Cook Out — Restaurant in Rome

My wife and I stopped at Cookout after working up a hunger from our hike at Ke'own Falls. We chose this restaurant because it was on our route home and wanting chili cheese dogs (via Google) we read that Cookouts "chili dogs and onion rings can't be beat". Now.. up front let me acknowledge this was late afternoon on the fourth of July. But with a few cars in the drive thru and only 2 tables inside we either beat the crowd or arrived at a lull..but regardless of the holiday the entire time we were there they were not terribly busy and the only reason a line of people ever existed was because of the very slow and inefficient and/or poorly trained (tired?) staff working this day. Let me assure anyone reading this review that we understand how difficult it is working in a hot, busy fast food restaurant while still providing a clean atmosphere and pleasant customer service. Also, while we were tired and hungry, our mood was still respectful, happy and honestly kinda excited for our first experience at a Cook Out restaurant. Where reportedly the chili dogs and onion rings that can't be beat!.. Well we learned for ourselves that the chili dogs and onion rings CAN definitely be beat. Though I would have to say they were better than the less than clean atmosphere, the syrupy tasting fountain drink and the unstocked napkins, straws and lids. The dogs themselves were maybe lukewarm, cole slaw and onions were indistinguishable but both certainly dry while the chili contained burnt pieces of meat. The onion rings were under and unevenly cooked. Unsalted and just blah... And as I already shared the fountain drinks were not great. The restaurant is in desperate need of a top to bottom cleaning made obvious by the dirty windows, floor and by the dust filled HVAC vents. Also curious to me was what may have caused the visible line on the ducting were the dirt and dust is getting visibly thicker on top? I wonder was it a challenge to the heighth of cleaning personnel or to the cleaning ladder and equipment?. Whichever was the cause I was obviously wasting more time on the subject than the stores management. BUT.. What the described (less than desirable) food quality and the condition of the restaurant atmosphere DID "beat" was the terrible customer service. Before leaving we ordered two shakes to go and waited while witnessing an uncaring staff member, poor customer service and a growing line. To help identify the individual staff member (if anyone cares) I will say SHE would, for whatever reason, begrudgingly-like come out to the counter and literally toss the orders on the counter and say nothing to anyone. With many customers witnessing, when one of her coworkers said something to her, she said "so..I don't care!". We were afforded multiple opportunities to see this silent tossing of orders repeatedly play out while orders piled up on the counter. ORDERS FOR CUSTOMERS WHO WERE STANDING RIGHT THERE! Tired of the show and seeing many customers be served who came in after us I stepped to the counter to ask the boy working the counter where our shakes were. After having to prove our order by showing our receipt did I realize that we had been waiting 30 MINUTES for two shakes!

The fellas excuse was "no one's making shakes right now".. he said "I normally make them but I've been too busy working the cash register" WHAT?! I asked to speak with the store manager, who I was told wasn't working today. I said how about an assistant manager and he said "there really isn't one". At which time I insisted that someone needs to stop what they're doing and make our shakes right now. But not until after taking another customer order and one of his coworkers asking what I was saying did someone actually make our shakes. Two of their "45 Fancy milkshakes" that were nothing fancy. An abundance of hershey's chocolate syrup made their chocolate shake "classic". The peanut butter banana consist of a little ice cream, a banana cut in two and A LOT of the peanut butter flavored goo. A disappointing and dissatisfying...

**UPDATE As mentioned in the review below, my family frequents this restaurant regularly. Tonight I gave them another shot. The food was hot and fresh even though it was right at closing. The young man who took my order, Tyler, was audible in the drive through and pleasantly personable at the window. I explained to him that my visit was much more enjoyable than my last and complimented his customer service. I was sorry to hear that the young lady will no longer be working here, but I hope that people who have had a bad experience will give it another shot like I did. I changed my rating from 2 starts to 5. Original review: I love the variety of food, shakes and meal combos at the Cookout. The late night hours are an even greater bonus! However, my customer service experience tonight was the pits! Young lady, your only job is to pleasantly greet the customer and take their order. You represent a company and every other co-worker when you speak. If you are put out by the job, kindly step aside and allow someone who has better skills do it. Mr. Shift Manager, you cannot allow people to yell at your customers. You cannot allow someone under your supervision to act this way and cower down to them as they continue to be rude and disrespectful. There are plenty of people who can handle the stress of the drive thru, so you need not worry about asking Miss Giselle to step aside. I give credit where it's due. You tried. Thank goodness the food and many other experiences speak more loudly to me than tonight. Unfortunately this particular young lady's attitude was not unfamiliar, as another guest in my car said it is the same experience almost every visit. I hope the company listens. We are regular customers and the display we got tonight was totally...

So me, and my boyfriend were picking up food for us and our son. We got three orders in the drive through line I was ordering and the girl with medium length brown hair took my order and she couldn’t hear what i was saying as I was ordering which wasn’t a problem at all. I repeated it multiple times for her to understand. But after the last time she got really frustrated with her voice and monotoned and clearly annoyed with me telling her what i wanted to order. We pull up to the line, and she is clearly agitated. She had two other girls with her that had the same look and enthusiasm. They asked if we wanted any sauces and this location makes you tell them what sauce you want when you get to the window. We asked for seven ranch because we had 3 meals and it seemed reasonable. The girl shut the window on us clearly mad and got her sauces while she talked to the two other girls. We can hear their whole conversation as well. The girl said don’t give them 7 ranch and they looked at us again all irritated and didn’t give us any of the sauce we asked and had misplaced items. I never write reviews but these girls weren’t afraid to show their irritation towards customers and didn’t care who heard them or how they treated us. I don’t appreciate the way anything was handled. 12/18/2024 around 10pm yall need to fire those girls to get your business right. i’m sorry it was so obvious how...