Dairy Queen — Restaurant in Helotes

Horrible!!!

Go to Castroville or a different place!!!

I am editing this review because it's not fair to just judge a place and not provide context.

My family and I have been in SATX for going on 8 years (pre-COVID) and even before the pandemic, this location's "Ways of doing business" was questionable at best.

ACCESSIBILITY: It seems that there is always a line (extremely long) in the drive thru, which is why my family and I would try to bypass by attempting to dine in. However, the restaurant's doors would most of the time be closed/locked (during the daytime). *If we went 10 times, 8 times it would not be accessible. (Issue number one, unable to dine in)

**The restaurant is located in a "decent" part of town, definitely not the East or South sides so I can only assume that crime is relatively low.

CUSTOMER SERVICE (if you can call it that): I do not want to sound like the old man "Get Off My Lawn" however, "customer service" is truly lacking. I believe the most "Mature" employee may have been 24 or 25 (meaning they are all of the "FaceBoook"/"Instagram"/"TikTok" generation). *Do with that what you will. (Issue number two, lack of customer service/respect)

CLEANLINESS: I normally do not leave bad reviews (you can see for yourself) but this one is deserved. Restrooms, ATROCIOUS! When there are "used" Lady Products on the floor and toilet (per my spouse), and residual waste in both the toilet AND urinal (how is that even possible) then that is where I draw the line.

You don't want to say "Welcome to Dairy Queen, May I take your order?" Fine.

You don't want to "Flip My Blizzard" upside down (Dairy Queen, dessert should defy gravity. On a website announcing their "upside down or free" policy, explained below, Dairy Queen literally says, "We do things differently here. We defy gravity.") Ok, fine!

But when a paying customer cannot utilize your restroom (with what seems to be at least 4 to 5 employees working on a given shift) due to the unsanitary location that Dairy Queen has provided, well that is unacceptable. (Issue number three, unable to utilize restrooms)

Dairy Queens Graded in SATX

7118 Marbach Rd (3.9 Stars/1.3K Reviews): Accessibility: (A+) "And we KNOW this location" Customer Service: (A-) "Some people do have bad days" Clean Restrooms: (C-) "Because of location"

3244 SW Military Dr (3.6 Stars/1.2K Reviews): Accessibility: (A+) "And we KNOW this location" Customer Service: (A-) "Some people do have bad days" Clean Restrooms: (C-) "Because of location"

7922 Culebra (3.9 Stars/1.3K Reviews): Accessibility: (A+) Customer Service: (A+) Have yet to meet someone with a "Bad Day" Clean Restrooms: (A-) Can't be perfect

1202 US-90 (Castroville/4.3 Stars/920 Reviews)) Accessibility: (A+) Customer Service: (A-) "Some people do have bad days" Clean Restrooms: (A+) Even though I do not like the smell of bleach, always has a "Bleach" smell

7076 S Loop 1604 (Somerset/3.7 Stars/656 Reviews) Accessibility: (A+) "And we KNOW this location" Customer Service: (A-) "Some people do have bad days" Clean Restrooms: (B-)

However THIS location (12902 Bandera/3.3 Stars/931 Reviews), Dairy Queen Corporate needs to visit (surprise visit/"When the Cats Away, The Mice will play") and experience 1st Hand (if you can get inside to even talk to someone)

Oh, and the above mentioned locations ALL FLIP THEIR...

UPDATE 10/26/23 **I’m changing my review to 1 star. This location is a disaster. They need to do something. I ordered 4 blizzards the other day and they weren’t even full. Halfway mixed. Ice cream was plain vanilla halfway down.

The last time I was inside the location (maybe 2 months ago)…during $.85 blizzard on the app, the place was so filthy and disgusting. The food/prep area hadn’t been cleaned in forever. I feel that’s why the inside is always closed. They don’t want you to see the mess that it is.

We ate at a DQ in Illinois on a vacation just two weeks ago and it was clean and the blizzards were great!! I’m not sure what is wrong with Texas DQs, but they’re disgusting compared to the rest of the country.

I will NOT be returning to this location anymore. Nor would I recommend it to anyone.

————————————————————————

I’m not sure why the lobby has been closed for so long. Wish they’d open it up to eat inside. The drive thru is AWFUL and takes forever. We don’t live near here but it is one of the closest DQs to us if we’re out running errands.

Yesterday. I called to order a birthday cake for my daughter. The guy on the phone took my order and explained to me what we’d get. A blizzard cake. Which meant all of the cake would be made like a blizzard, mixed together. I even asked if there would be layers of ice cream, then the brownie fudge crumble and more ice cream and he said no. I asked if they had a Princess design and he said yes. I asked for the border to be done in pink and purple (her favorite colors)

Went to pick it up today and the lobby was still closed. When I pulled up to the speaker and said I had a cake order, I was asked to park and they would unlock the door for me to come inside.

I’m glad I did! The cake was totally wrong! There was no Princess design and the cake barely had any blizzard spread across the top. It was also lacking the brownie and cookie dough I asked to have added into the mix.

The manager, she was more than helpful and polite, so she absolutely saved this review. She did the best she could to accommodate the situation and apologized for the mix up. Since it was my daughter’s birthday today and she wanted a cake, I still got it. It was simple, but yet still pretty. Not at all what we thought we’d get.

I will try out this DQ again sometime. But maybe in a couple months. I really hope they can get the lobby situation figured out and the really long drive thru wait times. As well as communication from one person to the next. But I’m glad there is a good manager there willing to work with the customers to make things right. That means...

My family and I had an unpleasant visit today. Valerie was the drive thru operator and cashier. At the ordering menu, I asked Valerie what exactly came in the Tropical blizzard, which she stated banana, pecan, and coconut. My response, “I need 1 tropical. I also need 2 tropicals, but sub the banana for pineapple.” She stated, then you want the Hawaiian because that’s what you just ordered. I let her know that I thought the Hawaiian was different and asked what came in a Hawaiian. She said banana, pineapple, and coconut. I asked her to give me Tropicals with no banana and sub pineapple. At this point, I noticed attitude in her voice as she told me to drive forward. When I got to the window, I asked her to repeat me order because I felt she did not enter it into the system correctly. She repeated my order with the 2 tropicals with no banana. I asked her, “they bother have pineapple, but right?” With attitude in her voice and showing on her face, she said, yes! I paid and pulled around to the front to front of the storefront.

We stirred their blizzards and there was no pineapple in their blizzards. I got off and noticed the front door was locked, so I knocked on the window and showed them my 2 blizzards. Valerie and another worker looked at me and turned away. I walked around to the drive thru window, which the drivers in the cars were quite polite and motioned me to go to the window. I handed the blizzards to Valerie and stated the blizzards were missing pineapple. I could tell by her mannerisms and body language that Valerie was quite upset with me. She came back to the window with the blizzards and insisted that I order d the blizzards incorrectly. She stated I should have just ordered the Hawaiian. Once again because I was unsure, I asked what exactly comes in the Hawaiian? I said well, it still doesn’t have pineapple, coconut, and pecans. I’d have to still do subs. She angrily stated that’s what I need to order. That’s when I asked for her name. She laughed as she yelled, Have a great day!

My mom and grandmother have been ordering these blizzards with their substitution for over 40 years. There has never been an issue until now.

I understand they were busy and I know, firsthand, of the staffing shortages, but there is no reason for a staff member to be rude and for the customer to not be able to have her order fulfilled correctly. Lastly, my 93 yr old grandmother stated she only had 2 pieces in her blizzard. My mother only had 3 pieces.

We won’t be back to the Helotes Dairy Queen for...