Garbanzo — Restaurant in Colorado Springs

If I was able to give a lower star review I would. I have quite literally never had a worse experience in any food establishment. We mobile ordered on 8/20/23 and the order was to be ready at 6:50pm. We get there about ten minutes after our order was supposed to be ready and walked into one person very slowly serving customers and barely acknowledging anyone in there let alone letting people know if they were working on their orders. They lost multiple customers who were just waiting in line to order mainly because they didn’t speak a word to anyone or communicate anything. I’ve been working in customer service for years now and it’s baffling that they didn’t at least apologize for the wait. I don’t know who is training the workers there but the lack of customer service is appalling. We didn’t get our order until after waiting an hour and multiple people coming in after and being served. It seemed like they might have been needing to cook more gyro meat for our order which is fine, but we stood there for far too long with them not saying a single word to anyone. I even stepped into line to ask about my order and it still took them about 10 minutes to even acknowledge me. There were three people working and yet for some reason they consistently left the one girl by herself to complete all the orders. The cherry on top was that they made some of our order wrong, but by that point we were not about to ask for anything because the workers looked like they hated both us and their lives and were definitely not going to be thrilled to fix our meal. I was really excited to try it but I am sad to say I will not be...

Update: I decided to have lunch here. The value for price wasn't there like before. Again I was walked in right are they opened and the whole meal was kind of a disappointment. It kind of tasted like leftovers that were reheated. The rice has little clumps stuck together, and the chicken was overcooked. The cabbage wasn't cooked at all, more like a vinegar based slaw. Maybe that's how it's supposed to be but it was much better the first time I went. The garbanzo beans weren't bad, just not wow. The fries were still knock your socks off good I must say but even then, to pay that much for a meal, even with the economical increases, overall it wasn't worth it. I was pleased to find it was cleaner this time which was good.

Previous review:

The service was fairly good! We got there right when they opened so they were caught not quite ready so it may have been a little disorganized. The food was worth the slight disordered wait. Just scrumptious! We had the bowls. One falafel and one Portobello. The rice was so good we couldn't stop eating it even though we were actually getting satisfied and full. We also tried the fries. Just knock your socks off amazing! The fare is seriously cravable!

The only deduction in stars is due to the uncleanliness. I know places lack enough help but surely it doesn't take a lot of employees to do a good wipe down at closing to give the place a nice sparkle. As it was, the tables hadn't been cleaned well and the window ledge was...

I've been a big fan of Garbanzo's since the first or second location opened in Denver. When we moved to the Springs, we were happy to have one nearby. I worked at one of the early ones over in Denver as a teen, and we had much higher standards for just about everything, which is disappointing.

The cutting mats for the meat should be switched out after each use. This prevents bacterial growth and cross contamination. The one here way probably left out all day, and I saw them use it for different items, more than once while eating.

The food quality is hit or miss. Some things are obviously company policy or changes, but other things are not.

Dry, cold, hard rice/falafel/pitas/meat/grilled vegetables. The pitas are mostly disgusting and hard.

Overly salted chips. Questionable freshness.

Several times I've received CRUNCHY rice. Something that should be very hard to mess up.

We've each gotten sick a few times, and no, I don't even eat the meat.

The dining area is typically filthy, even when not busy you'll see the teens not cooking/cleaning or doing anything, yet it's all still a mess. The manager will kind of walk out to help them, she looks pretty miserable most the time. Why not train them better?

And several times they haven't been able to properly work a cash register.

We've found new Mediterranean food and...