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| - I've been to Local West three times: once to dine in, once to carry out, and another call in order. The dine-in order (a burger and lemon potatoes) was very good and brought out with surprising speed. After such a great experience, I returned and ordered the Cajun sandwich to go: it was pretty solid, thought the fries were indeed soggy. Giving them another shot, I placed an order for pick-up over the phone for the Upstream. What happened next was beyond explanation.
I was quoted a "ready" time of 15-20 minutes, which seemed reasonable. I drove over a bit early, as I wanted to make sure I got it fresh as possible for the 5 minute jaunt home. I then proceeded to wait... and wait... and wait. The very skilled cook/co-owner had my sandwich ready as I showed up- producing an impressed "wow" from me. The girl working the register was very pleasant; I paid and expected my food shortly as the place was almost empty except one couple waiting, another group on their way out, and the OTHER owner with what I assume was his family. 20+ minutes went by, on top of my drive/order time (totaling over 35 minutes!) My order just sat there, ready to go, behind the counter as the non-cook co-owner futzed with his family, and attempted to put together the waiting couple's order. The key word here is "attempted." Eventually he seemed to realize "hey, the only other person here seems to be waiting for something, and hey, there's an order right here!" Given the wait time due to lack of communication and basic awareness on the part of the staff, my sandwich proved soggy. It's a shame, because if fresh I'm sure it would have been excellent- the bacon was perfect, the salmon was perfect, the nine-grain bread was thick-cut.
Get it together, Local West! I will be back, as it's just too convenient to pass up, and the food has been tasty when they've gotten it right. I'll update this review as soon I do return, and hope to have better things to say.
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