Tacos 4 Life — Restaurant in Columbia Township

I’ve been to at least ten different Tacos 4 Life locations across the country and have always had great experiences. I love the food, the mission, and the brand—until today. Unfortunately, the Columbia, MO location was by far the worst I’ve encountered.

From the moment we walked in, the service was chaotic and unprofessional. The person taking our order answered a phone call mid-order, then simply pointed to the menu instead of walking us through our options. As we tried to place our order, items began appearing incorrectly on the screen, and when we tried to fix them, the cashier told us to “hang on,” then walked outside to talk to someone, leaving us hanging mid-transaction.

When he finally returned, we had to repeat our request for cilantro rice three separate times. Even after getting the order placed, it came out wrong. To be fair, the staff member who brought the food out was kind and courteous—but the person working the register clearly lacked training, attention, and professionalism.

To top it off, we tried to order a separate side of chips and queso, only to be told that we could only get it as part of a combo. That’s simply not true and felt more like someone who didn’t know (or didn’t care about) the actual menu.

This location is in desperate need of staff training and better leadership. Tacos 4 Life is an incredible concept with a purpose I fully support—but today, this store completely missed the mark.

Also worth mentioning they were out of steak and the dining room drink machines are...

I ordered through Uber Eats and tried Tacos 4 Life for the first time. My experience was horrendous. I am a service industry worker and I am educated on food preparation and food safety. My order was not up to standard. I did not receive my bottle beverage (it was not in the knotted plastic bag my styrofoam boxed food was carried in). I understand that delivery drivers can forget to pick these up (I have worked for delivery services as well) so I took care of getting a refund for that through UberEats. However, when I started unpacking my food i noticed that my sapodillas were literally thrown into the styrofoam box so that several were hanging out. The salsa I ordered had also started leaking because it was packaged on its side in the plastic bag. I tried to make the the best of it and opened up my Chicken tacos (2) and started eating. This has never happened to me before...but I ended up eating a few long hairs a couple bites in. I investigated the other taco and it was like someone just stacked three long hairs on top of the taco. I really dont understand how this could happen if your following basic food safety protocols. I didn't reach out to the restaurant because I want nothing to do with them, but I am leaving a review for future patrons so that they can check their food before consuming. I hope this doesn't happen to anyone else! I am still shocked. For the packaging, quality of food and price I leave one star. Photo is of the...

I'm torn about this place. I love their tacos, queso, heck...everything has been good. My issues are everytime we call to reserve the private room for our book club, nobody can figure out how to do it. Secondly, last night, our friend fell on a very slick floor (apparently, they had just mopped, but there were ZERO 'wet floor' signs. The mgr on duty looked over and saw us gathered around our friend on the floor and flew to the back. It was an African American guy with longer braids/dreads. I thought he would come over to check on her. Nope, he went back to doing something on the register. To me, it was the most cowardice/responsibility-shirking action I've seen. Super disappointing...so all that to say, the food is great, the gals who've taken my order in the front register, great, but the mgr who was on duty the night of 7/18, has put a bad taste in my mouth for this...