Dairy Queen Grill & Chill — Restaurant in Overland Park

Placed order via drive thru and waited at the pick up window for a while. Was then told that they were out of grilled chicken and could substitute crispy which I agreed to. I then paid and waited several more minutes and was then asked to pull to the front of the store as it would take several more minutes for the fries to be ready. I then pulled to the front of the store and waited at least 10 minutes (keep in mind they were not busy). Finally our order was brought out to us in a single bag and very neatly packed. I questioned the guy who brought out the order if this was everything and he quickly said yes and walked away. We then checked the bag and it was missing the two orders of fries that I had been waiting ten minutes for! I got out of the car and went into the restaurant and asked about what happened to my fries that I just waited for....the same guy that delivered my order to the car said they accidentally gave them away and they would have to make some more and would bring them out to me. I then waited again and he brought me out the fries after several minutes, apologized and gave me 6 coupons for $6 meal deals with free sundaes. The reason for my rating is two fold... First you already get a free sundae with the $6 meal deal so I guess he didn't realize I knew this even though I had one in the order they messed up and secondly I believe he knew that the order was short our fries and he was hoping we would just drive off and not check or bother coming...

This is a new Dairy Queen - literally one week old. It has a modern layout, is shiny and has all the latest decor and equipment. It is easily the nicest Dairy Queen I have ever been in, and I have been in many. They have one of the very nice self-serve soda machines with numerous options. They have a few flat screen televisions with sports programming in the lobby. They even have you take a number when you order and bring your food out to you.

The food was solidly good - my son and I got the 5 buck meals with bacon chicken sandwiches, fries and small sundae. All were well prepared.

Service was friendly, but hesitant. This is a new restaurant and they aren't fully comfortable with their new roles. The manager came around and checked on us, asking for feedback. We were happy with our meal and happy to have a better option.

One thing notable about this location is its proximity to Twisters, a frozen custard place perhaps 100 yards due north of DQ. Twisters has good frozen treats similar to DQ blizzards and has made a living by its proximity to the baseball fields and lack of competition. Twisters only has frozen custard and hot dogs, but the dog isn't very good and almost nobody gets one. Twisters is VERY expensive - the cost of one blizzard look-alike is more than the DQ 5 buck or 6 buck meal meal. What's more is that Twisters is outside-only, so it is very seasonal. I see the opening of DQ here as the beginning of the end for the...

Firstly, the good:

The staff are very friendly and are clearly trying to make the best of the situation they’re in.

The restaurant itself is still very new, clean and well laid out.

Unfortunately, there are some major things to consider before giving this DQ a try:

Wait times - I’ve waited for 15 minutes in the store for a Blizzard before today; on this, my second attempt I waited 10 minutes in a drive thru with only one other customer ahead of me and a nearly empty car park.

Preparation: with a long wait and no customers, the last thing I would have expected is for my food to be microwaved, but I got to witness my food being quickly reheated before being served to me.

Food quality: well, all you could expect from a microwaved sandwich; the protein was scalding and the tomato was destroyed. The chicken was also the flattest I’ve ever seen and in parts, the batter was actually thicker than the meat.

Management: you’re picking nice people to work there and you have a brand new establishment, but you’re letting yourselves down badly on customer care, training, leadership and quality food prep.

Please don’t send me the generic “apologies” or “contact us” stock social media response (as you’ve done multiple times from other very polite reviewers); it’s cynical and worthless. Just take the feedback, look into the problem and...