EL
Eric Lazarian
Apr 26, 2026
This Taco Bell location is one of the mixed ones in terms of service and cleanliness, and they have often gotten my sauce packet orders wrong (and that's through both their own app and through Uber Eats) but lately I have noticed a sharp drop in service quality.
As I was forced to use cash one time, they made me wait until someone who could use the register could come to the front, but I was going to ignore that, until things started getting worse.
They were slow to give me change, and dropped some of it out of my hands as they clearly were not used to handing change back that included coins. (all for 5 cents over the whole dollar amount) ...though they did help me pick up the fallen dime.
I had verbally ordered no rice, but they had typed "SUB Beef" TO Rice which they did check, but then when I confirmed, they didn't even bother to change it. Quite insulting, but I didn't find this out until I got my order. They hadn't asked for packet choice either, but we can let that go.
Once I got the order, I grabbed my own 2 hot sauce packets, the hottest one I could find, and sat down and as I ate it, it was poorly packed for a Beefy 5 Layer Burrito. Then I noticed quickly that it was packed with rice, and NO BEEF, the opposite of what I wanted.
I got up to verify this and (oh, and the person in the back pronounced my name completely wrong to the point of being the butt of a joke, getting all but the first letter wrong and adding in phantom ones) and couldn't find the person who had called out my order, but I saw the person who had taken my order rushing out the door making sure NOT to make eye contact. He clearly didn't care about customer service. Considering the pay scale at these places, I almost couldn't blame him.
On top of all this the place was NOT as clean as it usually was, PLUS one of the bathrooms was out of order, which has never happened there before.
The other TB that I sometimes go to now has some seedy folks hanging around trying to take over the corner, so I may have to try one of the other four that I can get to on foot. This is a temporary thing for me, as I can't stand fast food, but their value is quite good as a chain, though you have to buy the larger boxed orders to really get that. As soon as I can, I will definitely punt on American fast food, save for times on road trips.
I doubt they care enough about customer service to do anything about this. Don't bother with this one, as Coolidge Corner has so many better choices, but I totally get trying to save a few bucks here and there these days.
tldr: If you’re trying to get quick food, this ain’t it.
Here’s the problem.
You have an understaffed, badly fitted kitchen and then you add fast food management styling to it.
As a result you have honest, hardworking people who are hamstrung by genuine brainrot when it comes to protocol.
Changing fryalator oil daily is a hugely important thing. Doing so in the middle of a lunch rush is, frankly, dim witted, and will turn away customers.
Twice now I’ve ordered a 2 item order over 20 minutes in advance but because of the fryer, I’ve had to cancel my order.
Pathetic from a common sense perspective, and not a problem at the other location on comm ave.