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Seneca Wallace's Wingstop

Stop there after the WVU game last week. It took us 25 minutes to get the food and the wings were so so but the fries were good.

While we sat there I counted at least 10 people that came in but never ordered as they were told it would be 30 to 40 minute wait because they had a lot of online orders. I never did see anyone come in and pickup an online order though.
 
CYdTracked said:
IMO you shouldn't have to order ahead online to a place that is technically a fast food type joint. I.
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I think we could type examples all day about "shouldn't have to" for all kinds of businesses in the marketplace. But in this case, it is better to order ahead. People are weighing in on that reality from experiences they've had visiting locations all over the country and that is just how their business model seems to work.

Yet they keep growing. So until someone else builds a better mousetrap...
 
dosry5 said:
I’ve had Wingstop once, from Seneca’s locale. It’ll be the last time. They just aren’t good when compared to getting wings from Jethro’s or Smokey D’s or other places. When “wings” is in the name you’d think you’d be really good at it. I know I’ll get flamed for this since a cyclone legend owns it.....but it just isn’t that good.
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I can understand that feeling. I got hooked on that place in North Kansas City when we lived there. The first couple times I went it did not impress me. But since it was so close to the office and I love all wings I kept trying it. By the time we moved it was one of my favorite places.

We went last year after football one weekend and the wings and fries were so good. But like many of my current favorites, I had to find the flavor that I liked. Once I did it became the best. I'm a huge fan of Jethro's wings, not sure I've had Smokey D's.

If you like some sweet, some spice, I think the Louisiana Rub is the best flavor. Then maybe get a BBQ or something for a side. But if you like spicy, not sure you will like them. I can't remember the last time I just went with original.

As for the wait, it's ridiculous, and I hate the app, but it's the best way to go. We order when leaving Ankeny and they are usually ready when we walk in. To me I think their staff works hard, but it's so hard to find good staff in Ames. Next time Seneca is hanging out in Ankeny I will ask him what is going on. He is pretty hands on for not living in Ames.
 
Decided to try it for myself before the Cyning Day event. Ordered online. The site said "ready for carryout in about 16 to 21 minutes." Stay tuned.
 
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I've been to the Merle Hay probably 6 times. 3 of those times were great and fast, 1 time was mediocre, and the other 2 were bad. I have always ordered ahead, and last time I had to wait 10 or 15 minutes, past my scheduled time.

I get the time it takes to cook the wings. I watched them and they take them out of the freezer, and I think they said 20 minutes in the fryer. Plus your wait time and such. The last time I think they were just slow. One guy eating, one guy waiting, and me.

It's still better service than BWW. I think I'm still waiting for my order I placed there last fall. :rolleyes:
 
Ordered Wingstop in Ames right after it opened to give it a shot and got the same experience as most others on here, horribly slow service. Ordered ahead of time and still waited forever when I got there. What takes so dang long to cook wings when it is in the name of your dang restaurant??

As for prices I don't see it as much better than BWW either. Not trying to rip on it, just very unimpressed and never ANY deals which will keep me away too. Wish I had more positives. They need a "cheap" day or something to get people in there.
 
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clonefreek said:
I was the only person in the merle hay mall location at 9 oclock at night and they had at least 6 people working and I waited 45 minutes for wings. I sat by the cash register and could see into the kitchen. They dropped my wings, pulled them out, sauced them and then dropped my fries into a completely different fryer after wings were done and sitting on the counter. During my wait I saw 3 dance breaks, 2 conversations of employees sex lives and could smell weed. I am all for someone having fun at work, but thats a little ridiculous. I asked for a manager and they said there wasnt one. I definitely will not be back.
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I have had the same terrible experience at Merle hay locale twice. I worked at a KFC many years ago - it takes 12 - 14 minutes to cook a full batch of chicken - much larger pieces. It should not take more than 12 minutes to fry bone in wings. the help appears to have no urgency. I even filled out the online survey with the info from my receipt and described my experience and displeasure. Never heard anything. I'm probably not going back.
 
NickTheGreat said:
I've been to the Merle Hay probably 6 times. 3 of those times were great and fast, 1 time was mediocre, and the other 2 were bad. I have always ordered ahead, and last time I had to wait 10 or 15 minutes, past my scheduled time.

I get the time it takes to cook the wings. I watched them and they take them out of the freezer, and I think they said 20 minutes in the fryer. Plus your wait time and such. The last time I think they were just slow. One guy eating, one guy waiting, and me.

It's still better service than BWW. I think I'm still waiting for my order I placed there last fall. :rolleyes:
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They cook them from frozen? So raw wings that are frozen? That’s...ridiculous.
 
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CYdTracked said:
IMO you shouldn't have to order ahead online to a place that is technically a fast food type joint. If I was doing carry out it makes more sense. If that's the only way you are going to avoid a 30-45 minute wait for your food to eat at the location that is a horrible business model for that type of place. You are going to lose a lot of potential customers that may just stop in on a whim for the first time like I did who will be disappointed and frustrated when they spend that long waiting on food that shouldn't take that long to prepare. It's probably not a "must have" type of place to be banking on most of your dine-in customers knowing that they ought to order ahead. Some people here said they even had to wait longer than the time they quoted them for carry out too.

I may sound old saying this which I'm not technically that "old" at 39 but what happened to businesses striving/taking pride for having good service these days instead of consumers just accepting subpar service as the norm? Look at all the business a place like Hickory Park does where they turn tables pretty quickly even with a high volume of people dining there. Even the chain joints like Old Chicago, BWW, Applebees, etc. with a lot bigger variety of items on their menus and more volume churn out food quicker and you don't need to order ahead there to get in/out in a reasonable amount of time. Heck I got a free basket meal at Culvers last month because I had to wait 10 minutes over my lunch break and found out someone had either given my order to someone else or misplaced the order slip. I wasn't upset at all, they usually are quick and it was probably an honest mistake but the manager apologized and asked if I wanted a free concrete (it was terribly cold out that day so that did not sound good to me) I just said give me a larger size of fries or something and I'd be good but instead he handed me a card for a free basket combo which I was not expecting. That's the kind of service that will keep a customer coming back when you acknowledge the service they got was not up to par instead of making excuses for it.

There's 1 place I have yet to go back to in Ames after a horrible experience years ago and that is West Towne Pub. We got there plenty early before a game and it wasn't that busy when we sat down. It took our waitress nearly 15 minutes to even get us a menu after we had to make a point to ask her for them then after waiting nearly an hour for our order to come out after we were told multiple times it "would be out really soon" and the place starting to empty out to head to the game we said screw it and asked for our drink bill and canceled our food order. The manager came out and apologized and said they "got caught off guard with the game day crowd." We said that was a lame excuse because you damn well knew there was a game today in advance and could staff accordingly. Didn't get offered an many places do when they screw up. I'll probably try the place again at some point but that 1 experience turned everyone with us off of going there all this time. I'm a pretty patient customer for the most part but it's not like these places don't know that on a game day you are going to get more business than usual and need to be staffed accordingly so you can get people in & out in a reasonable amount of time once they place their order.
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The punchline is this: Providing even "good" service(right product, right time, right price, mixed in with politeness and gratitude) in America (in quite a few business sectors) is quite the rarity and in all too many cases the service is god awful. In some sectors, it is flat out dead.
 
We've gone a few times to the Ames location. Always ordered ahead and carried out. Never had a problem waiting.
Actually, I take that back. One time they weren't quite ready. The person behind the counter offered me a free soda for my trouble.
I could see if you didn't order ahead, it could take awhile, but I've never had a problem. My kids love it as an alternative to ordering pizza.
 
Mr Janny said:
We've gone a few times to the Ames location. Always ordered ahead and carried out. Never had a problem waiting.
Actually, I take that back. One time they weren't quite ready. The person behind the counter offered me a free soda for my trouble.
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Similiar to my experiences. The last time I ordered ahead, I got there ~5 minutes before the "scheduled" time. The person apologized profusely about my order not being ready yet, despite the fact that it was my fault (for being early). The order ended up coming out right on time.
 
CYdTracked said:
IMO you shouldn't have to order ahead online to a place that is technically a fast food type joint. If I was doing carry out it makes more sense. If that's the only way you are going to avoid a 30-45 minute wait for your food to eat at the location that is a horrible business model for that type of place. You are going to lose a lot of potential customers that may just stop in on a whim for the first time like I did who will be disappointed and frustrated when they spend that long waiting on food that shouldn't take that long to prepare. It's probably not a "must have" type of place to be banking on most of your dine-in customers knowing that they ought to order ahead. Some people here said they even had to wait longer than the time they quoted them for carry out too.

I may sound old saying this which I'm not technically that "old" at 39 but what happened to businesses striving/taking pride for having good service these days instead of consumers just accepting subpar service as the norm? Look at all the business a place like Hickory Park does where they turn tables pretty quickly even with a high volume of people dining there. Even the chain joints like Old Chicago, BWW, Applebees, etc. with a lot bigger variety of items on their menus and more volume churn out food quicker and you don't need to order ahead there to get in/out in a reasonable amount of time. Heck I got a free basket meal at Culvers last month because I had to wait 10 minutes over my lunch break and found out someone had either given my order to someone else or misplaced the order slip. I wasn't upset at all, they usually are quick and it was probably an honest mistake but the manager apologized and asked if I wanted a free concrete (it was terribly cold out that day so that did not sound good to me) I just said give me a larger size of fries or something and I'd be good but instead he handed me a card for a free basket combo which I was not expecting. That's the kind of service that will keep a customer coming back when you acknowledge the service they got was not up to par instead of making excuses for it.

There's 1 place I have yet to go back to in Ames after a horrible experience years ago and that is West Towne Pub. We got there plenty early before a game and it wasn't that busy when we sat down. It took our waitress nearly 15 minutes to even get us a menu after we had to make a point to ask her for them then after waiting nearly an hour for our order to come out after we were told multiple times it "would be out really soon" and the place starting to empty out to head to the game we said screw it and asked for our drink bill and canceled our food order. The manager came out and apologized and said they "got caught off guard with the game day crowd." We said that was a lame excuse because you damn well knew there was a game today in advance and could staff accordingly. Didn't get offered an many places do when they screw up. I'll probably try the place again at some point but that 1 experience turned everyone with us off of going there all this time. I'm a pretty patient customer for the most part but it's not like these places don't know that on a game day you are going to get more business than usual and need to be staffed accordingly so you can get people in & out in a reasonable amount of time once they place their order.
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You waited nearly an hour? Just get up and leave.
 
dosry5 said:
Seriously guys, I’m getting worried about Cycsk....can somebody check on him?
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He might have been just a tad distracted since he posted:

This exciting event is free of charge and open to the public. Doors open at 5:30 p.m., with a social hour, followed by a program from 6-7:30 p.m.

Let's at least give him a chance to get out of the event and home before calling the National Guard.

https://cyclones.com/news/2019/1/22/football-cyning-day-celebration-set-for-feb-6.aspx
 
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Waited 45 minutes before South Dakota State game this year before telling them **** it and left. The worst part about it was the place was not busy at all. A couple of online orders picked up and two other people at one table. Pretty bad experience. I have been at other Wing Stops a lot busier than that and have never waited that long.
 
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