Habit Burger & Grill — Restaurant in Alameda

This store is not honest. They ring things up incorrectly in order to sneak in up charges then blame you for the "mistake."

Food was fine, but when we discovered an overcharge on our receipt the cashier said it was "just the way the machine did it". I showed that how he rang-up the order did not match what we ordered. He said that's how the machine did it.

After he got the manager the manager kept mis-ringing the order to show I was wrong while making snarky comments in his explanation.

He finally"discovered" they were adding cheese we didn't order to one of our burgers. Then tried to blame me for not telling him we didn't order the cheese on the second burger (something I had no way to know he was adding so I had no way to know I "needed to tell him" he was adding something we never ordered.

The manager finally refunded the overcharge ,without an apology, but with more comments blaming me for their mistakes.

Without a hand written apology from the store manager sent via USPS I will never go back to this store.

If I were Habit Burger corporate I'd audit this store. If they are stealing from their customers they are likely stealing from the business as well.

Update: My response to their offing me a coupon in response to this level of problem.

"You saw my review. It prompted your sending me this link. You know what you must do to ethically respond. Actually earning back my business is a much higher hurdle.

When you were new to my area we went to this Habit Burger almost weekly. Over time quality dropped, cleanliness declined, and service declined. Now you have dishonest people running the place.

When we've gone to other Habit Burger stores it was a highly varied experience. One store out in the central valley shorted us on product and told us it was the correct amount of green beans. Being a regular at the Alameda store at the time, and visiting the occasional other location as we travel, we knew that the half portion we were given was not correct. Their response... Tough... We're not fixing it. (I paraphrase)

We will not go to the San Leandro store ever again. It was never very clean, but on our third visit the dried vomit in the bathroom put us off that location.

Now, when I go places with friends or colleagues and someone suggests Habit Burger I decline the idea. If asked why I tell them, "I've had bad experiences at their stores too many times." and we go elsewhere.

It's not my job to figure out what you need to do to fix your business, but as a customer I try to spend my money on places with a certain level of quality, basic service, and (I cannot stress this enough) clean tables, floors, and facilities.

Even "fast food" has become expensive. I'm not paying to eat garbage in a pit of filth while being cheated...

To preface, this review is for the service alone. I usually come to this location and am never disappointed in the food at all.

I get fast food joints are just pay, get your food, and go - nothing fancy, but today's experience was just beyond unacceptable and so effin rude. There's a low bar for fast food, but dang they really hit below the belt today.

Tried to redeem a birthday charburger today. I downloaded the app and made an account and went into this location. The kind young gentleman at the cashier was trying to help, but ended up asking his manager for assistance. The manager looked all annoyed and ended up ringing me up and said she could only do the double charburger buy one get one free since I didn't have the barcode and I was like ok fine, whatever I'll do that then. She then proceeds to say next time come prepared, you see I'm so busy today. Like lady, you didn't need to add your extra two cents, I can see you're busy and I'm trying to be a customer since I normally go to this location anyway, I just never downloaded the app until today. I'm just trying to redeem something, I don't need the extra rudeness. So I sat and waited for my order "99" for almost 30 minutes, and noticed they called all the numbers before and after mine. The young man from earlier noticed this and said "what's your name? You've been waiting since I've gone on break". I tell them my name and showed this other lady my receipt (whilst the manager walks all around and doesn't even look at me the whole time I was there). When this lady talked to the people cooking, they never got my order and that it was deleted. So I waited there for nothing. The lady said oh they'll work on it now and at that point, I'm just so fed up. I asked for a refund and left. I forgot to ask for the manager's name and their phone number just goes to a 3rd party location so I just ended up filing complaints thru their website. The young man and the lady who looked at my receipt later were fine, very nice even. It's the manager that I am absolutely furious at so I'm never going back to this location. Not that it hurts their business nor do they care, but I don't think I can see the manager again without getting upset and losing...

I know that In-and-out Burger is considered the pinnacle of California fast food culture but I like Habit Burger better. More choices (and all of them are good), less messy, not much of a wait, usually friendly service, and the one in Alameda is conveniently located in the Alameda Landing shopping center. I had a nice “Double Char” today and helped myself to some Jalapeños to give it a little kick. The restaurant and self service area are always clean which contributes to an overall pleasant experience And the palm trees reflecting in the entrance door (see picture) enhance the California feeling. Just waiting for The Beach Boys to show up

So now a small modification: today was the first time I ran into a less friendly associate. He stood behind the counter looking at another customer and avoiding eye contact so I assumed he was still busy. After a little while I approached him - no friendly smile and we he said something that I could not hear with the background noise. I asked him to repeat and he said loudly and not in a friendly way “Can I take your order?” Throughout the process he appeared slightly impatient. We got through it and when I came back a few minutes later to pick up my order, I could not see him. Not a big deal and he may have had a bad day. Food was good as always and I am not going to convert to “In-and-out”...