The Mix: Sandwich Works

Very slow service in the drive through. Second time trying and it was actually worse than the first time! Delicious gyro but allow for a lot of time!

Is this a fancy place? NO! Is it a pretty basic menu? YES! I will say I’ve always been hesitant of this place passing it but one night at work we got delivery because the ladies LOVED this place and I was impressed! We have ordered twice and both times whoever answered the phone was friendly, our food was delivered in good time and was hot and most importantly the food was really awesome and affordable. I have got the gyro both times… for under $ 6 this sandwich is HUGE and the meat was good. Possibly the biggest I’ve had, I was impressed. Two ladies said they always order this also. One lady gets the friend chicken everytime which looked and smelled great! Fries were very basic as Im sure some other items are that I might not waste my time with.

Usually order a burger and fries, food is good. Service is not so good. When I call in an order to pick up, they don’t even start cooking it until I get there. The whole point of calling it in is it being ready and it never happens. I always ask myself why I even bother going back

The food is really good and I love how the menu is very diverse without having an overwhelming number of choices. Most places that shoot for this type of variety seem to only do a couple of things good and the rest are mediocre at best. I can honestly say that everything I’ve had from The Mix has been delicious. The gyros are great and the portion size is very generous. The italian beef and italian sausage are both great. The burgers are good. The wings were a pleasant surprise. Most places with a menu like this have wings that are very very obviously frozen and poured from a bag, with a generic flavor to the breading. The Mix either does their own breading and makes their own wings, or they’ve found a way to make them equivalent to that type of quality without putting that level of effort in. The breading is delicious, seasoned perfectly, crispy without being hard and crunchy like frozen wings often are, and the meat inside was very juicy and cooked just the right amount.
The downfall of The Mix seems to be the service. I’ve been there times where my service was fantastic, but the majority of the times it has been very poor. I get the impression that they have a handful of part time workers, then likely the owner or manager and possibly some family members working there. I say this because the times I’ve had great service the person appeared to be in a management role of some sort and they were extremely polite and attentive. Way above and beyond what you would expect at a fast food style place. But the workers that have provided poor service are the complete opposite end of the spectrum. The reason I wonder if they’re part time is that I rarely see the same rude employee twice despite the fact that I’ve had very poor service there multiple times. Maybe management is aware of it and removes the people with the poor attitude and that’s why I don’t see them again. Good help in this business is always hard to find.
I’m truly not hard to please when it comes to service. I worked in the service industry and I am always very polite to the person on the other side of the counter (or drive through window), and incredibly forgiving, so it generally takes a lot for me to be bothered by service level. One example is the last time I ate there I went through drive through. The girl working drive through took my order and immediately took payment when I pulled around. When she opened the window to take payment she didn’t even speak to me and barely looked at me. She just held out her hand for me to give her my money. She rang it through, handed me my receipt and shut the window without saying a word. Then I sat at the drive through window for nearly 20 minutes without a peep from her. Not a «your food is almost ready» or a «sorry for the wait». When she did come back to the window she didn’t have much to say (basically just «here» when she handed me the bag). She came across as rude and apathetic. Like I said, I’m very forgiving… but in this particular case I felt like she did a terrible job from start to finish in almost any way she could. I couldn’t think of a single thing to pinpoint as the silver lining to her bad service, other than the fact that the food was delicious and my order was correct, both of which she likely had nothing to do with. Unfortunately, when I say I’ve had poor service there before this is the type of situation I mean. Each time it’s happened, it’s been different from this particular situation but just as bad.
I honestly hope The Mix sticks around. The food is great, and I’m always a big fan of seeing local businesses still succeed despite being next door neighbors with national fast food chains. The irony is, besides the fact that I think the food at national chains isn’t very good, I’ve always said the service at national chains is bad enough that they aren’t worth bothering with unless you have absolutely no alternative. The Mix may have better food than national chains, but there are several places in Peoria that serve the items The Mix has. Their menu may be diverse, but if you know you’re in the mood for one particular thing on their menu there’s definitely at least a couple other places in town that do that one thing just as well. The poor service of national food chains is something they haven’t managed to differentiate themselves from. If rude employees and twenty minute wait times can be expected, I’m willing to bet most people with just go elsewhere. If they aren’t insistent on having something on the menu from The Mix, you have McDonalds, Taco Bell, Popeye’s, Long John Silvers all within a couple blocks. And if you do want something from the menu at The Mix, you could drive to another restaurant with similar food in about 3 minutes. If it weren’t for the service I’d eat their once a week. Hopefully they find a way to improve upon that and stick around.

Typical fast food place with burgers, hot dogs, Italian beefs, gyros, and the like Everything I’ve had there has been good, though the fries are average at best. I usually go between the Italian beef (or combo with Italian sausage), gyro, chicken pita, or Maxwell Street Polish. Haven’t been disapointed by anything here, yet.