Dunkin' — Restaurant in Charlotte

Oooof. Can you make three hot drinks undrinkable in one order? At this Dunkin’, yes you can. My daughter put in an online order for three hot medium drinks. We rolled up no less than five minutes to the drive thru window, got our drinks and donuts. Donuts and one hot chocolate were to be a “gift” for a fellow coworker. Driving down the road, I sampled my hot mocha latte. Oh gawd. I almost spat it out. Since it wasn’t all that hot, I would not have burned myself. My daughter tried her peppermint mocha latte. Gross. We opened the lids. Both drinks were halfway up the cups. Huh? Is this normal? Did whipped cream melt so quickly in the hot beverage? Couldn’t tell you. I checked the hot chocolate and it felt cool to the touch. Lid off, same, the beverage went only halfway up the cup. AND even though it was to be a gift (was, I certainly knew it was NOT going to be anymore) I stuck my finger in it and it was cold. The coffee drinks tasted like they were on a burner at an all night truck stop in the middle of nowhere with a bonus treat of coffee grounds at the bottom of the cup. Either that or the morning crew didn’t empty out the coffee pots that had cleaner soaking in them overnight. I persuaded my daughter to turn around because we had $14 worth of crap sold to us. I brought them to the counter, annoyed, and told the employee, “all three of these are not good.” I wanted to tell her what was wrong with them but she told me to just leave the lids on, she’d remake them. My thought was, we better not get the same crap for round two. Spoiler: we did. The coffee drinks again, were horrid and the hot chocolate was luke warm. They were the nastiest tasting coffee drinks I have EVER had. Now if there were no medium cups in stock and they were serving us medium drinks in large cups, why couldn’t they just serve us a large drink in the large cup? It really looked stupid being filled up half-way, especially the “gift” drink. Or, was the coffee so HOT, (think McDonald’s hot) to kill the taste (nope, didn’t work) that it melted the three inches of whipped cream they, I presume, filled up the rest of the cup? Someone in management, please train your employees on how to work a coffee machine and/or show them how to properly clean the equipment. I know they cannot screw up the donuts because they are delivered frozen and employees bring them back to life in the microwave. Won’t return to this shop on 501...

I came here for a while regularly because it was on my way to work. It is your average dunkin’ donuts. I have however received a couple of drinks from here that literally (no exaggeration) activated my gag reflex that were so disgusting. I have no idea why or what happened, but I asked for a refund immediately after receiving the drink and they said I had to contact corporate. This in itself is incorrect because in the past, at this specific location, I have received a refund with no issue. So I go out of my way to contact corporate, and they tell me to go to the store. Back and forth I went with corporate and the store until I just gave up. I even have the email saying I would receive the refund, and I never did. This instance was a one time thing and I let it go and continued going there. That is until a few days ago that I was never given my card back. Of course I called the store (only a couple hours later) to confirm they had it so I could pick it up. I called 3 different times and not once did anybody answer. I gave up and was going to pick it up in person. That’s until I checked my bank account to see that my card had been stolen and used a bar down the street. So my advice with this Dunkin is to STAY AWAY. My money was stolen, along with my personal information. The staff there is CONSTANTLY changing, but the last person I saw with my card was a tall white male. STAY AWAY and save your energy going to another one...

It’s truly unfortunate that restaurant management often has to address dissatisfied guests when our teams are working hard to provide great service. However, this is one of those exceptional instances I wanted to highlight. I want to extend my gratitude to Crystal for delivering outstanding service at your Monroe Rd. location.

As a restaurant manager, I always encourage my team to create a positive atmosphere, but Crystal truly went above and beyond with her warm, inviting tone, thoughtful greetings, and effective suggestive selling. I was so impressed by her service that I parked my car just to meet her in person. I even mentioned to the management that if they weren't careful, she might be recruited to join our team!

With over 20 years of experience in QSR and fast casual dining, I can say that it has become rare to encounter such excellent service, especially here in Charlotte. I encourage everyone commuting on Monroe Rd. heading into Uptown Charlotte to stop by and say hello to Crystal and her team. The entire staff was polite, and the store was immaculately clean.

Lastly, I want to mention that the apple fritters I purchased were meant for a cancer patient at the nearby hospital. Once again, thank you for brightening my day with...