Taco Bell — Restaurant in Traverse City

Welcome to the Twilight Zone: Fast Food Edition

So my girlfriend and I ordered pickup on DoorDash, thinking we’d just stroll over and grab our food like normal humans in a functioning society. Silly us. We arrive two full hours before closing time, only to find the doors locked tighter than Fort Knox after a bank robbery. Three employees made eye contact with us… and then consciously decided to do nothing. No wave. No “hey one sec.” Just that dead-eyed stare you get when you accidentally walk in on someone watching their soul escape.

No big deal. We pivot. Like any rational adults in 2025, we take our DoorDash hopes and dreams to the drive-thru window. After all, the app says our food has been ready for over 15 minutes. We knock. We wave. We do interpretive dance. Nothing. It’s like trying to get a response from a Magic 8-Ball filled with apathy and vape smoke.

Eventually, miraculously, someone slinks over to the window and tells us the store shut down early due to a “store emergency.” We ask, “Why do you have three full orders just chillin’ there on the shelf if you had an emergency over 30 minutes ago?”

Their response? Gaslight mode: “Those aren’t yours.” Us: “We literally have the order confirmation.” Them: “Still not yours.” Coolcoolcool.

So we ask for a manager, and the guy says—brace yourself—“I am the manager… in training.” 😳 Sir. That’s not a flex. That’s a plot twist.

Then, when we ask again to speak to a real manager, homeboy literally says:

“Honestly, I could call him from another store, but I’m scared how he’ll interact with you.”

Wait what?! 🤡 So now your chain of command is so emotionally fragile that you are too scared to summon your boss because we might get treated worse?! So many red flags, I thought I was at a Soviet parade.

Then came the grand finale: Apparently, the “store emergency” was a stalker customer filming an employee inside. Alarming? Sure. But instead of handling it and resuming operations like a normal business, this crew opted to throw the whole shift in the dumpster and leave paying customers ghosted like a bad Tinder date.

Moral of the story? If you’re hungry and thinking about this place, just… don’t. Go home. Eat an old granola bar. Lick a battery. Anything but subject yourself to this spiritual test disguised as fast food.

0/10. No stars. Just vibes. The kind...

First, it's a sat night at 6 pm. I ordered $50 of food and had no idea there were only 2 employees running the place inside. I'm from Grand Rapids and am used to seeing about 8 or more employees usually. So I can really understand being rushed and super stressed, and I truly appreciate the effort they put in for my 10-minute order. If I had known they would ask me to come inside to wait for the meal, I would have just come in and used the kiosk, but I fear the employee pictured would have still been very angry for my large order. They stayed consistently busy with 1-2 cars in the drivethru while I waited, and the drive thru was empty for a minute or 2 as I left.

My only issue was this guy. He was hustling and doing a great job... but he was SO ANGRY about my order. A customer came to the counter while I waited, and the employee told him angrily, "It's gonna be a while man". The customer asked for a cup of water. The employee said, "Come get a cup behind the counter, I don't care." He also was wearing no beard net and has a very full and bushy beard. In my restaurant, we require beards to be contained to follow food sanitation standards.

It's not super serious, and im really thankful for the meal for my family, but this guy was very obvious about how he was feeling about customers this night. I was so uncomfortable and felt so guilty just for coming to this location. Did every other employee call off on February 1st? Or is it normal to schedule 2 unfortunate employees on a weekend at dinner? It seemed like there should have been at least 4-5 people.

Hope this guy can find some happiness and purpose at this job or in life in general. I also hope it was just a bad night for him and not something bad going on in his life. To the other employee who was taking orders and helping angry man: THANK YOU for being so patient and kind! I appreciate your...

I order the chicken flatbread melts from here because the chicken quesadilla is too expensive for me now. Here's how my last two orders of three chicken flatbread melts turned out:

Second to last order: Cheese was not melted at all and the items were colder than room temp even though I live right down the road from this location. The managers here must tell the workers to pull the food out of the steamer as fast as possible which is totally backwards and unacceptable. Even though the workers are probably told to use minimal ingredients and to cook the food in a rush you'll still probably be waiting at least 20 minutes in the drive thru.

Last order of chicken flatbread melts: The tortillas were completely stale and tough and disgusting. The chicken tasted wrong and disgusting. The ratios of meat to cheese to sauce were all wrong and made me want to puke. At least this time they were slightly warm.

Do not waste your money here, you could save a lot of money by cooking this stuff at home and you'll probably do better than the people who work here on...