Taco Bell — Restaurant in Birmingham

Absolutely terrible. NEVER go to this location. I normally really like Taco Bell, but this place specifically was HORRIBLE. Normally, I don’t leave reviews, even if my food isn’t great or something, I always feel like it’s not a big enough deal to write about. But this situation was very scary and completely unnecessary. For context, me, my boyfriend, and my boyfriend’s brother went together to this location before attending an event. We were already running late and thought this would be a fast, easy option. First off, the workers were incredibly rude the whole time, and we had to wait 25-30 minutes just to get one beefy five layer burrito, one Doritos locos taco supreme, and two cups. We ordered on the kiosks in hopes of this being faster which obviously was not. The food came out cold, and we didn’t even get napkins or our cups that we paid for. We waited at the counter for five minutes for them to give us cups, and when my boyfriend made eye contact with one of the workers in the back, he asked politely, “Can we please get two cups?” The worker proceeded to look blankly at us, and then turned away, COMPLETELY ignoring us. We were in a huge rush to make it to an important event, and at that point, my boyfriend’s brother walked to where the cups were two feet behind the counter to grab us the cups we had been waiting forever on. A female worker (I assume the manager) noticed this, and screamed at him to “Get out from behind her counter.” Before my boyfriend’s brother could react, another male worker got IN HIS FACE AND GRABBED THE CUP OUT OF HIS HANDS WITH EXTREME FORCE. This male worker squared up to my boyfriend’s brother in an attempt to threaten him. The same female worker then told my boyfriend’s brother again to “get out from behind her counter and leave her premises.” Word for word, I cannot make this up. Of course, my boyfriend’s brother began to walk out of the Taco Bell, but then stated, “Wait please I need to grab my wallet and keys.” We all came to this location in his car, so if he could not get these items, we would not be able to leave. The same female worker looked at him and basically said that she didn’t care and that he needs to get someone else to deal with that. We reassured him that we would grab his stuff and that he should go wait outside, so he did just that. The lady then glared at me and my boyfriend and asked us very rudely what we wanted. We again stated we needed one small cup and one medium cup. To add insult to injury, she proceeded to hand us ONLY ONE SMALL CUP. I don’t know if this was intentional, but it felt like it was considering we had asked multiple time for a small cup and a medium cup. She walked away, and at that point, me and my boyfriend were just scared and felt threatened in this situation. We were not going to try to get her or any of the other staff to hand us our other cup for fear of what might happen. So we used the small cup to quickly get a Baja blast and get out. We quickly tried to get the Baja blast, but it was pretty much just sparkling water. There was no syrup in the machine for this beverage that we had paid for. My boyfriend grabbed his brother’s keys and wallet, and luckily we all made it out fine. I’ve never had this kind of experience anywhere else. I don’t know if this is how these workers are for the day shift too, but y’all need to do better. We tried to get the staff’s attention, and simply tried to get our two cups as a last resort. Threatening your paying customers after they simply attempt to receive what they paid for is INSANE. I cannot express how terrifying this was, and if you really want Taco Bell, then please just don’t go to this...

Absolutely horrific experience. AVOID AT ALL COSTS. Went here with my girlfriend and brother and waited 25-30 minutes on a couple of tacos and burritos ordered from the kiosk inside. After such a long wait for a TACO BELL, we still didn't get the two cups for drinks included with our order. We stood at the counter for multiple minutes to wait on the cups and absolutely no one noticed our existence, despite a multitude of employees being nearby. I was questioning how we would get the cups, and the multiple employees noticed but didn't care. Eventually, I made eye contact with an employee and loudly asked "Hey can we get the two cups from our order??" He stared at me a bit longer and then looked away. After this, my brother decided to step a foot behind the counter to get the two cups that we had paid for. Then, SUDDENLY EVERY BODY NOTICED OUR EXISTENCE. The lady who seemed to be the manager screamed at my brother to get away from behind the counter, before he had gotten the cups and then another employee grabbed the cups, put them back, and began to square up as if he was GOING TO FIGHT. My brother tried to de-escalate the apparent situation by clarifying that we just need to get the cups from our order and we're running late for a concert we needed to get to. The manager screamed at him to leave the premises and to not come back in, so he started to walk out. He was missing his wallet and keys, so he asked about them and the manager continued to yell at him to get out. I grabbed those things for him, and then the manager finally tried to understand what was going on. The manager tried to understand what was going on after escalating a situation, allowing for the instigation of a fight, and then kicking someone out. I said "we just need the small and medium cup from our order" after my brother had walked out, because she wouldn't let anything happen until this apparent dangerous situation was off the premises. She then proceeded to hand me a single small cup aggressively. We settled and got a Baja blast with no syrup in it. Also, the drive thru line was packed and not moving and the food was cold. I hope this place is ashamed for how horrible it is and the horrible people it's facilitating, this place needs remanagement from the top down.

Also, this seems to be a consistent night shift issue based on other reviews. This occurred around 7:30 p.m. at...

⭐ 1-Star Review for Taco Bell – 5 Points South, Birmingham, AL: Disrespectful, unprofessional, and clearly overwhelmed. Me and my boo were doing a DoorDash pickup something we’ve done plenty of times. But apparently at this location, you're expected to somehow stop and speak at the drive-thru speaker for a pickup order... even though the lobby’s locked, the line's backed up, and there’s zero signs explaining the process. Instead of a greeting or clarity, the employee hit us with attitude before we could even speak. Talking about “I’ll make you go back around” like she had something to prove. Sis… you’re short-staffed, not running a boot camp. This ain’t the army sis . DoorDash drivers are not the enemy and honestly? Trying to manipulate drive-thru times by forcing Dashers through the line slows everybody down, customers included. Fix your system or at least treat people with respect. 💀 Because what we’re not gonna do… is act like you’re doing us a favor when you’re two seconds from a health inspection shutdown. Let’s be real. Slow is in...