Taco Bell — Restaurant in Elburn

Unfortunately for the owner of this Taco Bell I am going to have to concur in agreement with all of the bad reviews on this location. The kids working were fine politeness wise, not a mean bone in their bodies. However, tonight was officially THE LONGEST I have waited at a Taco Bell and NOT received my food in my entire life, and I have been to a lot of Taco Bells.

We showed up after the Elburn fireworks with only one car in front of us in the drive thru. We were told that we should order inside and to come in. However there was a car parked waiting for food at the pickup window and we had no way around with a car also behind us. We were also informed that they had to cook more beef and it would be 10 minutes. That should have been a warning flag to leave at that point but I am a patient guy and the family wanted some Tacos so told him we would order there and then go inside to wait, which seems ridiculous but I went with it. For the first time ever in my life I went to wait for my food inside after ordering in a drive thru, and wait we did….and wait and wait.

I got into the drive thru at 10:04 pm, ordered at 10:10 pm and then went inside and waited until about 10:32 pm when I finally gave up on my food and asked for a full refund. There were three kids probably all under 20 years of age working inside. Multiple orders seemed to be coming out wrong. One lady came back in from outside as she was missing over half of her order. The employees had no idea which way was up.

I would call this a very average to slow night for most Taco Bells. But apparently anything over maybe 2 customers is too many at this location. There were maybe 8 teenagers and me waiting inside but most had started outside at the drive thru. My order also only consisted of 2 double cheesy beef burritos, a cheesy rollup, a nacho fry and a cantina chicken quesadilla. Not a huge order by Taco Bell standards. Yet 22 minutes after ordering still no food.

When I did request a refund it happened quickly with no fight. The employee asked if I would just take cash even though I paid with a card and I said sure. The total was 20.54 or something like that but he didn’t even want to count change and just gave me $21 back. His hands also appeared to be shaking. I just said thanks and took off. We were at the Village Tavern and a full course meal was served in the time it took me to never receive my food at this, the worst Taco Bell in the world.

I would highly recommend that the owner of this location maybe exit the fast food world as his location does not know how to properly serve its customers. The whole point of Taco Bell is to get tasty filling food while waiting for a very limited time. Most locations like the one in Rosemont will have you moving out the exit after only 2 to 3 minutes. My breakfast at a sit down restaurant this morning comparatively took maybe 10 minutes after ordering.

I will absolutely never return to this location and I would recommend everyone else to...

This Taco Bell needs a serious overhaul!! I don't think I have ever made it out of the drive thru in less than 15-20 mins. It's NOT that busy. If you are the franchise owner you must have money to burn. The Mgr on duty was useless. The poor kid who obviously has not been trained bc he was just standing there. All orders were going out wrong and people were pussed at him. Mgr was rude tontge people complaining. The drive thru is a joke. It took them 10 mins to get 3 reg hard shell tacos, 2 of the new street tacos and quesadillia to us. We were told we had tonuse kiosk bc register doesn't work. Never got the receipt texted to us. The mobile pu window is ridiculous. They aren't putting receipts on there and no one knows if it their food. Watched a guy sit there for 30 mins for his mobile pu and then they tried to give him the order that had been sitting in the mobile pu window for over 30 mins. He refused it which I would have too.Truly a disappointment. This is a management/ownership problem!! Get it together!! 4 people working,not super busy TRAIN YOUR STAFF!! There is absolutely no excuse why the drive thru has people waiting for 15-20 per order and your dine in is NEVER FULL!! I felt bad for the kid who must have just started bc I would walk out. I in food service and this is just painful to sit back and watch. It really makes no sense and is unacceptable. For the love of Christ train your people and get it together!! As an owner or franchisee you really should take an interest in your business and...

I take no pleasure in writing this review, because the staff I have interacted with have been unfailingly pleasant, and this is clearly a management/ownership deficiency, not an employee problem.

So, staff members, please do not take umbrage. Management: you need to get it together.

Even at dinnertime, a fast food restaurant should not take over twenty-five (25) minutes to prepare and deliver a simple mobile order.

Still, were my experiences limited to a just one 25-minute odyssey, that would be annoying enough, but I'd chalk it up to bad luck. Not so, however. This is a common occurrence (yet I keep returning, so maybe I'm the fool). Management clearly keeps the staff lean to save costs, but this comes at the expense of customer experience.

Prospective taco buyers, be warned. This is not "fast" food.

EDIT: Having now arrive home, my order is wrong. After twenty-five minutes, they couldn't even muster the correct ingredients (and there aren't that many to choose from!). One star only because zero...