Illegal Pete's Northside — Restaurant in Denver

I used to love this place, but frankly since reopening after COVID it has never been the same. I have given them multiple chances, but have been disappointed more often than not the past year. I never thought I would get Chipotle again, but now I find myself going there more often than Illegal Pete's even though it is further out of the way.

The biggest complaint is cleanliness and freshness. I have found hair or flies in/around my food at least 2-3 times now. There always seems to be an excuse in the summertime that flies are "unavoidable," but I've worked at bars by the water in Florida without ever having issues with flies. The reason why they keep having them is because of how close the main (outside) garbage is to the front door.

And with freshness, food is sometimes left out for hours inbetween the lunch/dinner rush. I've seen the line preps knowingly scoop around hair that's in sour cream/salsa instead of discarding it. I would imagine that issue is more with management/ownership, but either way there is no excuse to serve people below-par food just to save money.

I get that things were rough during/post-covid for this business, but honestly just improving the cleanliness and freshness back to how it used to be would get you a lot more repeat customers than trying to save money on...

I want to preface this by saying that the staff is incredibly hard working and the food is good and this email is geared towards management.

If you go during lunch, be prepared to wait at least 30 minutes if you are ordering in person. This has happened several times at this location now, but the staff will prioritize online orders over in person orders. There were about 6 or 7 people ahead of me in line, however, staff would make 2-3 online orders for every one in store order. I showed up just after noon and left around 12:40 without a burrito, as it was dropped and I didn't have time to wait for another (as there about four online orders in line for the add-ons). When I first got there, there was only three people actually putting food together. This changed once it they were fully overwhelmed, but only after waiting for 15 minutes for the line not to move. Around 5 or 6 people waiting just left (which I should have done earlier on).

Maybe I'm frustrated and grumpy in writing this review because this took up my entire lunch break and I don't get to eat today, but just beware about going in-person for lunch unless you have plenty of...

Rolled tacos were good. The XXX-Hot Salsa & Guac was very good - but the size of this burrito was just plain INSULTING to the customer. It was 80% rice and beans with just a few strips of steak. maybe 4 or 5 tiny pieces of meat.

Prices were insane for the portion of food that was delivered. I used a food delivery service as well, and after paying for that + tip it was incredibly irritating as a consumer. I was expecting a Qdoba or Chipotle sized burrito.

*If I come back I’ll just stick to chips & Guac with some rolled tacos.

First time experience is being generous at 3 stars.

Edit: Changed to 2 stars because the $30+ I spent for lunch was a joke and I’ll never be back to try anything else. I tried it and was massively disappointed and I’m still hungry.

If I had been in the store I just would have walked off or refused to pay as soon as I saw these portions.

Update: 1 star because Food poisoning on 2/26 - afternoon shift. I want my money back.. I don’t believe that’s an...