Taco Bell — Restaurant in Statesville

*updated review, 4-star Management has really improved things from a customer experience perspective over the last year -- very nice to see. Food quality/portion has improved, speed of service has improved. I don't dine in here, but I do use the drive thru and they are usually fairly quick.

original review, previously 2-star This location was closed for renovations and reopened a few weeks ago.

Certainly could be coincidence, but I've been twice now, and the items below were experienced both times:

This location has now adopted "use 1 of these 4 kiosk's to place your own order", but only 1 kiosk is working. There is no ability to have personal interaction with an employee. As a result, both times there was a line of people waiting to place their orders, and a large cluster of people waiting for their orders. None of the tables were wiped down or kept clean, floors were dirty and littered, trash cans overflowing. Bathrooms were not kept clean. Trash can overflowing, paper towels littered the floor. The 1st dine-in visit, I had to wait 14 minutes for my order. The 2nd visit, I watched a couple wait 20 minutes for their order, and never once were they approached by an employee to check to see if possibly they had lost their order, or to apologize and let them know it's coming; keep in mind I had placed my order after them, had to wait 13 minutes, and yet they were still waiting for theirs. The 2nd visit, cook didn't follow the order instructions from my kiosk order, so I had to take it back and request they remake (and wait again). Also, the soft taco I got had half the meat it's supposed to have.

Maybe worst of all, on the 2nd visit, employees could be seen casually checking their phones, walking/moving as slowly as they possibly could (seemingly on purpose), were staying in the back, clearly avoiding coming anywhere near the front counter where customers might engage them. Waiting customers were irate, and the employees ignored them.

To the owner/operator: The old excuse, "We just can't find workers, we're short staffed" doesn't work anymore -- go across the street to Cook Out or Chick-fil-A, and ask them why they aren't short-staffed or having trouble finding workers who actually work hard, and show a sense of urgency. Their drive-through lines are consistently wrapped around their buildings, yet they keep them moving.

Having kiosk's only, and no one at the front counter taking orders sends the message to the customer, "we don't want to interact with you, we're not here for you".

All the faults of this Taco Bell location falls 100% on the owner/operator, who is clearly AWOL. If you're not going to be on site to build your team and get your hands dirty, and if you're not going to bring in a manager to maintain a standard, and hold workers accountable, you can expect what you now have.

Taco Bell, under normal conditions, is by far my favorite (and first choice) fast food restaurant. I hope appropriate changes are made to bring this one back to the higher Taco Bell standard we used to experience.

I may try this location again in a few weeks, hoping for the needed improvements that can only be brought by...

Where do I start? After trying to decide what I wanted and being asked every 3 seconds if I was ready to order (I hadn't walked all the way up to the registers yet!) we ordered two Triple Double Crunchwrap boxes (one no tomato and one no sour cream), a 4 pack Cinnabon bites, and a mini chicken quesadilla. When we finally get our food approximately 20-25 minutes later, both Crunchwraps had tomatoes. Ok, mistakes happen right, so I take mine back up and explain the mistake. The girl snatches the wrap out of my hand, slams it in the trash and yells "I need another wrap and make sure you don't put no tomatoes on it". Ok, maybe she's just having a bad day (not my problem but whatever). After waiting another 10 minutes, I get the crunchwrap and go back to my table. The first thing I notice when I open the wrapper is the fact it's sloppily made. The tortilla is torn in more than a few places and it didn't look nowhere as thick as my dining companion's crunchwrap. I remove the pieces of tortilla and lo and behold it's a regular crunchwrap. No this is NOT what I ordered...again. Let me explain a Triple Double Crunchwrap. Large tortilla, beef, tostada shell (flat crunchy taco type shell), beef, cheese, sauce, tostada shell, lettuce, tomato, sour cream (mine was supposed to be no tomato). When the third crunchwrap came in front of me I was ready to eat (been there an hour at this point). Wow was I sadly disappointed! Again, the tortilla was torn in several places and the food was sloppily made. I took a bite and no beef. Ok, sometimesit happens. Take another bite and I'm like, I taste beans. I cannot stand beans on a taco or burrito! I'm thinking I've just got to be tasting something not there because I was so upset at this point. I get halfway through the wrap and FINALLY hit beef. The problem? IT'S MIXED WITH REFRIED BEANS!!!! This is not correct. I openthe wrap and there is a grand total of maybe 2 tablespoons of beef and bean mixture on the whole thing! I cook and bake quite a bit, I know what a blanking tablespoon is. My wrap is still half the size of my companion's! The box comes with two crunchy tacos. I ate one taco. The taco shells were stale as was the tostada shells in mine and my companion's wraps. The Cinnamon bites were so greasy, we watched grease drip when it was squeezed. The only thing that was as it was supposed to be was the mini shredded chicken quesadilla. I'm not even going to discuss how dirty the restaurant was nor am I going to discuss the racist comments passed between staff while discussing a group of white church kids that came on a...

I have a video of what transpired here, ridiculous. Went at halftime to get some food, order @ kiosk since no one was at the counter. Watched nearly an entire quarter of the game waiting. 2 couples, 1 before us and 1 after also waited and both parties tried asking for refunds, which no one would even come to the counter. Two off duty employees kept telling us & the other customers to shut up and be patient, one wife of an employee also tried to engage me into an argument, it was such a ridiculous drama and circus to get some food, or a refund. Neither a refund or food happened, I guess during the entire wait a manager had time to get dressed, get in his car with his wife and kid and come to the restaurant to help with drivw thru orders, all of which I wouldnt have known about but I spent so much time there TRYING to get food or a refund I got to know off duty smart mouths and their families. Shameful and ridiculous. Never quite understand why some places have issues simply issuing a refund, problem solved. We waited so long we actually forgot what was ordered, but they knew they weren't making it, it was just another way to be nasty and keep both the money and food which I would never eat from such weird employees. Calling corporate for my refund. Steer clear from this I wish I could post the video here! It shows just what type of silly experience to expect at this particular location never once had any issue at any Taco Bell, ever, this one was so dumb its almost unbelievable but I have a video I'm going to post every place I can, its...