QDOBA Mexican Eats — Restaurant in Fairlawn

initially I had applied to be the GM of this location. The communication I got from the franchise owners was random and spotty and best. I have a lot of friends in the eastern suburbs by their other location and all of them so DO NOT DO IT. The Mayfield one has a horrible reputation. So I started getting bad vibes and backed away from the deal so to speak. Fast forward to their grand opening. I just randomly show'd up on their grand opening. That day was good. Service was fast. Food was decent. I was impressed by the manager with two colored hair.

Every other visit has been awful. Like all of what my friends say was true. Today I stood in line waiting while a lady in front of me had a family of orders on her phone. I watched two people who were managers ( black shirts) just doing stuff like filling bottles. They saw the line was nearing the door. But just looked up and went back to their bottles. This includes the multicolored hair lady. Who now looks like she hates her job. The line kept building. I even kind of gave a look to the manager like, hey jump on the line and help here. She smirked and walked away. I used to manage a jersey mikes . A managers job is to jump in and help wherever needed. Ensure speed, and good customer service. If online orders are slowing down in store service. Turn them off. All quick service places have the ability to disable door dash and uber eats to assist customers. This is actually the smarter thing to do because Doordash and ubereats penalize the business for not meeting their time estimates which pressures them to ignore in store customers. Every single person working there looks like they do not want to be there. No one smiles. They mumble. Today I felt like saying how many of you does it take to put in a light bulb? Three or four people were just wondering around all doing the same singular task.

When I finally got to put my order in someone who was working online orders came up INTERRUPTED the worker taking my order to ask a single question. Both workers stood their like deer caught in headlights for a minute. Then the worker who was helping me mumbled her way back to helping me. Then the same employee who first interrupted interrupted again with the same question to the cashier who was then ringing me out. Same thing happened. Both paused and just looked at the air they were breathing.

Finally the cashier went back to ringing me out.

If the franchise owners run both locations like this they will put themselves on the street in a year. You are investing your own money into this. Hire good people Train them Monitor to make sure your investment is returning

And I would rather not get a bot responding with o how horrible this is. Please respond to this email with this case number so we can fix this. If someone wants to respond it should be a...

If you're looking for a fast-casual Mexican restaurant that doubles as a psychological experiment, boy oh boy, do I have the Qdoba for you.

I placed an online order thinking I'd stroll in, grab my nachos, and be out in 5 minutes like a civilized adult. Instead, I embarked on a 45-minute spiritual journey through the full Five Stages of Grief:

Denial – “It’s only been 10 minutes. They probably just started it. No biggie.” Anger – “WHY DID I EVEN ORDER ONLINE IF THIS IS THE HUNGER GAMES?!” Bargaining – “Maybe if I make eye contact with a worker, they’ll take pity on me. I’ll even take no guac.” Depression – “I guess I didn’t need food today. Or joy. Or hope.” Acceptance – “This is my life now. I live here. I am one with the salsa.” The manager kept announcing, with the dramatic flair of someone auditioning for Kitchen Nightmares, that he “only had 4 people on shift.” Meanwhile, eight employees stood behind him, literally holding up the number 8 with their fingers like they were in an improv troupe called “We Can’t Lie Convincingly.”

It was like a hostage situation with queso.

To add flavor to this already spicy fever dream, one guy waiting next to me—who clearly hadn't eaten in days or had transcended mortal hunger—just gave up after 35 minutes and started hitting his weed pen in the dining area. I can't say I blame him. Honestly, if he'd passed it around, we'd all have taken a puff just to cope.

Eventually, I did get my food. Was it good? I don’t know. I blacked out from emotional exhaustion and woke up halfway through eating it in my car, crying into a tortilla.

Never again. But I’ll see you next...

Oh my stars, they're back! We fell in love with Qdoba many years when it was opened in Belden Village and were sad when it closed several years ago. We found that the closest one to us was down near Columbus, so we'd make the 1.5-hour journey there a few times a year.

We were excited to see that this one had opened when we looked today! Since we're in Canton, it's only a half hour from us, which is not bad at all. We went there for dinner tonight, and it was as good as it is at all the other locations. The portions were great, the food was fresh, and the queso, as always, was amazing.

Being a newer location, it seemed a little chaotic -- they ran out of chips unexpectedly (but restocked quickly), the cashier wasn't completely familiar with ringing things out (but nobody had any problems with their bill), and the quesadilla process was a bit confusing (but everyone got their food). But, the whole team helped each other out. Even though they were busier, nobody was grumpy with each other, and the people who knew the answers were happy to answer the questions of those who didn't. Those who didn't know the answers were thankful for the help. I work in a leadership role myself, and I would be proud to have that team on my own. They're a good crew! I fully expect that they'll be a well-oiled machine the next time we're there.

We'll...