Firehouse Subs North Syracuse — Restaurant in Town of Cicero

I really hate doing this because Firehouse has some really good subs. This review is specifically knocking this location. Because it’s awful. I have zero remorse or empathy in saying that.

Extremely long waits to even order. Staff refuses to acknowledge customers because they’re overwhelmed with orders that they’re just going to make wrong anyway.

The past 4 times I’ve tried this place, they’ve screwed up my order.

Ordered online a few weeks ago. Pretty simple right? Nope. Sub is wrong. They happily agreed to remake it. But now I’m standing there as they scramble around having no idea what I ordered. I’d think it would be pretty simple to pull up my online order again and remake it. But they didn’t. I finally just handed them the old bag with the order on it. This is why the wait times are so long, because they’re constantly remaking old orders and can’t take new ones.

That was annoying, but the subs are good, so this past week I try them again. There’s no way they can mess up that many times right? Wrong.

I place another online order. I walk in about 10 minutes after the order pickup time and it’s not ready. I finally get the sub. No bag, no drink cup. I had to ask for both. I open the box to check the sub (not going to fool me again) and realize they didn’t give me the pickle on the side. So I go back and ask for that. Completely forgot to check the sub. I mean how many screw ups am I expected to keep track of here?

I drive back to work before I realize the sub is wrong. It’s literally just meat and cheese. And not even the meat and cheese I ordered. It’s not a complicated order. Hook and Ladder, remove a couple ingredients, add a couple ingredients. I got a sub with zero toppings.

The kid claims they’re training and says he’ll remake it. Now here we go again with the confusion about what I ordered. It blows my mind that I’m standing here as the customer and there’s zero communication to me about whether you can pull up my order or not. You’re the business. I’m the customer. You take charge and tell me how you want to proceed. Tell me you can pull my order back up, or just ask me as you make it. That’s literally how every other sub shop works.

So he starts making it again and asks me if I want mayo, then asks if I want lettuce. So I’m thinking “Okay cool, he’s just going to ask as he goes. We can’t mess this up now.” But after only asking whether I wanted lettuce and mayo, he suddenly starts packing up the sub and tries to hand it over the counter. Without ever confirming anything else I wanted on it, or more importantly, didn’t want on it. How do you have any idea what my order was? I never got a chance to tell him what I didn’t want on it, and add on other ingredients I did. So I finally just pull out my phone and show him the order. He responds “yup! Got it!” And makes the sub and I leave.

At this point I have 10 minutes left on my break and will literally eat plain bread so I didn’t recheck it. Because I simply don’t have time to wait for yet another remake. Keep in mind, unless you’re 8 feet tall, you can’t see their prep area to see whether the sub is right or wrong. So you just get what they hand you. Lo and behold, it’s wrong a second time.

I have zero patience left for businesses like this that can’t provide the most basic of service that they’re offering. If you don’t have the time to make the sub right the first time, when are you going to have the time to remake it?

It’s clear this place lacks any sort of management or oversight. I usually refrain from scathing reviews as I know the labor landscape is hard right now. But I’m just out of patience for accepting this sort of service as a paying customer. Absolutely ridiculous.

I won’t be back. And nobody will care. But here’s my 2 cents anyway. Save yours and go...

This was my first time eating at the Firehouse Subs. I have been told by several people that it was a great place to eat. I will say that the hype I was told, lived up to the name. The food was very good, just as good as Quiznos. I won't even bother mentioning Subway, they aren't even in the same league. The appearance of the inside of the restaurant, at this location, seemed to be clean and inviting, the employees I interacted with were polite, friendly, professional and courteous. I didn't have to wait long for my order and the price plus the size of my sub, were average for today's day & age. (Nothing spectacular, but not horrible) Based on today's visit, I would definitely return & also recommend eating here to everyone I know.

UPDATE: 3/2/2022 - I have been to this location several times since my first review, and have been pleased for the most part up until today's visit at this location. When I arrived I noticed only 2 people working behind the counter, and there were 2 people ahead of me in line. I got through the order process somewhat fast.... probably waited a total of 7 min or so to place my order. After I had placed my order, I ended up waiting about 35 min until I finally had my name called. I have never seen two people move so slow in my life, it's like they were working in a pool of molasses. Every motion they made seemed like slow motion, and I only say this because normally when a business gets busy, the employees pick up their pace and work faster, well I saw none of that this visit, it was just a snails pace from start to finish! Please understand, I am not trying to be nitpicky here, I am just literally explaining what I had witnessed on this particular visit. I am hoping on my next visit, that this experience will just end up being a one-off.

5/27/25- UPDATE: This location has gone down the drain. The service is the slowest I have dealt with in a long time. I waited at least 20 min for my order. They don't even make the subs the same anymore. They don't heat anything up either. Like they use to heat up the bread & meat e.t.c. Nope not anymore. The food tasted like crap honestly and the employees acted like they could care less about any of it. I will not be returning to this...

I placed an online order for firehouse subs for 2 large sandwiches which said would be ready by 4:11. When I got to the store around 4:20, I didn't see any food in the online pickup area. When I asked the cashier about my order, the GM stepped in and told me that I need to check the email that was sent to me. I didn't have access to this email because it was placed under someone else's email and when I told him this, he told me there was nothing he could do. I then offered to just repurchase what was originally ordered and asked if I did this would my original charge would be cancelled which I was told would still be charged the minute they make the sandwich. After about a total of 5 minutes of going back and forth with the staff, they finally decided to check the transaction history and saw that my food was made and paid for but from what they told me, someone must have taken it. So after this I had to wait another ~10 minutes for food I had already ordered and paid for and argued over for 5 minutes prior. I received nothing but a "sorry for the wait" after wasting about 15 minutes when the food should have been ready when I got there. If you eat at this location, you have a better chance of getting your food if you just order inside. Or better yet, go to Wegmans which is 5 minutes away for better, cheaper, and...