Carl’s Jr. — Restaurant in Mission Viejo

When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Two strikes in a row is good enough for me to not go back, even though this location is the closest Carl's Jr to my house.

The chain has been my go-to, even since becoming the most expensive fast food chain I know of. I pull into the drive through about an hour before they are scheduled to close and had very unfriendly treatment by the guy working the window (don't know his name). He wasn't straight-up rude, just didn't say a word other than the price and didn't respond to my "thank you". I figured he'd just had a bad day and wished he could go home. Then the burgers were sloppily thrown together and tasted "watery" if that makes any sense.

The second strike happened yesterday morning at 6:20 AM. They'd been officially open since 6 AM, the lights were all on, and the "Open" sign was lit. I pull into the drive thru and a woman's voice asks me if I'd like to try the honey chicken sandwich or something. After saying "no thank you", I gave my order. Crickets. I waited about 20 seconds bc I didn't want to be rude and asked, "oh, can I get a large order of fries as well?" Crickets. After saying "hello?" a few times, I pulled up to the window. No one was there. I pulled around to leave and saw no one at all in the front or by the grill(s). I guess the woman who asked me about trying the chicken sandwich was just a recorded voice.

This does NOT factor into my rating but it's also worth mentioning: It's a little hard to get to because it's easy to pass the turn into the gas station and have to...

Are you a bettin' person? Wanna take a chance on whats in your bag when you order from this Carls location?

If you're going to use the drive through, make sure to stop and check what's in your bag after you get it. More often than not, I've been given orders where items are missing, it's someone else's order, and/or custom requests are ignored. It's usually going to reliably be one of those three things.

If you like the thrill of the game of chance, go for it - grab that bag with the trust of a three year old without checking it first, and roll off into the night with a sense of adventure and risk. Peak in the bag when you get home, and like a kid on Christmas who is excited to open presnets and receives socks, be just as disappointed when the items you wanted from this Carl's aren't there.

Or, you could just screw it, save the hassle and disappointment, and just go to another Carl's. Unless this kind of service is inherent in the employee training....yikes.

When I want the occasional fast food run, I want it to be right. I think that's a pretty simple ask. A combo comes with the main item, a drink, AND some fries, usually. Let's try not to forget one of those key parts for other...

I work at night. So I get home hungry and tired and I'm sick of breakfast food for dinner. And these wonderful people take my 6am order for a burger and fries instead of the breakfast menu they're preparing with smiles and courtesy.

Really, the only complaint is that they changed the lettuce they use in The Big Carl sometime back from a crunchy lettuce to one that is greener and in theory more flavorful, but also gets soggy and pretty bad if you don't eat the burger right away. Which is often the case when using the drive thru, going home, unpacking all of my work stuff, and settle down to actually eat. I haven't eaten the full menu but they have plenty of other burgers I really love so it's not a dealbreaker by any means. I already miss the Angus Thick Burger though.

Just a small warning for people new to the area: the actual entry into the little area the building is in is kind of awkward and large trucks can block the way from time to time, forcing you to navigate through the gas station in order to get to the restaurant.

Edit: it seems the lettuce was changed back to crunchy some time ago and now survives the trip home when I use...