Dickey's Barbecue Pit - Lancaster — Restaurant in Lancaster

Sure, here’s an extended one-star review for Dickey’s Barbecue:

I recently visited Dickey’s Barbecue for what I hoped would be a pleasant dining experience, but it turned out to be incredibly disappointing. Upon arrival, I noticed the restaurant was quite busy, which I initially took as a good sign. However, my excitement quickly faded as I realized that the busyness of the place was going to be a major problem.

First, I waited in line for nearly twenty minutes just to place my order. The line moved at a snail's pace, and it became apparent that the staff were overwhelmed and struggling to keep up with the influx of customers. I tried to be patient, understanding that busy times can be challenging for any restaurant, but my patience wore thin as I watched staff members rushing around in a disorganized frenzy.

When I finally reached the counter, I was met with a frazzled employee who barely acknowledged my presence. They seemed more focused on getting through the line than on providing any semblance of customer service. I placed my order, feeling more like an inconvenience than a valued customer. I tried to ask a few questions about the menu, but the employee was too preoccupied to offer any meaningful assistance, giving me curt and unhelpful responses.

After placing my order, I waited for another thirty minutes for my food. During this time, I observed the chaotic environment. The dining area was a mess, with dirty tables and overflowing trash cans. It was clear that the staff were too busy to maintain any level of cleanliness or order. Customers were left to fend for themselves, struggling to find a clean place to sit.

When my food finally arrived, it was lukewarm and unappetizing. The barbecue, which I had been looking forward to, was dry and lacked flavor. The sides were no better, with the mac and cheese being a cold, congealed mess and the coleslaw tasting like it had been sitting out for hours. I tried to flag down a staff member to address these issues, but they were all too busy to notice or care.

To add insult to injury, when I went to get a refill for my drink, the soda machine was out of several options, and the area around it was sticky and dirty. Once again, it was clear that the staff were too overwhelmed to maintain the basic amenities of the restaurant.

Overall, my experience at Dickey’s Barbecue was extremely disappointing. The restaurant was far too busy for the staff to handle, resulting in poor customer service, a chaotic dining environment, and subpar food. I understand that busy times can be challenging, but this level of disorganization and neglect is unacceptable. I will not be returning and would advise others to avoid this location, especially...

We went yesterday, Super bowl Sunday! We had an absolutely horrible experience! Terribly long wait for overpriced, over salted food! We ordered 2 gumbo baked potatoes. The shrimp was not only overly salted they were old. They were hard/overcooked dry and SALTY! The kids meals were ridiculously little. The greens were weird! They had a heavy vinegary taste. We didn't receive any cornbread and the beans tasted like they were fresh from the can. My yams and macaroni were cold and overly salty like everything else was. I ordered a 3 meat plate and it's supposed to be "Texas" size, well yeah right I received half a chicken breasts and a hot link. So the price for an our "salt fest" was $119! Which isn't a problem if the food was worth it! Now let's discuss the customer service! When we got home and our guests and I started eating we immediately discovered this is WRONG! And it's SO much salt it's unhealthy to eat this we called. My husband spoke with someone and he said just bring the food back. So after the game we did. They told my Husband that they had to make a phone call and someone would be getting in touch with him. That didn't happen. The next morning (Monday morning) he called and spoke with a manager. This particular manager said she didn't understand why we weren't refunded our money Sunday night when we bought it back. She then went in to say that if she was to give the refund it would have her register come up short since the food wansnt served on her shift and she would have the General manager call us back. Well we got busy with the day and realized around 8pm that we never received a call back! So we call again! This particular person says he's sending a text message to the manager requesting that we get a call back! This whole situation is terrible! I wish I would have kept my mouth shut when we were discussing what we would be eating for our small super bowl gathering. We're out $120 and they could careless! They've done anything to reach out and attempt to fix the situation or even listen to our concerns! We'll never be back again! I don't recommend this Dickey's at all!!!!! Update! Today is Wednesday and I bought back all the food we had purchased. They remade it (after the manager on duty had to call another manager. And we had to drive back home to find the receipt and bring back) after we pleaded our case again. Two hours later we finally get home and eat and it was still nasty! #neverevereveragain Rib tips were very chewy like buble gum. Shrimp from potato was still very salty and we were missing items again! Guys save your time and money by NOT...

Good food, hard workers, bad catering, poor management

-Called to place a catering order on a Sat night for a party the next Sat. The person who answered apparently could not take the order (why?) and told me a manager would be calling me back soon. -The manager called me back 9 mins later and we had a 5 min conversation during which he took (wrote down?) my order including delivery of the order at 2:30. We concluded the call with him taking my CC payment. -On the day of the party at 12:15, I called to confirm we were still all set. The worker who answered had no idea what to do to confirm and seemingly had no way to check on my order. She advised that the manager would call me soon. -At 12:50, the manager called me with no recollection or record of our call or my payment (required to enter in their POS system). It was like I was calling for the first time. I then briefly summarized our conversation at which point he recalled it, but would not own up to the fact that we completed the order through payment and that he did not follow through.

The next ~hour was too crazy to list out, so here is a summary of my interaction with the manager: -They did not have a driver, so now I had to go pick up the order -He wanted me to text my credit card (!) -He got my order wrong after 2 read backs -He was unclear when I could call the store to make payment over the phone (twice) -He acted like it was my fault that he did not follow through on the order with payment (again, I did...with him) -After he stuck to his story about not receiving payment for the third time, I let him know my opinion about how he mishandled the entire situation. He replied with an ultimatum (5 seconds or he would hang up). I think it’s apparent that I was more than patient given my 2 hours of (re)coordination by this point. However, Dickeys was my only option at this point, so I reluctantly relented. -We finally completed the order at 1:45 and I picked it up with no issues. Of note, the first person I spoke with had no idea who I was. The whole experience was bizarre.

Clearly, the issues were (1) the worker I first called and the worker on the day of the event were not empowered to take my catering order in their POS system requiring me to talk to the manager which would have been fine, but (2) the manager did not follow through to get my order in the POS system (and then had no accountability for his mistake).

We will not cater from this (or possibly another)...