Taco Bell — Restaurant in Helotes

At 5:30PM, on a non-holiday Monday, food was made fresh and served hot, very appetizing, however, the sweet tea dispenser was empty in the dining room when we arrived. To initially fill our cups, it was necessary for us to join the cue along with two customers (that were already eating their meals) waiting with empty sweet tea cups for a refill to be served from behind-the-counter staff. To assist, I moved the empty dispenser to the service counter, letting the employees know that the sweer tea was empty (again, as a reminder, as they were already refilling sweet tea for existing customers from behind the counter. It seemed likely that at some point with the next 30-40 minutes, more sweet tea would be made. This was an error on my part. When my family needed a refill, it was again necessary to ask for sweet tea from the counter staff. It was disappointing, but not as much as being told that someone would need to make more because the sweet tea supply that served the drive through was also allowed to run dry. According to the employee at the counter, we would need to wait about 20-30 minutes for the brewing process to be initiated-to-completion. This timeline seemed to be a reasonable estimation for how long such a complicated process may take, however, as we had just spent 40 minutes eating and sipping on our first cup (which was filled from a quickly draining counter supply point without any plan to avoid an 86-issue....) we elected to no prolong our visit another 30+ minutes.

Sadly, this is a commonly recurring issue at the Helotes store. I really cannot imagine that no one in the chain-of-command above shift leaders actually cares enough about this weakness in food production & customer service has not offered a bit of retraining and adequate incentives to remedy the problem. I say, "no one above shift leaders" because they should not require a reminder to accomplish this simple (though, apparently challenging for some) task. Owner/Regional Rep/anyone who cares, please offer your staff praise for quality food, with the singular exception of providing sweet tea dispensers without sweet tea...

Pretty disappointing service. I arrived at this location at 9:25. I knew I was going to place a big order so I tried to go into the lobby so I wouldn't hold up drive thru. However, when I got to the door and pulled on it a few times, it was locked. I looked at the posted hours of operation and said dine in closed at 10pm so I knew I had some time. Tried the door one more time and was still locked. I decided I would just go through drive thru. The team member answered promptly and told me to take my time. I tried to be quick and started placing my order, once I told him 15 soft tacos he repeated it back in shock or just to make sure he heard right I am not sure but it came off pretty rude. So I tried to explain that I tried to go through the lobby but the door was locked. At this point it sounded like I had two team members talking to me at which point one told me, "No it's not, did you give it a hard tug?" I replied yes, which the voices responded back, "cause there are people in here.". I am not an idiot and I am not weak. I saw guests in the lobby which was why I tried the lobby door a few times. I do not appreciate being made to feel that way. I changed my mind about choosing to order at this establishment; will be going...

I always order ahead online and the food is fantastic, it nearly always exceeds my expectations. They have always been quick in the drive thru as well, my even if they have a line.

However, there is an issue where if you order online at let's say 10am and state on the app you want to pickup at 12:30, it gets made immediately. Do not order online until you are ready for pickup. Your food will be made immediately. I have tried this on three different occasions to order for pickup for lunch while on my break at work. You will get cold food and a melted drink. I have a 0% success rate ordering earlier in the day for pickup later.

Their breakfast is also better than expected which I have gotten on different occasions.

My personal recommendations are the steak grilled cheese burrito, chicken chalupa with chipotle sauce, and cheesey gordita crunch made with a Doritos locos taco.

If you need to reheat something later, the beefy melt burrito is your best bet as it has no veggies. I often order an online exclusive box, and get the beefy melt burrito for lunch...