McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in Chattanooga

Let me start off by saying, I do a lot of catering with McAlister's Deli, however, never at this location, and I will never order here again. I placed a rather large order ($350.00 worth of food) for 15 people, to be delivered today. Upon receiving I noticed we were missing the basic items for some of the order, as well as under delivered some of the additional toppings (that they charge .99 cents per potato for), and a few other minor issues. I called the store, and they said a manager would call me back? I'm sorry, I need this to be corrected ASAP, I have an office full of employees that were expecting lunch at 12pm. So I drove 20 minutes to the store, because I simply couldn't wait for a call back (as information, they never called back anyway, so glad I took it into my own hands). Upon arriving at the store, which was extremely behind with one cashier at the front, and a line out the door; I spoke with the lady that delivered the food, that some of the items were missing or under delivered. She asked which ones, and never once apologized for not supplying us with all the items, or the fact that I have to drive out there to fix the issue, while still being charged a delivery fee. When I told her, I paid $22.00 extra for each side of toppings, and we only received enough for one potato, she responded with, that's the correct amount of topping for the amount you requested. Excuse me, what? I paid $22.00 extra for each of the sides of toppings, for it to be enough for one person. She continued to stand firm on her statement, but said, I can get you some more, I just wanted to let you know that's standard. I have taken a picture of the amount of toppings we received, for 15 potatoes. McAlister's if this is an accurate statement, and this amount was to suffice for 15 potatoes, you are definitely overcharging for this. It was entirely unacceptable. I am hoping they were just understaffed, and this isn't the standard business practice at...

The staff is great--all pretty young--but pleasant. The food could be better if the menu included some MEANINGFUL vegan or vegetarian options--how bout some mock chicken salad like WholeFoods, vegan cheese, tofu to add to salads in place of meat, etc.? How bout even some tuna salad, egg salad, meat alternatives (Impossible Meat) or healthy adult pasta options? Plus, as another reviewer noted, the Choose 2 soup option is ridiculously small!

As for atmosphere, it's absurd that the staff has no control of the AC and heat. So it's 45 degrees outside, the fans are spinning, and every customer is bundled-up trying to eat while freezing to death. And, they have no hot drinks on tap. I was told they'd have to brew coffee (it's 2 hours before closing)! WTH?

Finally, would be SUPER if they understood what BACKGROUND music is! It's enough that they have huge distracting, intrusive televisions on the walls. Would be great if they had actual instrumental background music so you could think, read, or comfortably have a conversation instead of blaring electric guitars, drums, and annoying vocals. Super...

This is our 3rd time giving this location a shot and yet again we were disappointed. The past few times our orders had at least one thing missing and the service was very slow. This time the cashier put kids drinks on our check after telling me the meals came with them (they don’t) after she handed me the cups without me asking. Then we overheard her complaining to the kitchen because I added chicken to the kids meals, but did not specify it was on the side. We have NEVER had to do that before. It took two additional chats with the manager to get the drinks taken off the bill. No one ever apologized and all of the staff seemed put off that we had an issue at all.

We love McCallister’s food and the kids meals are reasonably priced ($3.49). The pick two with a grilled chicken Caesar salad and a French dip is just the right amount of food for me. Seems that we need to add 20 mins and the cost of gas to drive to the Signal Mountain location...