Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Evanston

On Dec 31st, around 4:30/5:00 PM. We pulled in to @costavida in Evanston Wyoming, when we walked through the door the first thing I noticed was the garbage was overflowing from the trash receptacles in the store. We got into line, there were two women ahead of us, there was a young behind the line you can tell this was his first day, there was another young man cleaning the steaming table up by the cash register; the other employees were kind of running around like chickens with their heads cut off. I overheard the ladies in front of us reassuring the young man that was working the line that he was doing fine. I stood in line for 15 minutes, and the line had now become 6 or 7 deep. During that time the young man had asked other employees for help, I witnessed him getting pushed out of the way and somebody telling him no. I witnessed a gentleman come off of drive-thru tell somebody he was taking a break then go to line and prepare himself a meal! That same gentleman went to the cash register rang up his food himself, walk out from behind the cash register and went into the dining room to sit down and eat. They brought in another young lady, mind you my food is sitting up at the cash register uncovered while my husband's food is being prepared because he added shrimp to his burrito, it took an extra few minutes but when the shrimp came out of the roller it had fallen to the floor. I asked to speak to a supervisor. When the supervisor came out, who looked to be about 19 or 20, I ran through the whole scenario of what I had witnessed he said that he had some people call off because it was New Year's Eve. He told me he couldn't see what was going on because he was in the back. I had told him how the young man was being treated, and how we had asked the other young man to help him and he was told no. He said he couldn't control his staff, I looked at him puzzled and asked him what do you mean you can't control your staff? He then replied to me it was a free country very sarcastically. I asked for corporates number I was told he didn't know it, and that I...

It’s really sad to see how far this place has gone downhill. It started out being managed very well and then something changed the last couple years. We go to this restaurant quite often so we’ve seen the contrast in how it has operated during its lifetime and how it’s progressively gotten worse.

Our most recent visit was a frustrating experience to say the least. Here’s a list of all the issues that just shouldn’t be happening:

No garbage cans outside. Instead just bags of garbage sitting on the side of the building. Floors were completely filthy with food strung all over. Tables and chairs not wiped down including high chairs. Inside garbage cans overflowing. Windows covered in greasy hand prints. Ice had filled up the drain tray on the fountain machine and left there. One side of the ice receptacle wasn’t working. Drink coolers were all empty (limonada, horchata, etc.) No utensils, sauces, napkins, lids, etc for customers to grab after ordering. Everything had to be requested at the check-out register. This caused a huge back up in the line and a crowd of people around the register because everyone had to go to one source for ordering, getting utensils, having orders fixed, etc.

It may be an issue with finding employees like everyone else is struggling with so I don’t want to be too harsh but if your a manager you have to pick up the slack during these bad economic times. I operate a few different businesses and I can confidently say that these issues are a result of poor management. Small problems turn into bigger, ongoing issues when a system isn’t being properly managed by someone.

Hopefully they get things figured out but in the meantime we will not be so eager to stop in like we used to...

They are constantly messing up my order when I go through the drive through- so I only go in now when I’m craving the dressing and today when I went inside - I got a veggie salad which comes with double rice and beans at literally every costa vida I’ve ever been to- it’s standard everywhere- I asked for more and they told me they are charging me extra - total I got less than half a cup of rice and less than 1/3 a cup of beans- meats are more expensive than rice and beans which are literally the cheapest food you can purchase on the market- the employees gave the excuse that the managers came down hard on them charging for extra rice and beans - it seems so unreasonable to charge extra when I got the bare minimum of the cheapest food on the market - charging extra for meats and other stuff- totally makes sense meat is expensive whereas every costa vida no every company gives veggies extras like subway gives extra for veggies sandwiches because they arnt getting an expensive item on the sandwich- it is unreasonable to charge the amount they do for a salad with a tiny price difference between meats and veggie and then give the smallest amount I’ve ever seen any company ever give someone for the cheapest food on the market- only went there for the dressing anyways but after this I’m never going there again and will be making my own salads for Pennies with the amount of food they gave me and the cost is wages/building etc- very...