanted some comfort food for dinner. East Bay Deli was across the street from my hotel and a sandwich and soup sounded great. Reviews were overwhelmingly positive so, even better!

I walked in and placed a to-go order for a tuna sandwich with cheddar cheese on white bread ($10), a bowl of broccoli cheese soup ($7) and a brownie ($3.50). The sandwich came with a pickle spear and chips. Total was about $22 with tax.

Read it again: $22 for a sandwich, soup and a brownie.

Don't get me wrong, I knew exactly how much everything cost, I just thought — based on the reviews — it'd be worth it.

It wasn't.

The tuna was nothing special, though I appreciate them putting boiled egg in it. Thus, the sandwich was nothing special — it was literally something I've made at home tons of times.

The thickening agent in the soup, whether it was corn starch or flour, was easy to feel in the mouth. Not quite grainy but definitely chalky. Also, for $7, I expected a larger amount of soup. The "bowl" serving is larger than a "cup" serving, but the cup is $6. I wonder how different they really are in size, especially when dining in.

The chips were fine, just run-of-the-mill potato chips. The brownie was fine, too, if a little stale; at least it tasted good.

So, yeah, disappointing is what I'd call this meal. Everything was serviceable, but it came across much more like hospital cafeteria food than respectable delicatessen (as respectable as one can get in the South).

The place gets 2 stars instead of 1 because the staff was friendly and the place looked clean.

Still: $22 for a sandwich, soup...

I have to be honest here. I'm very surprised this restaurant has the score that it does. I'm not a food critic, nor am I picky by an means. However, I didn't review this place the first few times I ate here with family and my girlfriend because I didn't want to review it with an impulsive hand.

Anyway, on the four occasions I've been here, the food has been severely sub par, and very overpriced for what you are getting. I have eaten the Italian sub, Philly cheese steak, and bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit with a coffee and hash browns.

The Italian sub was half cold and half warm, with the cheese half melted and just not a lot of flavor at all.

The Philly was very small and again, basically a roast beef sandwich with cheese just completely lacking flavor.

The breakfast was the absolute worst thing I've ever eaten. I've had better breakfast at McDonald's and Burger King than this. The eggs were burnt, the hash browns were inedible(they tasted like they were made in a dirty pan or on a drty grill), the buscuit was burnt and greasy simultaneously (which I didn't think was possible), and the coffee was burnt. The only thing that tasted good was the bacon and cheese.

Ordinarly I wouldn't mind because I never complain like this, but I didn't pay under $8 for any of these meals. It's a shame but I really feel like you need to have an expediter or a sues chef tasting things before they go out if your food is going to be that expensive...I would love to come back there again, but I just can't do it until you guys pull together and...