Zaxby's Chicken Fingers & Buffalo Wings — Restaurant in Sanford

This was my first visit to Zaxby’s. I have driven past the Orange City location several thousand times. The reason I have never stopped at a Zaxby’s is because of their reputation for being over priced mediocre chicken restaurant. I was in a hurry and saw the Lake Mary Zaxby’s right before I had to turn before getting on the 417. There was no one at the menu board so I pulled in. The order taker asked “Can I take your order?” I ordered Classic Chicken sandwich combo advertised near the menu board. The order taker asked if Pickles and Zax Sauce were ok? I asked, what is Zax sauce? She could not really explain it. I said sure how ever it comes. She asked what I wanted to drink, I asked what do you have that is not carbonated. She start with caffeine free coke. I told her I would just take a sweet tea. Said your total is 8.01 pull around. There were two cars waiting at the window. The first was there about a minute before it pulled away. The second car wait 4 minutes to get there order. The cashier was polite and friendly. She handed me the sweet tea and asked if I wanted ketchup. I said sure. She came back in two minutes and handed me a bag and said “I put three inside.” Meaning 3 ketchup. The cashier Karen was very pleasant and cheerful. I pulled under a tree in the parking lot, put my straw in the ice tea, and took a big drink. The sweet tea was a perfect Southern sweet tea, strong tea flavor and sweet but not syrupy sweet. The tea was full of flavor and refreshing. I opened the sandwich, orange sauce was all over inside the foil bag. The orang sauce, Zax sauce was like a mild Buffalo sauce, tangy, zesty, but not to hot. The bun was like a Hawaiian bun but not too soft. The chicken breast was well breaded and golden brown. The batter was crispy. The chicken was slightly moist and seemed a little stringy. It was a flavorful sandwich. I finished the sandwich and headed for the 417. As I pulled in to Lake Mary Blvd I reached into the bag for a fry. The crinkle cut fries were thick but did not seem to be thoroughly cooked. The were squishy like a slop chip or under cooked fry. I ate several on Lake Mary Blvd then as I pulled onto the 417 I saw one had a seasoning like paprika. I tasted the red seasoning and it was a bit spicy and salty. It might have been better if there were more seasoning on the fries so you could taste the flavor. I will try...

Went there on 4/21/21 at 11:21 am through the drive thru to try their signature chicken sandwiches. I ordered 2 original and 2 spicy and asked if they could put extra pickles on the sandwiches. When I got the bill I noticed they added a $0.15 upcharge per sandwich for extra pickles so my total was $22.00 with tax. I was surprised they try to nickle and dime the customer like that, especially when Popeye's and McDonald's doesn't charge extra for pickles on their sandwiches. Also their sandwiches are $1.00 more than Popeye's. Zaxbys sandwiches are not worth $4.99 each, then they have the nerve to try a charge extra for a couple of pickles. Also when we got home all of the sandwiches were cold, like they were sitting out on a counter for a while. This was the worst chicken sandwiches I have ever tried. Also I noticed this time and a previous visit within the last 30 days that this location has some of their kitchen staff preparing food without masks. Now they say employees must wear masks as it is company policy, however this location does not enforce that because both visits I noticed some of the kitchen staff without masks preparing food for customers. Not only do they serve cold sandwiches and nickle and dime the customers over extra pickles, they also don't care about the customer health and safety. I did send an email to the Zaxbys listens website, and all they can say is sorry and come back for a replacement meal. I requested a refund for the 4 cold sandwiches but they refused to refund me the $22.00 for their nasty sandwiches. Why would I go back when they have staff members making food without masks, then they said they will tell their staff members to wear masks. I am totally done patronizing this restaurant. Popeye's still has the best chicken sandwiches out there. I would go to McDonald's before I visit Zaxbys again at least their staff cares about the safety of their customers and I never got cold food at McDonald's. This Zaxbys location has really gone down hill since...

UPDATE: I've had nearly 10,000 contributions with restaurant experiences and have only given out a 1 a handful of times. Even those instances I've given the establishment a second chance to correct the issue or it possibly was just a bad shift and the next time I come was fine and I change the ranking. This is the ONLY review that I've given a 1 and stand by it! I received a response from the owner requesting that I go through their customer service site and let them know what happened so that they can correct the issue. No surprise here, I did exactly as he said, and I haven't heard anything from them. This is truly a horrible corporation top down to its store employees. I would advise staying away from this restaurant unless you want to deal with what I have just informed you of.

This location is absolutely horrible. It makes Steak n' Shake look like fast food. No joke, we waited at the window after paying for our food for 30 minutes with a long line of cars behind us. We stopped in on our way to our church small group. We were early and had 45 minutes of time to burn, so we decided to grab some chicken. It took us 10 minutes just to order, and we're in line nearly 45 minutes by the time we left with our food. We actually were now late to our church group ASL function, which was very frustrating. To top everything off, we didn't even get the correct food we ordered. If you're in the Sanford, FL area, avoid this restaurant...