McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in Apex

Most McAlister’s Delis are clean with well-trained employees, but this one is extremely poorly managed. Turnover appears to be rampant. Employees are surly and appear to hate life. They don’t wear clothes that identify them as employees.

The restaurant dining is dirty. If you sit in any of the booths, just wipe your finger down the top of the half wall. Months of dust.

When the place opened l, they had cherry, helpful employees to ask customers if they wanted refills. That never happens any more.

My wife and I once came in for dinner at 7:00 pm. We sat on the right side of the restaurant where there was a clean booth. The cashier who took our order came over and asked us to move to the other side since they were closing that side for the night — 2 hours before closing.

We walked to left side and all booths were empty but still cluttered with trash and dishes.

The employee cleaned one table and wiped the table but left it soaked. We asked her if she could dry it off. She looked angry, turned and walked to the kitchen to get a rag. She finally came out and half-assed dried it off.

During the entire dinner, we never saw a single person cleaning the right side of the restaurant.

Food is generally good.

I would hate to have access to McAlisters in Apex. But continued mismanagement, poor/no training for employees and a dirty restaurant will continue to turn off customers and the restaurant will fail.

I’ve sent multiple emails to McAlisters, but have never received and email or...

I recently visited the McAlister’s Deli in Apex and had an experience that left me uncomfortable and disappointed. After receiving my drink, I walked toward the left side of the seating area. A staff member behind the counter immediately asked me to sit on the right side instead. I didn’t think much of it at first—maybe the area had just been cleaned or was reserved.

However, shortly after I sat down, I noticed an African American man seated a couple of tables away on the right side. Within minutes, two Caucasian men came in, ordered, and sat on the left side—no one said anything to them. Then a Caucasian couple came in and did the same—again, no comment from staff.

This pattern felt too clear to ignore. Being asked to sit on one side while white customers freely sat on the other, without question, strongly suggests biased treatment. Whether intentional or not, it comes across as racial profiling and it is deeply disappointing in 2025 that these kinds of experiences are still happening in public spaces.

I hope McAlister’s management takes this seriously and provides proper training to ensure all customers are treated with equal respect...

Lunch was just ok, not good, not bad.

Baked potato soup tasted off, a little tart,... Maybe burnt ? It was a tan color rather than creamy color you expect with a potato soup. It looked more like browned burnt butter, but more off putting was the flavor - a unusually sharp or tart flavor. Either way, in our party of 4, both who ordered the soup(2) did not eat it. I asked for containers to take it home & let someone else try but never got that.

Baked potato was very good & wrap was also good. Spicy turkey sandwich was more bread than meat (not as full as photo) but still good flavor.

Pecanberry salad was ok - a few pieces of old, black, slimy lettuce mixed in but I was able to eat around those. The dressing never came with it on the side like expected. Portion size was great & flavor was good of what I ate.

I did not return food or ask for replacement because 1) it was very busy (1245sunday) and took 30 minutes to get our food the first time, 2) crowded at counter to walk up , 3) hard to catch someone walking thru on the floor (not...