Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in North Carolina

I pass by this Dairy Queen on my way to and from work 5 days a week. It looks a little rundown and maybe not open. But after going past it for a couple of months now my urge for a blizzard overcame my sense to stay away. Stick with your gut instinct in these matters. I pulled in placed my mobile order sat in the car for a few minutes to give them time to make my order. I had a mix and match on there and when I added the two items I didn't charge me nothing must be some sort of promotion or something with my points and then I placed my order for the blizzard which is really all I wanted. I go inside wait there a few more minutes probably about 2 or 3 minutes before somebody comes from the back asking who had the mobile order. I gave my name She stated she needed to see my receipt and she came off a little not customer friendly but I know it's hard to find good help these days. As I'm pulling up the receipt she says I'm going to start off by letting you know we don't have any ice cream. As I show her the receipt she told me there is a glitch that's not charging people for the mix and match and it would be $5 and some change if I wanted the food. But they didn't have the ice cream so they couldn't give me the blizzard that was paid for through the app for $4 and some change. At this point the manager, Sonya, came over, who had watched me stand there for the few minutes before anybody even acknowledged me, and asked what was going on. The worker reiterated about the glitch in the system and not having ice cream. I'm not sure why at this point I wasn't just given the mix and match in place of the ice cream or pay the difference. Instead I was told that I'd have to pay for the food separately and then wait for her to make it which clearly after you go into the place you really don't want the food anyway which is why it was empty in there. I was also informed that I would need to go online to get a refund for the blizzard that was paid for that was not received. So I pull right up on my phone I said okay show me where because I know how this goes It's never that easy. Well they couldn't figure it out She said well you're going to have to call the corporate number I said okay so what's that number. Once again she didn't know that either so she called somebody else and once again reiterated the entire story now adding herself into the situation and why there is no ice cream. I have now wasted at least 10 minutes of my time on my way home from work and now won't receive anything unless I want to wait longer and pay more money. After a few minutes of her rambling on the phone I let her know that I would just try to reach out the corporate myself because I had just worked a long day and apparently she was not going to be able to get me an answer. She just nodded and stared at me. This had to be one of my worst interactions at any food establishment. I have not yet reached out to corporate because I went to last night and it was a Sunday evening right before closing I was on hold for a few minutes and thought I'd do it another day I just didn't want to waste anymore my effort on a blizzard I wasn't going to ever get. It is in with a Stuckys and the smell in the place was not somewhere you would want your food to come from anyway. It definitely is what you would think of as a restaurant in a gas station not that hidden gem of a place you find off the highway. Steer clear of this location. Find a mom and pop ice cream place nearby. Marion a few miles east of this exit and Black Mountain is at the top of the mountain to the west. You will find something...

We sat for 15 mins after paying for our order and the young lady that took our order had gone outside after taking our order to smoke and take a break. She came back in and we went to the counter to ask about our food which she responded with: "oh I forgot about your food." How can you forget to cook our food? She took the order and she is also the cook....... We asked for our money back she walked away from us and acted like then she was then going to start cooking the food. We told her no we wanted a refund. How can you take someones order and then forget to make the food, when you are also the cook? It wasn't even busy either. Station owner needs to get some better help on the DQ side. We stopped in because it was an older looking station that looked nostalgic. The convenience store lady was nice and helped us with the refund and apologized a few times. Said she would notify the manager about what happened. Won't be stopping back there again. Sad because the place could be a neat stopping point for people traveling that area and want to stop for gas or to charge their electric car and a grab bite to eat. If you need gas or to charge your car, or grab a drink and snack, the Convenience store side is fine, i'd stay away from the Dairy Queen...

Well, this is a complicated review. To begin with, my ice cream cone was excellent. I ordered a Cinnamon Churro-Dipped vanilla cone- scrumptious! (I didn't even know that was a thing!)

Apparently the Stuckey's where this Dairy Queen is located is under new management. And I must say, it's been quite an improvement, from when I last visited years ago.

Decades ago, this was a nice restaurant/gas station. Then something happened (I don't know what), and the place turned into an absolute dump. It stayed that way for years. (To be honest, I stopped visiting for more than a decade, because it was always so awful.)

Today was my first visit back, & things have drastically improved since my last visit.

The new management clearly cares. They are in the process of installing electric vehicle charging stations. There were several friendly employees working. The place was reasonably clean, & the bathrooms were in good shape.

Does it still need a bit of work? Yes. But it seems like they are on the right track.

Can't wait for my next visit, when I plan to order an EVEN LARGER churro cone- seriously, I could've eaten two of those things, it...