McAlister's Deli — Restaurant in West Columbia

I do not like negativity so I will start off with the young man that took my order he was very nice, he took his tine with me although the drinks were rung up incorrectly but when I got to the store the gentlemen that was fixing drinks and giving out orders was very rude, unprofessional and he was not listening to me At all. He began to make my drinks and filler both cups with ice and I stated one is no ice but light ice is fine he then filled up one with tea and the other with lemonade and I stated one was supposed to be an Arnold Palmer and he said that is tea and lemonade and I said that's what I asked for and he said that's not what's on your ticket. I told him I understand and maybe it was miscommunication between myself and the person that took my order and he kept complaining about the ticket. While all this was going on the young lady was yelling out to me, literally , that my order was not paid for, the 2nd time she yelled it I stated I understand that and will pay after I ensure my order was correct. She stated we will get it . I only saw 1 box and not knowing the chicken salad samdwhich is wrapped I asked were both of the sandwhiches in their she shrugged and said I don't know and stood looking at me. I then put my credit card down and began checking my order she later starting looking as well and informed me it was in the bag. This behavior was totally unacceptable and they need to do better when working with people in the public. We are spending money on food and not service and that I totally understand but if not for us ordering they would...

The food was not quite up to par with other locations. The cole slaw tasted nothing like McAlister's Cole slaw and i found it to be off putting. Service was slower than other locations as well but the workers were polite.

Second try: 7/10/18 - Daughter and Wife wanted 3 pumps of strawberry flavouring in their lemonade, cashier said she could only do one pump per drink. Wife and daughter stated they wanted three and were willing to pay for extra, cashier said it couldn't be done, as if some invisible force was preventing her hand from pumping three times instead of once. After a bit my daughter spoke with the manager and explained how trivial the extra pumps were, once again stating she was willing to pay for extra. The manager eventually relented after some talking about how silly it was and charged her $0.50 for each extra pump. No idea if the $0.50 was out of spite as my wife and daughter stated in the beginning they were willing to pay for extra.

You might have noticed i have not mentioned the food yet, it was marginally better than what i could have made at 3am after a night of drinking. Save yourself the headache and just go one more exit up to the one in Lexington, we will not be visiting this location again due to poor management, trivial arguing over extra pumps of the strawberry flavouring and general poor quality of food...

I enjoy eating here. A step up from fast food, but still served pretty quickly. There are a variety of menu items, which is nice when you have a group with differing tastes. They also have seasonal menu options that change out throughout the year - which helps keep me from getting into the 'get my favorite every single time' rut. There are a few menu items that I've tried and just don't like (sadly, their chili is an example, which means no nachos for me)...but there's plenty of other dishes to keep me happy. I really like the Choose Two option from 1/2 sandwich, small bowl of soup, or small baked potato. The portions are filling and I get a little bit of variety on my plate. I've never actually never needed dessert after my meal, but the choices look yummy. We did have a glitch with online ordering with the app once (only tried it that one time), but dining in has always been a good experience. They even have a punch card to earn rewards.[2022 Update: I still enjoy eating here...and I still find that I gravitate to my favorites each time. I think service is finally showing improvement with their post-COVID work staff. Still not too pleased with ordering over the phone (I've deleted the app), but the food is good enough to encourage me to visit my local...