Big Jim's Drive In Restaurant — Restaurant in The Dalles

If I could give NO stars - I would. This place used to be a favorite but has been in a steady decline over the last year or two. I'm not one to write reviews but after more times than I can count of having wrong orders, cold and sloppy food, and the WORST service ever, I just had to say something. Bear with me cause this is a long story but this was our absolutely TERRIBLE experience this past Sunday - 4th of July at 12:00pm.

We called our order in TO-GO at 11:55 am because we knew they'd be busy at the restaurant. We arrived to pick up at 12:10 after being told on the phone it would be about 15-20 min. Showed up, they really were not that crazy busy at all. The 5 teenagers they had just standing around the front counter were more interested in socializing than greeting and helping customers. After standing there for about 2 minutes while they stood and finished whatever personal conversation they were having, someone finally asked how they could help us.

We told her we called in and order under my name, she found it and had me pay for it ($27.70 for two people) and said it would be right out. This was at 12:10 (15 minutes after we had originally called it in) we sat and waited and watched the clock on the wall.

Finally, after 40 MINUTES had elapsed, at 12:35 I asked one of the girls working on ice cream if she could please check our order that had been placed 40 minutes ago and that we had been sitting there waiting for 30.

FOUR different staff members scrambled around in front of us trying to figure out where our order was, if it had even been cooked or placed at all. The order was obviously submitted because she found it no problem when we arrived and paid. They started bickering LOUDLY at each other pointing fingers and looking at us. The manager (if you can even call her that) very obviously had no idea how to handle or control the situation at all and instead of helping or addressing us she went out the back door and TOOK A 5 MIN SMOKE BREAK!! I could clearly see her standing out the back kitchen door having a cigarette and all the employees yelling at each other about whose fault it was that our order was completely missed for 40 minutes, all the while with us sitting their being able to hear and see them.

Finally after 3 different employees saying "they're still figuring it out" and "the manager is busy at the moment but she'll help you when she's not busy" The manager came back inside - refused to speak to us or even look us in the eye and proceeded to have no idea how to issue a refund and just walked away leaving the clueless teenage girl there to help us. after 10 minutes of them trying to figure out what was going on one of them finally said "Okay I guess we're just gonna have to start your order right now, sorry. It'll still be about 20 minutes before your foods done." To which I replied with please just give me a refund, we've been here for 45 minutes already I'm not waiting another 20 for the food. She asked for my receipt WHICH SHE NEVER GAVE ME and then was frustrated because I didn't have it and she couldn't look up the order. I paid with credit card so I said "What happened to the receipt i signed and you took back?" and she vaguely pointed to a drawer and said "its in there" and I said "Okay can you not look in there and pull out my signed receipt that shows my total?" and she just didn't respond. Without saying anything further she pulled $27.80 cash out of the till and gave it to me.

SO sorry for the novel but this was AN HOUR of our time WASTED and we still left hungry with no food and no apology. * EDIT - I just spoke with an incredibly nice gentleman over the phone and explained this situation to him. He was very apologetic and wrote my name down for a free meal the next time we stop in - not sure that'll ever happen but its the thought that counts and I'm appreciative of that! Definitely not trying to be a "Karen" but I wanted owners and senior management to know that a few of their employees are ruining their level of service and losing...

So many trips through the gorge without stopping here until very recently but instead of lamenting the missed opportunities I’m glad we were able to add this to every future trip. It’s pretty easy to find and access on the east end of town. Tiny parking and tight drive thru lot so RVs will have to street park. We needed to stretch our legs so the walk inside was welcomed. Once there we were welcomed by the small town drive in charm. Friendly staff took our order and food was ready pretty quickly considering the volume of people. Lots of locals here so you know it’s well loved. We took our food to go and may have regretted that because these burgers were huge and messy (a very good thing!). Burgers were amazing. While not quite smash burgers, they were well seared and crispy on the edges while still remaining nice and juicy. Both the fries and onion rings were hot, crisp, and plentiful, almost too much for this plus size eater to handle. Almost.

On our way out, we met the local mooch of a cat. A tortoise shell tabby, well fed with a surplus of charm. He’d have made great company had we sat at the outdoor tables. We will not make another trip through the gorge without stopping here and you should make it a...

This was my first time eating their. I must say the customer service and people their is so wonderful and they all really hustle, their milkshakes are like homemade ice cream wonderful and their fries are delicious. But their hamburgers even on the smaller orders are so paper thin the bun is thicker than the meat it's like having more condiments than meat, you couldn't even hardly taste it and even on my husband's bigger hamburger it was paper thin, it was okay but you have to have enough meat so you can taste the flavor of it I've never seen such a thin hamburger before anywhere else I've ate. So as far as coming back to eat a hamburger I probably will not, there has to be meat on the hamburger that you can actually taste, it was like eating bread with condiments because there wasn't enough meat to taste like when you have a juicy good hamburger. They really need to put a fair good size of meat when you're paying good money for a hamburger especially on the larger hamburgers, my husband paid $13 for his and he is a man and wanted a good size hamburger, and it was paper...