The Worst Doordash Restaurants to Pick up From

Doordash has a humongous network of restaurants that dashers pick up food from. An experienced dasher has likely picked up food from hundreds of different restaurants, and within those restaurants have their favorites and not so favorites. In this article, I'll be talking about my least favorite merchants to pick up food from and I'll tell you the reasons why. Surely all dashers have a few restaurants that they hate picking up from, and if so feel free to share with us.

The worst restaurants to pick up Doordash orders from

Sonics

Even though this list of restaurants is in no particular order, I am going to put Sonics as the worst of the worst. Sonics is definitely the worst places to pick up food from. Having some kind of problem with your Doordash orders at Sonics is much too common. Just as the other three merchants here on my list of worst restaurants to pick up Doordash orders from, I am not talking about one particular location as there has been multiple locations that I have picked up from, and there always seems to be some kind of problem.

When going to pick up food at Sonics, you have three choices on how you want to go about picking up the customer's food. You can go through the drive-thru, you can park at a space in their parking lot (each space has a menu and speaker from where you order from and they will bring the food out to your car,) or you can walk up.

 

 

If a dasher decides to walk up they will be surprised when they find out that there is not really a walk up. Well, there is but there isn't. Sonics is not really walk up guest friendly. It's not like a customer can walk up and talk to a restaurant worker like a normal place. Instead, for walk up guest there is a menu outside with a speaker. Basically like a drive-thru menu with a speaker.

Walk up guest can order from this speaker and the food will be brought out by a worker. Once the food comes out, there are usually a few seats and tables out there for the customers to eat. This option would be ridiculous for a dasher to use as there is really no reason to go through all of this.

If a dasher is going to use the walk up method, they may as well walk up to where the Sonics workers go in and out from. Catching one of the workers going in or out and letting them know that you are there for a Doordash order is your best bet. Honestly, I never had a good experience with this though.

One time I walked straight up to the glass doors where the workers go in and out from. I showed them my phone with the order as it was just a couple of shakes. They did not seem to like me walking up and bugging them and had really bad attitudes. They made me wait 15 minutes for two shakes. Unbelievable!





More than a few times I have parked in the parking spaces from where you order from. You press a button on the menu which is on the side of your vehicle, and eventually a worker will come on the speaker and take your order. As a Doordash driver, you just tell them that you are there for so and so from Doordash. The wait time for the food to come out was always over 20 minutes. As you can see, Sonics is a place that is very slow with their Doordash orders.

Going through the drive-thru doesn't really help the speed that you will get your order, but it is your best bet. Once you get to the speaker, half the time you are not acknowledged. Most restaurants will say "I'll be with you in a minute" or something of that nature. Sonics on the other hand will not even say anything half the time. You'll sit at the speaker for two or three minutes until somebody finally asks "Can I take your order?"

You then tell them that you are there to pick up a Doordash order, and they will usually say to pull up to the window. There are times though when they will ask you to pull over to the side into one of their parking spaces. The best thing to do in this situation is to tell them no thank you and that you will just continue on through the drive-thru. There is really no reason for them to ask you to pull over to the side and wait for your order. If they have not put in your order yet, they can now do so as you are at the drive-thru speaker. Even with a smooth Sonics drive-thru pick up, your total wait time there will be 20 to 30 minutes. Not a good call for a dasher.

Besides long waits, the customer service at Sonics is terrible. The workers are very unprofessional which is a reflection of the management at the company. There has also been numerous times that I have arrived at Sonics only for them to tell me that they never received the order. They have no desire to help out with anything, and in this situation I will just tell Doordash what happened and get paid half for showing up.

The granddaddy of my complaints toward Sonics came about a month ago. I went through the drive-thru, and at the speaker told the girl that I was there to pick up a Doordash order. She told me that unfortunately they would not be able to do the order because they cannot put in the order. I asked her what does she mean? Don't they receive the Doordash order, get to work on it and then a dasher picks up the food and delivers it? She explained to me that when they receive a Doordash order they have to put the order in or cancel it.

I told the girl to go on ahead and put the order in then since I am there to pick it up. She replied by saying that she cant do it. She continues on and told me that only managers can put Doordash orders in. I then ask her "There's no managers working right now?" She says that there is but that they are on their break.






All of this sounded so ridiculous! The managers are sitting there on their break and cannot press a few buttons so that the orders can be made. If they are that lazy, maybe they can, which they should, show their workers how to put Doordash orders in. Sad to say that this call ended with me getting paid half pay for showing up to the restaurant.

If a dasher is going to have a list of restaurants to never pick up from then then there's a good chance that Sonics will be on that list. I will never take any orders from Sonics unless it pays very well and I am at least one mile close to it. If there is a problem, which there is a 50 percent chance of, at least I know that I will get paid half for showing up to the restaurant. If the call paid good such as $15 or so, at least I'll earn a quick $7.50. If the call pays $7, $8 or if I'm more than a mile away, I would never waste my time with Sonics.


Buffalo Wild Wings

Buffalo Wild Wings has proven to me that good customer service is not essential to a restaurant's success. A customer can walk into Buffalo Wild Wings and be completely ignored. There will be times when there won't be a "Can I help you?" or anything. You will be standing in the front, and the workers will just ignore you. Sure, you can end all of this by asking for help, but should you really have to do that? I have never seen a restaurant with such poor customer service in my life.

Buffalo Wild Wings has the worst customer service that you can ever imagine and strangely the chain is still successful. It is common to see this restaurant packed. This is especially true when a sporting event is going on. Can you imagine how much more successful Buffalo Wild Wings would be if they had at least decent customer service?

The workers at Buffalo Wild Wings are usually just moping around the restaurant or are standing around talking to each other. All of this comes down to poor management. Employees are basically a reflection of the managers. I don't know if those in higher up positions are okay with the way their managers run things, but if they are it really says something about this company.




I once went to pick up food at a local Red Lobster, and I saw a familiar face working there. It was a girl that used to work at Buffalo Wild Wings. We said hello and during our small talk I asked her what happened at Buffalo Wild Wings. She kind of smirked, told me how unprofessional that place was and how she wasn't learning anything there. She said that she wanted to move up in life and improve her customer service skills and how Buffalo Wild Wings wasn't the place to do that.

It's never a good experience for a dasher that is picking up food from Buffalo Wild Wings. It is very rare that the food is ready when you get there. Does not seem to matter how fast or how slow you take to arrive at the merchant. It just won't be ready. A lot of times they will not have even started making the food and will start cooking it when you arrive. Mind you that this is not done purposely. They just didn't get around to it for whatever reason. This is inexcusable!





The workers at Buffalo Wild Wings are also confused much to often. I have gotten in to a few altercations with them before and it seems that they all like to blame each other. They are like a bunch of little kids pointing fingers at each other. One time after a half hour of waiting and inquiring about an order, I came to realize that they never started cooking it. Of course three people were blaming each other.

Due to long waits that can easily be 20 to 40 minutes, many experienced dashers will not take Buffalo Wild Wings calls. Why would a dasher waste their time there when there are so many other restaurants they could be picking up from? Time is money and Buffalo Wild Wings is guaranteed to waste a dasher's time.




AppleBees

Although Applebees is not as bad as some of the other merchants listed here as the worst Doordash merchant to pick up from, they definitely have left a sour taste in my mouth. There has been plenty of occasions when they have had me waiting 20 minutes to a half-hour waiting for my food. No matter how fast or slow you get there, the food is never ready.

I have not accepted an Applebees order for many months due to my last encounter there. They had already been on my list of merchants to never accept an order from, but it was kind of slow one day and I accepted a good paying call from them. Things didn't change though. I was there for a half hour waiting for the food and ended up just walking out.

When walking out of a restaurant there is never a reason to tell them. Does it show courtesy if I do? After waiting for such a long time courtesy is the last thing on my mind. They did not show me any courtesy so I am not in a rush to give them any courtesy, respect or anything of the like.


Benihana

Benihana is one of my favorite restaurants to eat at, but when it comes to picking up Doordash orders forget it. Always a long wait, and if the order is not going to pay very well then taking an order from Benihana is not worth it. Like the other merchants on this list, no matter how fast or slow you take to arrive at the restaurant, the food will never be ready.

One time after accepting a Benihana call I took my time getting there. I did so of course because I know how long they take. I figured that I would give them that extra time. Once I arrived, 30 minutes had went by since I accepted the call. I could have been there in 10 minutes. Once I arrived, they told me that the food was not ready, and that they were working on it. I sat there for a half hour and after complaining I was informed that they still had not started cooking the customer's food.

 

I let the managers know about my horrible experience, and let them know that all I was waiting for was a bowl of rice. They promised that they would now be on it. Another 15 minutes had passed and I had enough. It had been about one hour and 15 minutes since I had accepted the call. I texted the customer and let them know what was going on and apologized to them that I would have to unassign myself form their order. As I was walking out, a worker came up to me with the food. I was so pissed off that so I completely ignored here and just walked out. I told myself that I would never take a call from Benihana ever again, and all these years later I never have.

There you have it. Sonics, Buffalo Wild Wings, Applebees and Benihana are the worst restaurants to pick up food from for a Doordash driver. I'm sure that many dashers would agree with my list here. Does anybody else have any other suggestions of merchants that could make this list? Share your worst Doordash restaurants. Happy dashing!