Habit Burger & Grill — Restaurant in Tacoma

This is the first time I've had a BAD experience at The Habit. I've been to a few locations in California and the Southcenter location in Washington and enjoyed them all (which is why I ordered again), but here is a timeline of today's experience at the Tacoma location and why it gets 1-star -

I ordered for curbside pickup at ~6:10 for pickup at 6:30. I arrived at 6:20ish and checked in, expecting to wait a bit for my order still. I received a text at 6:21 saying my order was ready soon. I waited until 6:35 and figured I would just go in to check since they seemed busy. I waited at the counter for ~5 minutes, but no one acknowledged my presence and the employees were moving frantically while 10-20 people were waiting. Around 6:45 I got a text saying the order was ready and they'd be out shortly. I stopped the person with what I believed was my order and asked if it was based on my order number. He said no so I went back to my car to see if he or someone else brought it over. He walked around looking at a couple cars and then decided to go back in with the order, so I still figured it was mine. Around 6:50, I went back inside where a customer was throwing a fit at the one employee that acknowledged she was there. The lady asked for a refund since her food was cold and asked for manager information. I asked the employee about my order next time he went out with one and he said the one he brought back in was my order. I checked and it was my order so I am not sure why he said it wasn't the first time.

Now that I am home, I am extremely disappointed that my food was cold. This location should not offer curbside pickup if they assume the car will be parked in the 3 spots right in front of their door. I also would have asked for a refund, but did not want to wait another 10-15 minutes for an employee to notice that I was at the counter.

Also, one of the cooks had their mask under their nose which is very unsafe when cooking for people during a pandemic... Come on, you've had a year to figure out how to wear a mask!

I would give this 0 stars due to the customer experience and cold food, but I gave them a star because my milkshake was...

Wife and I had a craving for an impossible burger so we hit Habit Grill. We added avocado, which is $2 a burger. Noticed halfway through the burger that the avocado add was missed on both burgers. There was a line at the counter 4 deep so we decided to continue enjoying our burgers and ask for a refund. I did take a picture, which I’ve attached to this review.

When I went to the counter and asked for a refund the employee working the counter told me they wouldn’t refund us since we ate the burgers. I explained that we paid for something we didn’t get and showed her the picture. She relented but had to go in the back and ask their manager if they could refund us $4….ok.

She came back and offered us a free burger certificate instead of refunding us. Excuse me? We’ve eaten at this place only twice so that certificate likely wouldn’t be used. I asked if they could just refund is $4. Again the employee had to go in the back and ask their manager. When they returned they came back with $4 in cash. Not sure why they couldn’t just refund my card but I’ll take the cash.

I think this poor experience is really a lesson in leadership or lack thereof. Employees aren’t empowered to refund $4, the manager has an opportunity to do what is right and refuses (unethical), and the manger can’t come out of the back to address the situation directly. Issues happen but how you deal with them...

This was my first experience at the Habit and I was less than impressed. I was excited because one of their taglines is Custom Built - quality food made to order. As for cleanliness, it seems fine. The tile floors are a bit greasy but other than that it is pretty clean. It’s also still brand new. I ordered a regular char burger and requested it made it order by asking for it to be cooked Medium Rare. I was told that the lowest hey could do was Medium Well. I got the burger and it was cooked Well Done. How is that made to order? The fixings on the burger to include the grilled onions were delicious, but the burger wasn’t cooked to order. So I was already disappointed. On a good note the kids meals come with a fun gummy hamburger which my daughter enjoyed. The fries and the sweet potato fries had potential but they were room temperature. When were those cooked? We also ordered a milkshake even though the flavors were pretty limited. The staff were friendly, but overall I will pass on coming back anytime soon. For a sit down burger joint, it felt more like a chain than the best tasting burger in America as advertised. It’s unfortunate because I was really hoping to find a solid new burger joint where they cook burgers the right way - Medium Rare....