McAlister’s Deli

Service and quality of food is outstanding! Awesome sweet tea! :)

My first and only visit until recently was probably 20 years ago, when they first opened.
I ordered a half sandwich and regular baked potato and they charged me $ 14.00. That was high lunch prices 20 years ago, hell it is still high in today’s money. The potato, although huge, was overcooked, to the point of being brown through and through and «smelled old».
The sandwich bread was very hard to eat. It was too crunchy. I know, you’re thinking, how can bread be too crunchy? Well, when I bit into it, it would break off and send crumb debris onto my clothing, table and floor. The shards remaining would cut into the sides of my lips as I withdrew it from my mouth. As I chewed, it would cut into my gums and the roof of my mouth. Reminds me of how eating Capn’ Crunch cereal does a number on my mouth.
I know, you are also thinking, how the hell do you remember a meal, let alone, a sandwich, from 20 years ago? I will do you one better I remember a meal I had in 1980.
I grew up poor. I may have been born into it, I was too young to remember that part. At school, we ate free lunches, by presenting a small card with our name on it to the lunch lady. I still have a lunch card. It is autographed by a football player named, Jim Miller. He was from my hometown and went professional. He came to our school for a visit and that is the only thing on me, at the time, to have him sign.
Our mailbox was a mile away from the house, gravel road coming and going. That mailbox is where we had to walk to wait on the bus, rain or shine. My mother didn’t like us being treated like that just because we «are the only kids to pick up down that road and I am not driving this bus down there just for four kids», according to the driver. My mother got onto the bus, closed the door and «spoke with» the driver. After that «chat» we never walked to wait on the bus again.
We didn’t get to eat out. Run into a store just to buy candy. Point to everything in our line of site at the grocery store and scream «I want that!» Wear store bought clothing but frequented Yard Sales. We didn’t get a lot of toys for Christmas or birthdays. Instead, we amused ourselves by swinging on grape vines, gathering Rabbit Tobacco and swimming in the Hatchie river.
If we did get to go eat at a place that required payment, anywhere other than relatives, we knew it was special and treated it as such. Back in 1980 my mom, all her kids and her sister were at a diner. I had a banana split that was presented in a plastic bowl, shaped into a boat. That was just too much excitement for me, at the time, to have forgotten it. But what really put a mark on me that day was, when my aunt’s son walked in, sat down, and told her he wanted a hamburger. She didn’t pause or blink and yelled, «shut up boy! You have pinto beans cooking at home!»
To this day, when I eat out/​dine it is still a special thing for me. Yes, my standards are high! Not because I am a food snob, not because I am well-​traveled or even a food connoisseur, but because I have been cooking food and creating dishes for myself and family since I was 7. If mud pies count, then I started at 5. I had a knack for using the perfect ratio of small pebbles to fine sand. My mud pies never fell apart and had that eye catching look of having chips in them, like a good cookie.
Most of the food I grew up on was planted, nurtured, harvested, cleaned, husked, peeled, shelled, sliced, diced, pickled, canned, or frozen by my own hands, along side my Grandmother. Not randomly raked off the shelf or taken from the freezer section of a grocery store and reheated. So, you see, that is why it turns my stomach to Willy Nilly rate a restaurant 4 or 5 stars for their ability to open cans and heat the contents.
Hmmm, appears I went off topic. Back to McAlister’s. For years, after my first visit, I had passed by there and very few times would you see the parking lot have many cars. I expected to see it shuttered up at any given time. June of this year, for reasons unknown, I wanted to try Mcalister’s again.
The strangest thing, when I decided to give it a second chance, it appears everyone in town had the same idea. When I passed by, there were cars in the lot, and on occasion, onto the side of the road.
I have only ordered a couple of salads and one sandwich and my favorite side is the macaroni and cheese. The quality and presentation of the food is good and appealing. The waitstaff are friendly. I have seen potatoes at other diner’s tables and they appear large and get eaten, so I assume they are fresh now.
They are known for their sweet tea and they ran a promotion for one day «free tea». It looked like the event of the century. Parked cars everywhere, on the road, down the road, the next-​door lot, all day and all night they stayed covered over… for free tea.

My husband and I go here whenever we’re in Corinth. The food is really good– My personal favorite is the Choose Two option with half a Savannah Salad and half a Four Cheese Griller.
The service is so friendly and really attentive. Even when the building is swamped– which is usually is around lunch– the food comes out pretty quickly and the servers check up on you.
The prices are a little high for soups and sandwiches, but the food is good so it balances out.
Also, they have a really awesome catering selection, we’ve used them twice for office lunches.

Wow, what a surprise to see one of these in this town. Large building, it is a franchise and I really enjoy their food. So sweet tea is huge in the South and this place makes the very best! No one can touch their tea.
Came for lunch and I ordered their club sandwich, mom had pastrami. They offer sandwiches, fresh soup, salads, huge potatoes, cookies, muffaletta sandwiches. The prices are slightly high for sandwiches but they are sooo good. Service was excellent!
Many years in North Carolina I ate at this chain and always enjoyed their menu. This location was good, but not quite what I remembered. The bread did not taste as fresh and the lunch meat was just blah… quality did not seem to be at their best.
We enjoyed our lunch but my mom was not to impressed with her sandwich. She said she thought the quality was not great on the lunch meat. I would come back and try some soup or salad next time.
Very casual décor…