Bowie Restaurant Project: (29) Dairy Queen/Orange Julius

DQ/OJ is now closed.

For an explanation of the Bowie Restaurant Project, look here.

For a list of all the Bowie Restaurant Project reviews, look here.

The outdoor entrance

Dairy Queen/Orange Julius, 3878 Town Center Blvd

Most Recent Foursquare Check-in: 11/3/2011
Total Foursquare Check-ins: 2
Pre-Foursquare Visits: No
Rating: 1 out of 5 stars

Yep, just hot dogs

It's not exactly a Dairy Queen. On my first visit, I came back to work with a "Dairy Queen" bag, which caused a co-worker to talk about how great their hamburgers are. Not an option here -- the only "Hot Eats" available are hot dogs.

When I defined minimum standards for what constitutes a restaurant, I should have anticipated that some establishments would just barely clear the bar (I'm looking at you, Starbucks). If you want to, you can meet someone at DQ/OJ for lunch, order up some hot dogs and a Blizzard and sit at the food court and eat it. The hot dogs, while above 7-11 standard, are nothing to look forward to, though. You'd be better off with the ones at Five Guys across the street.

The "Cool Treats", while not strictly necessary to be a restaurant, are a nice touch. I was considering let this place drift up to 1 1/2 stars because you can get such interesting beverages with your meal. But I recently decided to require two visits to non-chain restaurants, as well as those chains I'm not particularly familiar with. The quantity of dread I felt after my first visit, knowing that I'd have to return for a second, tells me to leave this one at 1 star. But, hey, at least I am the Foursquare mayor here.