Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Fort Lauderdale

Oh Dairy Queen what have you become? I grew up in Texas where the old fashioned DQ is still alive and kicking. I remember going on a Saturday and getting a Dude Sandwich and a Peanut Buster Parfait. Well it seems like times have changed.

DQ Grill and Chill is a new concept that is spun off of the original model. While it has hamburgers and chicken strips and the classic DQ ice cream novelties (Dilly Bar,etc) it lacks the classic sandwiches of my youth. Gone are the Hungerbuster and the Dude (chicken fried steak) in its place are generic run of the mill burgers and fries.

We opted to have the Chicken Strip basket (4 piece). The pictures on the menu board show nice plump chicken tenders a bowl of gravy and Texas Toast (a guilty pleasure of mine). First the good: the chicken tenders are quite tasty. Well seasoned and crisp, they were almost as good as the unnamed chicken tender restaurant down the street. The fries were generic, but hot and well seasoned.

Then I opened the gravy. I will say it tasted quite good. I assume it's a prepackaged mix, so consistency shouldn't be a problem, however it was thick as wallpaper paste. Nicely peppered wallpaper paste but still rather unappealing to look at.

The "Texas Toast" was downright laughable. Rather than thick pieces of crisp buttered toast, we were served what looked like basic grocery store white bread (read: thin, limp and flavorless), literately SOAKED in artificial butter. It wasn't toasted, in fact it was barely warm. There was so much "butter" that was soggy and gummy. Very disappointing.

We also opted to try the fried Cheese Curds, now in Texas we don't have cheese curds, as that's a very WI thing, so I can't vouch for authenticity, but they were little nuggets of cheesy goodness. Not really all that different from your basic fried cheese. I'd totally order them again.

Overall, it wasn't a bad experience, but not really a great one either. Just kind of ho-hum and mostly disappointing. I'll return...but I'm not in a...

My husband and I went here for the first time recently. It was pretty late and the restaurant emptied out shortly after we got our food. The cashier was polite and took our food to our table. He did apologize for the time it took them to cook it. My chili dog was kinda cold but still pretty good. The chicken tenders made my husband say "we have to come here more often" the place was clean, prices were reasonable... so why two stars? One reason only: the manager on duty. Once we were the last two in there she began commanding her staff in such a loud, grating manner that it made my husband, who is usually very laid back, want to go give her a talk about respecting her employees. We felt bad for them, honestly. She talked down to them and repeated herself so many times. The worst part of it was when we went to give them back their table number as we were walking out she asked us in her "customer service" voice if there was anything she could help us with... gosh we just wanted to know her name so we could call her out on this review, but her name tag was all faded and it was too late to get into any discussion with the most irritating woman ever. So we just politely said no thanks and left. Right as we started walking away though we heard her growl under her breath and continue her tirade over her poor employees. The two stars it even got was for the nice cashier and good food. But seriously, rethink having this woman...

I stopped by pretty late at night and ordered the chicken tenders. I'm personally a chicken tender expert. I know good ones from average and bad. These are definitely on my good list along with their buffalo sauce. I'll definitely have to go back for those chicken tenders. However, the manager closing was awfully rude to her employees. Maybe she thought there were no customers left in the store because she was just rude and annoyed by everything. She kept repeating herself and sounded like a mad mother. One of her employees, who was great and served us perfectly by the way, said something after she repeated herself the third time about how to clean up tables and she said: "ok, calm down" in a rude and whiny voice. Disappointed I couldn't get her name to write a more formal complaint about her but she really did upset me and ruin my experience of the restaurant for the first time ever at a grill and chill location. Honestly it's no wonder why there are hiring signs in the window, all the poor people who work under her probably quit because they couldn't stand working for her. I'm usually easygoing but this lady really was that bad that I HAD to write this review. She shouldn't be a manager, she's got no communication skills. I'd recommend hiring a new manager so people will actually stick around and not quit...