McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in New Braunfels

Well, I have officially moved back to Texas and it is onward toward finding new wonderful restaurants to review! This is exciting for me to explore the many places that didn’t exist when I first lived here. Today, we will be looking at McCallister’s Deli in New Braunfels, TX.

As it is my usual approach, I always start with the “As Delivered” photos. The first photo presents how the food arrived, and on the next four I took a photo of each of the items, which will include the Kid’s Ham and Cheese Grilled Cheese, The French Dip, Kids Broccoli Cheddar (also has Chicken in it), Steamed Broccoli, and Mac n’ Cheese. Following these photos, you will find three of the Kid’s Ham Grilled Cheese plated and the French Dip plated as well. No onto the review!

I will first start with the Kid’s Grilled Cheese. This thing was great and yes, I took a bite as who can resist a grilled cheese! I always order for my Dog as he is my “kid” so he found no offense at me taking a bite of his sandwich. I used some of the sides that I ordered in plating it and decided to go with the Steamed Broccoli and Mac n’ Cheese. I will cover the sides independently a bit further down. The bottom line with this sandwich is that I found it to be very tasty with the ham complimenting their cheese selection beautifully. It passed the “melting test” as I like to call it and I may consider ordering a couple of these for myself!

Now for the pièce de résistance…the iconic French Dip. As most of us know, it is either right or it is wrong. No in between in my mind where this is concerned as I’ve been eating them since I was five and in preschool. Hands down I will safely say this is in the top three that I have ever had! The reason I say this is the way it was done as I have never had one presented to me with such a unique taste. Picture this, smoked and charred thinly slice Roast beef. By itself the taste was just amazing with that slight char on the meat and the smoke flavor. I could eat it without the Au Jus if I wanted to, but where is the fun in that? The Au Jus was what I was hoping for and that was great! We all know that sometimes you get some Au Jus that simply seems like it came from a watered down can or something. This was an excellent dip and most importantly, it was an outstanding compliment to the smoky flavor of the sandwich itself! Well worth a try if you are a fan of French Dips like I am.

I enjoyed all the sides, but the one that really shined the most was the Kid’s Broccoli Cheddar! I was happy to see that it had Chicken it and that the chicken was good quality Chicken as that is one of my big things with Chicken pieces. The taste was simply pleasurable, and I found myself wanting a lot more of it, so like the Grilled Cheese I may consider ordering more of this the next time. It almost kind of makes me think a bit about King Ranch Chicken Casserole for some reason and that is a good thing. The Mac n’ Cheese was homemade and I found it to be pretty good. I’m not a Mac n’ Cheese fan but the dog is so he got the larger portion of it. The steamed Broccoli had a very light seasoning and I found it to be just right for something that a child could eat. All the sides were good, but as I mentioned above that Kid’s Broccoli Cheddar is the clear winner!

Final Thoughts:

This place is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a wide variety of items to choose from that have quality ingredients! I even spoke to the store and their customer service is excellent. Stop by this place if you are from out of town. You won’t regret it. Plus, you can get some grocery shopping done in...

My wife and I had a bad experience at this particular McAlister's. We ate here about two weeks ago and was not impressed. Before we entered there was a sign on the door saying "there may be longer wait times due to understaffing." Okay. Understandable.

However when we walked in first thing we noticed was a mostly empty restaurant but with dirty dishes at nearly every table. 2 employees behind the cash register area and two in the back area, I assume cooking or preparing food. I understand they could've just had a rush but there were maybe only 2 other customers in the store at the time and so I didn't understand why the two employees were behind the register joking and laughing. They also continued to do so for another 3 or 4 minutes after we ordered our food. I personally was embarrassed for them because there's no way I'd have been comfortable allowing customers to see the mess left at every table the way it was. I understand they're understaffed but if you have time to talk and joke behind the register, you have time to bust tables.

Also the salads my wife and I did receive we're not good. I got grilled chicken salad, my wife got the southwestern salad with avocado. The lettuce or greens they used in my salad had a "dirt" like taste to it. My wife didn't enjoy her salad either as the greens didn't taste fresh. The only thing we did enjoy was the chili we both got. McAlister's has the best chili in our opinion. We both love McAlister's deli but this location let us...

I came in there today and ordered a salad at 12:42pm. It wasn't until 1:05pm that I received my salad. When I received my salad there was no dressing, no plastic ware, no crackers and my dessert was also not in the bag. I was told that the reason I did not get my food was because someone sat it over in the drive thru area. When I addresses this with the manager she said "you ordered it during the rush." There were people who had ordered their food after me and sat down and got theot food before me. The manager then asked "so do you want your money back?" I wanted to eat my salad so of course I did not opt for getting my money back. I feel like it is a training issue and this should not have taken almost 30 minutes for me to receive my lunch order when I get 1 hour for a lunch break. Do better. Well, I thought I'd give it another try, because I do enjoy their salads, but it should not take them 25 minutes to prepare a salad. Even their general manager wasn't helping to make the food for other patrons. There was also a gentleman in there who could not wait any longer and had to ask for his money back because he had to go back to work. There was another gentleman in the restaurant who was waiting for a piece of cake. One piece of cake and it took him longer, to get his piece of cake, then it did me to get my salad. Do better hire more people if you don't have anybody to come work for you. The customers should not have to be the ones that are suffering because there is a...