On March 14th a new restaurant in Olde Town Altoona soft-opened their doors. BJ’s Deli welcomed many members of the community to experience sandwiches, soup, and the salad bar, however, many experiences left food and experience to be desired. The owners of BJ’s Deli also own Farm Boys BBQ in Bondurant. Having experience in the customer and food service industry, expectations were higher than what was received at the soft opening of BJ’s Deli.
Attending the soft-opening with my family, we immediately noticed great options for sandwiches, soup, and the salad bar; however, once we received our food, our opinions quickly changed. To get a sandwich and a side it is $16.57 including tax. Breaking this down, the small sandwich is $13.00 to $14.00 while the side is $3.00 to $4.00. Though the sandwich packs flavor it is not nearly enough product for the price. When we received our sandwiches they all seemingly had the toppings specified for each sandwich, maybe one or two slices of lunch meat, and a slice of cheese. Though true of most restaurants, the meal could likely be made at a fraction of the price at home.
Aside from the sandwiches being priced extremely high, you could purchase an all-you-can-eat salad bar for about twenty dollars. The salad bar includes spring mix, romaine lettuce, spinach, and basic salad toppings. If you aren’t planning to be in BJ’s Deli for every meal of the day, there is no reason to purchase the all you can eat salad bar. When prices are extravagant you expect the products to match the price.
The hopes are that customer service has improved since the soft-opening. While we were waiting we noticed that a table next to us who ordered after us had sandwiches brought to them. They started inspecting the sandwiches just to realize it wasn’t their order. When receiving our order, it was taken to customers that did not order it. We watched as the customers inspected, touched, and breathed our food before the young boy serving everyone’s food brought it to us.
To top off the entire experience and business practice, on social media such as Facebook as well as online ordering of BJ’s Deli, images of menu items, advertisements, and even their logo appear to be created with AI. Customers are shown photos that are clearly not real food that BJ’s Deli sells, and this feels deceptive. If prices for meals and individual sandwiches are as high as they are, BJ’s Deli should be able to afford taking pictures of their food, and create their own logo.
Local restaurants are nice to have in the community, however there are improvements that need to be made.
