Quesada Burritos & Tacos — Restaurant in Port Coquitlam

We ordered 2 burrito bowls and 3 tacos from here to try out their recipes. The first thing we noticed about the place was it was extremely understaffed with only one employee even during lunch hour. Naturally the line moved slowly which is understandable given her situation. The service was decent which was probably the only positive from this experience. As far as the food goes we noticed the entire store has no real burner or range to "cook" your food. If you want to add veggies to your bowl that's an extra charge which is also unusual. However these veggies simply go through a toaster like oven for a few seconds and are terribly undercooked. The cut of the bell peppers is unusual as well with extremely large flat chunks put into the bowl instead of easier to eat and mix slices. The bowls are smaller than other casual Mexican places around greater Vancouver and it did not justify their cost. The guacamole was extremely stale - it had literally turned black and tasted like avocadoes left out in the sun. There was no real salt, lemon or flavour at all in the guac either except tasting of old rotting avocados mashed with mushy acidic tomatoes. We figured maybe the place just did not do well with fresh veggies and continued to try the beans and protein. However it was also very odd that the "beans" came as a paste - there is a weird obsession quesada carries with emulsifying their foods :/ The beyond meat crumble was extremely hard and chewy (which is not normal at any other place that serves a crumble like that). The sauces all taste like a base of ranch with 1 or 2 more flavours. They are however better than practically any other ingredient used. The fish was obviously frozen and thawed and hence tasteless, chewy and rubbery. The pork was somehow dry as well. Overall quesada has done a terrible job of maintaining freshness across its locations amd have tried to take shortcuts in food prep. Given the competition in the area this one was far below average and surprisingly tasteless over the fact it does not fill your appetite. When it comes to freshness, unique flavours (or flavours at all), and value for money I found this food far below competition. I feel for the investors who really did not research their market and competition enough before introducing this...

BEFORE LEAVING A NEGATIVE REVIEW CONSIDER THE EMPLOYEE Went again tonight, as usual, the employee (like all of them) there was kind, young and helpful. Yet he was clearly struggling to handle all the online orders as well as in person orders and running the entire restaurant himself. In what situation is it okay for a kid to be working alone at night in a busy restaurant? It wasn't even very busy, yet it was clearly more than one kid should be doing alone. I seriously hope management changes the treatment of employees at this location. The store was dirty as a result of understaffing, reviews here are clearly mixed and there are other reviews about poor treatment of the employees. I urge anyone looking for a job to look elsewhere, or for the current employees to unionize.

The employees also say tips are "Shared" which makes no sense considering there is usually only one person working at any time.

I would love to hear about the tipping policy from the company themselves.

I usually never leave reviews, but what I've seen here is terrifying. I hope a union/corporate/workbc get involved and investigate.

I wish I could continue eating here, but seeing just how stressed the employees always look makes me feel sick.

Otherwise, the food is really good. (when the employees have time to make it right which isn't very often)

You guys have great hardworking employees here. Treat them...

I've never eaten here and don't plan to. Not having had a personal experience, I wasn't going to submit a review, but seeing the owner's response to the negative reviews here turned my stomach. They appear to have zero accountability and blame everything on their employees. These are typically young employees in their first job who could use a little empathy and patience. The customers seem to give it to them, not sure why the employer can't.

I heard from several community members that the owners of this location treat their staff horribly. Due to the employer's staffing decisions, lone employees are left to do the work of 2-3 people and while they are overwhelmed and needing support the employer calls to reprimand them during this stressful time, further distracting the employee, compounding the problem and adding to the anxiety.

Remember your first job? Dig deep and find that inner teenager and remember how it felt to be learning new things and accepting new responsibilities. Now add in a verbally abusive boss with impossibly high standards who expects you to do the work of 3 people for minimum wage. In a...