My local DQ is excellent–staffed entirely by local teenagers so service can be a little hit or miss but the food is great and the fries are to die for, always fresh and hot.
The DQ near me (in suburban Pittsburgh PA, has been around for 35+ years) has pretty decent mushroom swiss and flamethrower burgers. Their regular cheeseburgers kind of suck, IMHO, but are still better than most of the McSlop that the House of Ronald serves. The only thing McDonalds does better is the fries. DQ ice cream treats are good, but there’s any number of ice cream stands around here that have “real” ice cream that is much better. Of course these local places all close from September to April, whereas DQ is open year round.
We don’t have cherry dip or chocolate soft serve here, either, and I think I’m glad for that - a chocolate cherry dipped cone could easily become my favourite thing in the world.
We don’t have those, either. What the hell good are Canadian Dairy Queens?
I don’t know if it’s a Calgary thing, but we go to DQ to get an ice cream cone quite often in the middle of winter, and we’re far from the only ones in there. That always strikes me a little odd, but hey, ice cream is ice cream. 
I’ve had steak nuggets at an Alberta Dairy Queen (Drumheller in 1986, I believe).
The burgers aren’t bad (the flame-broiled taste is nice), but my favourite as a kid was a foot long chili cheese dog at the Dairy Queen in North Battleford. Yum!
I had a DQ cheeseburger not terribly long ago after a hiatus of many years, and it strongly resembled a microwaved burger from a school cafeteria.
It was much like my late-life reunion with Chef Boyardee ravioli in that I couldn’t tell if the quality had declined over time, or I just used to like really shitty food.
The Chicken Strip Basket with the sawmill gravy is killer. I love dipping the fries in that gravy.
ours is the local hangout after soccer football etc. and so therefor the food has the teenage and preteen hormonal glow.
best onion rings in town, always the icecream cakes, but burgers?
i am disappointed in all of them. tiny patties, crappy bread and oil based cheese and mystery sauce, ewwwww.
I’ll have to take a closer look at the menu next time I’m in there.
The menu may well have changed somewhat in the past 25 years, of course.