Cook Out — Restaurant in Athens-Clarke County Unified Government

I thought surely the many negative reviews couldn’t represent the average experience here. Unfortunately, the positive reviews must be either from a time when the location was managed differently or run by a different crew. The negative reviews absolutely represent the current state of this particular establishment. Normally, we love cookout. We have one at home that we enjoy almost weekly. We were traveling through Athens and stopped in for a late dinner, at around 11pm. This is never too late for good service at our usual cookout, but this one simply could not manage to get orders out. They also didn’t seem to be at all concerned with the quality of the customer experience they were providing. During the time we sat waiting in the drive-thru, we watched one car wait at least 10 minutes to be greeted at the ordering speaker, and another waited almost 15 at the pickup window for their food. If the snails pace of food delivery wasn’t enough to sour us on the place, the food that finally arrived sure did. In one tray, there were quite literally only four onion rings, surely the portion size is supposed to be greater than that. The quesadillas in another appeared to have been run over by a steamroller. A burger had so much crunchy grill scrapings on it it was deemed inedible. Apparently the grill was in desperate need of being cleaned. Another issue for us, and one I noticed in other reviews was the failure to get the milkshakes right. They were quite lacking in flavor and were poorly blended. I was not only truly surprised and disappointed in the whole experience, I was blown away by the sheer apathy with which this store seems to be run. This is truly a case where a total overhaul is needed. Cookout Corporate, take notice, and action! The cookie cutter reply you’ve sent to previous customer complaints won’t fix...

I've only been through the drive thru 4 or 5 times. 1 of those times I ended up going inside and ordering 2 chocolate banana milk shakes. I mean when a place advertises so many different flavored shakes, figured they were worth trying. So after ordering 2 shakes, I stood there for 10 mins as 5 or 6 people got their food and shakes. The young lady who rang me up at that time asked me what I ordered, so I had reminded her of 2 chocolate banana milk shakes. Some more time goes by and she calls me and hands me 1 milk shake. So I tell her again I'm waiting on 2 of them. While I wait on the other shake I decide to try the one that I have. Immediate disappointment because they gave me chocolate mint. I despise mint anything and can't understand why someone would want mint ice cream anyways. So I again informed the young lady that I ordered 2 chocolate banana milk shakes. Here comes the wait again. Finally I got 2 chocolate banana milk shakes. This was a 20 minute event and keep in mind I had food from the drive thru in the truck. Get going down the Rd and guess what? It was chocolate banana flavored. But it wasn't blended. So basically I had chocolate soft served ice cream with a whole banana cut into 4 pieces at the bottom of the cup. This was indeed the case for the 2nd shake as well. So I didn't give up on Cookout's shakes. On my last visit there I ordered a butterfinger shake while in the drive thru. Got going down the Rd and tried it and the taste of milk that was on the verge of turning, was verified by my better half. So for an affordable decent meal cookout is a great choice, but fall short on their capabilities in making the many flavoured shakes that they...

The place was slammed, but it seemed to take far longer than it should to get an order to go. To be fair, a large party (9 - 10?) was waiting for their order when I arrived. But they were already complaining about the length of time they had waited.

As I waited, I observed one poor individual have to go back to the counter three or four times because his order was incorrect. He spoke with the manager at least twice.

Approximately 20 minutes into my wait the first large party got its food.

Several friends who were sitting together - they trickled in in twos and threes - ordered just before me. They finally got all of their food orders just as I got mine.

The young man behind the counter apologized for the wait. That was nice. And earned this review its third star.

I had fairly low expectations of the food I received. Still, I was disappointed when I unpacked my order a less than 10 minutes later.

My float was mostly melted. And those things usually take forever to reach that point. I assume that it was made right after my order was placed and sat for 20 minutes while the rest of the order was being made.

The fries were luke warm. The burger was poorly wrapped in foil. The foil was torn and the burger no very hot as a result. The meat was also not very good, a bit like a slightly charred hockey puck. I took this as an indication of how much stress the cook was under.

To sum things up, the experience was not awful. I don't allow myself to eat "fast" food very often, I doubt I will ever go back.

The Cook Out on the west side is much more efficient and the food...