Taco Bell — Restaurant in Ellensburg

My girlfriend, who is lactose intolerant and allergic to animal products, ordered a couple of items from Taco Bell, which used to include vegan rice, and got the new rice with milk instead. After just a few bites, she started to get really sick, then noticed that the rice looked different. We called corporate and, sure enough, they changed the rice to a non-vegan variety.

The manager and workers were very accommodating, however, and replaced the items — this time sans rice. So because they were gracious enough to do this for us during a busy afternoon, and because the drive-through workers have been very genial in the past, I'm giving them four out of five stars. I don't think this locale is to blame, per se, although the manager should be aware of the ingredients for customers with food allergies.

This is ultimately more the fault of corporate for suddenly changing the rice formula mere weeks after releasing vegan ordering guides telling vegans and the lactose intolerant that the rice is kosher. Yes, those items were vegan at the time, but changing the rice so quickly afterwards is a bit of a bait and switch.

Taco Bell was my girlfriend's favorite go-to fast-food restaurant because it had a variety of affordable vegan options, but now ordering has become a pain. Given how Mexican cuisine lends itself better to being meat-free than burgers, Taco Bell had this special position in the marketplace. Now they've hurt their PR with both the vegan community and those who're just lactose intolerant.

Taco Bell is working on a vegan variety of this new rice, but I'm not sure if that means you can make a special request for the vegan kind or if it's replacing what we have now. But it definitely seems like it would be better all around to keep the rice strictly vegan; the non-vegans likely wouldn't enjoy the rice any less, and it would make life easier for...

the three things I got here were the Black Bean Chalupa, Secret Aardvark Fries, and the Cantina Chicken Crispy Taco

The Chalupa was alright - I didn't think the bread was fried super well - but it was relatively acceptable. I did love how the one I got seemed to be filled to the brim with toppings - to the point that a lot of them were falling out as I tried to eat them. Adding Taco Bell's all-time good fire sauce made this pretty enjoyable overall

I loved how crispy the cantina taco was. I can't comment on the chicken because I substituted it for black beans, but I thought the taco had a really satisfying crunch that remained throughout. The other part of this I loved was the cheese - I found this to be melted amazingly, and there really was a ton of it. I would definitely consider getting this again

The last thing, and the thing I was most interested to try, was the Secret Aardvark fries. This were fries, but topped with a massive hodgepodge of toppings, from tomatoes, queso, cheese, and others. The overall flavor combination of this ended up being something that I definitely enjoyed. Due to all the sauce, the fries obviously became pretty soggy, but I thought they were still fine to eat and tasted pretty well. Like with the cantina taco, I substituted chicken for black beans, and I liked their inclusion here. I will say this wasn't spicy at all (i had to add fire sauce separately) but otherwise it was prettu solid

As for the prices, the chalupa and cantina taco are priced well, but the Secret Aardvark fries (at around 6 dollars) are quite expensive - you could get an entire Cravings Box for that amount

Overall, a pretty solid somewhat cheap offering, although the only one of these I think I would order again is the Cantina...

Just drove through the drive through with my fiancé and we ordered food, a Crunchwrap, 3 burrito supremes and sauce. Got our food home only to see no sauce, no napkins, a crunch wrap and 3 crunchy tacos. I drove back to get the order corrected, which I normally would not do, but did anyway, and the guy at the counter proceeds to remake the entire order EXACTLY the same. Again, I say “this is not correct, can I just get the 3 burrito supremes remade?” Then, he grabs a manager, and she tells me I need to pay the difference. I clarified, because this seemed to be an extremely bold ask considering they just made the order incorrectly two times. Apparently if they hear your order wrong and you want it made correctly, you, the customer, must drive all the way back, go inside, and pay for THEIR mistake. They claimed I ordered 3 Doritos supreme tacos. I understand they sound similar, but it was clearly not even close to what I ordered, hence me driving all the way back. Maybe it’s on me for not seeing this on the screen, but I swore I looked and it definitely said burritos. Regardless, I never go to fast food joints, so maybe this is the norm, but something about being 9 months pregnant and exhausted pushed me to just walk out when they requested money for their own mistake. This isn’t even about the food, I couldn’t care less about the food at this point. This is about the principle of it all, and how terribly incompetent their customer service was. I have worked in customer service for a decade (even have worked fast food at a point) and I personally cannot imagine asking a customer to pay for my own mistake that I made not only once, but twice in a row....