McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in Bristol

AN HOUR OF MY LIFE I CAN NEVER RECLAIM - ONE OF THE WORST RESTAURANTS !!!

We came here the first week they opened. The food was okay, not great but it was the first few days. Staff was fairly friendly. Tonight, I went back with my three teens to try it out again. Wow, Wow, Wow (and not in the good way!)

We ordered and went to sit down. All of the tables on the far end were dirty and most in the middle. We finally found a long table that was clean. The kids and I were happy to try this place as we had been to them before in Texas. We sat and waited for our food, and waited, and waited, and waited. After 20 minutes, we talked about getting a refund and heading to Chick-Fil-A. But no, we decided to stick it out - our mistake. We were really hungry when we got there. Finally at 35 minutes, one of my sons received his sandwich and soup. The soup was hot, the sandwich was not!

I went to find napkins. I went over to the service area with the straws - no napkins or straws. I passed two people waiting for their meals and said good luck. They were leaning on the wall and looked tired. The lady asked what was going on. I told her we had waited almost forty minutes and had finally received one sandwich. She told me she worked for corporate at McAllisters. She apologized for the wait and tried to make an excuse that the staff had had some changes since they opened and they were trying to work out some of the finer points.

I noticed they were bringing my daughter her sandwich. I headed back to the table and my oldest son and I finally received our sandwiches almost 5 minutes after the first sandwich came. Still no napkins. My daughter had to go up to the counter to find someone to provide napkins and a fork for the potato salad. My sandwich was lukewarm at best. My daughter's sandwich was cool and disgusting. It was a big sloppy mess of sauces that tasted as though they had turned bad. (Southwest chicken) No one at the table could tolerate the taste. We left the entire sandwich. All of the other sandwiches were so-so and none of us finished the dry and mushy excuses for food. The manager checked in with people who had recently arrived but was conspicuously trying to avoid all the tables that had waited for forever to get their food.

He finally came by and says "everything going well?" I immediately told him it was not. It was ridiculous that we had had to wait as long as we did. He apologized and said they had 5 people call in sick from the kitchen. I told him that at the very least someone should have come out and informed all the tables that were waiting that it would be quite a while. He asked me to wait a minute and went off. He eventually came back and gave me two VIP cards. He started in with the half hearted apology again and said he hoped we'd try them again. I was actually more irritated by now and said I doubted we'd be back and I certainly wasn't happy that we'd spent $49 and they wanted to comp us for 2 meals in the future. He said oh I can get you two more and went off to get two more cards. After he brought them by, I told the kids maybe we could give them to a charity.

When we started to leave, the lady in the red top who had spoken to me earlier came over and said she just wanted to apologize again. She assured me that this wasn't the norm. She told me that they were short staffed and had received a call-in order for 60 earlier in the evening. Just when I thought things couldn't get worse! Seriously, why on earth would any restaurant that is short staffed accept a large unexpected order without proper notice?

This location is a disaster. I'm usually willing to give restaurants a second chance especially when they are new. The only thing epic about this was in the magnitude of their incompetence. It takes a special place to prepare lukewarm food with 40 minutes of prep time. I know one thing for sure - we certainly...

The cashier was nice enough while my family and I were ordering our food. There are no napkins, silverware, or condiments at the service station. Once we sat down we waited 30 minutes for the first meal to arrive and the other 4 meals arrived 2-7 minutes later. We were never brought napkins with our meals and had to go up and ask for them and a fork. While across from our table, people who had just sat down got their food in about 2 mins. The food was not hot and my meal was disgusting. It was like the food had been under a heater. The mashed potatoes tasted more like food service. Everyone who got their food quickly got asked how it was, while everyone who got their food 30-40 minutes late never or rarely got asked. When the server walked by he asked how our food was. When we said not good it didn't seem like he was apologising sincerely. He proceeded to go away, to find a manager we assumed, and he didn't return for quite a while. The server returned, with no manager or anyone of higher position, and gave us two "vip coupons". My mom took them but she doesn't plan to come back. She felt insulted that we got handed 2 coupons, that aren't worth much, for 4 meals, a dinner that cost $50. The server brought out 2 more coupons, still probably not worth much, and apologised again, still did not seem sincere. When my mom had got up to get napkins, right after the first meal had arrived, she told a lady good luck. The lady had turned out to be from corporate. As we were leaving after this whole fiasco, she had come up to us. The lady told us that there was a large order and the server earlier had told us earlier they were short staffed. She then apologised but missing the sincerity in her attitude and voice. We came from Texas where McAlister's was very well run so we were very disappointed by this restaurant. We have no plans for return ever. Please proceed with caution if...

I placed an order with the call in service for the rasberry pecan salad. No chicken, 2 ras dressing, 2 sherry shallot dressing. My 2nd choice was potato soup with xtra topping on the side and a bread bowl. I picked up my order to find no xtra dressing and chicken on the salad no xtra topping for soup and no bread bowl. I called back and "Jake" the Mgr offered to correct the order if i wanted to drive back. My brother returned with the correct salad but still no xtra dressing, a hard bread bowl , and had put soup topping on the side. Toppings were supposed to be in soup with XTRA ON THE SIDE. Jake said i wasnt charged for bread so he charged my brother for and sent out ANOTHER INCORRECT ORDER, blaiming it on the call center. Upon getting the 2nd order i called again. Jake got upset saying it the ticket printed funny. I asked if i could send my brother back just for the dressing. At this point i just wanted to eat SOMETHING. So brother went back a 3rd time to get the dressing. I was charged for 4 initially. Jake gave him 1CUP and sent him on his way. The food is GREAT. The product is GREAT. Jakes customer service and ability to follow directions was VERY POOR. I give 2 stars solely for the quality of products used to create the meal. No meal replacement card. No apology. And...