Dairy Queen — Restaurant in Lincoln City

Oh, where do I begin? Walking into this fine establishment felt like stepping onto the set of a sitcom where everything that can go wrong does—except it wasn’t funny at the time. After a long drive with my kids, we walk in, stomachs growling, only to be greeted by someone with the charm of a DMV employee on their third double shift. I started to order, and that’s when the comedy began.

Me: “I’ll have a burger.” Them: “We don’t have buns.”

Excuse me? No buns? At a burger joint? That’s like a car dealership saying, “Sorry, we’re out of tires. Want to push it home?” I regroup, thinking, Fine, I’ll adapt. We’re all in this together, right? I ask if they have chicken strips. The employee, clearly offended that I dared to ask, rolls their eyes and grumbles that they do. Oh, hallelujah, a miracle!

I keep going, cautiously optimistic, and ask if they have ranch for dipping. Nope. No ranch. At this point, I feel like I’m on a twisted episode of Chopped, trying to create a meal with whatever random scraps they might still have in the kitchen. So I say, “Why don’t you just tell me what you do have?” This apparently shattered their last nerve because I was met with the world’s loudest sigh, as if I’d just asked them to recite the Iliad from memory.

Realizing this was a losing battle, I apologized for expecting them to, you know, do their job. They graciously told me it was “fine,” and I couldn’t help but laugh. “You know what? I’ll just go spend my money at a place that actually wants my business,” I said as I walked out.

Seriously, how is this place still open? They’re like the anti-restaurant—actively working to repel customers. If they’re still in business next year, I’ll be impressed. But don’t worry, I won’t be coming back to Lincoln City...

I called this Dairy Queen location over a week in advance to order an ice cream cake for our daughter's birthday; we would be in Lincoln City to celebrate her birthday, and she doesn't really care for sweets except for ice cream, so picking up an ice cream cake for her sounded perfect. When we arrived, there appeared to only be 2 people running the entire restaurant which was fairly busy on a Saturday evening if you consider the drive thru having multiple vehicles waiting.

I asked at the counter about my ice cream cake, and they had no recollection about me calling in an order, even though I had spoken over the phone to a woman who called herself the manager at the time.

The manager on duty this particular evening I came in to get the cake was kind enough to drop the price in half for one of the partially made, unfrosted, undecorated ice cream cakes and give me a small container of chocolate syrup that we could drizzle over the ice cream came, which was helpful.

However, when we got back to the beach house to celebrate with my daughter, she said she wasn't surprised at all that they lost my order. She worked for another Dairy Queen for several years, and while hers was a decently managed location, most are not. She felt, based on the price she has sold the same (but fully frosted/decorated cakes) for within the last 6 months, that we were still overcharged for an unfrosted cake and should have been given it for free, since it was their mistake.

The lesson I've learned? If we ever do this again, I will call several days prior to make sure it has been scheduled with the decorator, and a day before to again make sure it's been made.

What a disappointment for us all. It should be simple to take care of an ice...

When we got to this DQ, we were looking forward to getting our chicken strip meal deals, with blizzards and that magical country gravy. We thought the choice to close the lobby at 7 was strange, especially when your drive through line has people not in cars and the line goes out into the street. But we would wait for the chicken in that beautiful country gravy. Then we got up to the order point, only to find out that the meal deals were only from 11am-4pm. I’ve yet to go to another Dairy Queen where that is the case. It’s ok. The extra few dollars is worth it for that delicious country gravy. We order our food, and wait in line. And we wait… and wait… and finally we get to the window. Those poor workers are so stressed out, how can they offer any sense of good service? I’ve worked fast food, and this place has problems that start from the top with the owner of this franchise. It’s ok, I can take a bit of impersonal service for that wondrous country gravy. Now here is the part where I accept responsibility: in my rush to get out of that line to ease the stress on those poor employees and get some of the line out of the street, I had neglected to check the bag… and if you couldn’t tell already, we had gotten to Siletz bay before we realized they had forgotten to put into the bag the item that we had come for. They forgot our country gravy. To the owner of this franchise location, hire more people so you can keep the lobby open, don’t impose stupid rules on your menu, and reduce the stress on your employees so they DON’T FORGET MY COUNTRY GRAVY!!!!!

Onions rings earned the second star. Good job to the employee...