Most of us look for a bargain when we go out to eat. We like to still have money left after leaving a restaurant. If money is tight and you want to eat somewhere, this is the place for you.

Located at 40 South Main St. in Wilkes-Barre, Carol’s Deli & Bakery has a wide variety of options on the menu. There are many different types of sandwiches and hoagies. Side orders include french fries and mini potato pancakes, and they have a daily soup and also hot dogs as well. They also have the normal breakfast items served until 10:30 a.m., and desserts range from cupcakes to zucchini muffins.

I didn’t see anything on the menu over $10. The average sandwich or hoagie ranges between $4 and $5 and comes with a bag of chips.

I’m a huge grilled cheese lover so I decided to order that. The bag of Middleswarth chips came out first, and I ate them as my appetizer. I was loving this place already because of the chips. My grilled cheese sandwich came out relatively fast. The sandwich was nice and buttery with hot, gooey cheese in the middle. The bread — I believe it was sour dough — had a nice texture.

Overall, the sandwich was just as good as that served in our Wilkes University cafeteria. It’s kind of hard to mess up a grilled cheese sandwich, though.

A customer sitting behind me tried the mini potato pancakes. I asked her what she thought of them and she said she really enjoyed them

“They reminded me of the potato pancakes I get at a summer bazaar,” she said.

As for the food and price, I would rate this place very high. However, if I were to rate it on service and atmosphere, it would be a whole different story.

My waitress didn’t even come to my table to take my order. She stood behind the counter and asked me what I wanted. She did at least bring the food over to the table and asked how my meal was.

The décor on the walls is nice, but all the employees seemed grumpy. Not one of them had a smile on their face. I understand we all have bad days, but their attitude totally ruined the atmosphere in this restaurant.

The end of my meal was frustrating because I didn’t have any cash on me. The only thing I had was my check card. Not anywhere in the restaurant was there a sign that said they only accept cash. When I got to the register, an employee told me their machine was down. I had to walk to the back of Provincial Towers and go all the way over to the Martz bus station to use their ATM. Because it was a private ATM, I had to pay a fee to get money out.

I haven’t been at this restaurant in over a month, so hopefully they got their card machine fixed. But bring cash just in case.

1.5 stars out of 5