Costa Vida Fresh Mexican Grill — Restaurant in Saint George

This will be a long review, but it is important that we explain how we were mistreated by the staff. We went through the drive through and before ordering my food I said, "we are going to use our starving student card to buy an entree and two drinks to get an entree free" the worker said ok, what would you like. We ordered two of the Friday specials and he asked for our drinks, we told him root beer and fruit punch, he said "ok, we'll have your total at the window." At the window, I handed him our starving student card, he closed the window and appeared to mark it, then he handed it back to me I gave him my credit card. He swiped it and handed it back to me with the receipt and told us the food would be out soon. A new worker appeared and gave us our food and was sending us off. I told her we didn't get our drinks we ordered and that we didn't get discounted for our starving student card. She said one moment, and came back asking us what drinks we ordered. We repeated our choices and she said one moment. Next the cashier who took our order originally, gave us our drinks saying "sorry I didn't know you ordered drinks." We said no problem but what about our discount? He said "oh well the drinks are free and that should even it out because the two drinks together will equal the price of your 2nd entree." REALLY!? TWO REGULAR SIZED SODA FOUNTAIN DRINKS EQUAL 8 BUCKS!!?? we asked if he was sure and he awkwardly responded "yes, the drinks are the most expensive thing here." There was a line of cars behind us so we parked and went inside to the cashier at the front to work out the matter.

There the cashier said "oh, we don't use the starving student cards on the daily special." I asked if it was an entree, she said yes, I told her we ordered an entree and two drinks and all we were given were the entree's in the first place until we asked them for our drinks, does that not count? She said no, you can't use the daily specials as your entree for the starving student card. Flustered and not wanting to make a scene or keep the long line held up any longer, I left. Looking back I wish I would have returned our food and asked to be refunded. Costa vida did not treat us right. The owner of this establishment needs to understand that their employees are mistreating their customers. We received two different stories about why we were charged for two entree's and not discounted for our starving student card. If a starving student card cannot be used for the daily specials, then the customer should be notified BEFORE they are asked to pay for their food! We also should have been told in the drive through that we could not use the starving student card. After all, that is the VERY FIRST thing I mentioned when I ordered, that we "were going to use the starving student card." We will not be returning here until Costa Vida makes it right for the mistreatment...

Frustrating drive-thru experience at this location today. I've been coming here once or twice a week for the several months now. Repeat customer due to good experiences and good food early on, but lately it's become inconsistent and today was... well I'm actually taking the time to write this, so you know...

Today, I asked for enchiladas, they're out of corn tortillas. Asked for grilled veggies, I'm told they only have those in dine-in, even though I get them on my drive thru order all the time. Something changed with the setup I'm told, but they'll go up front to get some for me. OK, cool. At the windows, I'm now told they don't have any either. I ask why. Was told they're too busy for anyone to cook them.

The employee at the window was upset at my disappointment and inquiry. I suspect she felt she was getting a hard time from other customers well before I arrived. She expressed that it wasn't her fault, and I said yea I know, it's your boss's fault. She said it wasn't. Trying to be so nice. Someone else handed me my order when it was ready.

Now, I have an MBA. When I say it's the boss's fault, I mean higher up management. If you're a restaurant and you can't get your process down to reliably have inventory on-hand at dinner time, 7 PM on a weekday, something is off. This is the third time recently I've been told they're out of something. It's a Mexican restaurant. It should be literally impossible to run out of corn tortillas.

As the customer, I'm going to take my $ elsewhere if you can't reliably provide your advertised product and short staff your location to the point where your front-line employees are routinely stressed to have to face the brunt of questioning that results from what is either your skimping on staff or failure to train properly. Maybe there are some bad apples in your staff mixed in with the good ones like the girl at the window who was trying to be nice and felt stuck.

Now, to be clear I had no complaint with the employee at the window, she was in a tight spot doing the best she could. But, if the staff on hand is too busy to provide reliable service, then, dear management, you might have to bite the bullet a little on your bottom line for some extra/better staff.

And, yes, I fully expect to be able to order grilled veggies through window. I'm going to take break from visiting this location, but if there continues to be issues like this when I come back around then I won't be back at all.

PS: Save your breath on the placating response to this review. I know you "strive to provide the best experience for all your customers" blah blah blah. Hands off the keyboard, go spend some time working to fix the actual problems and actually improve the...

I can’t understand why it is so hard for the employees here and the manager to follow a simple order ticket. The only reason we continue to eat here is because my daughter needs Gluten Free. I understand it’s hard to find good help but I’m pretty patient since I owned a successful restaurant for years. 9 out of 10 trips to this Costa Vida go the same every time. My daughter and I send our orders in on the app separately. I always show up at least 10 minutes late because I know the orders won’t be ready whether they’re busy or slow. Tonight there were 5 customers sitting at 2 tables (3 & 2). 2 people waiting for their orders, 1 before me and 1 after. I tell them our names, we order the same exact thing everytime. As usual, they haven’t started making it. When I arrived, 2 employees are standing at the food line waiting for customers to come in. The girl runs the tickets off and takes them to the back. I wait for over 15 minutes. They finally bring the orders up. I always have to check them because again, 9 out of 10 times the order is wrong. First I notice the queso is missing, chips are there but no queso. As usual, one Baja bowl that is suppose to have no toppings except the chips is smothered in pico and other toppings. It’s ordered without because it can’t be eaten so I have to ask them to remake it. 10 minutes later the 1 little Baja bowl comes back up. There is suppose to be extra chicken and extra chips (it’s paid for). They usually put them in little cups. Trust me this Baja bowl they bring up had nothing extra on it. I mention to the girl, there is suppose to be extra chicken and extra chips. She tries reassuring me that “she’s sure they made it like it said.” First of all, not sure why she would be so confident it’s correct when she knows they always make it wrong. Their way of dealing with issues is to ignore the customer. She starts helping someone else so I just leave. While I was waiting the second time for the order to be made, there’s no one in the restaurant in line so I ask, who I think is the manager. Hi, I’m wondering if they wait until the customer comes in with an order on the app to actually start making the order. I asked very nicely, trying to figure out their system. A customer walks up to the line right then, so his way of dealing with my question was to mumble something, and walk off to help the other customer. Like I say, it’s always been thier way there, avoid and ignore!! It’s to bad they can’t find better management to help work out some of these...