The Real Deal

Pricey for what you get. Sandwiches have been fresh but we are never blown away. On par with a subway sandwich, perhaps a step up but not by much. Would recommend that they take a peek at Darwin’s Ltd in Cambridge, perhaps they can inspire some healthy competition.

Will never order or eat from here again, I ordered food, they said 20 minutes… I walk in a half hour later, all the employees are hanging around, and the lady at the register says they haven’t even started your order yet, mine you all employees are hanging out… bad business

WOW ARE YOU KIDDING ME??? I literally order from the Real Deal multiple times a week (at the West Roxbury location) and I can NOT believe the way I was treated today by the workers in Jamaica Plain! I just waited 1.5 hours for my food which now I guess I will not get. I, after almost two hours, get a call from the Real Deal telling me that I ordered at the wrong location. AFTER 1.5 HOURS??? You already charged my card! How was that not caught when I placed my order? How was this not caught after my food was made? The girl on the phone went on to tell me that my food isn’t even at the store!!! That the driver already took it with them to deliver it??? HOW WAS THIS NOT CAUGHT BEFORE THE DRIVER LEFT THE STORE??? When I questioned how this could happen the girl YELLED AT ME and then HUNG UP ON ME??? When I called back the manager basically told me oh well, we will talk to her, and that is it! Since when can you work in customer service and yell at and hang up on customers? My coworkers and I are nurses, we have specific times we can eat, and now we are shit out of luck. I love your food, as I said, I order there multiple times a week and so do my coworkers. Now I guess we will have to consider taking our business elsewhere. Thanks a lot Real Deal Jamaica Plain.. . Also at this address 300 South Street Brookline, the Jamaica Plain location is 1.4miles away and the West Roxbury location is 1.5 miles away…

Horrible delivery. Cold fries. A few blocks from my house took over an hour. Chicken ranch sub is good though. Sad fries. Small cup of them and cold. Not worth the time or money when the could have gotten jphop for half the time and less money.

I ordered a sandwich in line right behind my friend and waited approximately 25 minutes after she finished her food before mine was ready? Very bizarre. Not worth the wait for a sandwich that was mediocre at best.

A bit pricey but usually it’s worth it. They have the best buffalo chicken pizza i’ve ever had and amazing sandwiches, depending on who makes it for you (a few times they’ve skimped on the turkey or given me soggy bacon). Overall it’s probably my favorite place in JP.

I am regular over at the West Roxbury Real Deal and Comm Ave. The food is always fantastic! Today I found myself over in Jamica Plain and I figured I would grab a sandwich there. I ordered the Enforcer Penini it took 30 mins with only few people in there when I ordered. So I took my sandwich back to work and when I opened up the box the cheese and bacon where missing from the Penini along with that it was cold! I am one not to complain but it’s night and and day from the other stores and I figured some should here about how bad the Jamica Plain location is. Not only did they get the sandwich wrong the place inside was filthy I won’t be going back to Jamica Plain Real Deal anytime soon.

I had a large order. We split up the orders so we could accommodate those of us who payed with cards as opposed to cash. We all got charged separate delivery fees for each individual item and I found plastic in my sandwich. We ordered the Italian sub and got charged for the «top shelf Italian» which was five dollars more. The burgers on the Frankenstein we ordered was not cooked medium rare as requested it was well done. The e.b. Melt had so much hot sauce on it the bread was soggy and inedible. Not happy at all with this food. The pieces of plastic in our food was just the last straw of a horrible experience!

Quick (not fast) food that is delicious with plenty of options! A great alternative to fast food, the Real Deal is just that– a real deal made with real ingredients and zero parts I’m not really sure what I’m eating.
Creative combinations for everyone, refined palate or not, kids and adults alike. Lots of vegetarian and vegan options– cheaper than a sit down restaurant (though there is seating available) and a little more expensive than fast food (waaay better quality and options!)
Quick, delicious and always a good choice.

I went to the Real Deal on Beacon Street near Cleveland Circle. This is the second time I have been there for lunch. Both times they were busy with in house guests, take-​out and delivery. Watching the execution of the team was very inspiring to watch. I have been in the restaurant business for over 30 years and they are good. The food is simply delicious. The service is over the top. When a guest was not happy, they were willing to go above and beyond for that guest. I will be back to the REAL DEAL not once but several times. Mike Black and his team are exceptional. If you do not try this hidden gem, you will miss out on greatness!

The service here seems to be getting worse and worse as I keep ordering. Maybe that’s a sign. Pizza is a great size and well-​priced, but as mentioned before, the staff will tell you there isn’t more pizza coming and then they will toss a fresh pie up in the window. I have also had a panini here before which was average, but not worth anything close to the $ 10 charged.
The burgers are where their service is rocky. I change up my meats once in a while, and whenever I get a turkey burger it’s perfectly fine. However, when I order Angus beef, oftentimes they will not cook it the way I specified. On one occasion, the burger I ordered was waaaay too rare and unfortunately I had already brought the meal home with me and ended up trashing it. The fries and the buns are very soggy, too. If you ask them to toast the buns a bit more, they come back burnt.
Also, their current seasonal burger as of 7÷7÷2015 is the Kick N Crunch Burger, which is EXACTLY the same as their T Rex burger. I just read another review about them smoking blunts in the parking lot out back, so perhaps whoever thought of this «new» seasonal burger was high when they thought of this brilliant idea. Also, it’s supposedly comes with bacon, cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and a fried egg. Mine came with cheddar, lettuce, tomato, and onion. What happened to the bacon and egg? I’ll never know.

Just decided to try The Real Deal for the first time, and it was great!
The Enforcer Panini — loads of turkey, slightly spicy and plenty of bacon… mmmmm
Corn and Avocado Salad — really big portion, lots of fresh tomatoes and avocado
And the very nice delivery guy arrived in less than 25 minutes!

It’s really unfortunate because this place legitimately has some of the best pizza (in terms of size and general quality) in JP. However, I once ordered their chicken-​bacon-​ranch sandwich and I got very, very sick: vomit (amongst other ailments) for 3 whole days, most likely because one of their employees didn’t wash their hands. Eater beware.

Friendly counter staff, but got a remarkably bland hamburger — absolutely tasteless. And it was supposed to have avocado on it, which was missing. Had the option of curly fries, regular fries or onion rings. Asked for curly but got straight. Wish I’d walked a few blocks to Grain Fed.

I got a veggie burger (no cheese and added grilled onions) with curly fries. The burger was actually amazing, and it can take a lot for a veggie burger to be that good ;)
I had also had the asian chicken salad (without the chicken before) and that was also really good.
Its affordable but the wait for the food can take a while.

I work in JP and have been to this establishment many times. It’s hit or miss in general.
It doesn’t bother me that the crew smokes blunts in the back parking lot or that I get the runs from their food from time to time. This does bother me:
(Limited slices left)
ME: Any new slices coming out?
CASHIER: No
ME: OK, Ill just have a chicken alfredo slice.
(Cashier throws it in the oven)
(Delivery driver also grabs a slice, bites it twice, chews it, then throws it in the oven next to mine)
(Pizza maker takes out fresh pizza and puts in in the rack)
(My slice comes out, lukewarm)
Sorry, but you can’t try to have worst appearance/​service. I won’t be going back.

Ordered take out. Took about 45 minutes to be delivered. Ordered the grown up grilled cheese with brisket… Soooooo yummy. I cannot wait to order this again. I also purchased a side of curly fries, nothing out of the ordinary and were tasty. The menu has good options, I am looking forward to ordering from here again and trying other items that looked delicious.

I would like to preface this by saying, the food is delicious and gets 5 stars. The 3 missing stars are for service.
Today was my 4^th time ordering from Real Deal and I think it may have been my last, unfortunately. Without fail, each time my colleagues and I have ordered from Real Deal, the delivery was late, whether the order was made via the website or phone. On the phone, whoever takes the order generally says the order will take about an 45min-​1hr (which, to me, is already super long for orders that usually consist of things like salads and sandwiches). But, since we like the food, we plan accordingly and practice patience. Only, it never takes «just» an hour — it’s taken an hour and a half to almost 2 hours to get our usually cold and sometimes soggy food. Not only have we gotten our food way too late, there’s always something wrong or missing. Last time I ordered they just completely forgot my soup and it took them another 30 minutes to bring it to me.
I understand that they’re busy, especially during lunch in a busy city, but I’m not sure how long it’ll take for the business to catch up to the demand. All I know is I don’t have time to wait! It honestly feels like there’s one cook and one driver. It’s sad because the food is great (when you get what you ask for and its still fresh).

I ordered from the seasonal specials: Grown Up Grilled Cheese #38. I chose this item because it was $ 6.25 and featured on Phantom Gourmet.
Omg. While I wouldn’t call it grilled cheese, this was the best sandwich I’ve had… maybe ever. So delicious and filling. I could only take a picture of half the sandwich because I wasnt able to put it down until half way through. I ordered fries because I didn’t think it would be enough food but after only half of the sandwich I’m stuffed. They should add this to the permanent menu.

Spicy curly fries.
YAY. ‘Nuff said.
The Matador.
(hot-​pressed panini with grilled chicken, sliced CHORIZO sausage, sautéed peppers and onions, cheddar cheese, & kick’n bayou sauce)
b. and I were sad when they took this off their panini list. So we were super excited when it reappeared recently on their specials. Curious, we asked the guy behind the counter why they had removed it in the first place. He said that it was because not that many people were ordering it (what?!) but since chorizo has become more popular lately (about damn time!), they put it back as a special. To keep it on there, he asked us to spread the word and tell people to order it more. So GO ORDER IT.
Wolf Man.
(monster burger with cheddar cheese, bacon, over-​medium egg, & sriracha mayo)
I only got this the one time and will probably not order it again anytime soon since I still want to live a little longer. I mainly wanted to include it in this review so to warn others. It was a good burger but damn, I thought I was going to keel over and die of a heart attack afterwards. I think it might have been the egg that was overkill for me since eggs can be fairly filling on their own. But sriracha mayo! YAY for sriracha!
The fourth star is purely for the service. Every time b. and I have been in, everyone has been friendly and helpful. There is one guy in particular (the one that was telling us to recruit more chorizo eaters) that is super friendly and welcoming. YAY.