Is there a consistently decent Taco Bell in Ottawa? [Food/Vendor]

2007 Mar 14
No slags for my occasional junk food cravings, please...

(rant)

First there was my irritation at Bayshore with "Duh-uh, we can't put beans in a taco. It would burn our fingers." The one in the east end -- a combo KFC/Pizza Hut/TB, on St Laurent? Mtl Rd? -- has gone from bad to worse. We routinely had problems with trying to get one order vegetarian and one not.

Last night, it was -- well, holy crap. The place was filthy. We were served by a little boy -- no older than 12, I swear. He was nice and did not screw up the beans/meat bit, but I'm unnerved to support child labour. Really, a very weird thing to run into; his head was almost level with the till.

No napkins, taco sauce, etc, left in the restaurant. I asked. "Ask him" (the kid) from another employee, who scurried off, passing the sauce behind the counter by a couple of feet. Mysterious, until, after waiting five-+ minutes, we found out that she had no idea what hot sauce was; it took several minutes of four people explaining and gesturing to get it. (The dipping sauce for the chicken kept being offered.)

By the time we were heading out, one woman there had found the distinterested manager to complain to; she got nowhere.

Taco Bell always seems to be missing the 20something-in-a-tie who's actually managing. Irritatingly. I'm mystified by these disinterested franchisees. The Quizno's I go to -- Bank and Slater, roughly -- always has the actual owner in it when I'm there; it's clean and friendly and I've never sent anything back, but all other fast food is turning into a gamble.

Yes -- yes -- I should stick to the good cheap restaurants; heaven knows Ahora does not have pricy tacos. But.

Any comments on good Taco Bells, and, for that matter, all consistently reliable fast-food places in the city?

2007 Mar 14
"The Quizno's I go to -- Bank and Slater, roughly -- always has the actual owner in it when I'm there; it's clean and friendly and I've never sent anything back, but all other fast food is turning into a gamble."

Sue? She's the best.

I can sympathize. Customer service isn't what it used to be and it used to be pretty bad. ;)



2007 Mar 14
Taco Bell is pretty nasty everywhere I guess. Any Quiznos franchise owner who is in a good enough mood to be friendly is doing well though! That's a company that's going down soon. The parent company charges so much for the ingredients that the franchise owners can't make any money, and a bunch of them are angry and suing.

What really gets my goat though is that Quiznos borders on criminal when it comes to nutritional information. For the longest time I could only ever find calorie info for their three "healthy" subs. Other people on the internet asked them for more and never got anything. Finally, someone told me that they post the nutritional information on their Australian website. The results were horrific: 1600 calories for a large Italian sub. That's almost twice what a Burger King Double Whopper has, and an entire roasted chicken has 1597 calories. They describe their bread as "artisan" which is just a bad joke, and to top it off I don't even think their sandwiches taste good. They are the only fast food establishment that I cannot describe without expletives. Not because the food is way worse than the others, but because they *pretend* to hold themselves to a higher standard. Okay I'm done. :-)

We should change this topic to be "Fast Food Rants" or something. :-)

2007 Mar 14
Holy crap that's amazing and in stark contrast to subway!

too bad because quizno's is so yummy! doubt i'll eat there again though after hearing that.