Taco Cabana — Restaurant in Austin

Newest update: I wanted to give the gentleman from the update below, which happened a few nights ago, a chance to redeem himself. Somebody else took my order who was absolutely Pleasant and polite, but this gentleman was the one who handed me my food. He opened the window and dangled the bag out and gave me the biggest go to hell stare down I have ever received in my life. Despite this, I still thanked him and he slammed the window in my face without saying a word, at least not audible. I have the distinct feeling that he probably mumbled something pretty bad under his breath with the way he once again slammed the window in my face while I was speaking to him. This dude needs another job, one where he does not have to deal with customers because he is by far the least capable person of doing so I have ever met. The woman that helped me by taking my order was absolutely pleasant. All of the other employees have thus far been absolutely pleasant, but this one guy has made this location absolutely unbearable and if I see he is working, I will take my business literally anywhere else thanks to him.

Update: 2 years ago this location was great. Today, worthless. I ordered my food and got all the way up to the window and paid only to find out then that they didn't even have what I ordered anymore. What I replaced it with cost less but I could not get a refund. So I had to take the hit. Then once I got handed my food, I realized I only had two small sides of the dulce de leche with my two large orders of sopapillas. And all the years I have been coming to Taco cabana, I have always gotten two sides of the Dulce with each large order. I was explaining to this to the gentleman that was working to drive through when he shut the door in the middle of my sentence and just stood there and stared at me for 10 seconds before walking away. I lightly tapped on the window to try and get one of the other employees attention, and erased back and screamed at me to not bang on the window anymore. Didn't realize I was banging, it was a light wrap and only because you cut me off in mid sentence and completely ignored me so very rudely and I was trying to get a different person's attention that might actually be less rude. It was then explained to me that two large orders only come with two small sides, something that has never happened in the 10 years I have been coming to Taco Cabana and I was told that I was straight up wrong even though I know for a fact that I'm not. I then offered to pay for the two additional small sides and the guy rolled his eyes, handed the two extra sides that were sitting there the entire time, yelled thank you and slammed the window in my face again before I could ever get a word out. Completely rude. That guy does not enjoy his job and therefore really should not be working in customer service at all. Worst drive-thru experience at this location ever. Time to find a new employee taco cabana!

2 years ago: The employees here at this location are pretty courteous, speed through the drive-thru is so-so łsee below), and my order accuracy has been pretty decent. The parking lot is a bit squirly and if you end up getting stuck behind someone with a large order, the line gets backed up pretty easily and nobody can pass through either coming or going. As such, if you have a large order (i.e., a bunch of breakfast tacos), PLEASE think of others and call in your order ahead - don't make everyone wait behind you while they have to make 4 dozen tacos. Remember, there are other people in the world besides you! Due to Covid, the dining room is (at the time of writing this) still currently closed so everybody has to go through the drive thru. Be courteous to others and call ahead - this, of course, goes for ALL restaurants, but because of the parking lot layout, the drive-thru line getting backed up will screw everyone else over. Don't be...

7/29/19 1:30pm drive-thru order. A "must update" since TC corporate responded after negative review: 3 items ordered: 1. Cheese quesadilla (small), no Pico, but asked for the other sides (per menu: sour cream & guac comes with, on the side). 2. Chicken flauta plate (3 flautas, cheese sauce, rice, beans, tortillas). 3. My "usual" - in part for comparison reasons: Steak Fajita Cabana Bowl, no Pico, sub black beans for refried. Observations: 1 car in front of me. Fairly long wait, but can't fault anyone bc I don't know the circumstances; their pymt/pick-up was swift. At the window: 1 guy (gloves on) prepping food, and 1 girl at the window (no gloves, but she was the $ taker, order deliverer). During my wait, saw another female come back, glove up, and prep food; then the apparent manager completed/delivered my order. No complaints or concerns. Pics ASAP, then food tasting: Chicken flautas were 1/3 to 1/2 the size of the TC at 4400 E Palm Valley Blvd, Round Rock, TX 78665. However, 1 difference: the order there was ONLY for flautas & not the plate (Are there 2 different sizes based on how you order?). My flauta-lover gave these 3 *'s - mostly disappointed that they were so small (wished he ordered flautas only if they'd be larger/more similar to the Round Rock location). Quesadillas - made well, but didn't get the sour cream & guac sides. Quesadilla orderer gave them 5 *'s. (Since I snag the sour cream & guac from his order for myself, the lack of inclusion = minor deduction). Cabana Bowl - generous serving of steak; made to order well. Need to begin comparing other TC's: though more tender this time, steak continues to be SUPER-salty. Big "minus" for that, but everything else was spot-on. 3.5 *'s. Hoping to elevate this TC at Mopac & Wm Cannon: 3.5(+) rounds up to 4 *'s. To me, consistency is a factor: eager to get a box of breakfast tacos soon, lol! Big acknowledgement to corporate for their response: thank you for demonstrating dedication to improvements/quality! series of visits, overall rating 2-3 stars. I'm a TC fan; this location is very hit or miss. Past: 1/26/19 visit: 2 star drive-thru experience. See pic of the box of breakfast tacos: small and unlabeled (sorry, I don't want my kids opening every taco in order to find theirs - let's out the heat and they don't rewrap them well). Check out the stock photo on the Google site of the large, uniform, well-labeled tacos that fill the box! Reality? Hahahaha, NOT! 4/12/19 (PM visit, Cabana bowl and I don't recall what else, if anything): 5 star drive-thru visit. From ordering to receipt; from observed clean assembly procedures to the awesomeness of the order: That experience demonstrated that either there's a new manager or improved employees/training or both, and hopefully it will be continued! 5/25/19 visit: 3 star drive-thru visit for a box of breakfast tacos. Again unlabeled. The excuse I was given: "the car after you ordered a box too." Um. Besides the lame excuse, the window person was nice. Overall, giving 2 stars vs 3: We used to frequent this TC more, but have gotten tired of the poor & inconsistent quality. There are...

I swore off taco cabana 2 years ago when I had bad experience after bad experience, but I thought I'd give them another chance since it had been so long, and I was craving some tacos, and saw them. The food was a little pricy for what you got, which I'm fine with mostly. I got it takeout.

First thing I noticed was my 'loaded fries' were missing half the ingredients. It just had cheese sauce and beef. It was supposed to have sour cream, guacamole, and pico. Oh, but there was a single piece of tomato on it, so I guess that was the pico!

The nachos were stale, and soggy when I opened them up. I did drive them home so I am fine with soggy, but stale? These had to be old chips. But ONCE AGAIN. This $14 box of nachos was missing half the ingredients. It's supposed to have fresh jalapeno, pico, and guacamole. It had none of that. And somehow.. the beans were undercooked??? I shouldn't have to CHEW refried beans. Some parts were almost crunchy.

The churro.. was completely unseasoned. It was just chewy fried bread, that tasted like it was marinated in the deep fryer rather than fried. No sugar, no cinnamon.

Not pictured is the enchilada plate my partner had. The cheese enchiladas were flavorless, the sauce was bland and left a weird texture in their mouth, and the cheese was basically a brick. Not only that, the rice was dried up and crunchy, with zero flavor, and once again the beans were undercooked. They couldn't even finish it.

We also had some street tacos, but again, the tortillas were just.. undercooked. I've never seen such pale and rubbery corn tortillas before. It looked like they bought par-made tortillas (the kind you are supposed to cook in a pan for a minute before eating) and just slapped filling on it and called it a day.

What did I get when I filed these complaints? A $4 partial refund. Yay. Not even worth the time and gas.

I don't think a single item I had here was satisfying. Even the pepsi tasted watered down. I've worked in the food service industry for over 13 years and I've never seen a place that is consistently this bad. The only thing that I actually liked the taste of was the fuego salsa. Good heat, good flavor. Unfortunately I only got 1 ounce of it, and it didn't make up for all the missing sour cream, pico, and guac.

Don't order from here. Not only will you not get what you paid for, you'll also be upset that you paid for it in the first place. I'd rather heat a can of...