Potbelly Sandwich Shop

About a 2 – 2.5: Potbelly’s has an interesting history, as it started off as an antique store that served up simple sandwiches, then turned into a full sandwich shop. They’ve been around since ’77 and the original store was located on Lincoln Ave (in Chicago)! The menu offers a variety of hot and cold sandwiches, salads, soups, chilis, breakfast items, shakes, malts, smoothies, and baked goods. Located adjacent to the theater, I usually stick to the ‘A Wreck,’ which has salami, roast beef, turkey, ham, and Swiss cheese, toasted, with some hot peppers. Their shakes are a bit of a hit-​or-​miss, sticking to the Oreo flavor. I like how it always comes with a mini shortbread cookies on the drinking straw! Staff is pretty friendly, and the process is fairly quick. The tables could be wiped down a bit better, as there have been several instances where the surfaces are kind of sticky. Plenty of parking in the mall parking lot.
+toasted sandwiches
+mini shortbread cookies with shakes
+adjacent to the theater

There are many factors going into Potbelly which make this sandwich shop great. My favorite being when I walk in and they have live music. I have only seen it at this location. It’s always some guy in his 20’s who is strumming hits from the 90’s. Oasis covers will generate flashbacks from my college years every single time. That’s an amazing thing to evoke in a person, happy memories from a time when you had no other responsibilities than to study; and stumble your way home from a party in one piece.
Potbelly has amazing soups and no one will convince me to feel differently. They are excellent for dunking your sandwich and whether you get a cup or bowl, it’s still large enough to facilitate this process. My go to will always be the broccoli cheddar. Next in line is the baked potato. Two things you should know: I have been told by the employees that the chili has pork in it; and the broccoli cheddar is made with chicken broth. Some of you reading this might wonder why that isn’t advertised. I call this food for thought.
Potbelly first introduced the flatbread as a limited-​time item on the menu and it was in order to see if it would be a hot seller. When this experiment was in rotation, the flatbread was better. It seemed like it was more of a buttered, nutty pita bread. It was crispy and nutty on the outside, and a buttery, moist, and the follow-​through of a sesame flavor could be distinguished on the inside. Now the flatbreads are stiff and not as flavorful. Goes to show what happens in mass-​production of an item. Quality is sometimes compromised.
Last: the shakes are a meal in themselves and I will never order one unless I am having a weird craving, and looking for a snack. I rarely crave sweets. I do crave fatty foods, and the Oreo cookie shake falls in that crossover category. I convince myself it’s healthy in the summer after I’ve had some sun so I can make sure my body gets some vitamin D. Just don’t look up the calories online.
Again, this location is different than the others I have seen. I’m sure there are locations that host local music as well, but I have only seen it here. Granted, the employees are kids, but I feel like they are all holding it together well enough for their age. Sometimes adults become jaded and the only time they want to speak their minds is when they are angry. Usually it’s not because of something someone else directly did to them. It’s because they aren’t getting their way. To my young people at Potbelly, your customer service game is strong! Don’t let anyone tell you different! Peace out.

Ghetto dude at the counter forgot my husbands sandwich.
Really nice sandwich guy treated us good.
Cashier punched in 30 cents on my credit card and kept telling me thats all it would take and I needed to pay more. After telling her she needed to try again it went through — duh.
Meatball sandwich was meh.

One of their milkshakes completes the meal. Coffee Oreo is my fave.

I went in one more time and this time I was firm on the «No cheese at ALL on this please» and the eyes of the two guys behind the counter bugged out! They were like, «OH! Do you want us to change our gloves too? We can do that…» I told them that wasn’t necessary but the last 3 sandwiches I got had some bits of cheese in them even though I ask for none. They were super cool and made me a great sandwich.

I love potbelly their sandwiches are delicious the scoops are good and the shakes very tasty they got 4 stars from me because they’re table are always R sticky it doesn’t matter how much they clean them it still sticks

Not one of my fav locations. But wanted a flatbread TKY. The employees behind the counter were more interested in their own conversations than helping the customers waiting for their sandwiches. It wasn’t busy and didn’t see a mgr around.
Wish there was another one in this area. Sandwiches are good and cheaper than others.

Quality sandwich, way better then the place two doors down. Very friendly staff. Nice outdoor seating. Just wish they served beer.

This place seems to be filled with student employees so sometimes you may have to deal with their indifference. The bottom line is that the sandwiches are great, but their soups suck. That is all.

Food is always great here. The servers are friendly. It is not overly crowded. The best thing is that they have live music showcasing young, local talent. Makes it folksy and a great atmosphere.

This is a great Potbelly… especially since it’s usually a bit less crowded than the rest of Old Orchard. Though I was there on one of the busiest shopping days of the year, I was pleasantly surprised to see that it wasn’t very crowded and I was able to snag a booth after calmly ordering my sandwich.
Speaking of sandwiches, they’re all delicious and fresh, but now they even have avocado!!! Yay!
For a quick lunch, this Potbelly is not any different than the other Potbelly locations, as they are all fast and friendly and tasty, but this one is a bit off of the beaten path at the mall, so it’s nice and relaxing (and had a great singer, too!).

One of the better Potbelly locations around. Staff here is always friendly and efficient.
Mall clientele can sometimes be child-​heavy, resulting in a boisterous roar in the dining area.
Potbelly a sandwiches are tastier and offer better toppings than the other sammich shops nearby.

What can I say? I absolutely love Potbelly’s whenever I’m in town visiting my family. I usually get The Wreck, so yummy! Great fast service as well. I might have to pick one up for my flight back to LA.

Every Potbelly shop I have ever been to (which by this point has to be at least 30), has given me excellent, quick service. This shop however, was the opposite of that. The whole experience was a joke, from start to finish.
I called to place an order for pickup (due to being in a hurry from Milwaukee back to Chicago) and over the phone they seemed to be very confused with my simple order (never a problem with other Potbelly shops). When I came to pick up my order for 3 sandwiches 20 MINUTES LATER, they weren’t finished (3 sandwiches!).
Now maybe if the shop was horrendously busy, I would give them some slack, but it was a ghost town when I went in, and the employees were just standing behind the counter chatting. Seriously?
What a joke. They even managed to mess up printing out my damn receipt -.-
Oh and don’t listen to the location on Google maps. It’s wrong. Whole other end of the mall. Yep.

Located inside the Old Orchard Mall.
Love their sandwiches!
It’s only $ 5.60 for a large, and you can easily split with another person with chips and a drink and be full.
Try the A-​Wreck, it’s warm and delicious.
Their ingredients have the most flavor! Watch out — the hot peppers can get a bit spicy.
Please open one up in San Diego!

The sandwiches here are the same as any other Potbelly’s-which is never a bad thing. They’re awesomely made, they get the secret menu stuff and I’ve never had a bad sandwich made here. The bonus comes from their soda fountain which is the Coke mix machine where you can have a whole bunch of different-​and somewhat crazy Coke products along with some equally esoteric flavors. Hello, Potbelly’s of the future, nice to meet you, now give me a drink cup with my cup o’noodle and my fireball with extra pep.

I love me some potbelly’s! I moved away from Chicago and I kid you not I’ve had Potbelly’s cravings ever since! They were my meal of choice to take on the plane with me when I left the Windy City.
My personal favorite is their chicken salad with lettuce, tomato, and hot peppers – it’s nice chunks of chicken, with only a little bit of dressing, unlike many other sandwich locales, where the chicken salad is dripping with mayo. Also, some places put scoops of chicken salad on your sandwich, so you wind up with many bites that are just bread, and others that have waay too much filling, but these sandwiches are perfect, with chicken in every bite! (I’ve had a lot of chicken salad sandwiches throughout the years)
They have regular size for $ 4.50, and the BIG for $ 5.50. The BIG doesn’t look that big (smaller than a subway footlong), but they pack it so full that I could only eat half! It’s BIG, but the dent in your wallet is so small.
The staff here are great, and even during the busiest of times they manage to keep the line moving. Their cookies and Oreo shakes are delicious too! But seriously, try out their chicken salad.
And yeah – I ate one half of the sandwich on the plane, and the other half survived just fine after 9 hours on a plane! It wasn’t even soggy! Seriously, ginormous sandwich that’s more filling than Subway, costs about the same, and doesn’t get soggy? Miracle sandwiches!

In all honesty I don’t really eat here. I’ve taken a bite here and there from my boyfriends sandwiches but I’ve never ordered my own. But I can tell a place has good food even with a few bites.
This is a great place to grab a snack or a quick lunch. It seems healthier than other fast foods. Some employees are nice and others aren’t. It seems to me that the males are nicer to the females and vice versa.
Regardless I would still recommend this even to the picky snacker (and I speak from experience)!

A toasted sandwich is always better. This place is SUPER busy at lunch, which means they’re doing something right. The line went fairly quick and the live guitar player playing on the loft above the door was a really nice touch.
At the start of the assembly line, I told the sandwich maker what sandwich I wanted (I went with the Turkey Breast with Swiss), what size (Original or Bigs), and what kind of bread (white or multi-​grain wheat). They made up the meat and cheese on my selected bread type and size and sent it through the potbelly stove for grilling. On the other of the grilling conveyor belt, I met the toppings crew. They are in charge of adding everything from mayo, mustard, hot peppers, lettuce, onion, tomato, pickles, oil & Italian seasoning, all of which are part of their freebie toppings. I asked for everything but mayo and oil. Then I took my order to the cashier and can added in a fountain beverage.
My toasty turkey and swiss was awesome; I loved the hot peppers and pickles. Super good and not too hot, so don’t be afraid of the hot peppers… they are the bomb! The original size was just right for me, and I went back for a scoop of ice cream too. Had to feed the sweet tooth with a scoop of Espresso Chip in a dish. They only have mini cones, and the ice cream variety is pretty basic too; Mint Chip, Cookies’n Cream, Espresso Chip, Moose Tracks, Vanilla and Chocolate.

So apparently its Spring Break, because Old Orchard mall was littered with emo kids, teenage hipsters, and Justin Bieber wannabees. Ah, too be young and naïve again. Well, this old dinosaur was headed to Potbelly’s inside OO mall to get me a delicious Sammy. As I waited in line behind the Niles North Vikings Girls Soccer Team, I looked over the menu to decide what to order. I usually go with «A Wreck» but I was feeling chickeny today so I went with the «Chicken Salad» on wheat.
The lovely lady behind the counter offered me the new «Big» size which is 30% bigger than the original. I kindly turned down her enticing offer, simply because I was going to get one of their delicious Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I was tempted to get one of their wonderful Milk Shakes, but the weather isn’t that warm yet so I shall wait. I complete my order with Salt & Vinegar chips and a small soda.
I grab a seat by the window so I can do some people watching, and look at peoples questionable fashion choices. My sandwich was simple and tasty, and that cookie made my day. This is a nice size location, and gets busy during lunch as one might expect. I see that they offer live music for lunch on Tuesdays, and Friday for dinner. Just as long as its not Justin Bieber or some emo rock band, then I will be back… most definitely.