Submarina La Costa

I have been coming here for just over a year and it used to be a good local sandwich shop, but not anymore. The owner used to be real hands on and ran a tight ship, but she is never around anymore and her staff treats the place and customers like any high school kid would with no supervision! Three straight trips in over the last few months and they had NO hot sandwiches! The kids working there would be hanging out giggling with their friends and take their time coming to take an order and then tell me the ‘hot’ machine is broken yet again! Once, maybe, not three times over that time frame! I tried to call the owner but her employees have no clue when she will show up and after 5 days I am done trying. Good luck to this business surviving cause Togo’s, where I go now, and others, are right across the street.

Stopped in here today to grab a bottled water before heading to the gym. While there, I considered grabbing half of a sandwich to get some carbs and protein in my system before my workout. That sounded good UNTIL I saw the counter space they were using to prepare the food. It looked very dirty, and I noted that they didn’t wipe it down after each meal they prepared. Mayo, mustard, pieces of meat, and all kinds of sauces were spattered all over the counter (no telling how long it had been in that condition). Moreover, the floors were filthy. Needless to say, I aborted the idea of having a sandwich and left with my bottled water in hand. :(

On our way to friends house, we decided to stop and grab a quick bite to eat. I walk in and there was no one behind the counter, there were two girls sitting at one of the tables, and one of them got up and walked around to the back of the counter, thats when I realized she actually worked there. Weird. Next thing I notice is the scraps of meat all over the counter right next to the meat slicer. Okay now, that does not seem clean to me. I was about ready to walk out, but I had a hard time signaling to my boyfriend, and he was starving, so I went along with it. Ordered our sandwhiches, the girls that worked there were nice, one of them had outstanding customer service, so I kept my worries to myself, and my sandwich wasn’t half bad.
Cleanliness is huge to me, they say if you want to know how clean a restaurants kitchen is, inspect their bathrooms. Judging the mess on their counters, I didn’t even want to see the bathrooms. The dining area was run down, old carpets, old furniture, just looked beat up. I don’t think I would go back.

I have visited this location a few times and must say that I have been consistently please. Is Submarina the best sandwich I have ever had? No, of course not. But this location supplies a decent sandwich for the price and they have you in and out within minutes.
The employees are friendly and genuinely seem to be happy to work there and help you. I recommend the East Coast Sub on white… YUM!

I’ve been a fan of Submarina as a business for years… in fact, I even worked at one thru high school. My experience was SHOCKING! My sandwich was mediocre at best. If I’m going to spend that kind of money on a sandwich I want to be able to at least SEE the meat! The service was AWFUL!!! We took our family there and arrived 25mins before closing… we were not offered an option to dine in. They just bagged our sandwiches to go and offered to put them in a bag for us. They had already done all the closing duties… all the veggies were put away and the 2 employees acted as if we were an annoyance rather than customers. Maybe they should remember that without families like us they wouldn’t have a job or a paycheck! We will eat at Submarina again, we will just go to another store… one that appreciates our business and gives good customer service!

Since the change in Ownership this place has gone down hill. The avocado slices were hard as rocks and the sandwich was made sloppy. Not much good to say. The new Owner needs to step it up.

I’ve been picking up sandwiches here for years now, ever since moving to La Costa from UTC. This Submarina location is reliable, friendly, and way clean. Located in a quiet shopping center, there is always plenty of parking, most of the time, right in front.
It’s great to be able to phone in a sandwich order and have it ready for pick it up on the way to the beach! Their subs are a notch above Subway’s and probably a notch below Pomas in terms of tastiness and quality. What really rocks is that most of their stuff can be made to order and, if you don’t feel like a sandwich, you can have the same ingredients made in to a salad. Way Cool!