Dairy Queen Takeaway. The Comparison Ice Cream. A blizzard comes in at 7.0 / 10 ice cream score for me. Worth getting over Ben & Jerry's. Get a small size over a mini, the marginal oz on the additional $.50 is huge. My wife and kids love the vanilla ice cream with sprinkles in a cone. This location didn't have chocolate ice cream. I'm not sure if that is franchise-wide now. We've never had anything besides ice cream.
Because they have multiple registers inside, you get considerably faster service going inside instead of waiting in the drive-thru. The inside feels kind of dumpy but clean because the ceilings are low, it's poorly lit, cramped, and visually much noisier than McDonald's behind the counter. They packed almost too much seating into the limited space, making it feel cramped.
Pro Tip: Make sure not to park somewhere the drive-thru will box you in. You can end up getting stuck behind someone for a bit.
Dairy Queen Experience Summary
We usually go to frozen yogurt to celebrate as a family whenever something good happens to celebrate. My little guy won an award for leadership and participation in gym class, so he got to pick where we went. Instead of going to Frozen Yogurt, he wanted to go to Dairy Queen.
Fine with me!
I've been getting Dairy Queen ice cream for 25 years, and Dairy Queen is my wife's longtime favorite ice cream. Every birthday we get her an ice cream cake with fudgies.
I'd give a blizzard a 7.0 / 10 ice cream score. It's worth it to me to grab a $4.99 small blizzard over Ben & Jerry's. I consider Heath bar, Reese's peanut butter cups, and cookie dough worth it.
My wife and kids stick to vanilla swirl in a cone with rainbow sprinkles. For $2.69, they get an unfinishable portion of ice cream.
Pro tip: Go inside instead of waiting in the drive-thru line. They process drive-thru one at a time, and their turnaround isn't as fast as McDonald's. That means one order can really slow down the whole line. No one really goes inside. They have multiple registers, so you can be in and out super
The Food At Dairy Queen
I only ever allow myself ice cream at Dairy Queen. The fast-food options never sound appealing at a restaurant with dairy in the name.
With that in mind, any kind of high-quality candy Blizzard reaches a 7.0 / 10 on the ice cream score for me. Cookie dough, heath bar, or reeses all fit the bill. The ice cream is thick, with chunks evenly distributed by the blizzarding process. DQ also maintains an extreme level of consistency across locations, so you know exactly what you're going to get.
DQ will never blow you out of your mind or be the best ice cream flavor you've ever had, but a Blizzard is always going to be a fun treat.
They have always had generous serving sizes for their Blizzard and regular ice cream. I used to get a mini blizzard because that's my proper serving size. But the marginal value of an extra $.50 for a small makes that a clear winner. I just saved the part I didn't eat for the next day.
Dairy Queen Atmosphere And Miscellaneous
If you want to get your food quicker, I recommend parking the car and going inside at Dairy Queen. The average order at DQ takes significantly longer to process than other fast-food restaurants. Because the drive-thru processes orders in a single line, one order can really back up the whole line.
Therefore, going inside, where they have multiple registers, can significantly decrease the wait time.
The inside of the Dairy Queen St. Charles Rock Rd isn't going to win any decor awards. The eating area feels over-saturated for the size of the space. The ceilings are low, and the lighting isn't great. Add to that the fact that the ice cream toppings bar behind the counter is visually noisy, and the whole place comes off feeling dingy.
It's obviously clean, but it's not inviting the same way a new McDonald's lobby would be.
They don't have any public bathrooms available, so pee before you cream.
Parking At Dairy Queen
There's usually a dedicated parking lot at Dairy Queen. But sometimes you do need to think about parking.
Because the drive-thru is always backed up, you want to park strategically. Don't park in a place that requires the drive-thru to be empty or that follows the drive-thru out of the lot. At our location, some of the parking spots end up being boxed in by a medium-length drive-thru line.
With that in mind, I end up parking against the south wall at this location. That gives me several outs if the drive-thru lane gets really busy.
If it isn't clear by now, I've put too much thought into all of this.
Dairy Queen Receipt
