Chick-fil-A — Restaurant in Bowie

updated May 2024 I've ordered over 30 times since my below review, from August 2023. The food is consistently good and I haven't been acutely shorted anything. I'm adjusting my rating from three stars to five stars because of the sustained improvement. Thank you Rob and CFA Bowie Marketplace for being reliable!

original review from August 2023 below

I'm a CFA Signature Member - that means I eat my fair share of CFA yearly. The Bowie Marketplace has strayed from the high level of service that I used to appreciate so much - and I've been a patron since they opened.

Rob the operator no longer allows food customization. I used to love getting my chicken sandwich "well done" but now I'm not allowed to. This alone is ridiculous.

I typically order delivery on a night I'm wanting to save some time from making dinner. I can't count the number of times I have been missing a key component (i.e. the topping for a parfait, dressing for a salad, toppings for a salad, a straw for a milkshake, etc). Fairly regularly I'm short entire food items and it's barely worth it to expend the effort to get made whole. I used to love that CFA was so reliable; they use their own employees for delivery... the order accuracy and promptness was phenomenal. But for a long time now - and forgive me for not keeping track of the exact timeframe, but I will say at least the last year - the order fulfillment accuracy has been deteriorating.

On August 26, 2023 I ordered food for my wife and I for dinner. I was waiting for over an hour for it to arrive - much longer than the app said it would take - and tried to call the store to see if I needed to pick the food up. It is impossible to call the store. I've tried many times for various reasons. You will never, ever get through to the store by phone. They have a recording that says you should "google chat" them.

I have never used "google chat" in my life, so I stayed on the line and got transferred to some sort of CFA corporate call center. I was on hold here for over 20 minutes. I told them the problem - which at the time of my call, was that my delivery was missing and I couldn't reach the store by phone - and they apologized and took my info to "relay this info to the team." Basically, this was pointless and useless.

The app said food would be arriving between 8:13 and 8:28 pm. Food actually arrived at 9:21 pm. Fries were cold, soggy, and inedible. I knew I couldn't call the store, so I broke down and tried the google chat - they responded to me an hour later (59 minutes, actually) and said they would send me rewards through the app for my "inconvenience." They ended up sending me a free ice cream in my app. So to recap, they took over 100 minutes to deliver the food, all the food was cold, the fries were thrown away... and they send me one freakin' ice cream.

Rob and Jay, listen guys, your store needs to be accessible by phone. Your "crew" is slipping. You need to make a better effort to make things right for your food delivery customers. Due to the declining service, I now realize that I have definitely been unconsciously eating elsewhere because it's not "my pleasure" to have my order consistently absent items and/or...

Overall, this Chick-fil-A is good. The employees have been nice, respectful, and helpful on all occasions. Unfortunately there are two big downsides.

One is the order accuracy - orders are taken down correctly, however there's a breakdown between then and the time it gets to our hands. There have been many times we've received a 4ct nugget kids meal instead of the 6ct that was annotated and paid for, or there was an item or two missing. The most puzzling time was when the top bun of my chicken sandwich was missing.. However there has never been an issue with getting the orders corrected, and we've never been met with anything other than respect and kindness.

Two - the BIGGEST and most frustrating downside - dining in during the hours between 2:30pm-4:00pm (give or take 15-20mins) should be avoided. This is the time when teenagers, I'm assuming from the High School up the street, come in and completely take over. I've stopped going in and if need be will only go through the drive thru. The kids come in and they're fairly loud and profane. It's not just a handful, but somewhere between 40-60 kids. A number of them leave their trash around for the employees to clean up which can include food from surrounding establishments. I got frustrated for the employees and cleaned up a couple times for them when I had the opportunity. And I've been there on two separate occasions, with my young children, where fights have broken out with a small group of them. It's extremely disappointing because my kids love to go in and play in the play area.

Outside of the above mentioned hours, our experiences have been great!

And despite the daily wreckage, it is very well kept and clean in all areas,...

Update 6/7/24: The store replied with what amounted to "Delivery Costs/fees are out of our control." They offered to talk more, but did not provide a name, email, or phone to contact. And though the fees may be out of the local store's control, that doesn't change the fact that the same exact meal that would cost $12.00 on a walk-in doubles (to just under $25.00) for delivery. The 2 star rating holds due to the value (or lack thereof) of delivery. Do I expect to pay a little more for delivery? Sure... do I expect the price to double? No - that is outrageous.

Original Review:

Although the general things that many people like about Chik-Fil-A hold true here (decent food, service that is polite, friendly, and fairly prompt, a clean restaurant) - the Delivery option has to be 2*s - and thatis only because the delivery drivers are usually on time, and the order is correct. But the value - on the other hand...

I was going to order lunch today and have it delivered. an 8 piece grilled nugget meal with fries and a drink (Medium). When I first added the order to the app, I selected pick-up at restaurant out of habit... the cost of the meal was a $11.05... it would be around $12.00 with tax.

I deleted that meal and set up the same meal for delivery. The first shock- for delivery, the same meal costs $14.34. Then add in the Delivery fee ($4.99), the Small Order Fee ($1.50), and a tip for the driver ($3.00), and Tax (nothing can be done on that) - and this $12.00 pick up meal increases to $24.89... over double the cost... Chik-Fil-A - your food may be good, but it isn't $25.00 for a...