DiBella's Subs — Restaurant in Washington Township

Let me begin by disclaiming ANY, dissatisfaction with the employees of the restaurant. The staff was very friendly, unflinchingly polite, and kind even though I came in already hungry and snappish. The fact that I left in the same state is in NO WAY their fault.

Who do I blame for this? The owners of the corporation which has indoctrinated them to, while being a "build your sub" establishment, BLINDLY follow pre-written recipes for creating their products to the point where it does not matter if you have told them that you HATE olives and do not want to have them appear in your food, but your fiance loves them, so only put it on HALF of the sandwich; they are going to blindly follow the recipe for one of the standard sandwiches even though it includes olives, for the entire 14" sub.

Do you have any idea how much those poor people have to have been BRUTALIZED by the owners to mess up like that?!? Systematic abuses of a level of depth and depravity that I can scarcely imagine would be required to so-completely drive away a person's intellect and volition that such a colossal failure to heed the orders of the customer would even become POSSIBLE.

Even worse; when I attempted to restore mental equilibrium by ordering a second and DIFFERENT sandwich; (since, after all, my fiancee can and will eat the other half of the first one later), I discovered that the owners have so-restricted the means of paying for the food available for the employees to accept, that the only way to purchase with an app, was either apple pay, or Google pay, and, as I'm an Android phone user, I had but a single option; since my credit card has been left at home and I no longer am in the habit of taking cash with me. Now I am sure that you can guess what happened next; Google Pay, formerly an application of great reliability, and long since set up and running; has been replaced by a new version, one that WAS NOT set up, and which is, therefore, USELESS in that situation.

I'm NOT HAPPY; I'm hungry and irritated, and I want to have the FOOD that I went into this establishment to buy, but I don't...

Remember, this is in no way, shape, or form the fault of the employees on duty today. They effectively bent over backward to try to get me something to eat: even volunteering some of their own money to help cover the cost if I could have paid for the lion's share of it, but their character of service and professional courtesy was THWARTED by the owner's mismanagement of the facility. I wish all of these great human beings who I met today good fortune and speedy placement with a company that will treat them like humans, rather than a group of automatons with neither minds nor souls of any value.

Rest assured, however, that until and unless I discover the place has changed hands in terms of its owner; I SHALL NOT return.

(Would have rated 1* but the place gets a second strictly for the...

UPDATED REVIEW from 11 November 2025 visit: After a very unsatisfying visit a couple months ago (previous visit review below), we were back in town and decided we would return to DiBella's on Miamisburg-Centerville Road again today.

Our experience was much, MUCH better. We were greeted warmly and the woman who took our orders was very friendly, helpful, and patient.

The food was excellent.

As an admittedly picky observation, the dining room was very hot. Perhaps the air conditioner was broken or the thermostat was just set too high. It was a nice day outside, so we were comfortable on the shaded part of the patio.

We're glad to put DiBella's back on our list of must-go places for the next time we're in town.

Go. Eat! [Previous Review] We live in a different state from the DiBella's at 1191 Miamisburg-Centerville Road in Dayton, Ohio, but we've made that place a priority visit when we've gone to visit family for several years. The disrespectful and uncaring service we received from the Shift Manager who reluctantly took our order and built our seven sandwiches the last time made it unlikely that we'll ever return, unless the restaurant's management make things right—I've written to them and we're awaiting a response.

The ordering experience was made miserable by the Shift Manager and the sandwiches she made were well below the usual quality we've experienced at DiBella's and not worthy of the restaurant's name or reputation.

As things stand right now, I cannot recommend DiBella's, but I may give the restaurant another chance, depending on how those who are senior to the uncaring Shift Manager respond. I'll be happy to update this post if I receive a response.

UPDATE: I received an emailed reply from a management level outside the Miamisburg-Centerville Road location within one day, which assured me that people at that level and the store's manager would look into what happened and make necessary corrections.

The response included an apology and a modest voucher to apply to a subsequent visit within 14 days. Of course, being out-of-state people who visit that area a few times a year, the voucher was a kind but somewhat empty gesture. The response also appeared to have been taken from an AI prompt or general script because it didn't mention any of the specific issues that we raised in our feedback. In any case, I hope they actually fix what happened because the food and service did not reflect our previous experiences with DiBella's and if that were my first visit, it would have also...

DiBella's is our go-to place for a sub. Last week I walked in and ordered a medium meatball sub. The sub is big and feeds two senior adults. It was the best meatball sub we've ever had. It was loaded with yummy meatballs, melted cheese, and wonderful marinara sauce. Perfection. The staff was courteous and accurately filled my order. The young lady who took my money for the order was extremely pleasant.

After I paid, took my order and left, I had to stay in the entryway of the restaurant as we were in the middle of a biblical thunderstorm including torrential rain. The young lady who took my payment, brought out an umbrella and asked if she could walk me to my car. I declined as my car was within 20 feet of the door and I saw no reason for her to get drenched but thanked her for her consideration. What a gem she is!

Since COVID, customer service has been dwindling at many businesses. Some places view their customers with distain. This is not true at DiBella's. This is where all the good people have...