Taco Bell — Restaurant in Kingsville

Not There Yet. Although this location has tons of potential, it's really too early to see it. Today I visited this brand new location at 10:30 AM and found it to be faulty on a number of things, some of which can be remedied easily and quickly, while other issues cannot be.

First, the store, although it appears a bit bigger in the sitting area, does not seem to really have any extra seating over the old McDonald's restaurant it replaces. The way the seating is done prevents it from utilizing the larger sitting space that was created. Too bad.

Second, the front counter setup is SOOO bad that it defies common sense. Upon entering the store, you have nowhere to go but to the counter. If there is one or two customers ahead of you, you will have to wait out in the entrance way as there really isn't ANY room to "line up" and wait. The soda machine is in back in the corner so if you were to wait in that area, those trying to get their soda will have to fight with you to gain access. This is where you get the lids, straws and condiments. Then you will have to fight the same people on the way back out to get to the seating area. Worst design I've ever seen. The front counter design was built so close to the entrance door that there is no place to queue up to place your order. This design issue completely ruins the ordering experience and makes it very complicated and difficult to see where the line begins and ends. Total chaos when it comes to ordering and receiving your food.

We had suspected that the old McDonald's restaurant would be definitely too small for a Taco Bell and my experience today just reaffirms that. If this is how the ordering goes, we probably won't go back to this restaurant based solely on that alone. Other locations have a lot of room to order and then wait. This one cannot be fixed without major reconstruction of the front end of the restaurant. Complete bomb on that part of the experience.

With those two items out of the way, there are a number of small items that can easily be fixed. They did not serve the food on a tray. No trays were visible anywhere so I can only assume they opened too soon. Nobody around me had a tray so I can only assume that the trays are still on order and haven't arrived yet for opening. All food is given in paper bags, whether you are eating in or eating out. Nobody even asked if my order was to eat in or take out. Paper bags for all. My Gordita was heavily stuck to the wax paper wrapper and was cold. When I opened it up, it mangled my Gordita to the point of breaking the taco shell. My bean burrito was full of beans, which was good, but the burrito shell had a hole in it and the beans went all over the place when I bit into it. As mentioned, no napkins anywhere. Beans in my lap was not on the menu. Regaining access to the pop machine was hell at best due to the crowded area of people waiting for their food. DriveThru was inoperable due to Sysco (the food distributor) blocking the entire drive thru lanes while unloading. Had they put their truck next to the building to unload, the drive thru could have continued to been utilized.

Service was REALLLLLLY slow. This is to be expected because of how new it is though.

Line ups are out the door and will ALWAYS be out the door, even in the depth of winter, due to poor counter placement design. If you want to stay warm, eat elsewhere as the door will be open most of the time during lunch times from the High School kids. Kids love Taco Bell so I suspect they will brave the weather to eat there in winter regardless.

Worst part is when I left, I had to fight people stacked up in front of the door, stuffed out in the crowded breezeway and right out the outside door. That's crazy and only proves the point of bad design.

Yes, the potential is there but not while the current design in use. I hope they redesign the front area so that separation from the pop and condiment station can be done while allowing for lineups to order and get your food are streamlined to not interfere with...

Today I ordered 3 Dorito supremes (drive through ) for my granddaughter and they gave me the higher priced Burrito supremes instead . We live 3 km away so it wasn’t noticed until we got home . Needless to say our granddaughter decided to try one , took a bite and ended up not eating them. We called the store to let them know of their error and were told to bring the receipt by and they would replace the order and refund us the difference in price . Perfect - so we thought.

But I wasn’t about to jump back in the car and head all the way back to Taco Bell during noon hour Main St traffic, and decided we would stop by later in the afternoon. 3 hours later when we went back into town and presented them the receipt that they asked for , the girl at the window said they needed the 3 burritos back as well . She certainly didn’t say that on the phone , although she insisted that she did . I didn’t want to go all the way back home again and and pull them out of the trash and come back a third time , and just asked for a refund of the difference in price - simple solution. I also told her lunch was 3 hours ago and didn’t want the replacement tacos they were offering . She absolutely refused and said it was store policy , I had to have the wrong order burritos returned .

After a little back and forth discussion we left with no satisfaction.

Young lady , I am am 71 years old , financially well off and trust me I am not in the business of trying to get a few free burritos . I do not even like Taco Bell , they were for my granddaughter .

Not only did you mess the order up and overcharge me , but basically in a roundabout way accuse me of being deceitful by saying that you had to verify that we didn’t eat them.

What ever happened to the customer is always right ? You guys have so much to learn about customer service ....

It's really too early to tell how some things will go, such as the service, but the layout of the store wasn't well planned. The counter is too close to the front door so if more than 3 people are in line to order the rest are stuck standing in the breezeway. A carpet runner was in a pile near the door, big tripping hazard. The pop machine is in the front corner by the counter so if you are waiting for your food the area gets crowded quickly with people shuffling trying to get their pop, straws, etc. After your order is ready you have to try to get by the lineup of people ordering. There were no forks in the restaurant so the fries supreme had to be eaten wth fingers. We went to sit down (this was opening time, 10:30am) some tables and the floor was dirty. Went to a relatively clean table and ate our meal. My daughter lifted her leg and touched the bottom of the table and her knee got gum on it. I took the majority off with a napkin but still had some stuck there. Looked under and a wad was stuck there. My guess is it was left by an area high school student. This is a brand new restaurant. We let the "manager" know and she just shrugged and said that she didn't have time to deal with that. So i guess the next customer gets to have the dance thing happen. Most issues can be worked out with time, but the setup isn't so...