Taco Bell — Restaurant in Maryland

MIDDLE Child

Architectural reflection here is in the context of place. There’s a Chipotle right across the boulevard, the clearly eldest child Chik-Fil-Eh! is across the commuter and commercial tarmac; oddities-of-angular TD Bank and Walgreens at either side, the red painted Bus Lane at the front door. So much maelstrom of commerce plus, the fire station in the next block, a patchwork quilt of subsidized and luxury housing in the blocks to the West, and then there’s the drone of the bus interconnect on Aircraft Drive.

Amidst it in the middle is the narrow, dare we view it as skinny(?), Taco Bell freshly remodeled for post pandemic reality ~ drive through and delivery centric in function while still relevant in fashion. Like the big sib C-F-A, the drive through action here is steady, but tends to fit in close the structure, in contrast to the snaking mess of a queue that can develop by the chicken sandwich crowd. I take it to also mean drive thru order fulfillment is quicker for Amexican.

Back to T.B.: The kitchen is dual lines with the direct window service line facing away from the dine-in and pick-up line. This, in my experience, keeps flow going and orders accurate. The self order kiosk (there are 4 here) method is now my favorite and I seem to always pick some change of every item. Getting orders right should be a given, and the layout supports accuracy.

Decor: the overhaul on this location goes with white and a palate of grays that accentuates the middle child concept ~ it is clean while unobtrusive, competent, boundaried. It delivers what it does, and if you want different, the alternatives with their trade-offs are literally out the window.

I like that bus drivers park at the front door of the place, I mean it is THEIR lane, and drop in for a pit stop timr-to-time; that when the chair dominant interior layout gets into a well used state it still looks fine, reminding me of the middle child trope of the ruffled tousled kid who is observant nonetheless. The way the back-side drive thru lane kicks out into the parking lot is, even if accidental, genius, as is the fix for the lot’s slope, it never feels like a climb at either entrance/exit.

Constraint can feel negative, here it lends outsized identity in a markedly...

This Taco Bell has been going down hill. Been going weekly for the past 2 months. First started ordering through the drive thru. I have a average order for a family of 4. after getting my order we park our car and check it. there is usually a missing item(s) or something is incorrect. So we either have to step out the car and go to the pick up window to let them know. They compensate us with a voucher for a free taco. This has happened every time we ordered through the drive thru. So we decided to do mobile ordering so maybe just maybe they will get the order correct. There was maybe 1 or 2 times that it was correct. But the final straw was when we ordered mobile and picked up at the drive thru. The young lady at the drive thru told us to park in the handy cap space and they will bring the food out, well okay. We waited 40 minutes and no food. So I ended up getting out of my car and had to wait at the pick up window for an additional 10 minutes for someone to complete their order so I could talk to someone. Finally some young lady rushed out the door by the pick up window and i stopped her and said is that order for me. She said yes and repeatedly apologized about the wait and handed me 4 free taco vouchers. I took my order to my car and we checked it. The order had been sitting on the counter for 45 minutes. Unacceptable!! and was barely warm. To top it off it was missing items! This Taco Bell is notorious for not completing an order. So I was F'in pist! I got out my car again and went to the pick up window and let them know whats up. buy this time when i got back to my car with a completed order it had been over an hour at taco bell. By the time I got home the food was cold, tacos were soggy and me and my family was unhappy with the service and food we received and I must have accumulated over 10 free taco vouchers because of their non stop F' ups! This all happened Friday Aug. 7th 2020 between the hours of 7PM and after 8 PM. We did call corporate and hopefully the STAFF will get reviewed and trained correctly. I do not recommend this Taco Bell to anyone unless you want missing items from your order! If I could I would...

GUARANTEE anything more than 1 star rating is a fake review. Horrible service! Ordered on mobile 5 minutes before arriving. My friend ordered basically from the parking lot as we arrived. Hers was ready when we walked in. Mine wasn't despite being ordered well before hers.

Five minutes passed and still no food. Asked again and was told mine would be made next. It wasn't. Five more minutes passed and the guy that walked in after me and ordered at the register got his food before me.

This was fifteen minutes beyond when I ordered, and I called them out for making this guys order before mine. They STILL didn't make my order next despite them stopping the assembly line to check where my order was (meaning the entire staff was now blatantly aware of the situation). It took over 20 minutes to get 3 soft tacos and 1 taco supreme - 15 of those minutes I was standing at the counter with them staring me in the face knowing I was waiting for my meal.

Not a single apology. Just blank stares. Worse than your average taco bell, which is already horrible. Don't order here if you don't have all day to...