Wendy's — Restaurant in North Little Rock

I was just trying to get out of the Wendy’s parking lot, or to a side area while another person went inside to place our order. The parking lot was a log jam, people were backed up out to the main entrance of the main parking lot. And that’s with TWO order lanes operating!! Why?! TERRIBLE service!! AND POORLY designed parking lot, there’s only a single lane available to through traffic. Once you’re trapped in this lane you’re doomed. A pickup truck who (came out empty-handed, should have been another clue) was trying to back out of the parking space gave up waiting for anyone to back up or move and drove over the median to escape. Add to that EXTREMELY inconsiderate drivers who, even though their lane started to move, got out of their cars and start adjusting the car’s interior with the doors open!! With the amount of business this Wendy’s has one would expect faster service but EVERY time we’ve visited it takes a MINIMUM of 15 minutes to receive an order, and that’s going INSIDE. Fast food? What a joke. After sitting in this pile of cars for 20 mins my friend returned from inside (inside was just as bad) and says they are OUT OF SALADS?! Who runs out of a primary menu item?! A poorly managed restaurant is who. I know all Wendy’s don’t operate on this level of inefficiency, the one in Sherwood takes at most 7 minutes (timed) to deliver the same order. I’ll also contrast the attitudes of the Sherwood Wendy’s with the McCain Wendy’s: smiles at Sherwood, zombie stare at McCain; friendly small talk and immediate acknowledgement at Sherwood, joking/flirting among the McCain staff, but you’re lucky if you’re acknowledged even if you’ve been standing at the counter and there’s nobody else. You feel like you’ve intruded. Very rude and unprofessional staff at McCain. Food wise, it’s the same comparison: fresh, crisp, warm/hot food at Sherwood, barely warm, shriveled/dried out/over-cooked at McCain. McCain needs an overhaul and redesign or just bulldozed and start from scratch starting with a well-designed parking lot. A freshman with a basic design course for experience could design a better parking lot. Do I recommend this Wendy’s? If you want a tailgate party or you’re really not interested in eating. Will I visit again? Not even if they offered free food. I wish I had pictures to post of the 50+ cars,...

You know back in the day, Wendy’s was the place to go. Great fresh good, good customer service, and fast drive thru. I remember when they said Wendy’s wasn’t trying to be the fastest, but was trying to be the second fastest behind McD’s. Back then Wendy’s was on their A game. Drive thru could be wrapped around the building, and cars were steadily moving; not much wait time. My, how things have changed. It’s mostly the same food, right? The quality has gone down. They added a second drive thru, but that has seemed to slow things down; not improved speed.

This Wendy’ location isn’t fast at all any more, and the customer service isn’t very good either. My most recent experience supports the recent trend of bad service and slow drive thru. It’s almost 10pm, so that limits our fast food options. Being that late, you can expect long lines and bad service (with the exception of Chick-fil-A & Raising Cane’s. Chick-fil-A closes at 10, so that leaves Raising Caine’s Which is always a pleasant experience). I’ve got the whole family in the car and we’re all hungry. Our first stop is Wendy’s. We wanted something a little different this time.

Wendy’s has two drive thru lanes, but one is blocked off. There were only a few cars in line ahead of us, and a few cars already backed up from the pickup window; so we got in line. In about 7 mins we made it to the ordering speaker. We give our order (including a grilled chicken sandwich), but it seemed like the lady taking our order was struggling a little bit. We eventually get out total and had to stay parked at the speaker because there was still a line of cars backed up from the pickup window. It felt like an eternity (really about 10 mins) to finally reach the pickup window. A young lady walks up to the pickup window and says “We ain’t got no grilled chicken, what else you want?”. Seriously? You mean to tell me that we just sat in drive thru for a total of about 17 mins, only to tell us they don’t have any grilled chicken. In 17 mins, they could have found a live chicken, and had it cooked already. What else do we want?, we wanted a grilled chicken. Now why couldn’t they tell me this when I ordered, instead of making we wait 10 mins to get to pickup window to then tell me no grilled chicken. We cancelled our order...

My husband had been admitted to local hospital and wanted Wendy's chili, baked potato & chocolate Frostie. Only one car in front of me yet still 10 minute wait. Placed order of chili, baked potato extra butter & sour cream, chocolate Frostie and large Dr Pepper. Employee repeated my order, hesitates & says we are out of everything you ordered but Dr Pepper. This was Friday night. 5/13/2022 @ 7:53 & out of everything!!!! Not acceptable. I ordered 2 Biggie bag meals with Dr Pepper drinks. I also requested number for your corporate office. Girl @ window turned and said something to lady behind her who in turn came to window and identified herself as manager. I asked again for number and she said she didn't have it and what was my problem. Explained all the items being out on a Friday night was poor planning. She in turn tells me, Well we don't serve chili after 9:00 anyway to which I replied it's only 8:07. By this time I was beyond mad and asked to get my meals so I could leave. Low and behold.... they ran out of Dr Pepper after one drink so I asked for Coke only to get to hospital with root beer. I've worked for Wendy's in the past, assistant manager in Memphis. This store needs help! Employees rude especially manager. To run out of product, big sellers, on a Friday night especially @ 8:00 in evening!!!! I've never been so disappointed in a Wendy's. If I could have left negative star --- I would have given -10. Oh also, when asked for receipt... NO...