Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Columbus

Holy…wow. The absolute WORST DQ since the first cell mitosis after the earth cooled….in other words, EVER. I guess my first clue should have been that it was completely deserted when I walked in…at 6:00pm, not 2:45pm. Who hired this woman? That’s the big question. The chubby African American female working the front counter was ….oh my God… I guess the candidate pool is pretty shallow these days. So first, she mumbled ‘for here or to go?’ and I clearly said ‘for here’. Short African American guy brings up my order in a paper bag….not the end of the world. I ask him for a tray. He mumbles something. So I figured he had heard me and was telling me ‘no’ since he didn’t ask ‘what?’ and he wasn't getting me one….so I said, “No problem, I just thought you might have had trays.” and started to walk away when he yells, “I got trays!.. for your food or your drink!?” (My one drink needs a tray?) Anyway, I got the (food) tray (and therapy material) and sat down to watch all the other customers’ nightmares unfold. First, these 4 young guys had something wrong with every single one of their individual orders and had to return their orders, albeit to get a big plate of attitude on the side from the black woman. I was still dizzy from my own earful but thought I would give it one more shot, so I got back in the ring. There was a customer in front of me who had been already standing there for 15 minutes. I was not privy to the conversation so I had no idea why he had to wait so long or what he had ordered. He steps off to the side and the woman yells, "Whaddaya want now??" I asked for "a medium chocolate dip cone with vanilla ice cream". I tried to make it as clear as possible in order to not leave any opening for her attitude to pounce, but awwww, fail. She dips her head down, looking at the floor, starts laughing to herself as in ‘what a stupid question’, comes up with a grin, then does a 180 into this laser-sharp glaring domestic hair-trigger anger/rage and says, “What’d I just say??” and then "Can't you see??" as she points to a line of cones sitting on the counter. I’m speechless. She says, “I f….ing said, we ain’t got no ice cream right now cuz the machine’s broken.” I started to wonder if I was in one of those online prank videos. I started to explain that I was not able to hear what she said to the man in front of me (because she mumbles) when she cuts me off, grabs one of the cones that the ice cream machine died half-squirt on and shoves it in my face to show me the cream (now melted) on the bottom. Holy…no wonder the shootings are all inside the 270 corridor. And they were holding on to those?...so when the machine starts working again, they’re going to continue filling up that one that’s been sitting on the counter melting for 10 minutes?? The only consolation from that visit to the Bethel Road Scary Dream was that I met those 4 dudes afterwards and had a fun conversation bonding over our shared bad luck having chosen the WORST DQ EVER. I felt so bad for the tall white guy working the grill. He was the only one who showed up and he was burrrrrrrned out from having to put out all the fires those 2 coworkers kept setting. If you want to get the experience of dining in a halfway house or getting bullied by prison guards, stop on in.

Update: Question for Steven Low ~ if it is so "Great" then why is it EMPTY...

Attention: GM, Joe Scruggs:

I continue to marvel at how profoundly rude and attitudinal virtually the entire staff is at this location. They glare at you, roll their eyes, ignore customers at the main counter for lengthy periods of time and let you know just how little they value your patronage. Generally the drive-through window is serviced at a pretty brisk clip but the customers inside are overlooked until someone is good and ready to get around to them. One evening I stood there for 7-8 minutes while one girl walked out, announcing loudly she was taking her smoke break; one guy pushing a mop bucket walked past me twice into the back of the store and never offered to help and two girls in the back directly in the line of sight, looked at me, mumbled amongst themselves but never left their area. All the while, there were THREE people working the window, with two of them leisurely refilling the napkin and straw dispensers. The interior of the restaurant was completely empty.

A guy (with pretty bad acne) finally shambled over, took my order (promptly messed it up), never said 'thank you', gave me the wrong change and abruptly turned away. He didn't bother to fulfill the order though. (I got the distinct impression he was new but genuinely unmotivated to do much of anything that might tax his obviously low energy.) One kid brought out the burgers and fries and sent me on my way. However, no had brought me my fruit smoothie so I was left to wait at the counter for more minutes. Eventually one of the aforementioned girls brought out a small (only 3/4-filled) cup and shoved/slid it across the counter without a word.

I know the compensation for their jobs is probably minimum wage or less but there's just no excuse for the awful staff you've got. Tonight, I was rung up by two guys on duty (both dripping with attitude again). The previously mentioned mop-bucket pusher was lamely dabbing at decorating a frozen cake and the other guy didn't seem to have much to do (as the restaurant was again empty). The register receipt said 116 Misty R was the server but it was an all guy staff as far as I could tell. I paid $10.17 for a lousy burger, mushrooms and a Peanut Buster Parfait but the service was predictably poor.

Your store is in a prime location and could have so much more business. I only come to your place because the next closest DQ is quite a distance away from me. I'd recommend a complete overhaul of your staff and serious training implemented on the fundamentals of customer service! I won't be revisiting your store again until that happens. I'd prefer to give my hard-earned money to places that appreciate my business and treat me with...

I went through the drive-through. Saw a guy in front of me waiting for at least 2-3 minutes, so I rolled my window down, to listen and see if he was just taking his time ordering, but after about 30 seconds, I hear someone ask him for his order. This should've been the first sign that this was going to be a bad experience.

When I got up to the drive-through, I understood why he was waiting. They had a pre-recorded message asking you to wait and that someone would be right with you. I didn't really like that they had this, because it makes the whole experience very impersonal. I'm not calling my insurance company or the bank. Second sign of bad experience noted.

I ordered a cheeseburger with ONLY mayonnaise, lettuce, and cheese, and when I took a bite in the parking lot, I was disappointed to find ketchup, mustard pickles, but at least they added what I asked for, right? I spit it out and was trying to find a napkin and they didn't even give me any! Since I was in the parking lot still, I just went inside and asked them to re-make it. I also grabbed some napkins, because again, they didn't give me any in the bag. Oh, and they didn't give me a receipt either!

While I was inside I noticed I was the only person in the restaurant. At 6 PM. On a weeknight. Then I heard a couple beeps and the whir of a microwave. They were ACTUALLY microwaving my cheeseburger. With MAYONNAISE and LETTUCE on it. As you'd expect, it was completely disgusting. The burger didn't taste fresh either.

Would not recommend this place to anyone for the following reasons: poor customer service, no napkins, no receipt, make your food wrong, and when they correct it, they somehow manage to make it bad by microwaving it, and they don't seem to care about their customers...