Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Calgary

We had a super disappointing experience here yesterday. It was my son's 15th birthday and we had pre-ordered a cake 4 days earlier.

He found a cake design he loved in the freezer, but wanted it to be a Mint Oreo blizzard flavor. So she wrote down the order sloppily (leaving out important details like the date - saying she'd just add it afterwards) she said she'd text the photo of the cake to the cake decorator - it was to be an exact replica of what they had in the freezer. Perfect we thought. So, we showed up yesterday to pick it up, and the cake was in no way what we ordered.

We ordered Gary the snail from sponge bob with wonky eyes... What we got was a muddy brown cake with a pile of Oreos on the top. ( We thought they were olives??!!) Very unappealing.

As soon as I noticed, I said it wasn't what we ordered and the cake decorator came over and realized the mistake. Apparently there was some sort of miscommunication with our order and it was unclear to her what was requested as the order was texted to her. She said she could make a new one for us, but it wouldn't be the blizzard flavor as they don't keep them in stock. We agreed to this because we had people coming for dinner within the hour, so she rushed to get it done (which we appreciate!!)

We ended up leaving with both cakes because of the mistake, which isn't as exciting as it sounds. I paid $43 for the blizzard cake and it didn't taste like Mint Oreo at all. Kiddo was sad about the mistake, as it's once a year he gets a birthday and the opportunity to pick a custom cake.

The decorator did a great job with the replacement cake. We appreciate her efforts greatly given the circumstance - she is talented and worked so fast to get it done for us. It wasn't perfect, but it was great considering she made it in ten minutes.

The person who took the order needs to be retrained or something - this never should have happened. For the price of a DQ cake, this has left a sour taste in our mouths. Not sure we...

Frequently slow service, attitude from employees who don't even act like they want to be there. I witnessed them forget an old ladies lunch, gave her a hard time when she asked for a refund, and then the same employee clocks out and is complaining about the lady to her friends in the dining room. The second star is only because I noticed they at least try to keep the restaurant clean.

Edited - March 8, 2024 I moved away and havent been back to this dairy queen since my last review, but today while driving by we stopped to get some lunch. After waiting in the store for 25 minutes, my wife returned to the counter to talk to, who we assumed was a manager in a black shirt, and let them know that our family had been sitting at the table waiting for our food. He replied "There was some confusion with the chicken, we will bring it right out" (I've personally never been confused by a chicken strip before). So we wait another 10 minutes, and after we still havent had our order brought to our table, i ask my wife to go get a refund.

Had they come out to our table and said "hey sorry 'X' happened and its going to delay your order" we would have been fine waiting, but instead I watched people come in after us, order, eat their food, and leave all before we had to reach out to them to find out about this "mistake".

At the cashier the person helping her is offering her a box of dilly bars, opposed to a refund, but my wife is lactose intolerant so we do not want a box of dilly bars, we want to go to another restaurant. Another manager calls the person helping my wife into the back, where they yelled loud enough the ENTIRE restaurant heard her, "this is ridiculous, just give her the cash"

Needless to say we will never be back, and while i can admit everyone has bad days at work, and a single person is not reflective of the restaurant, I hope that no other person hasto have an experience as...

I just had the most incredible, moving experience and needed to share this (quite honestly, in the hopes that some people learn to have more compassion. Kindness really does go a long way).

I had to go through the drive-through, but place three separate orders. The person who took my orders was quick, she knew exactly what to ask and repeated all of the orders back to me, perfectly. I'm a huge fan of when people are good at their jobs, so I offered to buy her whatever she wanted to enjoy on her next break.

When I got to the window, the manager was behind her and they told me that because of my kindness, they weren't going to charge me - she was just grateful for me and wanted to pay it forward. They packed the outrageous orders (which ended up being three full boxes from the back and three drink trays (lolz, #fitness). She was wearing a mask, but I could tell that she had been crying earlier.

She told me that she had an extremely hard day and that she had a few rough customers earlier and that what I had done really meant the world to them. I told her that I was thankful for her and thankful that they had been open. I appreciate them cooking for me, preparing an entire meal for my household (and heyo, snacks for later).

It's COVID, I'm sure they're short staffed, they're exhausted, they get abused regularly and that team today was clearly emotional. I really truly hope that this team gets recognized for their efforts because they deserve it.

To that team directly - thank you again. You made my day today and reminded me about how important it is to be kind because you never know who is on the receiving end of your actions. Stay safe - we appreciate you