Taco Bell — Restaurant in Alexandria

Par for the course isn't always good.

I just happened to be traveling for business when I stopped into this location. My experience with businesses in Alexandria has generally been better than most other areas. Even the Wal-Mart in Alexandria has had friendlier staff who take pride in their work. My experience with other Wal-Marts has been staff who hate their jobs and don't want to deal with customers. So, this was a pleasant surprise.

Taking my experience with the Wal-Mart being much better in Alexandria, I suspected that the Taco Bell would follow the same pattern. Here's what happened.

Upon entering Taco Bell, I saw a relatively slow crowd. There was only one other person waiting for food, so I figured a short wait. Drive-thru had 2 vehicles waiting, so again, short wait expected.

At this point, there wasn't anyone watching the front counter. I waited 2-3 minutes just to get my order taken. I looked at the menu and ordered a cravings box. I asked for the Gordita box. I was told they only had the Chulupa box. I had to correct the cashier that their menu offered a Gordita box. OK, so this was probably a new hire, right?

When I completed my order, the cashier asked my name. I gave it. I then looked for a place to sit. The restuarant had very few booths and low seating. I had to sit on the tall, bar stools. THese are NOT comfortable.

After about 10-12 minutes, they called an order for Chris. My name is NOT Chris. I looked to see who Chris was. No Chris came and collected his/her order. The manager behind the counter called out "Hey, you, Chris, your food is ready". I approached the counter and said "my name is NOT Chris. My name is " then I gave my name. The manager said "that's what I called." Wow, first you call me by the wrong name, then tell me that you called the correct name. Geez.

I then confirmed the order by repeating what I had ordered. The manager said, sorry, and went in the back to replace the incorrect food. Great, not only did they get my name wrong, but also my order.

OK, so fine. I went to my table and began to eat.

The bean burrito was very poorly prepared (see image). THere were openings on both sides where just biting my food would spill the bean out.

So now, they got my name wrong, my order wrong, and the food preparation wrong.

There's a 3 strike rule: The time to order was longer than expected The time to get the food was longer than expected They got my name wrong They tried to argue that they called the wrong name They tried to give me the wrong food They failed to correctly prepare the food

To make matters worse, the overall attitude of the staff seemed to say "why do I have to help you?" They did not seem to want to be working there at that time. Even when I was walking in, I could hear the staff make fun of my appearance. Yes, I'm wearing shorts and a sleeveless shirt. It's hot out. You don't need to voice your disagreement with my choice of attire.

The bottom line is that I had a very poor experience at this location. The number of issues were just too many to overlook.

Par for the course is not always a good thing. That being said, most of my experiences with Taco Bells have been mostly negative. Employees who don't care, slow survice, food that's thrown together, and incorrect orders. Add to this the issue with calling the correct name, and my experience with the Alexandria Taco Bell is worse than my experience with other stores.

I do not intend to repeat business at...

So I’ve visited this location multiple times as I live in the area but I was highly disappointed in the service I received tonight. I placed an order online around 10pm or so and decided to pick it up through drive thru. I sat in line for probably about 20 min or so just waiting to get up to order and then once I was greeting I was asked to wait for a bit which I was fine with doing. But once I got up to the window to get my food I sat there for another couple of minutes waiting on my food while I see 2 employees by the window just standing there doing nothing. After I got my food I then ended up realizing that I had gotten the completely wrong bag of food. Went back to get my food and noticed that there was a younger group of people just standing there talking to the employees by the front counter that then made a snide comment to me asking why I was bringing a bag of food back in. I get that everywhere is short staffed and I’m in no way shape or form saying that the food was bad because it wasn’t and it was hot but seeing people just standing there and talking to friends in the lobby while there is a line of cars that goes out to the end of the drive thru lane is not right. Customers should come first...

Talk about bad service. This young, rude, lady Drak! Wow!!! She called my name to getcthe tray, forgot the drinks, one of which was a freeze. She over filled it, cap wasn't even completely on, then said sorry I'm bad at this and walked away. I asked politely excuse me muss can I get nacho cheese for the nacho fries? I asked twice, she looked at me, didn't say anything and walked away. When she did that I raised my voice so she could hear me, she didn't acknowledge me at all. So, I whistled to get someone else' attention. A gentleman looked at me and said "what?" I asked if I could get nacho cheese, which Drak turned to her co worker and said she already has her cheese. I said yes but it wasn't even full. He said you ain't getting nothing if you whistle at me like that. We'll it was the only way to get anyone's attentions since I was ignored several times. I suggest if you want to come to taco bell with your family. DON'T!!!! Don't do it. Go across the street to rancho vejo. The service is way better and cheaper. A way better experience with a family. Now, before you say why didn't you go there. Our dogs were outside in the car and we didn't want them to be out there...