DiBella’s Old Fashioned Subs

DiBella’s is a great place to stop if you need a quick lunch downtown. While it does get pretty packed for the lunch rush, the line is usually better than it looks and it moves quickly. I’ve had hot and cold sandwiches here and have always enjoyed them. I usually get a small or medium, occasionally going for a large if I will need lunch leftovers for the next day. It’s a little overwhelming with ordering if you’ve never been there before, so make sure you peruse the menu and know what you want before you step up to the counter!

This is by far my favorite sub place in Pittsburgh. Their bread is amazing. My go to is always the old fashioned grilled on plain bread. It comes with turkey, ham, and salami. If you haven’t tried dibellas yet you need to get there ASAP!

Great subs… Love the godfather sub always get it… Love the variety of oils that they use… There’s mostly a line but it seems to go by very quickly… Better than all the other sub places in my eyes…

A company came to my school and catered these for lunch and it was honestly one of the best subs I’ve had in my life! I feel like you’re probably thinking it’s just some bread and meat and fillings, so how good can it get? But the ingredients tasted so fresh. The bread had a unique grain-​y texture that wasn’t too firm and relatively healthy. I got a turkey sandwich and finished it so fast! Definitely want to stop by and check out the brick-​and-​mortar location, but I can attest to their simple yet great tastes and ingredients!

One of my favorite places to get lunch! The subs are tasty and the pasta salad is amazing! I love their special oil. The employees are very efficient, fun and friendly. The line always goes by really fast.

Seriously the best subs we’ve ever had! Amazing bread & delicious meat. Yummmm! It was lunch time on a Saturday & it was super busy. Service was very fast & friendly. We will be coming back here!

I wanted to like this more than I did. My co-​workers and I decided to stop in here for lunch yesterday, and I think everyone was happier with their sandwiches than I was. I go the DiBella dip, which is essentially a French Dip hoagie. And the dip was good, the roast beef was fine, and I ordered grilled peppers and onions to go with it. I got white bread, which was okay. On the whole, I think it was too lean. Which is why I ordered it in the first place, because it was just about the only hot sandwich that wasn’t over 1,000 calories in the medium size! I kept biting into it and dipping and thinking, «Man, some provolone cheese would help this a lot.» The ordering process also gave me a little bit of heartburn. You go up to an available person behind the counter and tell them what you want, so they go make it for you. What was unclear, however, was whether you’re supposed to wait until they hand you a sandwich right there, go pay first then wait, or what. In any event, they do have numbers that you can take, but it seemed to arbitrary as to who got their sandwich at the grill/​counter, or who needed to go pay then wait for it. So yeah. Just an okay experience. I may be convinced to return, but I probably wouldn’t seek this out again.

Everytime I visit Dibellas I have a flawless experience. No matter what time of day, how busy, who’s working, I always get great service and great food. My go to sub is the God Father, hot, on white bread with lettuce tomatoes provolone cheese and oil. and of course that chocolate chip cookie. When you walk in you’re facing a long dining area/​ordering line, which can be a little concerning when it’s jammed with people and the lines out the door, but their staff is prompt and efficient, and although sometimes they lack the personality to go with their great service, I’d rather have quick, quality food than a chatty, overly friendly employee– after all, that’s not what’s going to satisfy my hunger. And besides, when you’re working on getting people in and out and concentrating on orders with no end in sight, I’d say it’s expected to feel a little less chatty, and I’m ok with that! Continue to deliver quick service and great food, and I’ll continue coming back.

Stopped by on a whim for a sub with my daughter. I ordered the cheesesteak and meatball sub. Both subs were hot which is an A plus in my book. The bread was soft and fresh.
The meatballs tasted great. I’m always worried about ordering meatball subs and having the meatballs taste like they were out of the freezer. It did not disappoint.
I enjoyed my cheesesteak and would order it again.
I didn’t give this place five stars because like other Unilocalers mentioned it is a little confusing when you walk in, and the pasta salad is smothered in Italian dressing.
I would also like to see kid options. A simple grilled cheese will do.
These subs are way better than Subway!

Echoing what another reviewer has said about DiBella’s, the subs are good, the staff is friendly, but the ordering system is a little disorganized. I went on a slow Sunday afternoon and although there were several people working the counter, I couldn’t help but feel a little put-​off by the number system used for ordering. Instead of an orderly queue where an order is placed, you pay, etc., people wait in front of the counter where staff are making subs, and seemingly just shout out their orders to them before taking a number and going to wait.
I ordered the cowboy which was pretty delicious. The bread and ingredients were fresh and my sub was made to order.
The atmosphere is interesting: with big band music spilling through the restaurant sound system and a long row of booths and tables set in a cavernous tiled room resembling a New York City subway station.
Cleanliness left something to be desired as it was hard to locate a table that wasn’t dirty or covered with crumbs.
Overall, you come here for the subs and not the atmosphere obviously, and DiBella’s makes a good sub.

Amazing bread! Probably as good as it gets for a sub. I had the chicken Philly and the large was way too big, but delicious. Would love to try this place again because so many subs looked tempting.

I love this place! I’ve been in Pittsburgh since my Duquesne days! My friend introduced me to this place way back when and I’ve always come back! The bread is amazing and the portions on the sandwiches don’t disappoint. The speed is relatively fast, depending on what you order. The cookies are to die for and the pricing is about average. Must go

We stopped in today for lunch. We began at Grant Street and walked down Forbes turning our nose at every place since we have ate there 100x in the last 4 years.
We get to Market Sq and decide on DiBella’s since neither of us have been there.
I ordered «The Cowboy». which is cubed chicken, BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese and thick, smoked bacon. I enjoyed the sanwich and was surprised on the size of it.
Bobby ordered «DiBella’s Dip» shredded roast beef with the side of au jus sauce. You can order it cold or hot. He ordered it hot and added sauteed mushrooms, onions and peppers. He gave the sandwich two thumbs up and again the sandwich was huge. I have no intentions on heading back to Subway, Quiznos, Penn Station Subs (yuck) or Jimmy Johns. They know how to make a sub! Also, their bread was perfect!
Prices are pretty steep though. we each ordered the medium sized sub and made them both combos (medium drink + a cookie or bag of chips) Our total came to $ 25. Can’t really eat Dibella’s everyday but it will be a nice treat and I’m glad to have changed up my lunch routine.

Way better than Subway.

Stopped for a quick bite while walking around Market Square, and was not disappointed!
I got the chicken cheesesteak, small size, which was actually not that small at all. They packed my sammich with legit chicken breast strips (not the usual shredded kind), which was awesome. The bread! It was soft and so chewy!
There is a decent size dining room if you want to eat in. They also have options for other hot and cold sammiches.
A good option for a quick, cheap and delicious bite.

This was a first time visit and well worth the walk. I went with the medium Godfather combo. Huge size, awesome bread and meat/veggie’s made this a keeper. You always have to compare a hoagie to others and this dominates. I will be heading back down the road. I was scoping out the other subs at the table and I need to keep trying them out.

You down with OCD? Yeah, you know me. I’m down with OCD, yeah, you know me.
Okay, I’m a little obsessive compulsive and I like things to be orderly so that’s why I’m tempering my rating. The food itself was pretty good. My tasty cheesesteak with onions and peppers was only a medium but it was the size of a toddler’s arm!
The guy who took my order was friendly and the dude who rang me up was nice but the ordering and paying process was so disorganized that I nearly had a panic attack. Okay, it wasn’t that bad but the place where you ordered was clogged with people waiting for their food so it was tough to tell who was waiting to order and who was waiting for food. When you walk into a place and see a huge clump of people standing around, it doesn’t really welcome you into the place.
If they could separate the food delivery from the food ordering so that everything was linear and tidy, then it would make my very uptight soul incredibly happy.

For a sub shop, this place has a limited range of ingredients and an even unfriendlier staff. Upon entering, I was treated as if I didn’t know what I was doing — which was true — and also annoying because I was asking about vegetarian options. At that point, I’d leave a business, but I had limited time and don’t know the downtown area well. So, I ordered something that was overpriced and just filled with olives and roasted red peppers — which wasn’t filling so much as just satisfactory.
So, if you’re a vegetarian or vegan, stay away from this place.
Otherwise, I think meat-​eaters might like this. Truth be told, the service is what brings this review down. This must be a place where teenagers who don’t care go to work.

Can I just say the obvious here? It’s Subway, on steroids.
Everything is just about as similar as you can get. From how you order to how you pay. However, the most glaring difference here is the price. When I went to pay I about hit the floor. For their «medium» sub meal combo I could have had two foot longs at Subway.
The thing that I did fall in love with here was the bread. I know the other place bakes theirs fresh as well, but it does not compare to this. The crust kind of crumbles when you bite into it, and the innards are so soft and great at keeping what’s inside, inside. And do they ever load up what’s on the inside, I’m not talking about the fillers. I’m talking about the actually meat. I tasted more meat than veggie, which pleased me.
The one thing that I didn’t really like was not being able to see the toppings. It’s great that they interact with you, but it’s also hard to hear over everyone else that is in the restaurant. Plus I like to see that what is put on the sub is as fresh as the bread.
In summation, even though the price shocked me, the taste out shocked me. Is that a phrase? Oh well if it isn’t, I’m using it.

I loved DiBella’s! We had the godfather there and it was insane, we topped it with everything we could think of and then some. I liked all their options but if you’re a vegetarian they don’t offer a huge selection. It is however, worth taking a stop by and checking this place out.
I usually don’t go to delis so this place really blew me away!
The location isn’t the greatest, I love their subs but I wouldn’t trek all the way downtown for them.