Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Ottawa

My initial impression of this location was very pleasant. The lady who took order for my son’s birthday cake is truly sweet & a pleasure to talk to. Too bad I didn’t ask her her name. Anyway, fast forward to 2 days later when I picked up the cake for my son’s birthday party… My house was swamped with guests & we were getting ready to cut the cake( which looked pretty) when someone noticed ‘something’ dripping off the cake box! I rushed to check what could possibly be the issue with my cake which was sitting pretty on my kitchen island for over half an hour, when to my utter horror, I found the cake had started melted!!!! IT WAS A SLAB OF SUGAR lmLESS ICE CREAM IN THE DISGUISE OF A CAKE!!!! And I had no clue! I say ‘ ice cream slab’ because it wasn’t even an ice cream cake. Just pure slab of ice cream with nothing else whatsoever in it!

The entire cake melted before we could cut it! It was nightmarish and so so sooo sad, especially since my 3 year old was desperately wanting to have his spider-man cake! I was later told the store only did ice cream cakes! Should it not be mentioned/put up/ advertised somewhere at least?? Or at the least mentioned by the staff? Sure it was a classic case of misunderstanding but what saddens me is that I had specifically mentioned to the lady at the counter how it’s my first time at DQ & I have no clue about their cakes & would go with her recommendations. Only if she had mentioned that they do ice cream cakes! Plus when she suggested ‘all chocolate’, she mentioned how it’ll be a layer of chocolate in between and on top. One would naturally believe it’s a rich decadent chocolate cake they are ordering. Not once did I get an impression that it’d be a slab of chocolate ice cream with a spiderman design printed on it! I had requested for the cake to be not extra sweet if possible & had in fact requested in the notes for the vanilla & chocolate combo that I initially had in mind ( since I was told the cake is prepared a night before the delivery & I had almost instantly gone home & emailed them the print in design with flavour request leaving them with ample time to get my order right which still unfortunately got screwed up)but now I am stuck with a disfigured,colorful mass of bland, unsweetened chocolate ice cream that doesn’t even taste like an ice cream! Not to mention that my 3 yr old never got to cut his birthday cake & the guests & we were flabbergasted beyond words! Only if I could go back in time! Only if the store had not assumed that every single person who walks through the door is aware that they make ice cream cakes or would have hinted or mentioned it somewhere or sometime during the conversation or lest of all picked it up when I said it’s my first time coming to DQ for cakes. I would have probably felt slightly less bad if it was at least an ice cream cake( with an actual layer of cookie crumble or flour) and not just pure sugarless slab of chocolate ice...

I recently came to the Dairy Queen in Signature centre and am appalled by the behaviour of staff and many other things. Just standing at the counter you could hear members of management saying absolutely awful things about their fellow coworkers. I wouldn’t expect this from anyone especially in a professional setting. Then as you’re waiting you can again hear management screaming at young employees I even witnessed one run to the back of the store to escape from the humiliation the manager was inflicting on them. I am disgusted beyond belief with the treatment of the staff here. I’m not sure if the manager is aware of this but he needs to be made aware as soon as possible. When in this location I waited 10 minutes when there were only 2 other people there. While waiting I noticed the horrible hygiene and I’m appalled. Theres icing and food chunks all over the counters, they never washed their hands properly after touching nuts and their personal items such as phone. When I was handed my blizzard there was all sort of gross things on their hand.

When I came in later I was unnoticed by employees as I came through the alternative entrance in the back of the store. They had one employee cleaning the lobby and bathrooms while the rest of them stood on their phones or were outside smoking.

The washrooms stank as well. There were fece stains in the toilets and the general bathroom looks like it has never been cleaned ( I guess that’s because everyone was sitting around and doing nothing except one poor girl) Many of the tables had lots of crumbs and various dairy products spilt.

I’m disgusted and do not recommend this...

Update May 24th: I received a call from Teresa at DQ - Signature Center apologizing for our recent drive thru experience. They took full responsibility for the breakdown in customer service. The fact someone contacted me by phone to apologize says so much about the ownership team. We will try this location again and see what happens.

Thank you Teresa.

On May 21st, my wife and I decided to try the Dairy Queen drive thru for the first time since moving to Kanata recently. As we were going through the line up, we accidentally forgot to place our order for two chocolate dipped ice cream cones at the kiosk. When we got to the window, a server (taller, heavy man with short brown hair) addressed us abruptly. When I ordered our cones, he responded, “in addition to”. I was confused and said in addition to what? He realized we didn’t place our order and rudely said, “we have a line up around the building and don’t have time to take an order at the window”. I explained we didn’t hear a voice at the kiosk and kept moving forward. He then shut the window in our face. We were rather shocked and appalled at the lack of regard for his customers. It was an honest mistake on our part that has left us with a horrible customer experience at...