Noodles and Company — Restaurant in Ames

I have no clue as to why this place has a 4.4 review. I literally came to this location 06/11/2019 around 9ish and ordered some food. I ordered a regular steak based noodle bowl with a side of Korean Meatballs and a Penne Rosa with also a side of Korean Meatballs, 2 fountain drinks and a cookie. First off the noodles in both dish has been by far the worst noodles I have ever tasted and it’s an embarrassment to the Italian cuisine world, noodles weren’t even cooked throughly. I have tasted food more edible that doesn’t even look edible to eat better than what I just tasted. Any elderly could eat those 2 dishes without even having to put his/her dentures and tell the difference between edible and inedible. Hardly any sauce on my Penne Rosa. The only tasting thing in the entire meal was the Korean Meatballs but still lacked sauce. The whole point of food is to make your customers be able taste the food and not have them think a fast food such as McDonald’s should have been their first pick. For me to have to pay $31 for a meal is by far a waste of money, it lacked taste, texture and no sense of direction as far as what they are suppose to stand for and dish out. I took one bite of each dish and threw them in the garbage. It was so bad that if the garbage itself had feelings and emotions it would tell me that they don’t want that kind of ungodly type of trash thrown in them. I’m sure a garbage if it were to taste these dishes they would call it worst that trash if there was another word for trash or garbage....

After my first review, I'm leaving another one today. I guess I came back here today for the first time in almost two years, and nothing has changed yet! The food was excellent, and the staff is still super kind and friendly! Even though the first order went wrong partly due to my fault, -because of the mask, it became more difficult for me to enunciate and help others understand me- Tommy and the other, super kind employee (I'm sorry I didn't get his name) offered me free noodles (Korean Spicy BBQ Noodles). And without him, I could never have been able to get my food tonight because it was my first time to use Apple Pay, and he kindly taught me how to do it! THANK YOU!!

The food was great! The owner and the staff were super kind and friendly! I had Korean dish from the menu which I was doubtful at first, but it was far better than I expected. The owner listened to me very carefully and never hesitated to welcome my opinion about the menu. He seemed to be ready and willing to listen to all of his customers’ opinions about his business. My son swiftly ate up the meatball spaghetti and asked for another. When I went back to the counter, they gave me one more on the house after hearing my regrets that I should have ordered the bigger one in the first place. I would really like to go back...

I ate dinner there tonight at 6:00. Place was super packed, loud. Our server messed up half the tables order, no biggie though I get how hectic it was. Server gave me my entree, but walked off with my side still on his tray. I followed saying "excuse me" several times. He didn't hear, I caught up to him at the edge of the pick-up counter where he was talking to a co-worker. Said "excuse me" again, loudly, no one heard. I reached out and tapped his elbow to get his attention, got it, politely asked for the forgotten side, and he said of course, be right out with it.

At the end of dinner, in front of all my friends, the servers co-worker (some young woman with purple/green hair) told me she would kick me out if I ever touched an employee or went in her kitchen again.

If she wanted to talk to me about store policy, she could have asked to speak to me privately. I was so embarrassed. I don't know if I'll...