Carl’s Jr. — Restaurant in La Mesa

TLDR: If it is after 9pm don't waste your time. Take your business to McDonald's across the street. There is a pretty good chance this place is already closed even though their drive thru menu light and store hours suggest otherwise.

UPDATE: ONE HOUR AND FORTY FIVE MINUTES BEFORE POSTED CLOSING TIME, and ignoring my own advice from my original review I arrived on a Friday night at 10:15pm and waited behind 4 cars for 15 mins until it became obvious to all of us that whoever manages this place likes to party more than make their store any money. Again, the worst part is they leave their drive thru menu light on and don't even bother answering the speaker. Poor business model all around.

I doubt they will dispute this review. Whoever is running this place doesn't want you to come after 9pm either.

ORIGINAL: This place regularly closes earlier than their posted hours. It's 45 minutes before their closing time as I write this review and I'm sitting next to a lifeless drive thru speaker with another car waiting behind me. Worst part is they leave the drive thru menu light on all night just to mess with...

What the 'Effff Carl's Jr? I go to the Drive Through after 10:00 and they have switched to a blasted robot AI order board. No Humans taking orders at the Drive Up anymore at this location. It took forever to order because it couldn't seem to understand my voice. I finally got frustrated, didn't complete my order, Drove Right Past the Window, and went someplace else. I saw four employees walking around inside through the windows, I was their ONLY Customer, and NOBODY COULD HAVE TAKEN MY ORDER? Been going to this location for years. But since the Pandemic, it's been going downhill. Even the quality of the food is not what it used to be. Not to mention the dining room and bathrooms never seem to be as clean as they used to be. And Yet, the prices keep going up. Now a Frustrating Automated Drive UP? Nope. I'm Done with...

I would give negative stars if I could. Bring back the humans! The AI order taking is atrocious. At a minimum, will be refusing to order through it from now on. It presents a horrible first impression for the customer - yielding an inefficient, frustrating, rude, and inaccurate ordering experience. It's had enough chances, it has been "learning" for over 6 months now. Please end the use of AI for ordering! UPDATE AFTER REPLY BELOW: Let me be clear. The people that work at this restaurant are top notch. The AI ordering must go. The link probided below takes one to an AI (bot) driven survey. The fact that you ask me (and other customers providing similar feedback here) to fill out an AI-driven survey to further document these concerns is...