Bad Daddy's Burger Bar — Restaurant in Gastonia

Absolutely atrocious experience at the Bad Daddy's Franklin Blvd location in Gastonia, NC today. It was 2:30-3:00pm on a Saturday and there were approximately 8 tables seated in the entire place. They were not busy. Hostess had us seat ourselves after we asked to sit outside. She said she'd be "right with us" then never turned up. I went back inside after 5 minutes at our table to retrieve menus and ask for a server. Observed the hostess in question cleaning tables instead of doing what she said she'd do. She finally came outside and took our appetizer order and told us she'd relay it to the server. Server turned up at this point and took our drink orders. Said she didn't know we were seated in her section and never heard about our app order, so we put that in again. And then we waited. Fifteen minutes after being seated, my partner and I finally received our drinks - just draught beers, nothing fancy or that should have taken any time at all. My daughter didn't get her soda, so I went to the bar and got it myself. Told the bartender what was going on and where we were sitting. Fifteen minutes to get two beers and I had to get my kid's drink myself. So now we're twenty minutes into this experience and finally have drinks. App showed up after being seated for 25 minutes. A "manager" came out to tell us the hostess was new, our server was "an awesome waitress," and that he'd make sure we were taken care of from there on out. Trust me, we weren't. I ordered a burger medium-well. After taking several bites toward the center, I realized it was medium-rare. Didn't send it back; I can eat a mid-rare burger, whatever. But it was way off the cook I requested. Ordered tater tots as a side & didn't receive the usual dipping sauce they come with, so I had to ask for it from our now-haughty waitress. Also had empty drinks at the table after being there for 40+ minutes and had to ask for refills. Then those took 10+ minutes to arrive. Server only appeared to bring us the things we requested and never checked in on us during our meal. In fact, two other servers brought us our food from the kitchen. One of them even refilled our drinks because who knows where our actual server was; she certainly wasn't doing her job. I later brought the undercooked burger to our server's attention and she just shrugged - literally. I asked for two to-go boxes and our check, which promptly arrived (sure - we're the issue and you want us gone, I guess 🙄). Server returned and asked if we "want anything removed from our tab," to which I replied "No, just let us get out of here. I don't know what's going on with you guys today, but this is awful." She rolled her eyes and took our card for payment. Three meals with drinks was $77. Insane, but that's the economy now, so whatever. Server promptly processed our payment with a suboptimal 10% tip (after we debated stiffing her entirely for her inattentive service and rude attitude) and we took off. We won't be back. Bad Daddy's Gastonia is a whole, unfunny joke....

Unfortunately, the food is great, but the service is subpar and they are unable to cater to larger parties. On a slower Saturday night we, as a party of 11, came in about 6pm. We were told to wait about 25-35 minutes, which is completely understandable, to sit all 11 together because we wanted to sit inside, rather than outside. We offered to split up the party and pay with separate checks, but were told that it would be too difficult for the servers.

The hostesses had a plan in place and were just waiting on one more couple to finish at their table before they combined tables to seat us, and within 5 minutes of the couple wrapping up, a hostess placed a new family at one of the three tables reserved for us, thus ruining the hostesses plan and resetting the clock for us waiting.

So, after 1hr and 15min of waiting we offered to just sit outside, where there is plenty of space and hopefully to get out of the way inside. We were told that it was not an option and they didn’t have a solution or a timeline for when we would be able to be seated.

Disappointingly, we decided the wisest decision would be to leave and go across the street to Five Guys.

And to top it off, on our way out, the manager looked at us, seeing the disappointment in our eyes, and said “we tried” in a begrudging tone, almost as if they had not been the ones to cause this simple wait time of 25 minutes to extend to nearly an hour and a half.

Based on prior experiences we know just how wonderful their food is, but find it disappointing in their lack of communication and problem solving ability. If you’re unable to serve a party of 11 within a reasonable time, please communicate that with us and be up front about it. We were patient with y’all the entire time and were willing to wait, but when you’re unable to admit defeat and communicate when something goes wrong,...

This was our second time eating here in the last week. The first experience was wonderful and the food both times was great. Unfortunately, the second experience wasn’t so great and we will not be going back. My husband and were sitting in the dining area and we ordered draft beers. The bartender set them on the bar for our waitress to pick up shortly after we ordered them. After about 10 minutes another waitress brought the beers which wasn’t really an issue. When my husband finished his beer, he put his napkin inside of the cup and then realized that there was red lipstick on the rim of the glass. Apparently during the 10 minutes the beers were sitting at the bar, someone drank out of his cup. I spoke with the manager who was a guy with a long ponytail and glasses. He didn’t seem to think this was disgusting and said he would make sure they “polish” their glasses better. I explained to him that was fresh bright red lipstick and not just a polishing issue. He said oh sorry and offered to give us the drink for free. I told him we didn’t need anything for free and just wouldn’t be coming back. I believe the bartender should maybe place the drinks that are ordered for the dining area somewhere other than the bar where people who are sitting at the bar may accidentally pick up a cup and drink it. This is the first time this has ever happened to us but are disgusted at the fact that someone else drunk out of the cup 🤮🤢 I feel as if the manager needed to have a little more concern. The food as I mentioned before was great but we won’t be returning and my husband may never drink another draft beer in his life lol.. I wished I would have got a picture but as soon as I brought it to the waitresses attention she grabbed the glass and quickly went to the...