McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in Virginia

If you support workplace abuse and hazardous chemicals in your food then this location is the one for you!!!! The people in the kitchen don’t wear gloves and they use bleach to clean the boards they make ur sandwiches on!( when the inspector goes to inspect the restaurant, heather hides the bleach in her office locked!)! The owner of this particular location, Heather, is verbally/ physically abusive and doesn’t care about any of the customers experience or her employees wellness. She also doesn’t let ANY employees take breaks!!! Her secret is hiring a bunch of high schoolers/ college students and pay them under $16/h with ZERO breaks for a 9+ hour shift. BEWARE! Go to the restaurant and listen to how she talks to her employees (she wear yogas and a mason t shirt everyday)! She treats them like dogs, especially the cook Margarita!! Margarita is amazing and keeps the business afloat and the owner yells and is so disrespectful to her because she barely knows english….. whoever reads this I promise it’s real and I’ve seen it multiple times!!! They keep a SHIFT LEAD (she is not a manager whatsoever) named Haley there who is a rude college student that they keep because her and her sister are the only two who will settle for $18- less per hour with zero breaks and abusive treatment from Heather. So I warned you if you experience a rude encounter with the shift lead Haley or the owner of the location Heather. Go to Panera, McAlisters swears they’re better than Panera cuz they take the food to the table and ask the customer if they need anything but I promise u…. This location McAlisters uses #3 best meat and cheese! They have another location ran by her husband, Steve. I also do NOT recommend that location. ANDDDD to make it worse, the hours of service on Google aren’t even correct! Heather,...

I visited on a Friday afternoon to get some pre-movie eats convenient to the University Mall Theater just two minutes walk away. On this occasion, staff appeared busy with a large catering order but still served me promptly and cordially. After being politely corrected about what I could select as part of the Choose Two option (not two half sandwiches — my mistake entirely), I landed on a half New Yorker sandwich and a half southwest chicken salad along with sides of tomato and cucumber salad, steamed broccoli, and fruit. The ordering and payment process flowed smoothly, as the attendant confirmed my order before I paid. My food was cheerfully delivered to my table within what seemed five minutes, pleasantly quick under the circumstances.

The quality of my order hit the right notes. The salad had a pleasing balance of ingredients overall, and the dressing was so good I actually thought about trying to take the left over amount home. The chicken could be either shredded or cut a little more to disperse the protein more equally, but the flavors were welcome summer eating to be sure. The sandwich likewise had a generous not gluttonous portion of corned beef, mustard, and cheese melted fresh. A little more pastrami would have made the sandwich more balanced for my taste, but the value and combined flavor was still quite enjoyable. The broccoli florets were steamed reasonably well and portioned properly. The diced tomatoes could have been fresher even if the overall salad had crispy cucumbers. The pineapple segments were ripe and juicy.

My total bill came to $17 including tax and excluding tip. I could see myself experimenting with other sandwiches and maybe one of the potatoes to see how the quality expresses in those offerings. A good lunch or light dinner...

Let me start off by saying that I'm a pescetarian, and so this place (like most others) has just a few things that I can eat. I usually order tuna salad or their veggie pita. Their taco salad is decent, but you can't substitute vegetarian chilli for meat chilli on their website, and it comes with about 4 whole tortilla chips.

Service here when sitting in varies greatly. Sometimes it's super fast, other times I have waited nearly an hour due to system problems or confusion with the kitchen/staff. Because it is so unpredictable, I have learned to order ahead of time to take away.

On that note, the app is absolute rubbish. It doesn't show you all the menu options or prompt you to order side dishes if your meal comes with one, it doesn't recognize where you are tapping, it randomly scrolls through the menu, has trouble processing orders, doesn't allow you to enter your card details by taking a photo, etc. Ordering online or calling are your only options. In my experience, food is always ready within 20 minutes.

Both friends and family have had issues with this restaurant. My mom has ordered a simple baked potato, which was served to her as a blackened crisp - totally inedible - TWICE. They refused to use a voucher she received in the mail when they first opened because the server didn't know how to enter it in the system.

Having said that, I have been there with two other friends on separate occasions, and they both loved the orange cranberry turkey club sandwich. They also serve soups and vegetarian chili, and you have the option of having a bread bowl.

So, I'll be back for my usual tuna salad, and I'll always order online. I like the food, but the overall experience...