Taco Bell — Restaurant in Ansonia

Traumatizing. That’s the only word I can use to describe this experience.

It was earlier this evening, a Friday night. My 7-year-old had a really hard day, and I wanted to cheer him up. He asked for Taco Bell, and I said yes. I imagined we’d be home by 8:30—eating dinner, playing a video game together, just having a little time as a family before bed. Instead, we ended up having one of the worst nights I can remember.

We pulled into the Taco Bell drive-thru around 8:10 PM, expecting a quick stop—maybe 10 or 15 minutes. We were trapped in that line for an hour and 45 minutes, finally leaving at 9:56 PM.

When I say “trapped,” I mean literally stuck with no way to get out. The drive-thru has one narrow lane with no exit. On the right, there’s a full retaining wall. On the left, there’s the menu board and curbing that wraps around the building. In addition to the menu, there’s a patch of grass that might seem like an escape route at first glance. However, to use it, you’d have to drive over a large curb, across the grass, and then face a row of parked DoorDash and Uber Eats drivers on the other side. That area also has utility boxes that make maneuvering impossible. There was no path out—just a long wait with no option to leave.

While we were stuck in line, things just kept getting worse. The SUV in front of us had a broken tail light—the light still worked, but the red cover was missing, so a harsh, unfiltered white light was shining directly into our faces. From the driver’s seat, I held up a book for what felt like forever just to cast a shadow over my son’s face and block the glare. After being hungry and tired for over an hour and a half in the car, my 7-year-old got carsick and threw up in the back seat. I felt completely helpless.

I called my husband to vent about how awful the situation was, and he ended up calling the Taco Bell location three separate times trying to help. During the first two calls, they said they were short-staffed and overloaded with DoorDash orders. On the third call, he got a busy signal. He even thought about coming to help, but there was truly nothing he could do—we were physically stuck.

Eventually, we reached the pickup window. I thought about just driving away, but I was torn. We had already waited so long, and I didn’t want it all to be for nothing. I told the employee that my son had thrown up, and they kindly gave me an empty cup for him to use, which he did. They also gave me a cup of water for him too. I was grateful in that moment, thinking we were finally at the end of it.

We ended up sitting at the pickup window for more than 20 additional minutes. During that time, my son threw up again. He was completely miserable. My 3-year-old was miserable too and fell asleep right as we finally got to the window—without eating dinner. I began waving to try to get someone’s attention for more napkins, but no one noticed. I sat there crying, completely overwhelmed, while my son continued to be sick in the back seat. He never even ate the tacos he had been so excited for.

Throughout all of this, DoorDash and Uber Eats drivers continued flowing in and out of the restaurant, picking up massive orders. It was obvious those app-based orders were being prioritized over the real families physically stuck in the drive-thru. The restaurant should have paused online orders to deal with the in-person backup first. It was unacceptable to let families sit in cars for nearly two hours while people at home got their food faster.

This wasn’t just a messed-up dinner. It was supposed to be a small gesture to help my son recover from a bad day. Instead, it became a night of vomiting, crying, and zero quality time together.

I will never return to this Taco Bell. From now on, I’ll gladly drive further to the Taco Bell in New Haven. At least there, I don’t feel like I’m being held hostage in a curb-lined maze with no exit.

Taco Bell: your drive-thru is a trap, your priorities are out of order, and the way this was handled was not just inconvenient—it was traumatic. Families deserve...

I don’t even know how this location is open. Went last night w some friends around 11 and first we went inside and were told they weren’t accepting orders. How and why is that even possible. I work in fast food and clearly they just didn’t want to work because there is no excuse for just “not taking orders” when you’re open. when my friend tried to go to the drive thru we were very rudely told they weren’t accepting orders, however we had placed a mobile order but we just wanted to add a small lemonade on and pay at the window. She says “then come inside.” After you just told us we can’t come inside because yall aren’t taking orders??? We pulled up to the window to grab our mobile order at least and she has the audacity to say “I told you to come inside” and shut the window. What?? And it gets WORSE. We go inside and are immediately met with a AWFUL smell and we see a bunch of toilet paper stuffed under the bathroom door where the smell is coming from. It was awful and filled the whole store and mind you that’s a health code violation. They should have closed. Regardless we just go to grab the food and right before handing it to us, the guy handling and or making the food shows it to another girl while it’s in the wrapper and they both laugh and she gives me a dirty look and throws it in the bag and hands it to me. I don’t know what they did to that food, but needless to say I didn’t eat anything In that bag. This place seriously needs to be shut down. Disgusting rude staff and disgusting dirty restaurant. What the point of owning a restaurant if this is the way you allow it to be managed. Just shut down...

Jan 11, 2024. At around 10:15pm. My brother and I stopped at this ansonia location. We stood for a good 15 min before the lady at the drive through said to us we have to use the kiosk machine. I explained to her that the orders we're a little tricky and if you wouldn't mind taking the orders for us. Mind you at the time we were the only two people in there. Some staff was just standing around. She said she couldn't take our orders, and for us to use the kiosk then walked away. I think she was also the manager. We tried with the kiosk for a while until a worker saw what was happening and came over to assist us. Everyone else was just standing around. We were told they will only take our orders from the kiosk but, No one cared to assist until the only Caucasian man came over to assist us. After ordering we checked the bag and items were missing. I said to the guy that bought the bag that stuff was missing. The mistake I made was not printing the receipt. Anyway, he checked the monitor, and then went to another monitor then told me it was correct. I ordered the deluxe box, adding extra nachos, and grilled cheese burrito. My brother ordered a few selections as well. The only thing in my deluxe box was one taco, nacho, and outside of that the grilled cheese I ordered differently. My brother was also missing a taco. He insisted that's what was ordered, but the bill came to almost $32. I wasn't going to argue as they didn't seem to care, so we left. I was so disappointed with the level of service we received. I don't think I will ever go to that taco...