McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in Dothan

Went to pick up an online order I placed to be ready at 8:30. It was a few min after and I realize they were closing soon but mine was to go and I had placed it at 5:00 knowing I’d get off around 8:30. I really felt like that’s wasn’t putting them out. Showed up at the window waited for a good while and was never acknowledged even after honking. I felt rude honking but at this point I had waited so long I was afraid they were going to close and I wasn’t going to get the dinner that I had already paid for so I just didn’t know how else to get their attention. Still no acknowledgement. Pulled around to park and I hear a young man yell “ we’re closed”… it’s 8:45 and they close at 9. Also my food has already been made and paid for. Walk in, the place has not one customer and there are two young men in the back just staring at me looking pissed off and super inconvenienced. I say “hey just picking up my to go order” and the girl asked if I had been at the window. She apologized but made no explanation for why they never came. I remember when I was their age being bummed if someone showed up right before closing but I was at the window so I don’t get the frustration over having to simply hand me my food. I even made the order for 8:30 so they would have 30m before closing. Regardless it was really unprofessional and if I was the business owner I would...

We are frequently patrons and what led me to review is the last few visits we see steady decline in everything! We usually get mcAlisters club or chef salad or split order. Last several times there's never the famous pickle included despite us saying please do not forget the pickles. We order sweet tea and ask for extra ice and 4 out of 5x there's no extra ice. The young man that served us made sure to give our pickles stating I'm sorry we are hearing from others about pickles not in order and I will personally supervise and ensure you get them and he did. Our tea had extra ice too. The 3 star review is bc there's room to improve. In a pandemic the bathrooms constantly need sterilizing and it was clearly untouched for awhile. Keypads were not being sanitized between customers. Some employees despite GOV order are wearing below nose or not at all. The club itself for both of us had 2 pieces bread with lettuce but nothing rose it was once again as if they put everything on bread realizing it was to be split and added another layer bread with just lettuce. We will order again but likely takeout again because we take sanitizing seriously as well as ordered food. Shutout to the young man on Monday afternoon working....

McAllister's was a sandwich go-to Sunday lunch kind of a place for many years when I lived in Columbia, SC. I was looking forward to trying out the one here in Dothan, and I did about four years ago. At that time, if I had written a review, it would have been in the 1-2 start category. Since then though, the restaurant has gone through a major remodel, new staff team and seemed like maybe even a new owner. It's a complete 180. The food is what you'd expect from a McAllister's, the staff is polite and easy to get along with. My only gripe, and it's a very small one, is that the tables are getting way more use than maybe they used to, and so things like the center posts and corners are wearing down. We changed tables on our last visit because the original choice was wobbly enough to make it a fairly stressful lunch. Unfortunately I didn't think to let anyone know, and that's on me, but some preventative maintenance would go a long way to keeping a great looking dining area...