Taco Bell — Restaurant in Gloucester

Sadly disappointing. The drive through was very quiet, and the restaurant itself was what I would consider to be moderately quiet. Initially decided to go to the counter to order, was stood there several minutes without acknowledgement from any of the many staff members so ended up ordering via the touch screen. We were 5th in queue when we ordered, but it took 10 minutes for our ticket to be called so not a quick turnaround.

When food arrived it looked pretty good. The seasoning and cook on the chips was very good, nice and crispy. We had had the beef burrito - seasoning on beef was nice but assembly of burrito was poor, was falling apart as not wrapped tightly at all and the ends not sealed in first so all falling out of the bottom/top, not a standard burrito. Nacho cheese sauce tastes awful, very plasticky, and unfortunately this was inside the crunchwrap so can't recommend as this ruined the taste, would have to order without in future.

The cinnamon twist things are really good, I could have eaten 10 bags of those!

So the food was "okay" and fair value for the amount you get, I'd have it again but probably not rush back. The reason why I WON'T be coming back is the service. Aside from slow serving times, which I can get over as they are probably having teething issues from being a newly opened restaurant - the eating area itself was a mess, there were maybe 2 tables that were clean and the rest had rubbish etc on them so no one was checking this to see if anything needed cleaning down. I witnessed another diner having to call out to someone behind the kiosk to ask them to clear a table to they could sit down to eat. This request was fulfilled but only for that one table - the staff member didn't bother to clear any others. We also had an issue where we ordered a Mountain Dew, we were told when we went to pick up the food that they didn't have any left and the only other thing they would offer us was a bottle of water! Would not offer a soft drink or anything, so we ended up just getting our money back - which was cash, not offered to go back via same payment method which was card.

Also find the drinking arrangements odd - you can purchase either a small soft drink or large soft drink (pricing reflected in size) and they don't serve you this themselves, they just hand you a cup and you have to go to a self-serve station for this. This would be fine but there is no ice, and it's not clear if you are paying for unlimited refills or not so wasn't comfortable going up for a 2nd cup as not really sure if was allowed. Also because there is just the one drinks station, you end up waiting in a...

Since finding out about this place I've wanted to try it out and I had the opportunity to yesterday with a colleague.

We ordered via the screens which seem identical to McDonalds which is all good and fine and considering we hadn't tried the cuisine we had the beef mini taco, burrito & fries option along with a churro each. In total this came to £9 which was pretty good value at least.

Food took about 5mins with a handful of orders on the board, again, fine. Not super quick.

Taco: chili beef, lettuce strips and grated cheese. What a bland mess, no matter what you did it just went everywhere but maybe that's just taco's

Burrito: Mostly consisted of wrap and hot 'plastic' cheese with some chili and some bits of tortilla chip?? Would not recommend unless you like hot plastic cheese - i.e. cheese squares. Pretty salty.

Fries: Initially I really liked the seasoning but couldn't finish them, not a big helping, just over seasoned and too salty. More chips than fries too.

Churro's: Expected these to be warm & chewy but apparently they're supposed to be hard on the outside and fluffy on the inside. Mostly these were just tough with a lot of cinnamon on.

Taco, burrito & fries supposed to be about 900cals, pretty sure that's mostly the sauce & cheese. Definitely wasn't overly full or anything.

Staff couldn't look more uninterested if they tried, someone else has commented on the staff in another rewiew and I agree. They really don't want to be there.

I assume Taco Bell are trying to break into the UK market with a cheap and cheerful approach but are so far falling down on the cheerful.

I didn't see anyone tasked with ensuring their restaurant is tidy either, I expect it's multi-skill when they have to thing but taco's and the like are very messy and whilst people should obviously clear their table, they'll never get all these taco crumbs or bits of cheese.

Taco Bell needs to make more of an effort, big let down, won't be bothering again. Advised family members not to bother which is a shame because they have a lot of large menu options...

Three strikes, you're out! :(

We've been to Glos TB three times. Twice just after opening, and once much more recently (Oct 2022).

The food is actually quite nice, and made a welcome change from the other local options.

But;

First visit: Missing churros from the order - easily fixed since we were eating in. That's OK, mistakes happen. FoH Staff seemed a little miffed at the inconvenience though.

Second visit: Take-away - Despite a cursory check on the way to the car I got home and realised part of the order was missing. I drove back to ask for the missing item (my burrito) and got treated like trash. When I get home for the second time I realised they had still messed it up (no sour cream was requested, don't judge!). I was hungry, so I gave in and ate it anyway.

Third visit: Take-away - I've learned! I count my order before leaving. However, once again there's one main missing. To be fair, the staff seem much more professional now and no issues sorting a quick replacement. However, I get home and find that the veggie burrito for my other half is actually a chicken burrito. Luckily no bites were taken, and it did mean I got a second burrito .. so there is that!

Won't be back for a long while, I can't go through unwrapping each item before driving home to check it.

It was interesting to see that the next door fast-food chain was packed, with a queue for the drive-in. TB was mostly empty, on a rainy Friday...