El Jefe’s Taqueria - Bethlehem — Restaurant in Bethlehem

Ordered for mobile pick up through the website and arrived at the restaurant to be told that my order was already picked up. I was then told by the man up front to contact DoorDash for a confirmation for them to remake my food or else i would be charged twice. I explained to him twice that this was a mobile pick up order from the website and that i wasn’t a dasher he then told me that it doesn’t matter because the orders are still through DoorDash as third party so I went to my car and told my boyfriend the situation he decided to go inside to speak to him and explain that there was a mistake on their end by giving the order to the wrong person and have now inconvenienced us by having us go back and forth and telling us to call DoorDash when it was THEIR FAULT!! He then quickly prepared the food once told this and after I left I called DoorDash to explain the situation where they told me I would never be charged twice and that wasn’t true. I then called the store to speak to the supervisor where all she had to say was excuses for the situation and try to justify his actions and lies because they remade the food. Regardless of the situation I was lied to about having to call DoorDash because even then she said he was confused and new and thought it was a delivery order. I genuinely feel like she was lying for him and not once did she mention discussing these issues with him so that it doesn’t happen again. I HAD TO ASK IF SHE WOULD SPEAK WITH HIM which she then said yes she would handle it. Apparently he also wasn’t the one who gave the order to someone else so he was “following protocol” which is a bunch of bs because instead of telling me lies he should’ve called the supervisor over to begin with since he was so confused. She also mentioned that their system was messed up and kept printing DoorDash instead of Mobile Order so I then told her all employees should be made aware of this so that this confusion doesn’t keep happening because her responses on the phone told me she has zero customer service experience and with that this would definitely happen again! The manager also expressed zero concern for whoever the employee that did give the bag to the wrong person was and once again I had to ASK HER IF THEY WOULD BE TALKED TO ABOUT IT! The employees have zero respect for their customers and have zero empathy for their own mistakes. And nor did the employee that I did speak to say sorry for misunderstanding to me he made the other employee give me the bag instead of looking me in my face and giving it to me while he continued to staple the receipts to the bags for takeout or delivery orders HAHAHAHA next time if you lost and don’t know what you talking about instead of making up a lie and brushing me to the side call your supervisor to the front and let her handle it that’s what she there for!! Enjoy your 3rd bad review for today i don’t know what yall got going on but yall need to get it...

I love fish tacos so I came here - it was first I heard of a taqueria in Lehigh Valley, at least in Bethlehem. I am a fan of Baja style fish tacos.

I was let down for a few reasons. (Cons)

It’s basically a chipotle Knock off which isn’t the worst thing by any means but tacos are “build your own,” so I had to take a shot at reconstructing my own “Baja style.”

The fish, which they told me was freshly cooked, tasted pretty, well... fishy, in a bad way. It’s tilapia and cheaply priced so probably some of south east Asia’s “finest.”

The service was plagued by new-ness. One lady caught herself serving without gloves, adding “I just washed my hands” as she put them on. Hey- at least she cared.

We asked for club sodas, which they billed as fountain sodas. Fine. Except - there was no club soda option. When I went for a refund, she made me give back the cups (i had just filled with water)- and they were plastic. So I poured my water from plastic cups into the free water cups - also plastic. Made no sense.

For what it’s worth they were out of ice and napkins. Not a big deal. Grabbed some from other table and I saw her later refilling the ice machine.

The chips were salted to the extreme. If you like salt, you’ll love them. I don’t like it to this extreme. Hence listed as a “con.”

The Pros

One young lady working there was very nice.

Most of the ingredients looked fresh.

Summary

All in all, we had to try it out. My stomach still is upset from the fish. Hopefully they iron out their service kinks. And it is a standard Lehigh Valley attempt at a main city staple (quality tacos) that falls short of the mark but if you’re drunk, at the nearby college, or don’t care too much, will still probably hit up due to lack of options.

Fish tacos being my favorite Mexican dish, I won’t be coming here again since their fish made me sick. If I’m in the mood for a chipotle style “burrito bowl” I’ll probably stick to the...

I'm really surprised the ratings if this restaurant are so high. My wife and I ate here on 8/4/2019 (Sunday) @ about 3:30pm. I ordered 3 taco's, each a different meat i.e. chicken, beef & steak. The 1st thing I notice from behind the glass is the unkept work area of condiments spilled out, strewn and sauces everywhere on the condiments counter. I stopped and thought.....this looks dirty. The male employee had a pleasant smile and attitude in making our meals.

I would later learn there is no 'hard' shell taco's......only soft. Thanks for NOT telling me. All of the individual meats were without spices/bland. The Taco bowl my wife had apparently was tasty but I figured with all the condiments she got, gave her a taste that wasn't bland.

Maybe it's me, but I asked for only minimum condiminents i.e. meat, lettuce, cheese and medium sauce. Maybe I don't want all that extra stuff but the flavor of the meat should stand on its own.

We found the tables not cleaned even though there were plenty of employees and few customers in the restaurant during our visit.

Trying to throw away our garbage was no better as the trash can was stacked so full, I had to push the garbage back with my wife's paper type taco bowl and it still stuck out after I left.

Food alone was so bland I would never return nor recommend. Looking at the cleanliness behind where the employees work on customer preparation of meals, as well as dining area, I give the place a grade of "F".

Clearly management is non-existent to hold employees to a higher standard or management doesn't understand the needs of a customer.

We given no reason to return...