The only Rubio's I've been to here is in the Emeryville shopping center, right next to the movie theater, which is a very prime location. I've been there twice and it was mostly full the first time, and entirely empty the second time, which was last week, before I saw Alien.  I never saw one in San Diego, in any location, any time of the day or night, that didn't have at least 20 people inside. Rubio's there are by far the busiest fast food places I've ever seen, on the whole.

The food is fine up here; it's the prices that are annoying.  Higher than they are in SD, at least at the one I've been to, and the special they had was especially annoying.

They had a 3 tacos meal, which comes with chips and beans.  The only options were one each of their carne asada, chicken, and fish tacos. Now I love their fish and would eat a chicken if I had to, but carne asada is beef, and I don't eat that. So I wanted that deal for the price, but I wanted to switch out the beef for chicken or fish.  No can do; the cashier girl stared blankly when I asked her. I looked up at the menu and yes, carne asada tacos cost more than chicken or fish.  I went ahead and got my usual 2 fish tacos meal, and it was excellent, if about 1 taco short of my desired combo plate.

After we finished Malaya went to the bathroom, and since the place was empty, I went up to look at the menu and talked to the new cashier, since the first one had gone off work just after she took our order.

I don't remember the exact prices, but they had 2 taco combos with beef, chicken, or fish.  The carne asada was about $3.59, chicken was $3.49, and fish was about $3.29.  So I asked the new cashier, once I made her understand that I'd already eaten and wasn't ordering; I was just asking a question.  That whole thinking thing was throwing her off.

Anyway, I said that I'd wanted the 3 taco combo but that since I didn't eat beef, I'd wanted to substitute a fish or chicken for the carne asada. She immediately said, "Manager told us no substitutions."

I said that I understood that, but asked if the carne asada combo wasn't more expensive than the chicken or fish?  She said that it was, so I asked why I couldn't switch out a more expensive beef for a less expensive chicken or fish, if I was willing to pay the same amount for the three taco platter.  She said manager told them to make no substitutions.

Now they make all of their food fresh there; isn't not like they are defrosting and nuking some shrink-wrapped plate with 3 tacos on it, one of each type.  People order singles and doubles of every kind of taco all day, so there's absolutely no reason not to mix and match them, in terms of supply or cooking difficulty or whatever.  I was willing to pay the full 3 taco combo price, $5.49 or something like that, for 3 tacos, and even substitute out 5 or 10 cents worth of carne asada for chicken or fish.

Now if someone wanted to substitute 2 carne asadas for the fish and chicken, I could see them objecting to that, since it would be getting 30 cents more of beef for free, or something like that. But why the hell not the other way?  I wanted to spend another dollar fifty there for about a quarter's worth of food, but they wouldn't make the simplest change to let me do it.  And this is a Rubio's that's certainly losing money, given their high rent store location and lack of customers.  They should be desperate to make any sort of reasonable deal at this point.

I know why they don't do it; fast food employees aren't smart enough to think on their feet and make substitutions or changes to any pre-determined course of action, so they can't be allowed that option, since they'd screw things up. But what I wonder is if the manager is just as dumb as they are, and never considered the possibility of someone who didn't like beef, or chicken, or fish? Or did he consider it but reject it since he knew it would be too much for his employees to deal with?

Since I doubt the manager of the Rubio's at the Emeryville mall is reading this, I guess I'll never know.

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