Carl’s Jr. — Restaurant in Long Beach

This Carl's Jr. is way in the back inside the Shell Truck Stop on Pacific Coast Highway. The truck stop convenience store fills up most of the building and it's clear from the attitude of the staff and the truckers restlessly shifting in place as they wait to be rung up that this is no place to linger. Everyone is in a hurry to get those rigs back on the road. It's different in the back. At Carl's Jr. because you know you'll have to wait at least as long as it takes to cook your order, the pace is more relaxed and I've frequently noticed a Carl's staff person spending a few moments in friendly conversation with one of the regular truckers having a meal. It's a sign of the times that I get a warm glow thinking about those brief moments of fast food chit chat as if they were the apotheosis of the human need to establish meaningful relationships with each other. But I do remember them with nostalgia because that casual, relaxed feeling is gone. In its place is the cold, cordoned off areas to stand, to order, to wait, to get one's order and then to leave. No one can use the booths anymore. The truck stop is noisy and the new lucite barriers between Carl's staff and the customers means ordering now means raising one's while still keeping the mask in place. Everything feels awkward and stilted. Despite all this, the food is still the best Carl's Jr food I've tasted in Southern California. The staff seems almost eager to personalize your order by making special requests a snap and then double checking your order just before handing it to you. All that still happens. It's always clean. What more can I say? It's all those good things but it's still a sad and stressful...

Cindy & Stephanie, the two drive thru young ladies, are always with a smile and personable. I've been going there for 10 years. The food is always fresh. Problem #1. Your prices have moved up faster than inflation. I cut myself off one day a week. Problem #2. The automated order taker. It asks too many questions and gets my answers wrong about a third of the time, I speak perfect English. I just ask fo a person and i have to do that two or three times. It's frustrating. Please disable it. You get another service star when you disable the order taker. Because that would be getting Service. It would be nice to hear those sweet...

What happened to qaulity control. If the beef patties get any thinner we may confuse them for communion wafers. Only reason I compare these patties to bits o' body of Christ; both are paper thin, flavorless , and you dont feel any better about your life choices after eating them.

Better to just take your $10er and put it in the Pilot bathroom toilet, piss on it, and flush.

*Pro Tip 101: Order french fries with no salt as to ensure the cheap bastards fry up a new hot and fresh batch. You can always add salt afterwards. Nothing worse than stanky dank cold grease sticks to pair with a hamburger that caught aids and died...