I've been traveling to HHI from Ohio for 18 years and these restaurants are scattered through out the Carolinas. I was curious so we stopped for lunch. Menu straight forward. Tray means a combo I believe. Like this is a foreign language. I got a regular cheddar style burger with onion rings and fries. I added a watermelon shake. Burger was good and it tasted like a backyard cook out. It was good. Fries and onion rings were below average salty and no other flavor. Watermelon shake was outstanding. Fresh watermelon and ice cream. It was very good. I'd go back for that. I went with a few people. Other people who ordered the burgers liked. The 1 person who ordered the hot dog said it was OK just very small. This location says it has a A rating. The dining area was clean. The staff was nice. Everything was OK. But not great. The shake was the best thing. read more

Cook Out - Tray meal - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

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I love this Cook Out! I've noticed that not all Cook Out locations are created equally, but this one is definitely on the high end in terms of quality and customer service. Don't get me wrong, the food at Cook Out is mediocre at best, but it's still one of the only fast food restaurants where you can get a large amount of food for a non-outrageous price. In terms of this particular location, the fries and nuggets weren't undercooked, which you can't say about every Cook Out in the area. Additionally, I love their Reese's Cup milkshake, and consider it one of my favorite desserts out of any fast food restaurant I've been to! As such, would recommend! read more

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10/31/24 went inside to order. Got the Big Double, onion rings and chicken tenders. Burgers were good. Seating inside was adequate. Not sure if the person taking the order was trained enough. She couldn't tell me the difference between the Bug Double and the Regular (both the same price). Kinda iffy in her attitude. read more

Cook Out - Menu and server. - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

Was looking for some Southern BBQ. Name sounded great. Unfortunately the food was poor. Ordered the chicken and beef quesadilla which was recommended and it was a tortilla with melted cheese. Get what u pay for I guess. read more

Cook Out - Chicken quesadilla. Where's the chicken? - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

Like they're good but come on man, the instructions clear as day. SMH, even repeated the order back to me... read more

Cook Out - Double Burger. Instructions clear as day - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

This particular cookout was probably the best looking I've been to. The lights were bright enough where at some it's dim and sketchy. Went to drive through as we just drove from FL to SC and this spot was pretty much a few minutes away from the air bnb. The drive through was quick and the food was filled with delicious saturated fats. I got a burger with bacon and it hit the spot just right. Also I got the Cajun fries which is a must. They were just okay as it woulda had more crunch but the flavor was on point. read more

Cook Out - a hamburger wrapped in tin foil - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

Food was extremely small portions and they averted Coke Zero then said they did have that. I was disappointed by my visit. read more

Cook Out - Coke Zero selection - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

Normally I do not post negative comments; however, today's experience crossed my threshold. The first person taking my order was especially short and unpleasant. The food order took an inordinate amount of time. The food was just marginal. My experience was not typical to other visits with this franchise. read more

They got my order wrong, added mayo when I asked them not to, aswell as tomatoes, which I can't eat. Gave me regular fries instead of Cajun, gave me wrong sandwich, my grandma's burger was cold,my mom was missing pickles, I asked for lettuce, they gave me one tiny sliver, horrible place. Workers were rude too. read more

Ordered today through drive -thru at lunch a corn dog with double cheddar -bites. Upon arriving at home, discovered corn dog and pile of hushpuppies. Ticket was correct. Problem was with person filling the order. Tried to call the phone number on website and phone number disconnected. Called the corporate office to get the number and got a voicemail. This is the second time in a week they've gotten the order filled incorrectly. Yes, it can be busy at times ( first trip we were the only ones there). Shame they can't seem to get it right. read more

Got my order and realized we were missing a chicken quesadilla. They said no problem and made it immediately. Great service and had a great experience here. read more

To paint this picture a lovely young lady came in and ordered her food and the wait wasn't egregiously long, she stated the food was exquisite but as she's ready to head out the door the folks working the establishment forgot to charge her for a measly small amount of cheese as well as a small charge for water after the fact she paid for her food. In my mind I'd give them the benefit of the doubt just keep this experience in mind folks! read more

This location could use a refresher on Customer Service skills. I moved to another State that doesn't have a Cook Out so when in the Carolina's, I usually stop by. I grabbed lunch at this location & wasn't impressed. From placing my order to getting my food, the Employee's were just not pleasant. Once I hopped on I95, realized my drink was wrong as well. Cook Out in general is awesome. Their shakes are thick & delicious, so many options to choose from. They offer a tray and same on so many ways to switch it up. I love their hushpuppies. When our kids were younger, great place vs other fast food due to all of their food options. (hamburger, bbq sandwich, hot dog, chicken nugget, etc) read more

This dining experience was an awful mix of careless customer service, certain items being unavailable because they were out of them, boring, mediocre food, and a greasy to go bag. read more

Cook Out - Greasy to go bag - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

Daughters and I love coming here to eat inside, suggests are crispier, fries are better and the people are great Maryann knows our order by heart and the girls love the shakes every time Much love from us read more

(Today i'm writing for a family member) I usually enjoy Cook out's food and love to recommend their service to family and friends. this evening the person i'd recommend them trying out Cook out's had a bad experience with them. my parent was curious about their BBQ menu. So my father asked them what kind of bbq they had. (ribs, chicken etc.) Instead of telling him what kind it was, the person over the speaker kept repeating the sides that came with the meal. My father just gave up and said that he'll just get whatever kind of BBQ they had. he came home and noticed that the bbq wasn't like a burger or some type ribs- it was some sloppy mushed up meat. my parent thought it was just some kind of bbq sloppy Joe and decided to eat it, but he couldn't go for another bite and starting complaining about the taste, the puke like smell it gave room. "It was just plain horrible!" he cried out. now he's upset that he wasted his money on a place like this and he's probably not going back there again. read more

Cook Out - cook out's baroque ?? - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

Their General manger is very rude!, acts like he doesn't even want to work and also disrespected my friend when she KINDLY asked him if he was just having a bad night. Will not return. read more

Cook out is a wonderful place to get a quick bite to eat, but this establishment does not provide care or passion to even hear you speak. The employees are absolutely awful every time I stop at this location, and they tend to not care about my service. I have been told " i cant hear you" by this employees walking away from me with their backs to me 3 separate visits now and the service has been awful. Recommend you drive 15 minutes to the next Cook Out, they dont deserve your time. read more

The food is usually good. However the most recent times I have gone here the service has been trash. My wife got food poisoning from here. The overall aura and ambiance was completely disrespectful for any establishment. read more

We love CookOut. This particular location was excellent. We had excellent service and best of all, we had 6 orders and every one was correctly filled. The staff looked like they enjoyed their jobs, smiled often, thanked us and wished us all Merry Christmas. Very refreshing experience, thank you. read more

I have come here sooooo many times but last time I went there through the drive thru all I ordered was a shake and I saw probably the grossest thing before at a restaurant. I pulled up to the window and before paying and I saw a woman struggling to open the chocolate sauce and she proceeds to put her mouth on the bottle to use her teeth to get it open. EW. I drove away after seeing that didn't get my shake or pay I lost my appetite. I am giving two stars only because the food is reasonable for the price and I have been going here for years and never had any issues before. But it's still gross and I haven't been back since. Disclaimer: I recently was reminded of this by my mom because she was with me it happened and she thought I should put it on yelp. It was also about a month or two ago before all of this covid-19 mess. read more

Please don't eat here. We stopped because we were in a hurry and wanted to get something fast before a doctor appointment. We both ordered hot dogs, shared a fry, and Cokes. The best part of the meal were the Cokes. The hot dogs were so burned on the outside we had to peel one, I ordered mine with mustard and relish and it was SWIMMING in both condiments. I had the scrape off most of them, and I barely could chew the hot dog. The fries were just undercooked and greasy. We couldn't do anything about this because we left on our way to the appointment. Just don't even stop there. read more

I eat here often, the TRAY is a great price deal, some of the plusses for this place 1. killer good pricing 2. fast service 3 plenty of table-booth like seating, but not padded 4. good chopped pork BBQ and BBQ chicken sandwich 5. love their pickles 6. love their cheese bites, but liked the cheese potatoes better, but they discontinued them 7. their slaw is actually quite good, I prefer it to other such places 8. their unsweetened ice tea is, surprise, pretty good 9. unlimited free drink refills One the negative side 1. cleanliness after about 5 PM suffers a lot 2. restrooms could use both updating and to be better kept 3. their unsweetened tea is in a pitcher, so sanitation doesn't seem to be as good as maybe in a more conditional tea container 4. very much self service, but sometimes they do bring the order to your table, you pay in advance for everything there, When they don't bring your food, they just call your number for you to go get it. 5. all meals are in styrofoam containers, not very classy, and the silverware is all plastic, not my favorite, would prefer metal tableware. 6. you get what you pay for, so if it is decent food at a low price, fast, and better variety than McDonalds and bigger name places, (for less money actually) you can't beat the TRAY at Cookout. read more

Once good, now shitty. The employees there have really bad attitudes and the drive through service was so bad tonight thatt we had to leave after waiting almost 30 minutes. Tried to come inside to get an order and they wouldnt allow that either. Not so much as a "sorry". read more

Oh my gawd! Should be a crime to sell such a tasty milkshake. I've eaten here about ten Times and really love it. Everyone who works the drive through are so nice every time we come. Thanks for the great experience and tasty food. We will be back read more

This is not my favorite place to stop. Everyone raves about cheap food prices but they are about as cheap as any fast food place. It was kind of just really cheap and thrown together. A few fries and some not great burger. Only redeeming thing was the cheer wine read more

Great deals to be had here! Boyfriend and I both ate for about $12 including drinks. It's obviously nothing fancy but for a quick bite on the cheap it's a good stop. The staff isn't very helpful. We walked in and I said hello to the person at the register and he asked what we wanted. I told him we had never been here before and he just said oh and started talking to a coworker. We finally figured out what was going on and placed our order. He wasn't helpful during that either. The dining room was clean for the most part but the mat by the drink machines was sticky. The burger was good. It really tasted like it came off the grill and the lettuce, tomato and pickles seemed fresh. The quesadilla (as a side item?) was good. It was simple and spicy. The fries were good too but nothing special. read more

Cook Out - I've never eaten these things at the same time but why not? - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

18 minutes to get our $15 worth of food. Items were missing from the order and my cheese sauce was ice cold. The restaurant was incredibly filthy. All the tables were dirty and there was garbage under many tables and several spills and wet shoe prints all over from the customers who had to walk through the mess. read more

Cook Out - This was just one of several disgusting areas of the filthy restaurant. - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

This location constantly gets the order incorrect. My husband didn't know how bad they were and got home with the food just to turn around and drive 20 minutes back to correct the order they messed up!!!!! read more

I wasn't expecting much, but was I surprised! The milk shake menu had 40 items on it and I didn't have time to deal with that. But the burger, oh my the burger, was really broiled over a fire. It had that familiar smoky flavor even without the bun (cutting carbs, you know how it is). I sampled the onion rings (only one, OK, maybe two) they were crispy and not greasy. It's right off of I-77 so it's an easy stop. So after lunch, I went to the men's room and I noticed that that the music was XM Sirius christian rock. So, assuming they aren't gay bashing bigots, like Chick Fil-A or Hobby Lobby across the street, I may have found a positive expression for religion. read more

Cook Out - a view of the outside of a restaurant - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

I love this restaurant, it's Orlando as an employee that makes me never want to spend money here ever again. Her customer service is awful. I was in the car with 4 other friends and we asked if we could place 5 orders and she said yes, we ordered our food and her replies through the intercom were very rude to begin with. When we got up to the window, only 4/5 of our orders were placed and she was very rude about having to repeat our last order. She purposefully left the window open and mocked my friend (that was driving) loud enough for us to hear. She then cussed under her breath and was snatching our cards one by one in the process. She called us names and yelled at her co-worker to "get them their food that they didn't want to order until now." I am very disappointed in my experience here today, this is the only time that I've had a problem here but this location needs to do something about their staff. p.s. I wish I could leave less than 1 star, but I cannot. read more

Rude employees slug food out the window into car when asked about a large drink he had an attitude and he repeated our order back to us correctly but the order was wrong... if you want wanna work with the public and with food buddy find another job read more

RANT: I've been to cook outs all throughout the Carolinas, and Georgia and have never had an experience like this one... Pulled up to the drive thru at this Cook Out location, there was one person ahead of us. When I rolled my window down, I overheard the customer ahead of us yelling and being super frustrated with the employee over the intercom. I'll admit it, I judged her for getting so angry... but when she was finished and it was my turn to order, only then did I see why she was so angry. I patiently waited a few mins before asking if anyone was there, only to see another customer pull up to intercom number two (This location has two drive-thrus), make their order, move on, and then I see a second customer pull up, order and move on while I was still waiting. FINALLY, someone comes to my intercom and tries taking my order. I plainly tried to say my order but was cut off repeatedly, interrupted, misheard, and finally I just gave up. I thought maybe this intercom just isn't working correctly. So I back out of the drive-thru, and head inside of the restaurant. There was only one customer in line ahead of me, but again; the employee was either brain dead or hard of hearing because this customer was getting so frustrated that her order wasn't correct. Once she finishes her order she pulled out some cash and gave it to the cashier who looked like a deer caught in headlights. He did NOT know how to count money and took all of what felt like 5 mins trying to give her the correct change. UGH. I finally make my order, I kept it simple, which seemed to help and paid with a debit card. Thank the lord 20 mins later I finally ordered food. The food came out quick and was brought out by a smiley person who made sure I had napkins, sauces and anything else I needed. So they all lived happily ever after right?? WRONG. I get back to my car, hand my wife her order and I open mine only to discover they swapped our sides, and the food was sloppily thrown together. Not pleasant. Not satisfactory. I think the GM needs to reconsider some employees, or maybe retrain them or maybe just get replaced. Cook Out has a great reputation to uphold and this store is the runny skid mark to an otherwise outstanding chain restaurant. read more

Always friendly and always fast. I ordered two huge burgers and a cajun chicken sandwich tonight and my food came out in less than 30 seconds. Got my food and receipt at the same time. Great food for the price. I pay around $30 usually for a family of five. Love y'all at cookout. Y'all the real MVP's. read more

Milk shakes are great, but not sure if the rest of the food here should be eaten.

AS always I have not yet have a problem at any of the locations i have been. Fast and hot food and very friendly service.This was the 1st time I have been to this location and The cashier was friendly and prompt with no mistake on my special add ons to my 1/4 lbs burger( I luv extra pickles and onions).My order came in less than 3 minutes which is really great for a fast food place.The dinning area was clean and cool for a warm Carolina day because some cookout don't have a inside dinning area so I was very impressed.If on Forest Dr. in the Columbia,S.C. area stop on by for a great food experience. read more

Cook Out - Cookout tray 1/4ilb burger with a corndog and slaw and drink-$4.99+ tax - Burgers Near Me - Columbia, South Carolina

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Interesting combination of food choices. I had a cheeseburger, chicken quesadilla and onion ring combo. The food is really cheap! I also had a heath milkshake and it was the best shake I ever had!! read more

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I simply cannot share my wonder and happiness at discovering the glory of the peanut butter fudge milkshake at Cook Out! It's the way a milkshake should be...so thick, you can't sip it through the straw until it melts a little! They make heavenly hush puppies as well! read more

Underwhelming. This was a disappointment. Bland BBQ, not sure how you do that in SC? Order was wrong. Bland milkshake. Poorly designed parking lot. I don't get the good reviews. Go try a Five Guys or Smashburger and see how this is supposed to be done. Very disappointing. Will never visit again. read more

Pretty good and prices and taste is better than McDonald's...fast service. However, I notice when I ask for Cajun fries, 90% of the time they screw up and give me plain fries. The Spicy Chicken Sandwich used to actually be spicy. Now, it's nothing more than plain fried chicken. I'll have to go to Wendy's across the street to get that real spicy chicken sandwich taste. My children love their nuggets. read more