Taco Bell — Restaurant in California

The food was good and exactly as expected. They're usually really good with that. The negatives about this location are attention to detail, speed, and repair. Attention to Detail: It's not uncommon for an item to be missing from a large order if they are busy, or sometimes I've found a taco spilling everywhere in the bag because it was not wrapped properly. Last time I was there, I went inside to place my order and actually pulled a mis-wrapped double-decker taco out of the bag... with cheese and other items spilling out of it on the counter. The guy behind the counter saw it and said, "Oh wow... they didn't even wrap that correctly," but that's it -- he didn't offer to replace it, or make it right... he just commented on how it wasn't wrapped correctly. It wasn't enough of a loss of cheese that I was willing to wait for a replacement anyway... which brings us to negative number two: Speed. If you arrive at an odd hour, you'll likely be pretty happy in the drive-thru or walking inside. They have a small staff, but they do a good job most of the time. The problem is that they get into trouble any time it gets close to a "busy period" -- which would be a 2-3 hour block around lunch, and the same for dinner, plus early morning (all the drunks leaving bars trying to grab a bite to eat). If you go during regular "eating hours" you'll need to prepare for a wait. You could seriously go to one of the two Mexican restaurants down the street and be seated, get a drink with chips and salsa, and place your order before you'll get anything at Taco Bell during the busy times. This kind of defeats the purpose of "fast food." They are simply understaffed during the times when they need help the most. This clearly points to a management problem, not an employee problem. The employees there do a decent job. Management is just too cheap and is trying to cut corners to save money... which brings us to point number three: Repair. You can walk pretty much anywhere inside the restaurant and see obvious signs of a need for repairs. I'm not talking about the structural integrity of the building, but more like large chunks of countertop laminate missing from the order/pickup counter and/or tables in the seating area, or maybe items that need to be fixed or replace in the restaurant or bathrooms, etc. Having countertops where people place and pick up their orders looking like they came from a salvage yard doesn't set a good tone for customers, and clearly shows that management is more interested in saving money rather than giving a good impression or good customer experience. Sadly, this is your only "Taco Bell" option in McKinleyville. On the plus side the food is still good... it's just that everything else is lacking. The good news is that this is an easy fix if Management wakes up and takes note and actually cares one day. The negatives do NOT outweigh the positives, so I'll continue to visit this Taco Bell when I'm in the mood, but my preference will first be to visit one of the Mexican restaurants...

We ordered $30 worth of food for myself and my children. We ordered inside at the kiosk.

We waited for our food for over an hour before it was called out. I went through the bag when I was there and noticed we were missing items and drinks. I talked to one of the workers who stated that after a certain period of time drink orders get automatically canceled and they don’t call them out for the people waiting in the lobby. She recommended just asking for the cups. She asked if I was missing anything else and I told her what I could tell. I also told her that the way they stacked the order in the bag it was hard to tell if there was anything else missing. I asked her why the box meals were not in boxes and just thrown in the bag and she shrugged and walked away.

When we got home and could take the food out and open up the individual items, we discovered that it wasn’t even our order. I gave up and decided to just eat what we could and order pizza to substitute the all the missing items versus going back and waiting another hour for the fix.

While we were waiting at the restaurant the door dash drivers were complaining about how this was happening all night. Every other person who was waiting in the lobby had issues… They either needed to ask for their order after similar wait times, request their money back, and there was even someone who paid for their order but the order never made it from the kiosk to the back. After they fixed his and he left, his order popped up on the kiosk and it was made. There was another gentleman there who waited over an hour for two crunchy tacos.

One of the workers commented about how any accidentally made, not claimed food, or any other refused food was put in a pile for the employees claim. Which honestly in my opinion is good so it doesn’t go waste, but there were several order this happened to while I was waiting for my food. Makes me wonder if this was affecting the wait time.

Also, while we were waiting, my children had to use the restroom. The restroom there has changed to a non gendered bathroom. It’s not marked well, but the big main bathroom door does not lock. I did not feel like my children or even myself was safe to use it when it would not lock. I did appreciate the Taco Bell employee who did not come in and waited for us to leave before...

We enjoy Taco Bell for an occasional junk food fix and have visited the McKinleyville store twice since their reopening.

The store is clean, but the ambiance is similar to that of a gas station rest room, with white floor to ceiling subway tile.

They do not have a menu displayed above the counter and only have two self-serve terminals to view their menu and order food. During our last visit, there were over thirty people in the lobby, of which many were trying to get to one of the two terminals to order food. Given their lack of menu and that there is no one is available to take orders, they apparently do not encourage counter orders.

As for the food, on our first visit they got our order wrong. In addition to some missing items, they added over $12.00 worth of food that we didn't order.

On the second visit, we waited almost an hour to get our food. How can this happen with such a limited number of ingredients that make up very, very, very similar menu items?

We're hoping that many of these problems are growing pains. As there were numerous people working in the back, it may be that there is inadequate training of new employees.

We'll wait a few months before going back, and hope they've managed to work the kinks out. If not, Luzmila's restaurant is right across the parking lot, has great Mexican food and is prepared in a fraction...