O'Briens Sandwich Bars: 1 meat and 3 fillings rip off

jayteecork

I was in O'Briens sandwich bar today.
Went for the standard "one meat with 3 fillings" take out and I nearly dropped in my tracks when the lady told me cheese can't be classified as a filling and that it costs extra.

In all my days of eating sandwiches and rolls I've never ever heard of cheese costing extra in a basic sandwich.

Also, things like a bit of red onion and sweetcorn count as a filling whereas in practically every other place they count as free "extras"

Just thought i'd vent my spleen here, and will be eating back in Subway from now on where they practically demand you fill up on extras, all of which cost nothing more.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

You're dead right. Just take your business elsewhere. At last someone with sense instead of moaning about a shop and doing nothing.

tw0nk

O Briens has been a rip off for years

blah

Damn right, O'Briens are typical of places that charge through the nose but customers keep going back because of convenience. Now that everyone's got their hang sangiches wrapped up in tin foil, I think they'll have to change their pricing to survive. I never thought they were worth the price, but I was in the minority.

youcancallmeal

I'm pretty certain its extra for cheese in Subway too?

jayteecork

youcancallme>al wrote: »

I'm pretty certain its extra for cheese in Subway too?

No way.
It's extra for "extra" cheese but your first lot of cheese is definitely free.

That reminds me, avoid KFC too. Not only has the mini fillet gone up to €1.99 (It's 99p sterling) but when I was ordering one your one goes "would you like cheese?" without giving anything in her tone that it cost more.
I said sure, she then goes €2.39!
I know it's 40 cent only but it's the principle ya see!

At least Mcdonalds would go "would you like to go large for an extra 50 cent" or something.

veritable

i have to agree with you mate, your typical sandwich must cost them absolutely nothing, but you and me end up paying in the region of 7€, for a bit of bread a meat and veg! the cheese thing is ridiculous too.

NewFrockTuesday

I was in Subway on Westmoreland (spl) Street last week grabbing a sub on the way to work. I ordered a ...dunno...think it might have been a turkey one...and asked for no red onions and no a few other things. i asked if I could have cheese instead and she barked...and I mean whipped the ears off me for asking "No...we dont do that".

Fair enough I thought...giztherollthankbai...


And then when I handed over a not to pay for the sub, she had no change...said to me "I cant give you chage as I dont have any". I really felt like giving her the sub back and saying "I dont do that" ...but I didnt...I was hungry:D


And it was only 5 cent. But she was so mean!

I dont like O'Briens. neve did. Dunno why. Same as every other place really.

youcancallmeal

jayteecork wrote: »

No way.
It's extra for "extra" cheese but your first lot of cheese is definitely free.

Oh right fair enough then. Rarely frequent O'Briens myself and if I do its for the tripledecker which is the only thing that is remotely value for money. Bringing you own sandwiches to work ftw!

jayteecork

Well I won't be back there in a million years, and their policies have caused me to visit a very popular public message board to air my concerns.

Hopefully their directors are reading this and might see the error of their ways, particularly as someone pointed out above people are bringing their own sandwiches with them

Gauge

I'm all for splashing out on food sometimes but I refuse to go to O' Briens. I just can't get my head around how much people will pay for a perfectly unremarkable sandwich on normal sliced bread. For that kind of money I'd expect a proper lunch, not four little bread triangles with a sprinkle of filling inside!

BeansMeansHynes

I agree with Tw0nk and blah!

O'Briens and Costa Coffee and the like have been ripping people off for years. The prices are extortionate. I thought people would have copped on to this ages ago. I never set foot in any of them.

Its only now when money is tight and people are trying to save that they notice what a rip off these places are.

dory

I've never understood that place. I would have got caught last week only that I asked 'what constitues meat' and she named them all, adding cheese to the list? What the hell?
Subway is the way forward!

jayteecork

dory wrote: »

I've never understood that place. I would have got caught last week only that I asked 'what constitues meat' and she named them all, adding cheese to the list? What the hell?
Subway is the way forward!

Especially considering the cheese is that horrible grated stuff, probably comes in in huge buckets.

BeansMeansHynes

I know I will probably get ate for saying this but I hope that all those O'Brien's and Costa Coffee places start disappearing as quick as the sprung up all over the country.

AnonoBoy

O'Briens make bland, tasteless, rubbish sandwiches. And their name brand crisps had typos all over the packaging. (IT'S and ITS are not the same thing morons!)

Anyways - they're ****e so you're better off taking your business elsewhere for value and for taste.

podge018

You're doing it all wrong lads. When you get to the till and she asks what you had you say (quietly) ham, lettuce, onion. Don't mention the cheese or whatever. Free food.

jayteecork

podge018 wrote: »

You're doing it all wrong lads. When you get to the till and she asks what you had you say (quietly) ham, lettuce, onion. Don't mention the cheese or whatever. Free food.

Nah your one shouts down at the girl on till exactly what I had.

I'm so glad of this experience as it means I'll never set foot in the place again.

Oryx

The MD was quoted this week as saying they are dropping their prices for the first time in years, in order to become more competitive. At the moment OBriens are operating at a loss.

And in fairness we should all be buying our bread and salad and ham in Lidl and making our own sandwiches. Lazy Celtic tiger breed, we are.

Kintarō Hattori

I find O'Briens make delicous sandwiches but the prices are truely horrendous so I can't remember the last time I had one. For one or two euro more you can go to places such as HiLan on Capel street and get a full chinese meal. Much more filling, tastier and better value for money.

tallaghtoutlaws

podge018 wrote: »

You're doing it all wrong lads. When you get to the till and she asks what you had you say (quietly) ham, lettuce, onion. Don't mention the cheese or whatever. Free food.

I always do this especially when busy because they don't check with the person who filled it if they are too busy and this method works a treat in the US :D

Slice

To OP: Did you complain to the Manager?

I have never gone back to O'Briens ever since I got a sandwich with three fillings and got back to my office to discover that it was the most measly portions ever. The sandwich was mostly bread. As I was having a bad day in work I immediately picked up the phone and gave the manager of the store an earful. In fairness to him he did promised that if I returned I could get a free sandwich.

Corruptedmorals

Actually I've heard that cheese has greatly increased in price. Whcih is why in Dunnes if you get a chicken fillet roll at the deli, they won't put cheese in it. You ned a different roll for that.

jayteecork

Slice wrote: »

To OP: Did you complain to the Manager?

I have never gone back to O'Briens ever since I got a sandwich with three fillings and got back to my office to discover that it was the most measly portions ever. The sandwich was mostly bread. As I was having a bad day in work I immediately picked up the phone and gave the manager of the store an earful. In fairness to him he did promised that if I returned I could get a free sandwich.

Didn't see a manager around, just seemed to be Eastern European young women staffing the place.

Of course one of those could have been the manager.
who knows. It was take out anyway so I grabbed the sandwich and left.

Also, they have a "sit down charge"
Is this common in Ireland? i don't think I've ever seen a dine in charge in another Irish place selling sandwiches.

In the Chinese maybe but the take away food is completely different there anyway.
Don't think you could compare.

Another gripe about O'Briens: The one in Westmoreland Street doesn't have a jacks. Bit annoying when you're on the aircoach for 4 hours and bursting!!!


Guess I can see why they don't have one, every idiot getting off the air coach will want to use their bog!

brettmirl

I've always found the food at O'Briens bland and over-priced.

The store near me is grotty, the sandwiches are thrown together and usually you have to repeat your order 3 or 4 times. Even at that, you usually get back to your desk to find they got it wrong.

Not had food there in over a year...homemade hang sangwiches all the way here!

Corcaigh abu

Totally agree - portions size s tiny, couldn't spread relish any thinner if they tried and as for the cheese!!! Gave up on them ages ago but recently meeting friend for lunch and was running late so she ordered sandwich for me, when i arrived no mayo in sandwich so went back up to counter and asked for a bit of mayo on the side. She came out with a saucer with a dallop of mayo and said 1euro. I told her she could keep it. Won't be back.Horrible, measley over priced sandwiches!:mad:

jayteecork

Corcaigh abu wrote: »

She came out with a saucer with a dallop of mayo and said 1euro.

That's unbelievable.

Then again it's not her fault, she's acting under very direct orders from some faceless jerk manager.

Bluetonic

jayteecork wrote: »

That reminds me, avoid KFC too. Not only has the mini fillet gone up to €1.99 (It's 99p sterling)

Unbelievably you omit the fact that the minimum wage in the UK is less than the minimum wage in Ireland which has a factor in the price, along with other fundamental differences.

karma403

I love costa for drinks but I wouldn't go there for lunch as the sandwiches etc are all prepacked and are prob quite unhealthy. I'm willing to pay for costa coffee occasionally Have given up on Starbucks drinks :rolleyes:

gerrycollins

Corruptedmorals wrote: »

Actually I've heard that cheese has greatly increased in price. Whcih is why in Dunnes if you get a chicken fillet roll at the deli, they won't put cheese in it. You ned a different roll for that.

I can confirm this(they should only charge extra when it's extra IMO) but nowadays cheese is as expensive as the meat of your roll/sandwich.

Been ages since I was in an O'Briens what was the price of your lunch?

albert-bundy

the simply thing about choice is you have one,,,so go somewhere else but these places do not force us to use them and they provide employment ,besides peg loves them

Mr.Boots

Are you all Stupid or something?
You want something extra in you sandwich but dont want to pay for it?
I dont know of any other business that would be expected to do this.
Imagine all those extra bits of cheese you want for free...now imagine thousands of people a week asking for "extra cheese"....o Briens wouldnt be in business long would they...
Cheese costs them money.....so it costs you money
I guess if you dont like it/cant afford it then go elsewhere.

brendansmith

Hey take it easy man!

We are just sayin that 7euro is a bit much for 2euro worth of sambo.
Its unjustifable!
Cheese does cost time money but it costs them cheese prices not gold prices.

booah

a bit off topic but I made a U turn from O'briens to Quiznos earlier tonight thinking I wouldn't get ripped off as much. I ordered a large honey bacon club (or something), flashed my student card and it was still 7.80!! It's never more than 5.xx for footlong in subway which i find fresher and bigger

brendansmith

booah wrote: »

a bit off topic but I made a U turn from O'briens to Quiznos earlier tonight thinking I wouldn't get ripped off as much. I ordered a large honey bacon club (or something), flashed my student card and it was still 7.80!! It's never more than 5.xx for footlong in subway which i find fresher and bigger

Daylight robbery!:eek::eek::eek:

brendansmith

I mean, cheese is a filling. A standard filling! End Of Story!

hussey

Mr.Boots wrote: »

Are you all Stupid or something?
You want something extra in you sandwich but dont want to pay for it?
I dont know of any other business that would be expected to do this.
Imagine all those extra bits of cheese you want for free...now imagine thousands of people a week asking for "extra cheese"....o Briens wouldnt be in business long would they...
Cheese costs them money.....so it costs you money
I guess if you dont like it/cant afford it then go elsewhere.

Obviously you didn't read the thread correctly .... so maybe we are not the ones who are stupid .... :rolleyes:

they didn't ask for extra cheese, they asked for cheese as part of the "1 meat + 3 filling" .. and they wanted to charge more.
Nothing extra about that

rubadub

I used to get breakfast rolls in a centra near me. They charged per filling, so I would just get bacon. They used to put loads on since it would look empty otherwise, while if I had gotten say egg, sausage, pudding & bacon, I might only have gotten 1 slice, maybe 2 small ones, I used to get around 4 by just getting bacon.

Pizza places can be a rip off with their extras, or conversely they can be cheap. e.g. sometimes the amount of pepperoni you get as an extra would cost way more in a supermarket, but it is stupid that sweetcorn costs the same price as an extra. You might get 10cent worth of sweetcorn for the same price as €2-3 worth of cured meats (which can be €25-30/kg in supermarkets)

podge018

brendansmith wrote: »

I mean, cheese is a filling. A standard filling! End Of Story!

This isn't new with O'Briens, they've been saying 'cheese is extra' for 5 years now. I know because I always give them an "and what?" look.

I've no problem with it, think their sambos are lovely. The one around on Pearse St give a free drink and bag of crisps with theirs, not bad for around €4.50.

the groutch

what I hate about o'briens (apart from the 95c they charge you to eat in and sit on their desperatey uncomfortable looking chairs) is that the minumum charge is for meat and 2 fillings (and a few other places are the same)

the one time I was there I only wanted a ham sandwich and was forced to pay for 2 fillings I didnt even get

what I do now is go into supervalu or dunnes, buy a bread roll & 4 slices of billy roll, make my own for about €1.40

ergonomics

I know this is more about O'Briens then anywhere else but I got a roll in Dunnes in Kilkenny today and they have now started charging the same for a half-roll as a full roll. So basically if you get a large roll with meat & 3 fillings it'll cost for €3.49, but if you get one if the small ones, it costs the same!

Now I know they're trying to get people to eat the bigger rolls as they're better value but I don't like big rolls, I only want a half one, and I'm not paying €3.49 for it!

supermouse

I was in O'Briens about 6 weeks ago and was charged €5.55 for a sandwich on brown bread, cheese chicken coleslaw and a bag of crisps. After getting back to my desk i noticed the coleslaw was gone off and stank. Back to O'Briens with me and yer man turned white behind the counter, beconed at his colleague to remove the bowl of coleslaw from the deli.
THEN he asked me do i want the same fillings in my replacement sandwich... i said no i want a refund and he said they dont do refunds. After about 5 mins of fighting my case he eventuallly gave me a refund.
Not been back since and never will... shivvers!!!

Berty

I have been on all end of this spectrum with O'Briens.

I used to work for a company whom sold them the fillings.

I currently work for a company whom sell them the equipment and the rates are public knowledge(ESB, GAS) as are wage rates.

I have also eaten there at full price.

You would have to be off your rocker to eat there.

The mark up is extraordinary. However in the retailers defence the O'Briens Franchise is one of the most expensive in the country so a lot of the money is handed over to O'Briends themselves.

They will be hit during this recessionary times, no doubt.

For the cheaper sandwhichs head to a store with seating. Half the price!

Monkey61

What do you expect with O Brien's though? They are ridiculously overpriced and have counted cheese as a meat/main for ever. A lot of sandwich places do that though, it's not just them. Loads of Spar's and Centra's do it as well.

Tis for that very reason that if I wanted to buy a sandwich, I'd buy it in one of the Spar's that have a set price for a sandwich and you can get anything you want on it.

Ah...sandwiches.

Neonlight

I get a breakfast sandwich in obriens in finglas most mornings ,Toasted bacon and sausage tomato sandwich and a large cappucino sit in for eur 5.70 and get to read their newspaper .Seen a programme recently on channel 4 about the sandwich industry and subway had the highest level of salt found in their foot long roll than any other sandwich company in the uk ,In fairness i still think we should support an irish company like obriens rather than starbucks and subways etc.

jayteecork

Neonlight wrote: »

I get a breakfast sandwich in obriens in finglas most mornings ,Toasted bacon and sausage tomato sandwich and a large cappucino sit in for eur 5.70 and get to read their newspaper .Seen a programme recently on channel 4 about the sandwich industry and subway had the highest level of salt found in their foot long roll than any other sandwich company in the uk ,In fairness i still think we should support an irish company like obriens rather than starbucks and subways etc.

Sure all the Subways are Franchise operated.

The profits go to Irish people.

Neonlight

true but its still an American corp that owns master franchise,with over 30,000 outlets worldwide thats alot of franchise fees going back into the american economy.

Trampas

Also I notice about it that it is nearly toasted by standard so they get the extra €1 out of you.

But if you don't like the place then don't go there. Nobody forces anyone into the places.

Pythia

O'Briens have been doing this since at least 2002 in my local one so it's not new.

parsi

I've only been to an O'Briens once.

I had a fresh turkey sandwich which consisted of a slice of the turkey equivalent of picnic ham.

The coffee had to be sent back twice to get some sort of strength to it.

After that I vowed never to go back and haven't (thanks in no-end to the prices).

ball ox

the groutch wrote: »

what I hate about o'briens (apart from the 95c they charge you to eat in and sit on their desperatey uncomfortable looking chairs) is that the minumum charge is for meat and 2 fillings (and a few other places are the same)

the one time I was there I only wanted a ham sandwich and was forced to pay for 2 fillings I didnt even get

what I do now is go into supervalu or dunnes, buy a bread roll & 4 slices of billy roll, make my own for about €1.40

That used to do my head in, we used to go there for breakfast every morning in work and if you wanted toast you had to pay for meat & 2 filings :eek: