Having lived in Illinois, we were so excited to see that Culver's was being built in Summerville. As with all really good chain restaurants, we figured they would be incredibly crowded for the first month at least. And I have yet to drive by when they weren't really crowded. Despite that, my daughter and I went anyway after a Friday evening movie.
Whomever planned the parking area needs to be sentenced to directing traffic there indefinitely. There are a decent enough amount of parking spaces, the problem is that there are supposed to be two one way lanes through the parking lot and around the building - one for the drive thru and one for anyone that doesn't have a few hours to kill waiting to get through the drive thru.
We parked and went in because we thought it would be quicker. Ha. Ha.
One thing I have to give this Culvers credit for - there were plenty of people in the building with Culver's uniforms on. Every register was open and there was a consistent effort by the folks working the registers to take the orders of the crowd of people flooding the place. What isn't as fantastic is that there is no where for all the people to go that are waiting for to go orders. You don't want to take a table away from someone that's actually planning to eat there, so you end up wedging yourself in wherever you can find a spot. The issue with this is twofold. One, you are in the way no matter where you stand and two, it is confusing to people walking in to order because they often assume you are still in line. So the area from in front of the registers alllllllll the way out the door is full of people not exactly sure who is in the line waiting to order and who is in the line waiting for food.
It's very nice that you get a number and someone brings you your order. It's not nice that if they don't see the number they are looking for that it isn't announced somehow. When you've got 30 people waiting for orders, it's not exactly a clear sight line to all those numbered plastic order tents since most people have them in their hands which are usually hanging down. So really, the employees are relegated to crotch height surveillance to match up orders. You can imagine the confusion.
We waited over 30 minutes for our food. Unfortunately, we had also ordered shakes for my husband and son which we had seen brought out about 10 minutes prior to our food. The employee approached three different people then turned around and went back into the prep area. They didn't hear us trying to get their attention that we had ordered two shakes, and we figured there was just as good a chance that they weren't ours as there was that they were.
When we got our food, we mentioned we were waiting for our shakes and a cone for my daughter. The employee disappeared we thought to either get the rest of our order or to tell someone we needed the rest. 10 minutes later we were still waiting. I wove through the crowd and asked someone about it and he was very nice and apologetic and said he would have them right out. And he did, only the shakes were all melted because apparently the shakes from 20 minutes ago were indeed ours. And then we still had to remind him about the cone for my daughter, which he then prepared immediately.
Food, shakes, and cone in hand we left to go home. Or tried. While we were able to pull out of our parking space thanks to the very considerate person who let me back up, we then spent 30 minutes waiting because the people in the drive thru lane were actually in the middle of the parking lot which means you cannot pass them - just like the Black Knight scene from Monty Python. NONE SHALL PASS!!!!!! So no one could actually park because there wasn't enough room to swing into a space and you couldn't go around because cars were lined up in the middle of the parking lot and there wasn't enough space to go by on either side. Not to mention all the people that were finished eating and trying to leave but couldn't because there wasn't enough room to pull out of a parking space either. Pretty frustrating.
I'd love to say that the food was at least worth it, but by the time we got home it was ice cold and it wasn't even correct, which I admit we should have checked before we left. I mean, it wasn't like we didn't have plenty of time to do so.
While Culver's has been one of our favorite places to eat for years, I think we will just stick with the ones located in the Midwest. read more