What's the Longest You'd Wait in Line for Fast Food?

[mrodgers]

The drive thru lines around me have steadily gotten longer since covid shut the dining rooms again. I waited about 25 minutes at Wendys at lunchtime on Friday. Not exactly on purpose.. but every other line in the area was about the same length and I didn't have any food at home.

I always have at least PB&J on hand. If a line doesn't move in little more than 5 minutes, I'll leave. If there's more than 3 cars from the speaker back, I'm not joining in. I lived nearly 20 years rural smack in the middle of 4 towns 30 miles away and never went into my hometown to the south except for work. That's where all the Pittsburgh overflow is. I went north. Just came back from grocery shopping up there (I now live in that dreaded town to the south) and it was packed with weekend before a holiday shoppers, which is a normal day in the town I'm in now.

It's driving me crazy being stuck here.

 

[Planogirl]

I would never wait that long for anywhere. Wow!

I would wait 15-20 minutes though. We did for a place just the other day.

 

[E&Cmom]

Also In-n Out. We visited SF a year and half ago so we wanted to try it has we never had before. The wait was over 30 minutes. It was the one at Fishermen’s Wharf.

 

[AustinTink]

Drive through 5-10 minutes without getting perturbed. Whataburger is notoriously slow and I will wait 15 for them, but that's my limit.

 

[Heather07438]

mobile order
if the drive thru line is long, pull up mobile order. Your order should register before the second person on the line. Run in, grab the bag and go outside and laugh at the cars that've barely moved ✌

 

[disneychrista]

I HATE waiting to order. So maybe 10 minutes. But even that is too long.

Now I went to Taco Bell and waited nearly 30 minutes to get my food AFTER I ordered and there was only 2 people in front of me ordering.

 

[fly girl]

15 minutes. And by 10, I’ll admit I’m getting annoyed.

I’ve waited longer, unknowingly, at Kings Island a few years ago. To say the teens working at that fast food place were not motivated would be a massive understatement. I refuse to go back to that burger joint even though I’m sure they are long gone. Yep, still salty.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Well the story is about the locations being the first in the state so that is way different than normal. I remember when Shake Shack opened up in my area it was long waits. It was several hours at least from what I remember reading about but I don't think 14 hours. I am interested to see what fervor Whataburger gets when they open the 2 locations that are coming to my area.

On a normal day 5-10mins at most but we know that Chick-fil-A can take a while (they get very busy) so we temper that with our expectations.

 

[mmouse37]

A few months into the pandemic we decided to take a ride and get some Chick-fil-a. The nearest one to us is about 20 minutes away. We pulled up and the two lines for the drive through were packed. We waited over 30 minutes which is the longest I have ever waited for fast food. We hardly ever have Chick-fil-a so it was a treat and we didn't mind waiting.

MJ

 

[bcla]

I know that I’m n’ Out (I’m originally from Gilroy). It was always busy, and the outlet shoppers only aided to the wait. Locals would go weekdays, off hours.

I don’t like waiting more than 10 minutes for fast food. Of course if it’s a peak lunch or dinner time rush I anticipate waiting a little longer, but not too much. Although I have been known to wait in the Chick fil’A drive thru 15+ minutes. If we had an In n’ Out here in Tennessee I’d gladly wait 20 minutes for a cheeseburger with extra sauce and grilled onions.

That day was really weird. They were taking orders as fast as they came. So we were waiting in a line out the door for 20 minutes, followed by waiting about 25 minutes for the food to be ready. And yeah - it was at the time that the outlets had closed and many people just descended there. I think McDonald's across the street would have been much faster. However, I'd never been to an In-N-Out before - this was in the late 90s. I'd seen one before visiting Southern California. It seemed like a lot of people there just for a burger place. Back then I think a cheeseburger was maybe $1.60.

It's not exactly the same, but one place that kind of gives me a similar vibe is Dick's Drive In around Seattle. Their specialty is just simple burgers and simple cheeseburgers. Back around 2013 I think it was maybe $1.10 for a 1/8 lb burger.

 

[gopher101]

45 minutes for a DQ. We were traveling, my DF blood sugar was dropping and there was nothing else. Had a hair in my salad. They refunded me the meal minus my drink, not even full price for salad. They were closed when we drove past two years later. Not surprise despite it being the only fast food place in the small town and for about 30 minutes.

Than a steak and shake for 20 minutes before we gave up and left (3rd strike). The time before we waited for 30 and our food was under heat lamp for 10 because the waitress refused to give it to use. The time before that we had to wait about 15 before any one said hello, but got great service after that. Have not been back to steak and shake since .

 

[amcnj]

The longest I’d prefer to wait is five minutes or less. Kind of like the way the old McDonalds were when the menu was limited and you had no inside dining.

I have often waited much longer than five minutes though, getting caught in deceptively long drive through waits, or when in an unfamiliar area and nothing else is close by, or to try a new place somewhere you are visiting and won’t get another chance, or at typical meal times when traveling and all the places right by the highway are jammed.

 

[SarahM1987]

In past years the lines around here were a 5-10 minute wait for fast food places during busy times, but with COVID and the dinning rooms being closed the drive thru lines can now take 15-20 minutes. One of our local pizza places was even worse during the lock down earlier this year, 40-45 minute wait for the order to be ready to pick up, and the drive thru pick up window line also took the same amount of time. Basically you could call your order in once you were in line, and it would be ready by the time you reached the window.

 

[mikehn]

How about the fact that I've never even been to an In-N-Out Burger??

You're not missing much.

 

[cvjw]

We waited about an hour a few weeks ago in a chick fil a drive thru. We are in metro Atlanta, and a hurricane came thru the night before, knocking out power to over 60% of the houses in our county. This chick fil a luckily still had power, so everyone had the same idea!

 

[MIGrandma]

This reminds me of where I used to work, a very popular mom and pop diner out in the middle of nowhere. Some people weren’t willing to wait 15-20 minutes for a table saying they would go somewhere else. I always thought to myself good luck with that. By the time you drive 20-30 minutes to any other restaurant you could have been seated here before that. I always thought it was funny.

As for waiting for fast food, I don’t mind waiting if it’s something I’m having a craving for

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

This reminds me of where I used to work, a very popular mom and pop diner out in the middle of nowhere. Some people weren’t willing to wait 15-20 minutes for a table saying they would go somewhere else. I always thought to myself good luck with that. By the time you drive 20-30 minutes to any other restaurant you could have been seated here before that. I always thought it was funny.

We wouldn't leave for 15-20mins but if they said 30-45mins and we know a place closeby (within a 5-ish or so min drive) won't have that long of wait AND we're short on time we'll hop on over to that other place. It wouldn't make sense (so I agree with you there) though to drive 20-30mins to go elsewhere for a 15-20min wait unless you really thought it couldn't possibly be just 15-20mins of a wait.

 

[BlueStarryHat]

Ten minutes, tops. If we're out and the line is long we go somewhere else. Plus, I've never heard of In and Out Burger.

 

[DLgal]

We go to In N Out frequently. I'll wait up to an hour there. Nowhere else gets more than about 5-10 minutes. Chick Fil A is the only other place we go that has longer lines. But at least CFA has mobile order now.

 

[hsmamato2]

4 seconds. But maybe that's bc I don't eat fast food