I believe this is the first less-than-five-star review I've ever written.
I came to this Taco Bell (which is a combo location with a Kentucky Fried Chicken) when I was experiencing some car trouble and needed to pull off of the highway to collect myself. I thought I would be comforted by the wonderful fast food hybrid, but found it only added to my nightmare.
Immediately upon walking in it was clear to feel that the air conditioning was broken, as it was quite hot. But hey, those things break all the time, it's hot for the employees too, and maybe not using AC is better for the environment anyway. Not too big of a deal.
When I head to the counter, I see there are two other customers; one who has apparently been waiting over 15 minutes for his food, and another growing increasingly agitated. These two fellow customers became my bosom companions, and helped assured me that I wasn't going crazy. Also important to note is that there is no one manning the counter. Again, they appear to be short staffed, and I trust that the employees are doing everything in their power to make the operation run as smoothly as possible. Eventually someone approaches, and I place my order. They begin to enter it in, when a fellow customer tells me that they had ordered the same thing but was informed that they were out. The employee shrugs their shoulders and asks me what else I would like.
To help me make a new decision, I ask them if they knew what was inside of the Grilled Stuft Burrito. I was very impressed by their honesty when they simply answered "no." Perhaps this is me being entitled, but I confess, I assumed that they would then find out what was inside it. Instead, they just patiently waited for me to continue my order. I timidly asked "uhh, could you maybe go ask someone what's inside it? Or maybe look it up?" and then they did look it up and said what was inside it. I thanked them and ordered a modified version of it without a couple of the fillings.
I don't think I had to wait 15 minutes, but I did wait long enough to see one of my fellow customers pick up their food, head outside, come back because they had gotten her order wrong, and then given a fresh bag of food -- apparently they had given her an order meant for a drive thru customer and her bag was still sitting on the counter. Watching this exchange did not inspire me with confidence.
Eventually my food came and, to perhaps no one's surprise, the fillings I requested be left out were very much so still in there.
Recognizing that drowning my car troubles in indulgent food wasn't a particularly healthy life-style choice, and also recognizing that eating Taco Bell is, generally speaking, likely best to do at an absolute minimum in general, I asked if anyone else in the restaurant would be interested in having my burrito.
There were no takers.
Feeling a small amount of guilt for the starving people of the world who would have really loved to have consumed those calories, I gently deposited my burrito in the trash and returned to face my car trouble head on. And upon doing so, got as far away from there as I could.
I've lived a charmed fast food life, and this experience helps me better appreciate just how pleasant most of my past fast food exchanges have
truly been. For the valuable opportunity of introspection and newfound gratitude, I rank this Taco Bell two stars out of five. read more