Taco Bell — Restaurant in South Lyon

Disclaimer: I used to work here as a crew member years ago, so most of this review is based on that experience. I did order from here more recently than that, though.

This place is an example of very, very poor management decisions at the top. I don't know what exactly, since I never had access to that, but I know that it has systemic problems that persist to this day. Orders take an inordinate amount of time to prepare. Ingredients are skimped on way more than you would expect at a typical Taco Bell location. Food is often dry or otherwise mediocre.

None of this is the staff's fault, and I know this because I was one of them. It isn't even the fault of the low-level managers that work in the store, and given that the general manager changed shortly before I stopped working and problems persist, it's probably not their fault either. Someone further up is and has been screwing up with this location for years. Running out of infrequently used ingredients (like black beans) is common. There's never enough staff (something management instructed us workers not to tell customers even though it was obviously true). Ingredients sit out way longer than they're supposed to. Staff are under constant pressure to avoid giving "too much" ingredients to customers.

One of the times I ordered from here recently, they were out of NACHO CHEESE. How in the hell can you not send enough nacho cheese, one of the most abundantly used ingredients, to a Taco Bell location? That ingredient isn't even perishable. (That was supposedly from a regional shortage, so that tells me someone rather high up in the hierarchy screwed up real bad.)

Whatever internal issues are causing this, this Taco Bell location is easily the worst I've ever eaten from. Their food is often decent, and sometimes it's even really good. I love Taco Bell; it's one of my favorite chains. But all too often, something happens. They run out of something. The taco is drier than it's supposed to be. There's almost no meat on the taco. All of these issues can and do happen at any location, but they definitely happen at this location a lot more frequently than others, and on top of that, you'll probably be stuck waiting for your food for several minutes as the 4 staff members in there (not an exaggeration; 4 total staff was pretty typical when I worked there) struggle to keep up.

This place has been in a poor state for years now, and whatever the reason, it's clear it's not getting better. If you don't mind the long wait and are prepared to not get exactly what you want because of an ingredient running out or for quality that's a bit low compared to other Taco Bell locations, it's not terrible. You can still get halfway-decent food here, and like I said, it might even taste great if you're lucky. But as a rule, you're probably better off with a...

I’m trying to figure out how this Taco Bell stays in business? Well besides all The yuppie wannabe yee yee kids with their Parents money and don’t care about quality, service, or anything like that. With that being said, why is it when you go through the drive-through you go through time and effort to place your order tell them exactly what you want pay for your food and there’s always a problem. Like for example you ask for extra rice extra sour cream they don’t put it on, but they charge for it, they ask if you want any kind of sauce like mild fire, etc. you tell them, sure I would like some mild and then its a game of hit or Miss you’re either gonna get some sort of sauce whether it’s mild fire or hot, you might get the sauce but you might only get one pack of sauce or you’ll get 37 and it’s also another game of Are they going to give me one napkin 400 napkins? And no sauce. You called up there it’s hit or miss whether you’re going to get someone to even answer the phone and then when they do answer the phone usually they’re really nice and apologetic but after 345 times in a row, your order screwed up and you have to make the call and explain to them they screwed up again then all of a sudden you’re the bad guy because they screwed up. I don’t understand where the weak link is in the system the place the order, with the cashier and then projects on the screen where the person preparing the food looks at the screen that tells them what to make for the customer, then they put it in a bag, grab napkins, hot sauce straws Eels might need to consume the food you place the order and order there’s some sort of lag or buffering that goes on to lead to problems with the order. Or my favorite one is when they put together a hard taco put it in the bag on the bottom and it’s crushed and you have to eat it like a taco salad then they get mad when you call and complain you that’s what happens hard. That’s what happens with careless employees corporate to complain because it’s a franchise corporate doesn’t care what the franchise store does so it’s a never-ending cycle...

Honestly.. if you need taco bell bad enough to go here, it'd still be worth it to drive to milford just to actually get the whole order, get the order right, not have them out of something every single day, etc. Been going to this taco bell for three years and if you think oh it can't be that bad. Go ahead, make my day and order from here. General manager/manager and a few others just need fired and re-staffed, not so much due to poor attitude or anything of that sort, but due to the lack the competence alone... classic case of good person, just in the wrong position. (And that's not even mentioning the half of the workers that just literally don't care. (Hence why I'm guessing almost every order is just wrong or missing random, paid for, food items... (that and other than like one dude, everyone sounds ready to jump off a bridge and every 1 out of maybe 30 orders MIGHT be correct and intact) I now have a bingo card and more recently a drinking game for this particular establishment.. P.S. I don't do reviews often, but I just couldn't stay silent after this long.. literally anyone from taco bell hq, this use to be one of my favorite taco bells. Please help give this restaurant the life support it so desperately needs :( . Rather have mc donalds than go to this taco hell. EDIT: Was looking through reviews and honestly if this doesn't sum it up enough for you, go about 4 or 5 reviews down and find Natasha Marchants review. Sums up my thoughts to the T and even includes a few things i had suspicion about, but didn't know enough to put...