A&W

I went in at about 3 pm, so the dining room wasn’t too crowded, but people were coming in and out and using the drive through. The server was very friendly. I had some time to go get a newspaper from my car, etc. while they prepared my food.
The bacon cheeseburger I had was fine — fresh lettuce and tomato and everything. The fries were a little weird — not very warm and a bit soggy — not like the ones I’d had at a different A&W. But that was minor. The root beer was fine — I mixed a little of the regular into the diet.
The dining room was a little messy; the stainless-​steel root beer tap looked like it had leaked onto the floor, and the puddle had not been mopped up, and a lot of the tables really needed to be wiped down. The two staff I saw working were actually working (cooking, taking orders), so I think the place just needs one more person to clean and maintain the dining room. All in all, not a bad option if you’re in that area and want fast food other than Burger King or Taco Bell.

Really bad customer service. The guy at the drive –thru window was so rude. When I pulled up to the window, no greeting, just $ 7 48. He said only 2 other statements to me when I asked for sweetener for my tea, «what? [and then] we don’t have any sweetener».
Nothing else no thank you or come again, nothing.

I want to start by saying I hate writing negative reviews. It’s a shame this establishment compels me do do so. The absolute worst customer service I have ever witnessed. After a very long day of work, the wife and I decided to swing into A&W of Millbrea for a couple of burgers and root beer floats. Had to look for the place, kinda knew where it was, as they had no outside lights on at all, including their signage. It was dark — 8:20 at night. That should’ve been our first clue. Okay, we go in, passing a couple of «partying employees» in the garbage area behind the restaurant. Okay, whatever. Our order is taken and are promptly served our floats. (Great floats). There’s a lot of joking and yelling about missing or late orders. We learn one family had been waiting for their order for 45 minutes. Guess we should be a little greatful ours only took 25 minutes. I’m still not sure why we waited. Turns out our burgers had been sitting on the counter for most of that time. This is the 2^nd time the manager has thrown away food, as it was probably cold. Seems he had no control over his employees and had to go back in the kitchen and fill orders himself. We watch a guy with no shirt on fill the ice cream maker with a bag of cream. All the customers see this. We all shake our heads in disgust. Manager is told and yells out, «LITO, PUT A SHIRT ON! I’M ABOUT TO GET KILLED OUT HERE!!» As people slowly get their orders filled, we finally get ours, with extra fries, cookies and apologies. Nice try A&W. It’s now 9:05pm and we can’t wait to get the Hell out of there. There is no excuse for a business to run this way. Tables were dirty. Floors were dirty. Trash cans were full. Major failure. Reading past reviews, I can’t understand how this place stays in business. It’s an absolute shame. Back in the day A&W was a great place to go. The owners must not care or they’re using it as a great tax write-​off. Real shame.

Was told to hold on when I was the only customer in the drive through. Afterwards waited 10 minutes to be told by another person to wait please. Then as I decide to give up and go inside I drive past the window and see the two people talking at the window.

I didn’t even realize these still existed ’til this spot popped up when I searched for «nearby restaurants» on the Unilocal app.
I kept things pretty minimal:
Root beer float: Had plenty of ice cream in it, and yes the root beer itself was dang good, too.
Cheeseburger: Burger was fine. It’s fast food, not French Laundry, so I pretty much got what I expected. And I LIKE the big fluffy bun.
Service was friendly and very quick — I think my whole experience in the shop lasted about 5 minutes.

Horrible customer service. I asked the guy at the drive thru what the finger licking good sauce was like. was it like a ketchup, mustard, ranch, or bbq based sauce… basically to see what style it is, to see if I would like it. He replied with, «I don’t know, it’s finger licking good sauce.» The kid kept giving me attitude. Yuck!
They should know their products…
Won’t go back there. Eewww.

Nearby In and Out had a huge line so I said forget that and headed to my next favorite burger place A&W. Actually I go for the root beer floats and dont mind their food. Brought my kids, hoping to delight them.
I immediately didn’t like their menu which only lists full meal deals. What if I am trying to be a little health conscious and want to avoid fries and soda? Obviously i don’t belong here. Single burgers by themselves are not offered. I never liked businesses that manipulate you but ok. No big deal.
When we sat down with our order we found my daughters meal was missing the drink and I was missing my bacon cheeseburger. Good thing we didn’t drive off in take out. We waited and finally got the drink and bacon burger. But i didn’t see any bacon in my burger so I went back. The guy sent it back to the kitchen and shortly returned, prying my burger open to show me there was bacon hiding on the other side. The bacon was the size of a quarter. No kidding.
The food tasted off. My son loves burgers but said it was the worst he ever had. We finished and left, disappointed by the unsatisfying experience. Later we all started to feel bad. We all had to take naps because we just felt bad. Our mouths had a dry uncomfortable feel. Did they put too much msg in the food?
We thought the suffering had ended when we walked out the door but the curse of A&W had followed us home.
What a terrible A&W experience. I have always loved A&W but I will never go back. Next time just wait for In and Out.

Customer service here sucks, I was very disappointed. The cashiers looks like they hate working there, doesn’t even smile, doesn’t greet customers the bathroom was filthy, the food looks like they just throw on the the plate. They should hire new people or get trained again!

Tried it again for a second chance and am just as DISSATISFIED with the wait time. It took over an hour to get my order… This is not a sit down Reataurant so what is the hold up??? The lady there is too slow in filling orders!!!
Will never go here again and will not recommend this place… Disgrace to «fast food»

I enjoyed it a tiny bit the food was spicy and way to hot the employees were nice in all and the root beer floats were great also the restaurant was pure dirt very trashy it looked like if you said vacuum the employes would say HUH ???

This review is based mostly on the A&W part of the location
Cashier Marty… you would think a requirement to be a cashier is to learn and know how to do basic math right? Not at this location, I was overcharged by this guy and either he was trying to make up for an error he made maybe undercharging a previous customer, but he should NOT be dealing with other peoples money.
Maybe he should just be the one cleaning this filthy restaurant.
I ordered a double bacon cheese burger combo, which was the worst burger I’ve ever had at any fast food place, the bacon was tiny and gross, the fries tasted like it had been sitting for awhile, and it took awhile to cook with hardly anyone there.
The tables were all dirty with only one table full of people and an empty parking lot, but no one bothered to clean or sweep.

Meh. My first impression walking in to this place was messy. There is so much trash and food scraps on the seats and floor that I wonder if people are even swallowing. I can’t believe how confused the register guy is. I ask for the price of a meal and he gives me the total. I ordered the five-​piece hot wings. Not bad. The root beer here is very good too. The mash potatoes are the bomb! I would give this place four stars, but the condition of the restaurant really brings it down.

KFC and A&W hybrid. Cashier had great customer service speaking skills, and was pretty clear on what you ordered and asked if you wanted anything else. [she was pretty cute too ;)] The onion rings I ordered were pretty good too, coming in small and big sizes for $ 2 a pack. They didn’t ask me if I wanted the sauce for the onion rings though. Parking is plentiful since it is also near an Orchard Supply Hardware store.

Really bad location… rude manager, food was smelly and old. Tried calling few time and no one picked up the phone. Plz don’t go to this location.

I feel like they just let a bunch of teenagers loose in the wild without any supervision. They were nice, but very disorganized. Very long wait for fast food not only because of how long it took to cook the meal (even though they have pre-​made chicken, etc.), but they messed up on the 3 orders in front of us for various reasons. We eventually cancelled our order since our ONE A&W root beer float was taking upwards of 10 mins to make. Terrible.

Plain and simple this place is crap! Just came from there. When i ordered, a person who ordered through drive through came in to grab an order the staff forgot to give. The girl taking the order was super rude to the guys ordering ahead of me. They paid cash and said for her to just keep the change, at that time she gave them a smug look and sarcastically said «of 56 cents?» The two gentlemen in front of me looked at each other and explained to her that they meant no offense but were in fact just trying to make her job easier by not having her count out the change. Now my order, as i was ordering she kept glaring at me and the tone of her voice was very disrespectful. I ordered 5 things on the menu and waited approximately 25 min. And thought to myself «wtf i thought this place was fast food». I ordered an orange freeze, the ice cream machine ran out and had to be refilled. This girl just went ahead and basically got the orange soda and what little ice cream was in there, and added the cream which had JUST been poured into the machine. In short my orange freeze was basically an orange cream soda. Finally got my food and went to the car. Checked the bag and of course they were missing the potato wedges i ordered. Came back in to let them know and this girl did not want anything to do with me at this point (keep in mind i did not complain once while waiting in there, nor did i say anything to begin with) another employee (A.J on the name tag) proceeded to help me and as he was helping me with my dillema this girl rudely interrupts to ask if she can start closing up now. Turns out they had run out of wedges and offered another side dish which i wasnt interested in so A. J went ahead and gave me a refund. A. J was the only employee tonight which showed actual enthusiasm towards his work and provided great customer service. (Btw after this ordeal when i finally got to eat, the food was cold :-/)

To the owner/​manager:
Pls do yourself a big favor and replace this rude, unprofessional, employee of yours that’s working your sat night closing shift! I can’t believe how long it took until I actually got my food and received slow, rude service! If you ran out of an item, say something about it to me and not just pretend all my food is in the bag! I paid for the food with my hard earned money! If you don’t care about your job, go to school and do something about it!

This was terrible. Waited in line… ordered and the cashier didn’t have change. Got my receipt. went to the bathroom to wash hands. Came back. still no change or food. Got my soda and couldn’t believe how disgusting and dirty the machine was. The soda was flat. as I stood there longer I couldn’t believe the level of filth that I saw. My stomach started turning. I actually walked out without my change and food. Even their office door was open and the filth and grime on the door was disgusting. Don’t bother going there.

I love A&W. There isn’t much around so I drop by here whenever I pass by.
The cashiers have been nice and friendly. I ordinary order the coney (chili cheese fries with onions) and chili cheese fries. I don’t like to eat raw onions so I request for ordinary chili cheese dog. They use nacho cheese. Once I noticed the cashier double checking my chili cheese dog after it was prepared from the kitchen. She said, «Hey, there’s not supposed to be any onions!» and made them redo it. That was really nice for them to check before giving out a custom order.
Food is neatly presented in its to go boxes. Bun of the hot dog was warm and fluffy. No cheese dripping from the sides like other places.
The only thing I suggest is have another person in the kitchen. My order took pretty long to get. Also they took out the tap for their root beer. That’s not authentic A&W root bear.
Parking is never difficult even though shared with Orchard. Drive through time is ok.

Where else can you buy a gallon of A&W root beer?
I’m not saying that I have, or ever will, but that’s pretty awesome. And A&W root beer is pretty awesome. But I’ll get to that in a second.
As newcomers, my wife and I have tried random things throughout Millbrae. We’ve also taken numerous drives up and down 280 and El Camino when we’re having a hard time putting out son to sleep.
Every now and then one of us will ask, «Wanna get a root beer?»
That’s all we ever get here. Actual draft root beer that’s served on tap as if you you were ordering beer at a pub. The texture of the root beer has a distinctive frothy fizz you can’t get out of a can or even a bottle. Sweet. Creamy. Delicious.
Who knows, maybe one of these days we might actually get some food here. But for now, the root beer’s just dandy.