QDOBA Mexican Eats — Restaurant in Lynnwood

I've been a longtime customer for Qdoba since 2001. The service here at this location the past year has been okay if you order before dinner or before late night. After that you can unfortunately every time almost at least if not 1 entrees or more messed up. Zero contacting you. No shrimp for my shrimp & steak bowl. My last time no full bag of chips & no steak ordered in my steak bowl. Missing sides. Kids meals drinks always missing. I had ordered delivery via Qdoba App. Arrives & I immediately realized was lighter. Upon looking the steak burrito bowl literally was missing steak! The chips & guacamole were half full. Things were luke warm. I called store, they say they're out of steak. I can pickup & they'll remake. No. I ordered delivery for a reason. Refund? Tells me to go through doordash. I explained I just talked to them but they refused to refund my messed up order as I must contact the merchant as they have my payment details. Well great & you're out of stock steak & shrimp, so you still sent me my order & can't even be bothered to put out of stock online or app ordering & then to make it worse can't even contact me to substitute or cancel my order!? Just ridiculous. Sadly it's the only location to order from. Can't choose other delivery location from my home address. Delivery driver only speaks spanish mind you. I mean, thank goodness for google translate because that was a nightmare. They don't read ebtry to my apt instructions that I've made extremely clear EVERY SINGLE TIME! WHY ASK IF YOUR DRIVERS CAN'T READ OR SPEAK ENGLISH TO ME!?! This was my go to location. But lately I'm going back to other nearby places instead. Or picking up in person. That way I can check my order & send back if incorrect. Where is upper management to train your staff here please!?! Obviously it's extremely needed. I work in the restaurant industry. I know proper to go, delivery procedures. Oh I also asked for napkins, utensils & got none. Good thing I wasn't out & home this time! I'll get 1 time good, 3 times not. I am a frequent customer ordering like 2 times at least a month. But until things are fixed here I'll be going other places. Love your food & guacamole but service...

I’ve given this place multiple chances and every single time I have felt unwelcome from the moment I turn into a parking space. All the employees automatically turn and creepily stare at you as you park your car and continue to stare at you as you get out of your car and then they break their stare as you enter, as if we couldn’t see them staring at us through the huge window. It’s not a one way window guys... Every time I go, they are out of the vegetables and the first couple times I didn’t ask about it because I didn’t want to inconvenience them, but this time I asked if they were going to make more (they still had two hours left of being open) and they just looked at the empty container and said there was some left. That may be fine for some people, but I am vegetarian and I told that to them/told them previous times, but that never seems to register through their tiny brains. They always ask what meat I want anyways. I know I sound like one of those crazy customers and it doesn’t seem like a big deal to some, especially as you’re reading this via text, but this latest experience had my skin crawling and gave me really bad anxiety. I actually felt unsafe in there, that’s how creepily they stared, and didn’t end up getting anything and left. I’ve been working in retail for years and have no trouble remembering faces/regular customers, giving good customer service, and providing a comfortable environment, idk why it’s so hard for these employees to actually do their job let alone give good service. It peeves me that there are so many people out there that actually want/need a job and these people take it for granted. All they want to do is stand around and get paid for doing nothing. I’m still in university, but I’m embarrassed by this generation.

P.S. my bf actually got a burrito from our latest trip and the chicken was apparently burnt. So not even the food is good. Hah. This place is the worst. I went to Chipotle instead. The only reason I went here was because my favorite restaurant close by was...

This restaurant is staffed by sulking, miserable, presumably low-paid zombies. Seriously, whoever the district manager/operations supervisor/owner/etc is needs to secret shop this location in the afternoons and evenings. They're not necessarily actively hostile to your presence, but certainly they look like life has handed them a raw deal and you're just another order to fill.

The food is pretty good. The complimentary guac and sour cream is welcome. The customized soda fountain is cool. I have visited the location several times and I have never become ill while dining here. Perhaps the staff's limited enthusiasm for life doesn't necessarily limit their enthusiasm for safe food handling practices? I give the food the 2 stars (fair), but the service is so consistently poor (and, frankly, depressing) that I cannot in good conscience offer a single additional star (good).

To conclude, come here for decent, fast mex. Try to ignore the soulless eyes behind the glass. Honestly, it's not even their fault. Whoever is the higher up here is clearly asleep at the wheel because there isn't an iota of accountability or pride in the work. These kind of jobs can be FUN, there can be laughter, there can be pride, but the attitude and mood is heavily influenced from the top and works its way down. If I was to guess what the "story" this experience was telling, it was telling me that someone high up is going through a messy divorce, the kids and the house are going to the wife, and let's just phone in for work from now on rather than spending any real quality time in our own restaurants because what's the point of it all...