QDOBA Mexican Eats — Restaurant in Florissant

I strongly recommend you avoid this location altogether. On Sunday, July 2, 2017, at 9:40pm my fiancé and I were blatantly refused service at this Qdoba in Florissant by a full staff of five employees who were standing there, staring at us with a hostile "go away" look on their faces, doing nothing. Immediately upon entering, instead of a simple hello, we were preemptively instructed that they were out of the main ingredients of almost every section of the menu. There was no chicken or steak or queso for burritos, there were no tacos, and no chips for nachos. We were immediately crawling in our skin by the utter air of dejection. The kitchen was the filthiest sight I have ever seen, the mostly empty sixth-pans of the steam table were burnt as I could instantly smell the distinct smell of a burning steam table. For those of you who share my experience in working in restaurants (I have for fourteen years), it takes about 2 hours for a steam table to completely boil out, at which point the food begins drying out and charring, which is what I immediately recognized as what was going on here. Already speechless, we then watched in shock as yet another employee, wearing half of her uniform, entered the store and went straight to the food line with her caked-in-food apron wadded up on the cutting board next to her and her belly hanging out of her untucked shirt onto the counter, she began stuffing the only remaining food into several to-go containers for herself. Apparently there was chicken for her but not for us! And we watched her scrape up every last piece. There also, apparently, was queso as well - although we were told we couldn't have any! And we watched her drain every last drop. Then, for the final infuriating portion of this antagonistic scene, she mentioned to her fellow employee that she was about to fry up some chips for herself (though none would be made for us though we expressed them to be one of our first choices). I began this review by saying we were Blatantly Refused Service, yet that only became apparent as this scene unfolded. Even after being flexible and suggesting things that they hadn't immediately said they were out of, they struck down every possible suggestion I had by saying, "Oh, we're out of that too," or "We can't make that right now." By the way, as a restaurant worker, I can't stand complaining (especially at restaurants); and, in fact, this is my first negative review in my entire life. Even after my steak being overcooked at Applebee's (where I went after leaving Qdoba that night), I tipped my usual 30%, and after the manager apologized to me I told her no, the apology was mine. This experience at Qdoba was over 48 hours ago and I am still infuriated and I will not be stopping with simply writing this review. I have never been treated with such disrespect. I can only empathize with this business' owner for having no idea that this is the attitude of their staff that they are paying, and that their business is being tanked by people who care nothing of the customers and actually have the balls to more or less...

The service here was [absolutely] AWFUL. Be sure to arrive well before close, or the essentials on the menu may be completely missing.

My friend and I got there at about 15 minutes until close, and it was obvious they felt like it was our mistake, we were too near closing time, and therefore they had no obligation --or desire-- to serve us the food we wanted. They made NO ATTEMPT to make us happy. (As well as the customer who came in right behind us -- he quickly observed their attitudes & immediately turned around to walk straight out.)

No one greeted us. An employee spit out, "We have no chips, no taco shells, and no queso..." and then simply stared blankly at us as we looked down to see the only meat options were one spoonful of chicken, or shredded pork. They obviously had no intention of preparing any food so that we could place the order we wanted. It sure seemed like they wanted us to also leave without ordering at all....I suppose so they could get back to standing around, doing nothing??? (The entire place was a mess!) (I have managed a restaurant so I know that cooked meat has a 1-2 day shelf life, so it's ignorant to make the excuse "they shouldn't have to cook more meat for you at the end of the shift" --- They should always have at least enough to last the entire shift...)

Then, it got worse. When three or four employees came in from outside and joined the other two behind the line, I was hopeful that one of them would initiate taking care of us. Nope! One employee jumped in, next to the employee making my soft tacos, and proceeded to FILL FOUR bowls of food FOR HERSELF. She spooned out the last of the chicken -- which I had just ordered, as well as most of the fajita veggies -- which my friend was about to order in his tacos.

WHAT?! My jaw clenched. Then we heard her mutter to another employee that, in a minute, she was going to drop (make) some chips for herself. REALLY?! We walked out.

Dear Managers/Owners of this store: Unfortunately, this is a true story...and I felt it necessary to write about this experience BECAUSE --- The employees who were working on Sunday night, July 2nd, need a LOT of training!!! Obviously, you want them to be willing AND prepared to serve as many patrons as possible up until 10pm. These employees didn't give a darn about selling us food, or making us repeat customers. Laziness, laziness...

I have never seen this level of apathy in any customer service, ever. We will NO DOUBT be making the much longer drive to Maplewood for Qdoba...

I really enjoy Qdoba food. I visit the Hallsferry Location quite often, due to it being by my home. On any other day I would give 5 stars, but my last visit was a bit aggravating for me. When I entered the door, an employee, he was standing in the doorway to the back singing in a loud voice, "Skeet, Skeet, Skeet!!! As I stood in line for 30 minutes or more. The environment was very unorganized, this same employee was joking around. Standing there for that long period of time caused me to pay more attention and question why was it taking so long. This same employee put his gloves on and kept pulling up his pants, without a belt, with those same gloves on, playing with his head visor then he turned around and dipped both of those hands, with the same gloves in the the tortilla chips box and grabbed chips and dropped them in the deep fryer basket! Young lady on the Frontline preparing the customer's food with red braids, touching her braids with her gloves on. When my turn came to be served, I politely asked the young lady to change her gloves before preparing my food and I didn't get chips, of course. I asked who was the manager on duty? IT WAS THE SAME YOUNG MAN, WHO WAS SINGING, SKEET!!! THE SAME YOUNG MAN TOUCHING HIS VISOR AND CONSTANTLY PULLING UP HIS PANTS , WITH THE SAME GLOVES HE WAS TOUCHING FOOD WITH. Whose ever in control creates the environment. It's normally a more professional environment but the last visit there was terrible and with Covid-19 going on, it magnified their...