Irked with Taco Bell

[MeatlessGourmet]

There's not alot of fast food options in Santa Fe, NM that fit well with our lifestyle and can still keep the kiddos happy. I'm happy with Subway, but it gets old after awhile, and we're forced to eat out when we go to town to run errands as the nearest town is an hour away from our house.

So we've went to Taco Bell on a few occasions. Only one of the times we've "dined" at this facility have they gotten the order correct. They keep giving us meat eventhough the receipt clearly indicates that we asked for them to leave it off. But this last time when we went through the drive thru, they gave us meat and we went back to exchange as always. We set off again after checking for meat. I took a few bites and found that they took out the meat but left something worse inside my burrito.....a hair!!! UGH!!!! So much for lunch for me. After inspecting everyone's food thoroughly, I ended up sharing my husband's. I don't think it was a malicious thing....but equally gross none the less. And frustrating because I don't want to go back and that limits us even further now.

We're ovo-lacto so it's not quite as bad as the vegans have it here, but there aren't many options. There's things we can get a restaurants, but sometimes you need something really quick if you're in a hurry....and even Subway can be slow. I guess maybe I'm going to be forced to pack our lunches from now on.

Sorry.....just needed to rant a little :-/

[cstadt]

Yep. Well anybody anywhere can get that sort of nasty stuff. Even at 'restaurants.' My dad found a gigantic staple in his salad at Long Horn once. One of those staples you'd find in a wooden crate or something. Ugh.

But nobody wants to find a hair! Like you say, it's hard a lot of the time. And though it takes more prep. work, making lunches ahead is always a good choice. That way, you at least know what you'll find in your food!

[dormouse]

I've found that the quality of Taco Bell's service varies immensely from store to store. Some stores are really good about your special requests, but at others, it's obviously they don't give a crap.

[Skylark]

You don't pack sandwiches and sliced veggies? PBJs saved my family a lot of money when I was a kid, that's for sure.

[LabileLotus]

Yep. Well anybody anywhere can get that sort of nasty stuff. Even at 'restaurants.' My dad found a gigantic staple in his salad at Long Horn once. One of those staples you'd find in a wooden crate or something. Ugh.

But nobody wants to find a hair! Like you say, it's hard a lot of the time. And though it takes more prep. work, making lunches ahead is always a good choice. That way, you at least know what you'll find in your food!
Or at least you'd only find YOUR OWN hair, not someone elses lol

[LadyBaltimore]

You should write to the corporation. They will straighten them out. There are standards, even ones that dictate you should get what you ordered exactly like you asked for it. And the hair is definately unacceptable!

[MeatlessGourmet]

You don't pack sandwiches and sliced veggies? PBJs saved my family a lot of money when I was a kid, that's for sure.

You know, I keep saying that I will, and then I'm always short on time. I just need to stop the excuses and DO IT. I always make snacks and things when we travel, but I'm bad when it's just a day of errands. Heaven knows it would taste better too!


Or at least you'd only find YOUR OWN hair, not someone elses lol

hehe.....so true. My hair would gross me out enough.....at least it's from my own head though!


You should write to the corporation. They will straighten them out. There are standards, even ones that dictate you should get what you ordered exactly like you asked for it. And the hair is definately unacceptable!

I have thought about it. I guess it's just easy to feel defeated as a consumer because you don't feel like they'd do much to change anything. I need to go see if I can report them online.

[LetoTheTyrant]

Seems right on par with a ****hole like taco bell

[MeatlessGourmet]

I filed a complaint and let them know that I will not be back again and will pass on my experience to the rest of the vegetarian community. We've gotten meat in our food every single time, except once, from both locations in town. And while the meat mistake is enough of a pain in the rear to have to go back and fix....especially when you've driven away.....nothing grosses me out more than hair in food.

I just don't get why there aren't any healthy options in fast food? My husband and I rant about this frequently. I mean isn't a simple sandwich the ultimate fast food? I know there's Subway....but I have yet to be to one that's truely "fast". I don't need to be able to choose every little thing to put on my bread....can't you just have some standard options to pick from? I just don't understand how more than half of the country can be currently on a diet, yet everything that pops up makes meals that are 1000 calories and 60 grams of fat and filled with meat! I really wish we had a Jason's Deli near us......all the good restaurants are 2 hours away in ABQ. :(

[fadeaway1289]

I'm sorry you had a bad experience. I would suggest writing the company also or emailing them through their website. I have also found that certain locations are just better than others. One thing I've found helpful when out and forgetting to bring something with me is grocery stores. A few of the grocery stores here have little cafe type things inside near their bakeries. They offer wraps which they can add hummus and veggies to , have a pretty decent salad bar and occasionally have vegan /vegetarian soups. Most of them make pizza too or offer pizza slices.

[PlaybackGuru]

Maybe its what you order, I have never had a problem. But its always a bean burrito minus cheese add tomato. I know it has been suggested to order a beef such and such and leave off the beef, but no thanks. Someone sees beef and puts it in, I don't need to confuse them even more.

It sucks when trying to eat out sorry about your experience.

[Wolfie]

Or at least you'd only find YOUR OWN hair, not someone elses lol

Or your own dog's hair. :p

But I agree that level of service definitely varies between Taco Bell restaurants.

[froggythefrog]

Meatless Gourmet: Isn't Bumblebee's Baja Grill still open up there? They're very vegetarian friendly and they do have a salsa bar, which is one thing I do think we need more of around here! :)

[MrFalafel]

There seem to be a couple of veggie friendly cafes in your area. Perhaps they can be an alternative in the future?

http://www.happycow.net/north_america/usa/new_mexico/santa_fe/

[MeatlessGourmet]

There is a BumbleBees in SF. We haven't eaten there since we became veggie, so we'll have to go back to try them out. There's definitely some places to eat if we have the time to dine in. The difficulty comes when we need to grab that really fast meal. Normally we're not rushing so much, but our dog was recently diagnosed with cancer and isn't doing well on his meds so we try not to leave him too long. Being that the trip to town takes up 2 hours of driving time on it's own....we're usually pretty rushed to run our errands as we try to save everything up to just a couple of days a month.

We have had a fine meal at Olive Garden, but haven't eaten indoors in SF since turning veggie anywhere else. It's a bit different when we go to ABQ because we put him in doggie day care down there, so we have a bit more freedom. And there's plenty of places down there that we can work around our lifestyle. Although I have to say, I will never go back to Gardunos again! Such a horrible experience as a veggie.

There's a Whole Foods in SF that I'm going to grab something at the next time we don't have time to pack us lunch. And I can't wait for the Sunflower Market to get built! I just wish we had one up here near us!! Our Smiths is a good grocery for such a small town and it has a good variety of ethnic packaged foods which is really nice. And the produce is of good quality, so we can't complain. I do go and drool over the larger options when we're down in town though :)

[froggythefrog]

Gardunos is where we send the tourists. ;)

[MeatlessGourmet]

I grew up eating there whenever we visited my grandparents that lived in ABQ because my grandfather was friends with the owner. It was ok, and I loved the sopapillas (I was a kid so fried bread filled with honey won me over). But they are not like they used to be (the restaurant, not the sopapillas).

I was soooo mad, I requested a tamale without pork (they make cheese ones as it's listed on their menu for the same price as the pork ones) and they wanted to charge me an additional $5 to leave something out of my meal. Then they slopped a pile of goopy meat stuff on my son's meal when we requested no meat (his words.....looked like vomit). To top it off, they over-charged us and we had go through a whole ordeal with the manager to change it to reflect the prices on the menu (not counting the tamale, as I got something else). I was disappointed as I read on a veggie site online that they were very veggie friendly. However, their menu must have changed since they were reviewed as none of the items I read about were on there. And to boot, it was my daughter's B-day meal :-/ We should've just waited out the crowd at the California Pizza Kitchen instead.

By the way, I just recieved a call from Taco Bell appologizing for the problems we've encountered. Apparently they feel that they have meticulous hygenine at that facility and several of their employees wear hats (not sure how that would ensure no loss of hair into the food.....I would think hair nets would be more appropriate), but the manager was polite about it all. He offered to pay for our next meal, which I politely declined. I appreciate the offer, but I explained that I wasn't seeking any sort of monetary compensation, I just wanted them to be aware of the situation. And that honestly, hair in food grosses me out more than just about anything else and it would be quite some time before I could get it out of my mind while eating their food so I can't tell them when I would be coming back. I also mentioned that there was a pretty good sized population of vegetarians in SF and getting meat in their order is not only upsetting, but it wastes their food since they have to throw the "mistakes" away. Hopefully, it will help these establishments to pay better attention to customer's needs.

[LabileLotus]

Never had much of an issue with taco bell...but today I ordered my son and I some fries at burger king because I was in a huge rush and figured "eh one time won't hurt". Came home and had to get the other kid down for a nap, feed dogs, etc and when I finally checked our bag there were just 3 things of chicken nuggets...wtf?

[Tori~CL]

Never had much of an issue with taco bell...but today I ordered my son and I some fries at burger king because I was in a huge rush and figured "eh one time won't hurt". Came home and had to get the other kid down for a nap, feed dogs, etc and when I finally checked our bag there were just 3 things of chicken nuggets...wtf?

That is why I always check the bag before I ever drive off.

[LabileLotus]

That is why I always check the bag before I ever drive off.

Yea I normally do too, I just didn't this time as I had my toddler yelling in my ear "MOMMY I EAT NOW!!!" over and over while the baby was crying and screaming bloody murder. I just wanted to rush home as fast as possible and feed them and get them down for naps. Thankfully I called Burger King and they apologized and said if I come back in they'll give me fries and extra fries lol. At first they said they'd throw in a whopper...had to explain stuff to them after that lol

[razor]

I filed a complaint and let them know that I will not be back again and will pass on my experience to the rest of the vegetarian community. We've gotten meat in our food every single time, except once, from both locations in town. And while the meat mistake is enough of a pain in the rear to have to go back and fix....especially when you've driven away.....nothing grosses me out more than hair in food.

I just don't get why there aren't any healthy options in fast food? My husband and I rant about this frequently. I mean isn't a simple sandwich the ultimate fast food? I know there's Subway....but I have yet to be to one that's truely "fast". I don't need to be able to choose every little thing to put on my bread....can't you just have some standard options to pick from? I just don't understand how more than half of the country can be currently on a diet, yet everything that pops up makes meals that are 1000 calories and 60 grams of fat and filled with meat! I really wish we had a Jason's Deli near us......all the good restaurants are 2 hours away in ABQ. :(



keep the receipt and when you call 1 800 taco bell so you can state the time and store .

i have in almost 20 years of being vegetarian/vegan and a frequent Taco Hell customer only had 2 times when they screwed up and slopped meat into my food.

if you are saying "beans" instead of "beef", with those intercoms that can sound the same.
say "REFRIED beans" and " NO MEAT" (NO CARNE if the store has a lot of spanish speaking employees).

do you have Del Taco?

or Carls Jr. with a Green Burrito menu ?

or sometimes taco trucks are veg friendly.



good luck and good eats !!!!!