When fast food isn't fast.

Today was a particularly busy day at my restaurant. That sort of thing happens during the holiday season. It means lots of guests, and hopefully lots of tips although it doesn't always work out that way.

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While I was running around helping lots of people I couldn't help but notice my intense craving for tacos. I love tacos. I did have a breakfast taco this morning but I wanted some regular meaty tacos.

As I left work I knew that I had two choices. I was now super hungry and super tired. I could drive over to the Mexican restaurant that is near my house. The food is really good and fairly inexpensive.

I could also go to Taco Bell which is not as good but it's usually really easy and quick to get in and out of there.

I decided on Taco Bell because I was very hungry and I didn't feel like waiting around for the food to be made at the Mexican restaurant near my house.

As I drove up to Taco Bell I was really glad to see that there was no one in the restaurant at all. There was no line and my order was taken right away. It seemed like I was going to be out of there really quickly.

After about 10 minutes I started to think that my food was taking out a long time. A lady walked in behind me and ordered her food and she also begin to wait.

After a few more minutes the guy working behind the counter put on his jacket and said bye to the people in the restaurant. One of the drive-thru workers also put her jacket and decided she was going to leave. By then it had been about 20 minutes since I had ordered.

I asked if anyone could check to see what was taking my order so long.

After a few minutes a rather ornery woman came out to tell me that the potatoes needed to be cooked before they could give me my order and that's why it was taking longer than normal.

Potatoes needed to be cooked for my potato taco.

I was finally given my food after waiting for about 25 minutes.

When I was handed the bag I was told that the restaurant wanted to make sure I had fresh food and that therefore they need to cook all of my food instead of giving me old food.

Apparently they are giving you old food if you just grab your food quickly, and otherwise will take more than 20 minutes to cook your order.

They could have avoided annoying their customer by letting him know it was going to take longer than expected. If they knew the potatoes were going to take a while to cook they could have come out and told me Hey, those potatoes are going to take awhile would you like to order something else?

They didn't do this. Instead they just let me wait without knowing what was going on.

When they finally gave me my bag they acted like this was normal procedure because they wanted me to have fresh food and it takes time even though they are Taco Bell.

I feel like the potatoes should already have been made.

I feel like somebody dropped the ball here, and instead of telling the customer what was going on made him wait 25 minutes even though he had been on his feet for more than 10 hours working at his restaurant.

The very reason he chose Taco Bell was because it was going to be much faster than the competing better tasting restaurant that he did not go to.

I can tell you that I'm never going to go to that particular Taco Bell again.

I'm not sure if Taco Bell is a franchise or not, but whoever owns that Taco Bell should be very disappointed in their employees.

That is simply not the way you treat a customer.