Chubby's Tacos — Restaurant in Durham

05AUG2025: In Sept 2024, Chubby's changed their salsas to some horrible, pre-made slop. In Jan 2025, they went back to the originals and PROMISED in a mass email to never change salsas again. Today, the salsas were AGAIN pre-made garbage and AWFUL. The arbol tasted like a bag of salt. New queso tastes like plastic. Extremely disappointing "cost saving" measures.

29JUL2025: Since Jamie left (read: was fired), this place continues to go downhill. This is NOT the staff's fault. The corporate/higher up management seems COMPLETELY out of touch. The place is understaffed and runs out of ingredients. Today, it took an HOUR to get four tacos. Chubby’s has gone so far downhill since the corporate buyout.

08JUL2025: Today, the store was slammed and there was a mixup with our tacos. Corinne, Wolf, Kimmi, and Carol (AKA the Beatles of tacos) went out of their way to address the issue and were very kind and patient throughout the process. These folks keep us coming back!

17APR2025: Chubby's went through a rough patch last year - lots of management and staff turnover. Things seem to be trending up now. The staff is still the beating heart of this restaurant and the reason we keep coming back. We love the entire team - Jenny, Jaime, Kim, Emily, Flo, Dom, Grady, Annie - everyone on the staff always makes us feel welcome and appreciated. Salsas are back to the original recipes. Heres's hoping things continue to improve and Chubby's is moving back to its roots. If it ain't broke, don't fix it! If it is broke, listen to your staff.

28JAN2025: SALSAS ARE BACK. Management has changed again, and things seem to be trending upward. Abi is our favorite bartender, aside from Ian, whom we haven’t seen in a while for some reason. If they were both working, this would be the best Chubby’s experience ever. #freeian #weloveAbi

14SEP2024: The quality of Chubby’s food continues to decline — particularly that of the free salsas, which is a main reason to visit the dive bar. This week, something terrible happened to the salsas. Every single salsa was awful. The árbol tasted like cardboard. The habanero was basically water. The poblano was bitter. It seems like Chubby’s changed their salsa distributor, probably to save money, and it completely ruined the salsa bar. We tried on Monday, September 9th, and Friday, September 13th, and there was no improvement in the salsa bar. I hope this new recipe isn’t here to stay.

Please, please stop trying to cut costs and return to the Chubby’s we all know and love.

ALSO — this is in no way a reflection of the employees at Chubby’s Durham. The employees are wonderful, and they deserve much higher pay for what they put up with, from both a managerial and a customer level.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: Chubby's has been a staple in my local restaurant list for the past few years. The staff (Ian, Dom, Carol, Kim, Kelly, Jason - everyone!) is incredible - very kind, helpful, and attentive. The people who work at Chubby's are a big part of why we keep coming back. The food is good and reasonably priced, as are the house margaritas (especially on special days). That said, in the wake of recent rebranding efforts, I've noticed some changes in the food that are concerning and kind of disappointing. Specifically, I've noticed the quality of the tacos on Tuesdays is very different to that on other days of the week. The portion of filling in tacos is less, and even the tortillas seem to be different. The tortillas used on Tuesdays seem cheaper and immediately fall apart, even if the tacos are brought out just-made. Additionally, the points system was changed, and now, it's more difficult to obtain reward points for free items. I'm aware that inflation is hurting everyone, especially restaurants, but it's concerning to see a locally-owned business potentially becoming more and more profit-focused. The quality of the service and food is the reason customers return, and we notice when these things change. I hope the new corporate management recognizes that and makes improvements, rather than contuining to...

I would like to set off to say that I haven’t been to chubby tacos in a while. I used to go there a lot when they were located across the street. Since they moved the food the service just been different. I ordered a torta last night to be picked up. When I went into the restaurant went straight for the Cashier she was cleaning trays looked up at me with the attitude as if I was bothering her to ask me yes what can I do for you with a sigh. I ignored her poor attempt of great customer service and tell her that was picking up an order. One glance at the salsa bar and I immediately turned straight to the door It was disgusting. I went to my car and checked the order when I open the box The touts was greasy At first I thought maybe they buttered the bread but as I touched it I just realize it was straight grease I flipped the torts over and grease was ruining out of the sandwich it was honestly Un-edible. I walk back into the establishment go back to the same cashier the girl doesn’t even look up at me and she says ” What’s the problem” I immediately asked manager She walked over to one of the booth by the door to get her manager who is sitting down. He comes over to me while he did have a little bit of a better attitude than the cashier as I was walking them through the torta. The cashier look like she Was more embarrassed than the manager of how the food was serve. The manager looks at it and says “I see. you couldn’t eat it?” Questioning me as if I was supposed to eat there’s a greasy ass sandwich. I immediately told him now and how I would rather refund goes to search up my order and then offers me a $15 certificate. I told him I would rather my refund Because the thought of me coming back is nonexistent. The only reason why I wanted to write a review is majority based off of the service Things happens in the kitchen but when your restaurant reeks of depression and non-Care in your teams attitude is very somber they can’t even smile with somebody while in the door or even pretend that they care even a little I would never put my...

I've been ordering from there for years. The food is great, but they get my to go order wrong every single time.

This is an update to the above post. It's been about year since I left that post. The owner contacted me to try to make things right. However I never heard from him again after the initial contact. But I kept going to Chubby's almost every Saturday. I'm afraid I won't be going back to order food to go. I suggest that anyone who goes to this restaurant should only go if you can eat in. Otherwise I guarantee your order will be wrong. I have NEVER gotten the correct order on a takeout or togo order. My orders are simple and I order the exact same thing everytime. I used to order grilled chicken tacos with only tomato cheese and cilantro. Very easy I would think. They could never get it right. If I forgot to check the order b4 leaving the restaurant I was disappointed every single time. If I did check it I had to send it back every single time. So I decided to stop ordering tacos because it seemed too difficult. So I changed my order just in hopes of being able to order food and go home. So I decided to start ordering grilled chicken nachos. Cheese beans and tomato. This also seems very simple. But just like the tacos it was never right and I either had to send them bk everytime or be disappointed when I got home like I am today.

To be clear. The food is very good. The staff is very nice and if I check the bag before I leave they always take it back and fix it with no problems. But the low star rating is because for some reason they just can't make simple orders. They make it the way they want. Not they way you want. And I guess I'm the only person having this problem because the owner never responded to me after the initial contact. So maybe I'm...