Taco Bell — Restaurant in Redwood City

Avoid This Location – Hostile Staff, EBT Refusal, and Unprofessional Conduct

I regrettably visited this Taco Bell on May 20, 2025, at 9:35 PM PST, and experienced one of the worst fast-food interactions of my life. This location’s staff demonstrated blatant disregard for federal EBT protocols, customer rights, and basic professionalism. Here’s a breakdown of what happened:

EBT Payment Refusal & Ignored Protocols I attempted to pay using my EBT card, which this location claims to accept as part of California’s Restaurant Meals Program (RMP). When the cashier, Jorge, stated their EBT machine was broken, I informed him about the mandatory manual voucher process required by USDA regulations (7 CFR § 274.6). Instead of complying, he ignored my request and repeated, “It’s broken,” refusing to contact a supervisor or attempt alternative methods.

Hostile Staff Escalation After 10+ minutes of being ignored, shift lead Elise stormed to the window, yelling, “Get out of the drive-thru or we’ll call the police!” When I insisted on speaking to a manager, she falsely claimed none were available. Her aggressive tone and threats created a hostile environment, which I recorded (legal in California’s public drive-thru spaces). Elise then wrongly accused me of violating her “rights” by recording, showcasing a clear misunderstanding of privacy laws.

Impact on Other Customers Three vehicles behind me abandoned their orders after witnessing this confrontation. The staff’s unprofessionalism didn’t just affect me—it cost Taco Bell $40+ in lost sales and deterred hungry customers.

Pattern of Poor Service This isn’t an isolated incident. Existing Yelp reviews (e.g., “Employees don’t talk to you... completely ignored” and “Miscommunication and forgetful with people’s orders”) confirm systemic issues. The lack of training on EBT protocols and customer service is glaring.

What You Should Do EBT Users: Avoid this location. Visit the El Camino Real Taco Bell instead, which honors manual vouchers.

All Customers: Save yourself the stress. Staff here prioritize speed over accuracy or courtesy.

Final Note to Management Your team needs urgent retraining on:

USDA manual voucher procedures for EBT outages

De-escalation tactics (CA Labor Code § 6401.7)

Public recording rights (CA Penal Code § 632)

Until changes are made, I strongly advise others to...

Worst Taco Bell experience ever. Arrived and placed an order using the kiosk for two crispy taco combo meals and two burrito supremes for two people. Sounds simple, right? Especially when there are almost no customers present and you are in a rush to get somewhere.

Wait 10 minutes and watch as two large orders placed AFTER mine were handed out. Go up to counter and spend 5 minutes trying to get somebody to even acknowledge me along with a new customer trying to order at the counter.

Finally after 10 minutes they hand me a tray with three tacos, two burrito supremes, and no drink cups and walk away.

We stand there trying to get somebody's attention and calmly explained that since we ordered two crispy taco combos, there should be three more tacos. But the employee clearly did not speak English.

He took the entire tray and handed it to somebody in the back and just left it there. Nobody came for another five minutes. We explained once again that the employee had taken the tray to the back, left it sitting there, and still had not even started fixing the other three tacos.

They finally bring us the full tray and walk away once again. But still no drink cups. HELLO, HELLO for 4 more minutes. I finally bang an empty tray on the counter one time trying get somebodies attention to come to the counter and give us drink cups, at which point a female customer (the only one there) starts screaming that I am a terrible person because I am physically attacking women, which was an unusual take given that it was a mixed crew and there wasn't even a person at the counter when I banged the tray just trying to get anyone in this horrid place to come to the counter. She went on for over 5 minutes screaming that "I" should stop making a disturbance while we were simply trying to eat our meals.

45 minutes to get 6 tacos. two drinks, and two burrito supremes which cost over $29.00 and were completely cold and mushy by the time we got them! I ended up throwing away my cold, mushy Burrito Supreme.

I think I am done with Taco Bell forever (especially this one). Customer service apparently no longer factors...

When I entered, I was the only person inside. They saw me, but it took them 6 minutes before they even got around to helping me. I asked for a soft taco, made vegan. They charged me an extra .70 cents for about 7 times on the receipt. I showed this to the manager and it was rectified. It took about 10 more minutes before I even received my taco. Once I opened the taco there was barley anything in it, but I didn’t want to make a fuss, so I kept it. Upon biting into it I noticed there was cheese on it. I then took it back inside. The manager said he would make it again, but having waited so long I was just ready to get my money back and leave. Belson Juarez is the general manager. He was extremely rude without provocation. I will no longer be patronizing this Taco Bell. If I could give a negative star rating I...