Torchy's Tacos — Restaurant in Round Rock

Warning: don't expect "curbside" ordering to work here. You will need to go inside to get your "curbside" order, as I found out today. They advertise having the ability to handle curbside orders, and they at least have the rudimentary technology to handle them (order online and you receive an email where you click "Here" when you arrive and specify which spot your are parked in). So I ordered and showed up in one of their marked parking spots and followed the directions on the sign (open the email and click "Here" etc). I wait about 10 minutes and see other "curbside" customers going inside to get their orders. I was skeptical about this restaurant actually being able to handle curbside orders (they could hardly handle their normal lunch rush pre-Pandemic). I was right to be skeptical. I waited a few minutes longer, then went inside to the pick-up area. I waited patiently until a very busy waitress came and I told her I was picking up a curbside order. My order was there (probably for awhile). I asked her if she had ever planned to bring my food out. She apologized and said she was too busy. This is very simple: if you don't have the staffing to handle curbside, don't advertise it. If you can handle it under normal conditions, but not during the lunch rush, add a note to your ordering website, curbside pickup signs (or in the email you send) mentioning that. There is no shame in knowing your limits. (But there is shame in not knowing them.) This is not a problem with the waitstaff; they are being put in a position where they have to choose between failures. I would have been completely fine if the restaurant had told me in advance that pickup orders must be picked up inside. I've personally seen only one restaurant handle curbside ordering correctly (both technologically and service-wise) and consistently: MacDonald's. (Right??) Torchy's does make good food generally, but they don't set a very high bar for themselves when it comes to service (and this is not just based on this one Pandemic-era experience).

On a positive side: the queso...

Take out experience is confusing. The first issue I encountered was going to google and searching for this location to order. When I clicked the website button it took me to their website to order, but it chose a completely different location than the one I googled and selected unbeknownst to me. When I arrived I was confused on where to go and asked the first server I saw and he seemed short and busy. After a couple of minutes he came back and asked for the email receipt for the order. When I found it, I realized it was for another store and told him. He pretty much said ok and continued his work as if I wasn’t there. I left slightly upset, called the other store where they apologized for the error and refunded the order so I didn’t have to drive 15 mins to another location (did the server just not know this was possible?). When I came back in to grab new order, the server and couple of other people walked past me and completely ignored me as I just stood by the entrance, and presumably my order. After 5 mins, I walked over to the register on the other side of the restaurant and after waiting for two couples to order, was told I could just grab my order from the front. I was tempted after being passed by, but didn’t for fear of being accused of stealing (I guess that’s my fault). The email doesn’t say anything about where to pickup so I had no idea of the procedure. The guy at the register was cool and seemed apologetic for my mood and the confusion (thanks and sorry for the mood bro). But overall, left me not wanting to come back—at least to...

So, I'm a big fan of Torchys tacos, since the beginning. Is it a lot, for a taco? Sure. But is it a special taco? Yes indeed! Each taco is a little poem of flavors in your mouth, a little gastronomic adventure. But when they got their airstream salad, I was in love! There was so much going on, and it was all amazing to me! One of my favorite things was that the lettuce mix they used had amazing things like mint and arugula, and you could add salmon, shrimp, etc. Well, today we went to this Torchys in round Rock, and I'm sure that Covid had caused some problems for all restaurants, but we had to order at the bar, with no menu to peruse, and apparently our order just vanished, because we got our drinks, sat down, and ten minutes later a server comes to our table with a couple tacos, which weren't ours. I explained that we had ordered salads, and she took the tacos hopefully to their rightful owner. We waited, and chatted, and took care of some business. Mind you, there were very few patrons at the restaurant, as we had arrived a little after eleven a.m. Finally, we realized that we should have probably heard from someone, so I took the receipt to the register to let them know, and they didn't even seem surprised. It only took about ten minutes to get our food made, and when it came, it seemed smaller, and no longer had mint. Usually, I can only eat half, and have the rest for dinner, but sadly, I was able to eat the...