McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in Lebanon

So I know this place is brand new and so I'm sure they're still working at The kinks and getting everybody ready as far as associates but I thought I would go ahead and share my current experience and upgrade later my review.

This place looks very nice and is probably one of the nicer McAlister's delis that I've ever personally been in.

They were able to take our order pretty quick despite there being a fairly decent sized line. Tonight it was busier than we've ever personally seen it ever, driving by previously. We were given a heads up that there was about a 30-minute delay in getting food out to the tables because of how busy they were which is totally fine we agreed to the 30 minutes ordered and sat down to wait.

Unfortunately the food did take a substantially larger amount of time than 30 minutes to get to us which again is not a problem cuz I understand that a lot of places are short staffed or really struggling to keep up when it gets busy with things like this. It took roughly somewhere between 1 hour and 1 hour and 10 minutes to get our food.

The weight itself wasn't necessarily what was as big of a deal for us even though we were pretty hungry when we showed up, but it was something that the employee mentioned to us before we got our food.

Now before I say this I will say that all of the staff here were beyond pleasant and incredibly compassionate when it came to genuinely apologizing for the delay on the food. However I will say that one of the reasons that was cited was a little bit concerning and I'm not sure the best way to handle it but it might be something for the restaurant to look into when it comes to management. We were told that the reason our food was delayed was because the kitchen staff decided to fulfill all of the outgoing orders related to things like Uber eats and Carry out orders entirely before even beginning to address the people that were dining in. I can't say for sure why this was deemed the appropriate course of action to handle the rush but it seems like making people dining in wait and additional 30 to 40 minutes past what we were already warned to fulfill orders for Uber eats is problematic and very much concerning. If Uber eats is causing that much trouble it would seem to me that there needs to be some sort of priority in the kitchen to accommodate that load while not basically telling the dining in guests that they are essentially the least important thing to handle. With that method of handling things it would appear to me that there's always the chance that if enough Uber eats orders comes in we could be waiting for two Plus hours before they even start because they've made us not the priority. I think that in this situation you should always take orders in the order that they come in and that just seems to be the most practical way to approach it because then you do not have guests with orders absolutely backing up like crazy while there is the potential for more orders to come in for carryout and Uber eats and whatnot. It just isn't a good solution to do what they claimed they did tonight.

That all being said I will say that the food was actually pretty good. Sweet tea was fresh and definitely carried the realness when it came to Sweet, and all of us really enjoyed our food. The only part of the food that I will say was not good at all was the mac and cheese recipe they had. It was extremely mushy and slightly worse than school cafeteria mac and cheese. Definitely something that moving forward they should probably look into and take a look at because it was not good at all. Mac and cheese is not that hard so it seems to me if they can knock it out of the park with the sandwich they should be able to knock it out of the park with something like mac and cheese.

Anyways we will be returning at...

You might as well just go to Panera since it's basically the same price, but you'll actually get quality and service. Brand new locations should be staffed initially with experienced employees in order to ensure that it's start up and initial operation goes smoothly, but this is just pathetic.

So get this, I order 2 half sandwiches and 2 small soups, was told 15-20 minutes. I go okay, that's the time it takes outback to cook a steak and french fries, not pour soup in a bowl and make half a sandwich but alright. So, I go to Starbucks and wait in their line, fill up the car, and come back and the food is still not ready. They tell me they're bagging up our 2 half sandwiches and 2 soups now, but to pull forward to spot A because there's someone else waiting behind me. 10-15 minutes of sitting at spot A and no one else coming through the drive thru, I come inside to check out what the situation is. I discover my food is sitting next to the drive thru window with no one around, but that it takes 2 employees to stir sweet tea, one stirring the other carrying on about something outside of work, and neither of them ever realized I was standing there waiting to be helped. Finally, I'm helped by another employee who had no idea that they even had a spot A and I explained the waiting situation, as the manager walks past, listening in but choosing not to be involved. At least I got an extra tea for free to go with my tiny cold, soggy sandwiches and...

My husband and I love McAllister’s so we were excited to hear that Lebanon was getting one. We were so excited that we lined up on opening day and got free teas for a year!

If you find yourself visiting this McAllisters, practice patience!! This McAllisters just opened on June 27, 2022. The entire crew is still learning and some of the crew members are high school kids.

We have not had a single terrible experience. We give a lot of patience to any worker whenever we are there. The lines and service takes a long time, but again, they just opened and they will take a while to speed up service. We have had a couple of visits where our orders were slightly off in terms of minor customization. They were non offensive so we didn’t feel the need to correct it. If they make a mistake, just bring it up to any worker and I am sure they will correct it.

We have had the French Dip, the McAllisters Club, the Italian, and the Greek Goddess Salad with no complaints. The food is good, the service is good. Again if you are going to visit this location, be patience.

We love McAllisters and we’re glad to have another nice restaurant that offers some amazing sandwiches and salads. A place where everyone can find something to eat. Also cannot go wrong with...