Blake's Lotaburger — Restaurant in Albuquerque

First off, this store has a 3.8 rating, which is far from good and speaks volumes. Obviously, I'm not the only one who has had a bad experience here to speak of!

So anyway, about my visit here. I called ahead to let them know that I had a big order, 25 burgers & and fries, to be exact. The manager or assistant manager whose name may have been Richard tells the gal on the phone with me that I would have to come in to place an order like that. I say, "Fine, I'll be right there."

So when I get there, I walk up to the register and tell the girl that I'm the one who called wanting to place the big order. She tells me I'm going to have to ask Richard the manager about that. So I talked to this Richard guy, tall, slender dude with glasses, and he tells me that they don't have enough buns. I then ask him, "Why didn't you tell me that over the phone so that I would not have come all the way over here for nothing?" And his reply was,"Well, we only had 25 buns when you called" in a rude and very unapologetic manner, and didn't care to see my side of it whatsoever! So, WTH, he assumed that he wouldn't sell one hamburger during the dinner rush hour by the time I got there? 😆 Bottom line, very unprofessional!

That guy has no business running a store, and his district manager will hear about this! As soon as I said I was on my way, they should have told me that they probably were not going to be able to make my order! That would have been the end of it, and I would have gone to another location, which is exactly where I'm at right at the moment!

Props to the El Pueblo & 2nd Street location, always great customer service here and very friendly employees! Which is quite the opposite from what I experienced at the San Antonio location! 😊

One last thing, this could have a bearing on future orders of similar size in regards to what location I...

I'm here to say that Blake's is no longer a reliable lunch spot. You're going to spend at least 45 minutes if not an hour waiting for your food. Update: After eating this NM Style combo (ordered by phone) I was not well. My stomach and my nose & throat are all feeling awful. I've been to Blake's hundreds of times and rarely had a problem, this time was the last. I know without question that my food was tampered with in some way to make me feel this completely sick. Haven't any other food in 36 hours. Owner's response should be: CLOSE THAT LOCATION! Because leaving it open just cost you THIS customer at EVERY location. And DO NOT blame this on the few team members that showed up to work that day, this is a problem that has been building slowly over 5 years now. I had a problem with long wait times in Rio Rancho too, but they did not tamper with my food enough to make me sick. Your executives are not accountable, your management is shoddy at best. I have a good mind to go BBB on this complaint for your lack of food safety and complete absence of accountability. I paid almost $16 for that meal and left the change from $20 for those tortured workers you call employees, only to find out later that one of them dunked my burger in botulism. DID NOT TOUCH THE FRIES, God only knows what went on with my beloved french fries. This makes me so sad. Blake's was always...

I love Blake's. I'm going to up front about that. Also, I think all locations are WAAAAAAAY too slow. This location in particular is really bad. I went to get a breakfast burrito on the way to work. The wait to get to the window was pretty long, then the kid asked me to pull into a parking space. I told him I needed to be to work at 8 and asked if I should just go instead of waiting. He assured me it would be ok. Uhhhh, that's a big no. I pulled into the parking lot of the Blake's at 7:40 (I was paying close attention because I was worried about getting to work on time, though my work is only 5 minutes from this Blake's so I thought I'd be ok). Yeah, he handed me my food at 8:08. Yes, 28 minutes from arriving to getting a breakfast burrito. I mean, really. Can't they make some things ahead so they can assemble faster? Or is there such a shortage of staff, that they can't handle it? I don't know, but that is untenable. Another time I waited a long time (but more like 15 minutes) and when I got my food I just left without checking due to time. Well, they gave me the totally wrong meal and what they gave me cost way less than what I paid for. Grrrrr. I know they're all owned by the same company, but the management here needs some...