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| - It seems like there is a mile of differences here between how some people are treated and how others are treated. That might be a reflection of their location in image-conscious North Scottsdale, I don't know. Numerous reviews comment (both positively and negatively) on "the greeting" of every employee stopping what they're doing to yell out a welcome to each person who walks through the door. We visited on a weekday evening after the crowds had long gone. There was a small group of quiet well-mannered teens having dinner and one other diner. I had never heard of Firehouse Subs and only came in because their sign was so clearly visible from North Scottsdale Road in the new mall. I had an errand nearby and fast food subs sounded good.
Having never been to a Firehouse Subs I initially missed seeing the "order here" sign at a counter way at the back of the store so we stood at the tall counter where a guy was preparing a sandwich (I mean that's where the menu board is, logical that you would order there, right? Wrong!).
There was no acknowledgement of any kind from him or anyone else, certainly not the much-discussed yelled out greeting. It was then that we started looking around for help and saw the "order here" sign and walked over to the counter, and it was only then that a woman approached us to take our order. The first thing I said to her is I had never been to a Firehouse Subs before and she recommended her favorite. I can't complain in any way about her competency or helpful friendliness, she came across as being sincere and she didn't sound like the typical bored fast food employee.
Firehouse Subs is not the place to go if you like to make 100 choices of condiments and breads like you would at Subway, and it's also not the place to go if you like restaurant employees intimidating you that you should have your sandwich "Mike's Way". Thankfully you also don't have to do their work for them by writing your own order on your own bag. The reason is that they have a surprisingly limited menu selection for a fast food sub shop and very few variations of those sandwiches, all of which are served hot except tuna and chicken salad. From there you get two choices of bread and everything is made "fully involved" unless you specifically say otherwise.
After ordering we stood around and waited. Remember we were the only customers except for people who were already eating. The one (and only) sandwich maker reminded me of Kenny from the TV show "The Middle" in that he never looked up, never spoke, and seemed to be in a trance. Considering that ours were the only sandwiches he was making it seemed to take an inordinately long time, it doesn't make sense that he had to wait until the order clerk finished taking our order before he even started making our sandwiches, couldn't she just shout out to him what to start?
The sandwiches are on the high end of the price scale but to be fair they have more meat and they do taste better than the other sub shops in the area. That's the plus side. On the negative side, by the time we got them home (10 minutes away) they were a soggy, soppy mess, literally impossible to pick up without it falling apart. Big suggestion to Firehouse Subs is to do something with your bread (which is pretty generic tasting) to make it crustier. As it is now it's almost like Wonder Bread.
Also, remember when I said that I told the clerk this was my first visit? Every other sub shop wants you to join their "rewards club" to get discounts and earn free sandwiches. I looked around and didn't see any promo materials and ended up forgetting to ask BUT the point is that she never offered anything like that to us and it wasn't until I Yelped it to write my review that I found out that they do have such a "club". Maybe she didn't want us to come back?
Oh and one more thing ... if you are going to make a point of including a pickle spear on the side, consider changing your source to something with more freshness, snap and flavor to it, otherwise don't bother. These taste like supermarket shelf pickles.
Rating "A-OK" which means I would come back for food quality and not-bad service but not for the prices or if I intended for my order to be to-go.
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