Torchy's Tacos — Restaurant in Austin

Where to even begin? Shall I outline it for you?

I. While it is understandable that one cannot order online and expect to pay cash, one does expect to be able to call a restaurant to place an order to be paid in cash upon collection. Imagine my surprise when not only did an AI bot tried to take my order (by the way, nobody is buying the fake keyboard sound in that joke of a system) but when I ordered a quesadilla, it told me a taco. So I asked for a human. The human was polite enough, but did tell me that I would need to pay over the phone via card. I do greatly appreciate her prefacing the order with that information, so neither of us wasted our time.

II. Queue my arrival at the Torchy’s Taco location at Mueller in Austin. Firstly, there are screens for independent ordering, but there are no signs indicating where one might go were they wanting to pay cash. There is not adequate signage or information for customers who would like to pay cash. Torchy‘s clearly is not into efficiency or providing an environment where their guests feel comfortable and informed instead of feeling like the dork no one told the party about. Is that the vibe you’re going for, because that’s how I felt when I was sat in your restaurant.

III. The one positive part of this experience was a delightful young lady who did assist me. She had gorgeous pink hair and pigtail braids and I just thought she was fantastic. She gave me the table pager and I went outside to enjoy the unbelievably temperate summer evening on the patio. I watched about 10 minutes of YouTube and realized that the table pager had very intermittent lights going off on it, making it unclear whether my food was ready or not. I had only ordered a kids fajita beef quesadilla so I knew it really wouldn’t be very long.

This is when I had the distinct “pleasure” of interacting with your bartender. This young lady provided the exact opposite service that the girl with pink hair. I inquired about the nature of the table pager, and what it would look like when my food was ready and where I should go to collect it. She informed me that I leave the table pager on my table and an employee or server would bring it to me. I would like to note that there were plenty of to go orders ready and waiting yet she did not even bother to check to see if mine was one of them. I did confirm with her that this was indeed a takeout order and not a dine in and she confirmed that my meal would be brought to me and then I could be on my way. 20 minutes go by and nothing. Finally I catch the girl with the pink hair and I asked her for help and she found my meal. It had actually been sat there the entire time.

I vented to this kind employee and I made it clear how I was very upset with that bartender. By the time I got home, it was cold.

Next time I will go to a mom and pop place where they only speak Spanish even though I only speak English, Czech, and French. I cannot imagine feeling any more out of place than I did at Torchy’s.

Altogether, a failure of an experience.

I’d like to note that posting this review in Google reviews was actually not my intention. I spent a good 30 minutes on The Torchy‘s website where one can contact management more directly. I would much rather keep their dirty laundry quiet and just keep it between myself and the manager, however, this is the fourth thing that Torchy’s has proven to be completely inept at. I attempted to submit my review/comment no fewer than five times, yet it would not submit! So here it is....

I have never been to a place that has a following like this palace does that has zero regard for the service it provides. They should of simply stuck to being a counter service only place but decided to add a “bar” to this location. As they did with others. It is very obvious that they do not have the understanding on how to manage or run a bar.

One bartender on during the dinner rush servicing the inside & outside both while trying to make drinks for the service well isn’t going to cut it . It was obvious she was overwhelmed to no fault of her own. There was a Second person behind the bar that was entering tips the entire time I was there. Which was about 20 minutes while waiting for my to go order. Not once did that person look up from entering tips. Not once did the manager who appeared to be overwhelmed as well get the other person to stop and service the many guests waiting to be served. I also saw a couple different manager looking folks walk out from the back went behind the bar and grabbed cups to get themselves drinks. NOT ONE PERSON noticed the dire looks of guests trying to get their attention. How can you be in the service industry and have so little awareness??!!

Remember we as guests chose to visit and support your establishment. There are plenty of places to eat in this town and with service like this you will continue to lose your...

I love this place; been coming here since college. (A long time ago now) I love the people that work here. Mauro and Jen are great! The Bartenders are great. I hate the new kiosk system. It's wildly impersonal in an age when everything seems to be marching towards this kind of AI slop, assembly line, no character. Dear Torchy's. Pay a cashier. Tip out the wait staff. Food service isn't an assembly line. Torchy's Corporate always seems move the needle towards this kind of experience. A business that doesn't seem to care about its workers (or the fact that they're missing out on tip out (nevermind low wages altogether) this move became abundantly clear when they embraced services like favor that skim tips off already low wage workers. I fell in love with Torchy's ages ago, but the corporate push seems to ever move the needle towards wishing for just passive income generators making their people it's lower common denominator. There will always be some ignorant kid to fill the ranks instead of looking for a better job than this. Do better. Y'all where great. Authentic. Had character. Not trying to please everyone originally. Not it's ever moving towards the sanitized soulless experience that in the long game, might make you money, but wtf is the point? A restaurant is an experience and people make that up. Genuinely pulling...