Taco Del Fire

Tonight I visited the Taco Del Mar location on Lake City Way in Seattle with a friend of mine and had the worst experience, ever.

At first, the guy who tried to take our orders seemed stoned. He was overly casual and not very organized. He had to ask a couple of times for the name on the order, and for exactly what we were ordering. He would forget before writing it down and then would have to ask again.

Then while we were waiting for our food, two other customers who had been waiting a long time (20 minutes according to them), finally got their order, but it was only half of what they ordered (one burrito instead of two). We all went outside while they waited for the rest of their stuff since the inside of this store was like a steam room... the windows were literally dripping and the temperature was insane.

Finally the other guys got their order and left, and we continued to wait for our food, watching the two employees the entire time. They were virtually incapable of keeping it together. They couldn't get orders straight and had to ask people who were sitting waiting for their orders just what they had ordered.

They joked as they tried to get food made about how the one of them didn't even smoke dope. He figured perhaps if he did, he would be better at his job. I am pretty sure the other guy was stoned.

We watched in amazement as one of the guys tried to wrap my burrito several times, unsuccessfully. This made we wonder how in the world they were able to roll their joint. Eventually he just kind of mashed my burrito all into a ball and wrapped the foil around it. When I finally got it, it had the wrong kind of beans in it. I wasn't about to complain only to have to wait for them to attempt to get it right. They then had to ask just what my friend had ordered before they could make it. They just had no idea.

My friend's quesadilla was cooking, for a long time, and he started to smell something burning. We joked that it was probably his food that was burning since they had left it in for so long. Once the smoke started pouring into the rest of the store from the back we, and other customers, alerted the staff that there was a fire or something... They assured us there was no fire. We insisted - there was smoke - and obviously something wasn't right! One employee went into the back and we actually saw flames shooting out of the oven as he opened the door. Later, he brought the smoking taco salad shells out to the sidewalk in a pan where he left them, unattended, to stop smoking/cool down. Later he told us that he had tried to put the fire out with the fire extinguisher but that it wasn't in working order.

When he finally got his quesadilla, it was all mashed together and wrapped in foil. We also observed that they did not change their gloves once, and yet they were walking around touching all kinds of things while making the food.

All in all, while very entertaining, this situation, I am sure, cost them several customers. Some other people that had ordered, but not yet paid, just left. Others left with food, but in disgust after seeing what they had just seen and after having to wait so long to get their food. The guys inside did not realize this though as they were frantically trying to finish making all the food. We advised them that everyone had left and they could stop making food.

In defense of the guys working there tonight, I will say that the order-taking system in use at this location seems to have been one of the reasons they were having so much trouble. They use markers on laminated cards to record what people order, then those cards are used when actually making the food. The thing is, the place is not set up for this at all and the cards quickly become disorganized, and the marker rubs off. The one guy who was taking all of the orders had marker all over his gloves.

They also explained to us, later as my friend was trying to eat his food, that this was extremely out of the ordinary for them. That it wasn't always like this. Apparently a number of people had come in with large orders ("like 5 tacos! and 3 burritos!" Unheard of, I am sure!) and everything just fell apart. But I am pretty sure they were just stoned.

Unbelievable. Think we'll go back? yeahhh... I still have a few punches on my free burrito card.

*UPDATE*

After calling Taco Del Mar corporate and telling them the story we have been sent some free "burrito bucks". It looks like we all won.