Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Benton

I have been hesitant to write a poor review, but honestly, it is long overdue. My family and have been regulars at this location since it opened. Most of the time we go through the drive thru. Our experience over the past few months has been less that expected, but especially the past 4 times has been terrible. Our most frequent purchase is a blizzard, that here lately is more like a partially melted milkshake with either minimal “mix ins” (think Oreos in an Oreo blizzard) or they are all at the bottom because there were not properly “mixed in”. They no longer flip the blizzards to show how thick they are, this is a DQ signature that no longer occurs at this location. But, then again they would fall out of the cup if they did. We have had poor service lately with either incomprehensible or down right rude employees. Albeit part of the problems seems to be skeleton crew staffing, poor leadership, bad hiring practices or some combination of the three. That doesn’t change the fact that all employees that I have come into contact with over the past 4 visits I would fire immediately if I were the manager. Here are a few examples: The membership rewards scanner in window 2 of the drive thru is always “broken” (for more than the past two years) meaning that management is not addressing issues as they arise. This slows down processes orders and redeeming rewards for customers. The “go to” fix for having any sort of line in the drive thru is to constantly ask customers to pull forward to then wait for an employee to bring the food out of the back door, which is also the door they take trash out of. The about 7/10 employees are wearing dirty clothes, not just from that day. I worked in the kitchen of many restaurants when I was younger and I understand clothing can get dirty or stained but there comes a point when you have to wear clothing that presents as clean. I get it, not everyone can afford to buy new clothing all the time, but that is not what I’m saying here. This is where management has to make a business decision to address uniforms and provide the employees with proper clothing. Females who have unreasonably long fingernails to work in food service handling food without gloves. Employees in the kitchen never seem to wear gloves. This appears to be a location specific problem as the other locations I’ve visited do not seem to have the same problems. I have a vested interest in the Dairy Queen brand, this restaurant has tarnished the brand name so I would like for these issues to be addressed. I cannot in good faith recommend anyone visit this location, until these are addressed. There are better options...

Ordered blizzards at 2:32 pm, paid, and was asked to pull forward behind three already waiting vehicles. We quietly did so. At 2:55 tried to ask an employee if the order was started yet. We had an appointment to attend. No biggie, we just wanted a refund so we could head out. But we were ignored by the male employee coming in and out. So, I went inside to ask for a refund. Our order wasn’t even on the drive through line up board and we were not the only ones in the building wondering what happened to our order. Inside, When it was finally my turn to approach the counter, the lady kindly gave me a refund and apologized. However, when I returned outside, my husband finally got the attention of the male employee coming in and out to tell him don’t start our order because my wife got a refund. The male employee explicitly and inappropriately raised his voice at my husband and said, “We’re short handed, DAMN!” And returned inside. We understand being short staffed and backed up. But if the male employee would have remained calm and listened he could have heard we were simply telling him not to start the order. We were in the drive through for over 30 minutes with no progress on an ice cream order. Even short staffed, the line should have progressed some in 30 minutes. That did not happen and the male employee was clearly losing his cool, speaking and responding inappropriately. We’re leaving the review mainly because of the poor behavior of the male employee. But we’d like to suggest, it is not a good idea to have people pay then move forward when they are already behind. Because now customers are waiting double time if they need a refund. It would have been easier to leave without needing more assistance had they stopped accepting orders and payment for small increments of time in order...

I love to eat at Dairy Queen. I don't do these reviews very often. When I do, I try to balance praise with criticism. I'm sorry to say, this will be more of the latter. On 14 May 2025, I came to the DQ in Benton/Bryant, AR at approximately 3:45 pm. No one was at the counter. Someone hollered, "Be there in a minute." It was probably twenty seconds, or so, and a lady approached. She wouldn't even look at me and seemed to have a scowl on her face. She looked put out when I offered her a $20 instead of doing a card. She gave me my change. I waited for my receipt. As she ignored me, I pointed at the printer and asked, "Is that my receipt?" She told me yes and I took the receipt. As I got my drink, I considered that she may have just had a bad day. I have those to. But what happened next should never happen. I turned, with drink in hand, and searched for a table. None, and I mean NOT ONE, of the tables were clean. Trash and sheens of dried food stuffs were on every table. I had to set my drink on the corner of the table, wet a handful of napkins and wipe down my table. There is no excuse for nasty tables! I will give it a month or so and give them another try. If the tables are not clean, I will turn around, walk out, and probably never return to that DQ. I'm sorry, but I don't just go to a restaurant to eat, but to relax. It's hard to do that when the place is not clean. By the way, the burger and pretzel sticks were awesome! Well done.

Signed, A loyal but...