Noodles and Company — Restaurant in Denver

UPDATE: I have spoken the district manager several times. She has taken many steps to address my concerns including speaking personally with the employee, additional coaching of the GM around food contamination, and following up with the whole team. She also provided me free meal coupons. Knowing that she took it very seriously and took steps to correct the situation so it hopefully won't happen again makes me feel comfortable eating there again. So I've increase from a one start to a two star.

I ordered Japanese Pan Noodles with tofu. About 3/4 through my dish as the bowl was becoming empty I noticed 3 chunks of beef sitting at the bottom of my bowl. I am vegetarian. I felt violated and repulsed by this careless mistake. There are mushrooms in this dish which in a mixed dish can be visually similar to beef, which is why I did not notice right away. Chefs have a responsibility to make food safe and correctly for their consumers. It is a bond of trust which has been grossly violated. It is unethical to serve meat to a vegetarian. Beyond the fact that there was food contamination and the incorrect preparation of my order when I brought my concern to the cashier, he answered my concerns by saying "well, technically this order is right because there's tofu and technically you did not eat meat sooo....". He had no sympathy and made no move to rectify the situation. He said to me "sometimes pieces of other food makes it into other dishes"- as if that is somehow an acceptable thing to happen. Following this incident I felt physically ill and emotionally hurt. I am wholly dissatisfied with how the situation was handled and of course, how my food...

This place is out of control...I should have taken video of the situation that was going on with the team members the night we were in. I've already had too many bad experiences at this location and will not eat there. But, my wife wanted to pop in for take out while I was grabbing some take out from next door. It's just a quick take out, what could go wrong?... Everything!!! This place obviously has an extreme need for some quality leadership. Or, at least someone who is at least half way competent. Please understand I wouldn't typically bash an establishment this hard, but what I saw was so far beyond unacceptable, it was ridiculous. Unfortunately, I have already had a conversation with the District Manager about this location, and he seemed to have a great understanding of what it takes to succeed and flourish in this saturated quick/fast casual market, but at this point you've got to start to wonder if he has the tools at his disposal to get this broken restaurant moving in the right direction. By the way, it's not just this Noodles that's really struggling, they all seem to be. Obviously, they are in trouble, and it's written all over their consistent operational deficiencies. Which, would lead one to believe, they're executive leadership team needs some major evaluation and possibly is in need of a major over hall. I would love to discuss the the outrageous behaviors, lack of service, neglect of common food safety practices, poor quality from lack of SOP and system implementation, and most of all...the manager/supervisor/shift lead, that just stood by and watched it all...

I don't usually do or listen to Google Reviews, but this time around I just can't be satisfied. I've eaten here about 8 times now, every single time they messed up somewhere somehow. The most common one is that the noodles are too dry and mushy, it's not pleasant and I always end up drinking much more than I eat. Other times they flat out mess up my order, I had the peanut saute once and they completely forgot the peanut sauce. This isn't a rush time mishap either, there were only about 5 other customers in the restaurant and they were already eating their food. The only safe thing I could order from here is the Thai Hotpot because ingredients in a soup base is hard to mess up, yet they still screw it up somehow by adding way too little broth or the naan that comes with it ends up being hard and crusty or cold. Not to mention, I specifically tell them to cook my order a certain way like throwing the vegetables in early to soften them up a bit and give them more taste, the person taking my order hears it and tells the people to let them know, but then I watch them cook it and they don't throw in the vegetables until everything is already done.

Overall, I want to like Noodles & Company, but this location just has me at a loss, I don't think I'll ever see another Noodles & Company and think "Oh, that'll be a good place...