Abelardo's Mexican Fresh — Restaurant in West Des Moines

Disappointing Location - Not Representative of Abelardo's Standards

This Abelardo's location falls far short of what I've come to expect from this franchise, creating an embarrassing experience when trying to introduce family to the brand.

Northwest Iowa Expectations vs. Reality: Maybe we do things differently in Northwest Iowa, but this experience was completely different from other Abelardo's locations I've visited. The standards and service quality were noticeably lower across the board.

Nickel and Diming Customers: At every other Abelardo's I've been to, complimentary chips come with access to the salsa bar - that's part of the standard experience. Apparently not at this location, where you have to pay extra for chips. This feels like nickel and diming customers for what should be a basic offering.

Poor Service and Staffing Issues: The service was seriously lacking. I actually had to walk back into the kitchen area to get staff attention because the front counter attendant had completely disappeared, presumably to use the bathroom. Having no one available to help customers is unacceptable.

Cheap Presentation: The food presentation was disappointing - everything came in styrofoam disposable takeout boxes along with plastic bowls. My previous experiences at this franchise have always included real silverware, plates, and bowls. This felt more like fast food than the sit-down restaurant experience Abelardo's usually provides.

Food Quality: The food itself was acceptable, meeting basic expectations for taste and preparation.

Franchise Reputation Damage: This particular location does the Abelardo's franchise no favors. I had brought family there specifically bragging about how great this restaurant franchise was, and unfortunately this experience did not win them over at all.

Bottom Line: This location is extremely disappointing and not representative of the Abelardo's brand standards I've experienced elsewhere. Management needs to address service, presentation, and policy issues to match franchise expectations.

Poor representation of what should be a quality...

We ordered food on July 29th via their website. Which we have done many times before. We pull up to get our food and never received it because they claimed they never got the order on their end. Even when showing the person the receipt and showing them the charge on my card. Which. It’s hard to deny because it literally says “Abelardos Mils Civic” for the charge title and receipt. She turns us away stating she can’t make the food because she doesn’t have the order. Which I understood at the time because I understood not wanting to get in trouble for not being able to prove they had an order to fulfill.

So I end up disputing the charge with my bank. Explained everything that happened. Provided the phone number and address of this place to my back.

2 weeks later the bank has denied my refund stating the restaurant claims they have fulfilled their obligations and provided the goods/services. I contacted my bank to notify them that this is absolutely false. They didn’t. We literally got turned away from this place because they were having system issues and didn’t have our order. My bank stated that they called this location to confirm my story and were told we were given food.

I can’t seem to get anyone on the phone let alone a manager to sort this out.

I guess the moral of the story is never order from their website or have any issues or you’ll be out money.

Edit: updating my rating from 1 star to 4 stars. A day after leaving this review I received a text from the owner of the restaurant, Brenda. She let me know that I would be receiving a full refund within 2-3 days and offered a gift card to me.

I genuinely appreciate that this got figured out and hopefully won’t be an issue again for anyone else...

Had delicious food at Other Abelardos in des moines, but 1st time coming to this Mill Civic location and it was bad. Coming from Minneapolis, MN to visit family in DMI and looking forward to some good mexian food, came to this location on Saturday, May 6th, 2017 @ about 6pm. This location needs to do better. I ordered 2 lengua tacos and 1 steak taco. They were not hot at all. Had no flavor in their meats, very dry and they did not give me any hot sauce for my tacos when i requested. My boyfriend got 2 steak tacos per his request he just wanted cheese on them and on flour tortilla, it was not hot, the cheese was not melted on, more like clumps and cold chunks of shredded american cheese on top. Atleast if they would've made the tacos HOT the cheese could've melted on itself. His tacos were VERY DRY, again no flavor and no sauce came with it per request. & not to mention it was only 1 car infront of us and the wait in the drive thru was So Long!! Sucks to get "not hot tasty food" that you paid $20 for and waited atleast 35 Mins for. You would think waiting for that long you would get Very hot, tasty food but Sad to say You dont. I will never come back to this location whatsoever. I wouldn't suggest this place to no one. If anything I'd say go to the other locations, NOT THIS ONE! ITS NOT WORTH YOUR TIME NOR...