Chick-fil-A — Restaurant in Rialto

Have you ever been served in a fast food restaurant? I mean really served—food brought to your table, drinks refilled, table cleaned. Yes, I have.

I first noticed Chick-fil-A back in 2016, when I drove from downtown Los Angeles along I-10, heading west to east. There was a billboard showing a cow sitting on another cow, painting the slogan “EAT MOR CHIKIN.” I thought it was an animal protection slogan promoted by some NGO. After seeing it several times, I realized there was a red line under the slogan. I googled it and eventually found out that the red line was a logo for a fast-food chain selling chicken-based foods called Chick-fil-A.

For some reason, I always thought Chick-fil-A was originally from California, but actually it's not. According to Wikipedia, it started in the Atlanta suburb of Hapeville, Georgia. Why did I think it was from California?

After a vacation in Las Vegas, I drove all the way to San Bernardino. On a side trip, I visited the Historical McDonald's Museum, and afterward I needed lunch. I got on I-210 from San Bernardino and exited at Ayala Dr, in a small town called Rialto. There, in a plaza between Panda Express and 7-Eleven, was a Chick-fil-A.

I saw the cow again, this time sitting on the roof of the restaurant, holding the “EAT MOR CHIKIN” board. Walking in from the side door, I immediately felt it wasn't like a normal fast-food restaurant. The tables, chairs, seating, and atmosphere all felt different from McDonald's or KFC.

I still placed my order at the counter. Since I didn't order a drink--I already had my giant coffee thermos--the cashier kindly offered me water. She gave me a blue table tent sign and told me my food would be served at the table.

After just a few minutes, less than five, a young staff member brought my tray of food. The tray had the familiar fast-food setup: paper liner, boxes, dipping sauce packets. It reminded me I was indeed in a fast-food place. Several staff members in Chick-fil-A uniforms walked around; one noticed I didn't have a cup and offered me water again. Another even came to ask how the food was, like in a sit-down restaurant. Warm and kind, but also a little unusual.

I ordered the limited-time Spicy Pretzel Cheddar Club. Although the bun looked like a round pretzel with a cross cut on top, the texture was nothing like pretzel--it was just a normal burger bun, soft and fluffy. The chicken sandwich tasted good, with just a hint of spice, but far too mild. By the way, the Dijon mustard packet was very hard to open—no tear notch on the edge, so I had to bite it open.

I also had Chick-n-Strips, three slices of fried chicken breast. I had never tried this before; in Chinese cuisine, chicken breast is usually considered the worst part of the chicken, especially in soups. Honestly, it was much better than I expected—tender and moist, not as dry as I imagined. The Sriracha dipping sauce was a little too sweet, but still tasty. One thing confused me: why was the Sriracha box green? Isn't Sriracha usually a red hot sauce?

Service was great, food was tasty, the environment welcoming, and the atmosphere pleasant. I don't understand why this restaurant only has 451 reviews with a 2.5 rating on Yelp, while on Google Maps it has 3,165 reviews and a 4.3 rating. Usually, restaurants have similar ratings across both platforms, so why is this one so different? I also checked other Chick-fil-A locations in Arcadia and Pasadena, and noticed the same pattern: their Yelp ratings were much lower than their Google Maps ratings, and the number of reviews was also significantly fewer on Yelp compared to Google Maps. Can anyone explain why?

Another interesting fact: unlike most fast-food chains, Chick-fil-A closes on Sundays, Thanksgiving,...

I've been pretty patient with this particular Chick-fil-A location and I've held back previously from leaving a negative review because I believe in really just focusing on the good ones however I've had multiple bad experiences at this location now and feel I need to express it. The way this location is being managed in regards to the food preparation the efficiency getting orders in and out and managing the traffic in the parking lot is awful. I just went to this location to pick up my online order upon turning into the lot where this location is at there was a long line for the drive-thru when I attempted to go to one of the parking spots for mobile pickup I wasn't formed I had to wait in that exact same line after expressing to the worker that I was there to pick up a mobile order. huge inconvenience because the whole purpose of a mobile order is for you to be able to come and pick it up and not have to wait in that long line!!! Needless to say that was my last straw it turned me off to the point where I left my order there and I refuse to go back to this location until they can get their s* together. I've had my orders messed up I've had missing items from my order this is the second time with a mobile order the inconveniences me the last time I came to this location which was two weeks ago I had placed an online order and I waited and waited and waited and somehow they forgot about my order because the people around me all got their orders before me and they had arrived afterwards I had to ask someone to look into my order after I had received a message indicating that somebody was already bringing me my order mind you this was 20 minutes after that message and nobody had delivered my food yet it wasn't until I grabbed a worker's attention and inquired about where my...

I had the WORST experience there this morning! I've gone to this location for years, since it opened. So recently, they updated /changed their online orders via the app, to not have curbside pickup. It's either dine in or pickup inside. So I did my order for breakfast, for my kids and went through the drive through. The girl on the speaker informed me that they can't serve my mobile order via drive thru and when I said that it wasn't convenient for me to go inside because I had a car full of kids, she asked the manager and the manager said no. So I drive to the window, ask for the manager and ask for the number to corporate, since they didn't want to serve me. She gave me the number, I parked, one of my kids got out and got the order. We get home and the order was WRONG. They didn't add the Pickles and cheese to one of the sandwiches, they didn't give us our sauces and they gave me a black iced coffee instead of the vanilla one. I was so upset. I called corporate and lodged a complaint. What if I was disabled? What if I had recent surgery on my leg and can't walk? What if I'm a single mom with 2 month old triplets and I can't bring in 3 car seats plus carry my order out by myself? There's no reason for them to refuse to serve me via drive thru. I could have been a witch in the drive though, canceled my online order and reordered it in person, so they could hand me my food, but I didn't want to be THAT person. Needless to say, won't be going to this...