Hal's Drive In — Restaurant in Sedro-Woolley

Apparently new owners is the answer to most of my questions and concerns, but I might as well throw my 2 cents in.

I really don’t enjoy the buns they use for their burgers now. The buns they used before the current ones weren’t great, not bad either, it’s just that they didn’t overpower the toppings, which I prefer when it comes to a burger. The buns they use now are similar to Hawaiian rolls, and they are just wayyyy too sweet, and also too bready. The bread overpowers the meat too much. The burgers are also quite smaller than they used to be.

I’m not sure what’s going on with the fries, but everytime I’ve ordered a large fry since the change in owners, they give me what appears to be a small fry. I’m not sure if it’s something wrong with their system, or if that’s really just what their large fry is like now, but it’s extremely irritating to spend as much money as this place costs now to get such smaller portions of food than I’ve been used to my whole life going here.

This place is simply just too expensive now. For the amount of food you get versus what it cost, at least in my case with the fries. Hal’s has become a maybe once a week thing after work to a once every couple of months thing. It wasn’t too long ago when a large burger, fries and drink combo ran me about $7. It’s basically double that now. Not necessarily the restaurants fault but it makes it hard to choose coming here when there are many cheaper options around.

My compliment I can give with this new ownership is at least it’s consistent, which is something I can’t say for most of my experiences here prior. I might not like what it’s like at the moment, but at least I know what I’m getting will be what I expect, large fry actually being a small fry included. Throughout the years, my order results at Hal’s have sometimes bewildered me. One time, I was feeling nostalgic for their chicken nuggets, hadn’t had them since I was a kid. I order them, and I kid you not, what I find in my bag are deep fried Dino Nuggets. Like, from the freezer section at any grocery store. I’m not expecting fine cuisine or anything, but wow, that was embarrassing to see. That made me question how much of their stuff was just marked up grocery store food, so it made me stop going here for about a year. They also haven’t gotten my burger wrong so far, because in the past, half the time I’d say “please don’t put goop on my burger”, they would do it anyway and I’d have to wipe it off at home, but still sadly taste it.

I’m not one to complain really, but I’ve been pretty let down by Hal’s this last season. I’d really like to see them become more affordable again and use better buns. And also make large fries actually large...

I've been going to hals since I was a kid. Over the decades I have fond memories of going there after school and years later taking my kids there after school and even later my grandkids. A few months ago my daughter picked up a cheese burger for me from there. I was convinced she grabbed one from am pm and was playing a trick on me it was that poor of quality. I went in and ordered a berry shake. They used espresso syrup for the "berries" was a time you actually got berries. I don't expect fresh by any means but syrup? We tried to go there about a month ago and it looked like a light was out. We pulled up to the drive thru and waited about 8 minutes and nobody showed. There were plenty of people inside eating so we pulled around and went inside. The girl behind the counter said they were closing the lobby early and we had to go to the drive thru to order. I told her we just left the drive thru and no one showed. I asked if we could give our order then go sit in the drive thru and she said no. By then there was already another two cars in the drive thru that she hadn't helped. This while people were sitting and eating their food in the dining area and we weren't even allowed to place an order for two ice cream cones. We went to the store and bought enough ice cream and cones for ten or more instead of trying to support a local buissnes that's been a part of my life for over forty years. I know the prices have increased dramatically in some case almost double from what I remember. I don't blane them fior that , things cost what they cost. If you add extremely poor service and significantly decrease the quality at the same time then enough is enough. The nostalgia card only goes so far. They had a good thing for about Seventy years it takes pretty bad management to mess that up in my opinion. Fyi the word on the street is new owners. TLDR new owners prices way up...

I've always enjoyed Hals since I've lived here. So I'm really sad to make this review. But I was on my lunch break which I only get a certain amount of time.

I showed up a little later than expected time and had to wait for my curly fries. But no worries, I don't mind waiting. The girls were sweet enough to voluntarily reimburse me for my fries.

But after I left to go quickly eat. My avocado burger that I requested have zero mayo or tomato had both. Smothered in mayo on the bottom which was hard to salvage much avocado that was mixed with it and removed the bottom bun because it just had so much and cleaned it up a tad. My jalapenos were also not added

Still a little hungry I went to eat my curly fries which smelt delicious but they were a rock and broke off and had no softness left.

I'm hoping its a one off but I feel really disheartened by this. So please check your food before leaving.

I will say though that the girls there are super sweet and super understanding which is why I'm giving 3 stars. I know if I spotted it they would gave corrected it best they could. I just didn't think to look and didn't have the time to on...