Mac's Speed Shop — Restaurant in Cornelius

It was not a great experience by any means.

Was seated pretty much at the entrance at a high top along the front door egress to the restaurant in the bar area where everyone was packed and made to sit in that section even though there were booths and a whole other area of seating available.

Then I waited to be served anything for about 35 minutes before I got up to talk to the hostess, who was literally behind me.

She acted surprised that I hadn't been served yet but immediately notified a waitress to serve me.

Maybe she could tell by the tone of my voice that I was not happy, considering I didn't get it a chance to eat all day and just wanted something sooner rather than later.

Meanwhile, I've had to watch this young kid with long shaggy hair and a trucker cap go from table to table with a plate of food, and with confused look, asking if that is what they ordered.

I'd say that after putting in my order, it took about 25 minutes to receive what I ordered.

I wasn't about to chance having to wait for a check, so I immediately gave the waitress my card to pay for my food.

There's nothing worse than being held hostage and not being able to leave when you're waiting to pay.

I ordered a brisket sandwich with baked beans and green beans along with a Sprite.

The only thing that tasted good was the green beans even though they were a little bit salty.

Prepared right the brisket sandwich could have been good if it hadn't been for the excessive amount of sauce they put on it even though they offered three different sauces on the table and typically at most barbecue joints sauces are served on the side to allow the customer to determine how much if any for preference.

The house sauce had a reduced black pepper taste with a tangy sweetness to it and might have been good if used sparingly but all I could taste was a spicy black pepper taste with a back note of sweetness which pretty much overwhelmed everything that they served aside from the green beans.

That's probably why I thought they tasted good apart from being too salty.

The bun pretty much fell apart from being saturated and Soggy, but I threw it down because I was starving then to add insult to injury.

I paid with tip around $28 for that horrible mess.

As for the atmosphere, I prefer not to sit in the bar area if there are other seats available in tune to going in for just a bite to eat but when you're hungry you'll pretty much sit anywhere even though I wasn't offered the option to sit in the dining room.

The music was way too loud and everyone was pretty much yelling to be heard so imagine everyone packed into one little area screaming and yelling to be heard over music that's too loud and having to wait for service.

I'm not talking about jukebox music I'm talking about what sounded like Maybe a live band playing part of a song then doing mic check throughout the night but then playing part of a song and then doing it all over again with another sound check.

Honestly, I couldn't really tell you because I didn't see any band because if there was one, they were in another area, and they were only sending people in the bar area.

It could maybe have been a really bad radio station.

I certainly regretted not leaving.

I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound remotely fun to me when going to a restaurant, and honestly, it really wasn't.

The whole experience was a big fat fail.

Don't waste your time or money going here because there's way too many other great restaurants to choose from out there willing to compete for your business and provide what it takes to make the customer...

I typically love Mac’s Speed Shop. Both of the locations in Charlotte are great. I moved to North Charlotte and decided to try this location out with my dad to watch one of the playoff games. Right as you walk in, you can tell that this location is a bit run-down and has minimal seating compared to the other Charlotte area locations. Many of the TVs were located in awkward places, mainly because all of the light from the windows created blatant glares on the screens. The booths are super worn down, especially in the middle. To demonstrate this, if two people sit on one side of the booth, they will inevitably end up cuddling because both ends dip toward the center. Depending on who you are with, this could be a good thing. However, when you are sitting with your dad, like in my case, it's not ideal. We tried three different booths with the same result. We eventually found a decent table to watch the game and order food.

On their website, they advertise two beers every month that are $5.

We ordered one of each of the two beers of the month, and after we finished our first and tried to order a second round, they told us they were completely out of both beers. It was January 20. My dad and I politely conveyed to the waitress that this was a little messed up, and instead of replying, she immediately went to get the manager. She told him we wanted to talk to him even though we never asked to. Since he was there already, we just told him that yeah, it's kind of wrong that you are advertising beer for $5 that you're out of. He dismissively (and a little proudly) told us that actually it's really great for business and running out of beer is ideal for him because that would mean he’s had great sales.

I am all for supporting local businesses, but my father and I were given the impression that he cared very little for his customers, given that he did not see a problem with continuing to advertise $5 beer that he is out of. I can understand that running out of that beer while we happened to be there was bad timing/luck, but we were given no apologies, and no discounts.

I feel that he could have handled the situation better. For example, if he had just given me a $1-2 discount off of my $7 beer (that I ordered after), I probably wouldn’t even be writing this review right now.

Even though it was halftime during a playoff game, we decided to leave after we finished our food. The check we received showed that we were charged for one beer that we never received (because it was one of the ones they were out of). We informed the waitress, and five minutes later she came back with the new check. Lo and behold, it was a newly printed check, yet the beer charge we asked her to remove was still there - there were no differences from the original check. Five minutes later, she came back with the corrected check. After dealing with several different problems during our time, I think it would be realistic to expect a little customer service, maybe a discounted beer for our troubles or something, but nada.

Overall people were friendly enough. No one was mean or hateful. Every restaurant can make mistakes, but how a business deals with customer dissatisfaction speaks volumes. We both felt that this location cared more about profit than satisfied, or returning, customers. I will stick to the other Mac's Speed Shop locations...

We entered Mac's not realizing we would be blown away by the taste but we were. I wanted to order about 5 items... But I can't even eat 1 item let alone 5.

Our waitress was Bree. Her personality was incredible and she shared the drink list, which was very long. With us being in this covid time - the restaurant has implemented mask wearing until your drinks arrive. Tables are socially distance.

Bree brought us hush puppies. We then asked her why we had received these and she stated that these are brought to every table. She also had told us that everything is house made except for a few items. Bunss, French fries, tater tots. Not sure of the other items but the brisket chili his house made!

Bree was also awesome because we were at two separate tables... and she was going back and forth between our tables and accommodating both of us.

We had the Mac's nachos at first... WOW!!! Shredded chicken but you have the option to do pork or chicken. Queso, jalapenos, black beans, sour cream along with salsa. Honestly these were some of the best nachos I've ever eaten. (Didn't get a chance to take a picture of this appetizer.)

My husband and I then decided to order two items and split them. We ordered the brisket sandwich that came with one side. We also ordered the spark plug that came with one side.

The spark plug was a burger that had bacon, lettuce, tomato, onions, chipotle sauce, jalapenos, hot pepper jack cheese. This burger(which you could get made to your liking) was held together by a bigger toothpick and a pickle on top of the bun.

The biscuit sandwich came with a sauce called North Carolina barbecue that was incredible. the sauce came on the side which I feel was a good option so that you could try the brisket alone. To me... you could taste the barbecue but it had a little bit of a sweeter taste. My husband thought it had a tanger taste.

I ordered the brisket chili and added the whole shebang. The whole shebang was cheese, sour cream, jalapenos, & chopped purple onions. I had the whole shebang come on the side because I wanted to taste the brisket chili completely by itself without the toppings. For me the brisket chili was phenomenal. It didn't need to have those sides but I did end up adding the cheese, onions a little bit of the jalapenos and a little bit of the sour cream and it also gave it a really different but good taste. My husband thought the same thing... it was good both ways.

The manager at this location came over to see how our food was. We expressed that we did not expect everything to be so good! She stated they had eight locations. We will definitely be back when traveling through North Carolina.

The inside of the restaurant has tvs, different neon lights, different decor. The seating has high tops and booths. There's also a bar. It is a good atmosphere for...