Zaxby's Chicken Fingers & Buffalo Wings — Restaurant in Bartow

If you’re looking for an absolutely miserable fast-food experience, might I recommend the Zaxby’s in Bartow? We had the privilege of visiting this fine establishment today around 4 p.m., and let me tell you, it was an unforgettable experience—mostly because I’ll never be back.

The guy taking our order was an absolute delight. And by that, I mean he was rude, impatient, and apparently allergic to listening. He spoke over me multiple times, because who needs to actually hear what customers are saying, right? Efficiency at its finest. He also had a charming little quirk of dropping literally everything—including people’s change—on the floor. Nothing says "quality service" like watching your money bounce around on the dirty parking lot and leaving your car to chase bills around.

Then, there was the infamous sauce debacle. Now, let’s be clear: this is NOT the employee’s fault. This is the result of some power-tripping manager or owner who seems to think harassing customers over a $0.25 sauce cup is the key to saving his failing business. Here’s how it went down: We got our food, and—shocker—no sauce. When we asked for some, we were told it was $0.25 each unless they forgot to put it in the bag. Well, considering there was NO sauce in the bag, we figured that would qualify, right? Wrong. The guy then asked for our receipt to "verify" if we had even ordered sauce. Because, clearly, the sauce scammers of the world are running rampant, and this establishment simply won’t stand for it. We left, sauceless, with our quarters we were trying to buy sauce with in our hand.

Now, let's talk about the food. If you enjoy cold, rubbery chicken tenders and soggy, lifeless fries drowned in enough seasoning to make a salt mine jealous, then you’re in for a treat. Maybe—just maybe—the excessive seasoning would have been tolerable if we’d had the sauce we were willing to pay for. But instead, we had to make the tough decision to cut our losses and throw away $25 worth of inedible disappointment.

In the end, we found salvation at a gas station, where a humble burrito came to our rescue. It was hot. It was edible. It didn’t require a full-blown interrogation to obtain condiments. A true five-star meal compared to the circus that was Zaxby’s.

So, to whoever is running this establishment into the ground: Congratulations. If your goal was to create the most unpleasant dining experience possible, mission accomplished. But I have bad news—penny-pinching over sauce cups isn’t going to save your job / business. Neither is serving food that tastes like it was prepared by someone who lost a bet. Maybe focus on fixing the real problems instead of nickel-and-diming...

If there was a way to rate this place in the negatives I would. Within our order we ordered “all flats” traditional wings for part of a wings and things meal and a 10 piece wings. I’m assuming it was the manager who approached the counter and said “we’re not doing all flats we don’t ever do that” even though it’s an option to select and they upcharge for it? She proceeds to finish ringing up the order for the young boy who initially started it and had a bad attitude the entire time. She gave us our cups so we stepped away to get our drinks while they made my daughter’s frozen lemonade behind the counter. I saw her bringing it to the counter and she looked at me coming to her and proceeded to walk the other way with the drink and set it somewhere else rather than hand it to me. Once we got our food the wings I received for the 10 count traditional were absolutely disgusting. I took one bite and noticed chicken was gray, dry and tough to chew like it had been sitting out all morning. They weren’t even lukewarm, they were cold and had a nasty taste. So I walk back up to said assumed manager at the counter and asked to have them made fresh. She again had an attitude. She walked back to the kitchen talking to one of the cooks while staring over at me. Literally 2 minutes goes by and they bring out a plate of wings to me. Barely hot. Like they reheated it in a microwave. Still tasted disgusting. Still had a nasty texture. And 5 drums on the plate instead of all flats like we requested and paid for. I ended up eating maybe two and threw them away. I’ll be surprised if I don’t end up with food poisoning before the end of the afternoon. Save yourself the time, and money and don’t think that this place will be a good option to stop for a bite. You get served up nasty attitude, nasty food and the possibility of vomiting for the days to come. This place needs to...

Foremost the worst experience when though the drive thur ordered the quesadilla and my daughter the chicken finger box Both items wasn't right the young lady at the drive thur after looking at the food told me to go inside. hungry arrived for service at 11:20 am at left at 11:45am first order wasn't made right, they did a courtesy and remade the order, second order was being handed to me by the cashier lady she stop as she was handing the bag to me started to look inside the bag and I asked are you looking at the food and she said no I was closing the Box mind you she was dealing with a customer I would have closed the box if I noticed the Box is open but I never got my hands on the bag, she turns to the assistant manager to tell her that I had a problem with her digging in the bag I just didn't know what she was digging in the bag for. Just a general questions it's my food the assistant manager said that the Box wouldn't close it was okay it wasn't no problem but they decided to refund me the guy in the light blue shirt I thought he was the general manager he agreed with me and they offered to make the food again that would have been three times and it was no need for that so I said no but still wasn't handed the bag to me 😔 threw away both platters and return my money Wow ..It's a very pricey place to receive no courtesy and bad...