McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in Springfield

This shop is physically smaller than other McAllisters, I've been to. It seems as if the restaurant tries to place itself economically between, say Quiznos and Panera. More than a basic sandwich shop, but without the higher priced hip urbanite/college town feel that Panera tries to invoke.

The service was very good, and all the employees seemed engaged and interested in their work, and all seemed appropriately dressed. I liked how that makes the place seem professional and efficient. A big part of my star rating was because of my positive impression of the employees.

The quality of the food was . . . good, not great, but was fair value for the money. I had a 'choose two' option of Chicken Tortilla Soup and a half sandwich of Southwest Turkey Melt, if I recall.

The sandwich was good, though a bit bland. I had no complaints other than the Bread on which the sandwich was served was too large. I'm not that big a bread guy, I might have preferred, say, two slices of sourdough bread rather than a baguette. Maybe a choice of bread types should be possible.

I thought the soup was disappointing. It had that 'chemical' taste that food gets when it has been artificially 'doctored' to make it 'hotter'. The cheesy soup base didn't taste all that much like a cheese soup, sort of artificial. The soup was spicy and had a cheese soup sort of texture but was without a natural flavor.

I probably would not get the Chicken Tortilla soup again, though I would go back, since overall, it was a pleasant...

My review is specifically about my recent experience at their drive-thru. I was picking up dinner somewhere else but my wife really likes the Passion Berry tea at McAlister's, so I figured I would run through the drive-thru really quick to grab her a drink first....this proved to be a lengthy mistake. I waited for 25 minutes behind the one other car in front of me. Normally, after 5 minutes I would have backed up and left, but there was also someone behind me and the way their drive-thru is set up, you are trapped in. So I sat and waited....and waited. I get that restaurants are sometimes short staffed, but the thing about this that really irks me is that they have designated spaces right next to the drive-thru for people to wait in their cars while their food is being prepared. And they choose not to use them, but rather force people to sit there and wait. All I wanted was a drink. They could have easily directed the people in front of me to wait in one of the designated spaces while their 30-minute sandwich was being made, then given me my drink and started helping the next person in line, keeping the flow of traffic moving. Instead, after 25 minutes the person behind me finally gave up and left, so I took the opportunity to get out of there. My wife said this has been her experience at this location a few times, as well. Their drive-thru is very poorly managed. The food is good, but unless you want to dine in, you might want...

Order an ice tea at 8:50pm and am sitting in the drive thru speaker on 4/23/25. I don’t hear anyone say anything for 2 minutes. I try swinging around to go inside.. employees turn all the lights off and I see them scurrying around inside.

Now since employees want to close stores 10 mins prior to posted hours I have to contact corporate over a $5.06 tea refund because lazy workers don’t want to work.

When I worked retail at kohls I had to stay 30 minutes AFTER closing hours. At my current job I get off at 4:30pm. I cannot leave early. Stop being lazy McAllisters. Complete inconvenience that I have to go through hoops and bounds to get a $5.06 refund now.

Editing my review with a photo of my order cancellation/refund that was given to me the following morning after getting shafted. Please see the picture.. the store attempted to give some lengthy explanation to cover their own butt and their explanation doesn’t even make sense. They say reason: customer no longer wants order… uhm yes I did.. but you guys decided to close 10 minutes early.

“Guest did not arrive at pickup before 9:44pm when last employee left the store at 9pm”

Their explanation makes 0 sense. Your store hours say they close at 9pm. I put in the mobile order for 1 tea and was in the drive thru window at 8:50pm when you guys decided you didn’t want to work and turned off all the lights. Don’t lie about your explanation. I’m in the midst of contacting...