Mendocino Farms — Restaurant in Folsom

Absolutely chaos. Commitments made to order ready times they cannot meet at all. At least 18 people waiting for thier to go orders and staff seems so confused and working inefficiently. Lots of searching for orders and have no real process or cadence. Some standing around looking like lost deer in the headlights. The app updates to say the order status is "completed" but in reality they state they have not even started making it. I guess this is how the location manager can look good to corporate for "on-time" orders. Absolute joke. We were excited to see one open near us, but this will be the last visit for us. Still waiting 45 min for 2 sandwiches as I write this with no idea when it will be ready. 1 for service as it's a disaster 2 for ambiance as it is chaotic and no where for all the lost souls to wait but look cute if it was empty. 3 stars for food because I don't have it but hope it will be tasty and ready before they close. UPDATE: food downgraded to 1 because I never got it. After and hour wait (and 35 minutes after the App was updated to COMPLETE) still no food. So I ask another employees about how much longer and the answer is "I can't say for sure but it looks llle it will be a really long time" so I ask for a refund. She gets a manager who never says word to me, does some things on the computer and walks away. After waiting a few more minutes I had to ask about the refund and she asks the manager who says "it was refunded" but still says nothing to me. No apology, no offer for compensation, no attempt to make it right, no consideration for the fact I just waited an hour to go home without any food. I was able to obtain proof they were not processing orders in a first in first out fashion by asking a couple others about their order time. Seems maybe they weee giving priority to 3rd party delivery over direct customers. Sadly this is the worst experience I have had at any restaurant in years. Zero empathy for what they are putting their customers (or former customers) though. This maybe be an example of brand areogance if the corporate office condones this because the brand feels they are so hot and growing they can do no wrong.

Update - a few weeks later Mendo corporate reached out to make it right which I appreciate it. They provided a gift card to try it again, but so far no luck. We went for lunch and waited 15 min in line to order (4 people ahead of us when we walked in) and then we gave up. Never had so many challenges at the 2 Mendo locations we used to go to by our old house, not sure what the problem is with Folsom. May have to use the gift card at...

Update: Mendo manager replied telling me this experience is actually good! So I guess I’m just stupid. Well let’s pretend that experience didn’t happen. Every single time I go here the food is ice cold, the meat is tough as leather, and I am made to wait for my bag of food that has been sitting and is being ignored. Always called, tough, old food. Always.

Now let’s simplify my OG experience so the manager responding to reviews can comprehend what’s went wrong: I ordered food in store, sat down, and instead of bringing me my food, they let it sit on the back work counter for 10 plus minutes while I was repeatedly asking for my food and was told it wasn’t ready, but it was, right there. Had someone come out and ask for me by first and last name, walk away, never came back, and I had to walk up and say ok that is forsure my food it has my name on it can I have it. Sure enough it was and I got cold ass food thrown together by teenagers.

Og review: Ordered food to-go and sat down, random employee who did not take my order came up to me and repeated my first and last name asking if it was me telling me they'll be bringing my food to me - they proceeded to turn around and go stand by the counter next to a bag of food ready to go packed up. After 5 minutes I stood up and walked over to see if it was mine but that same employee stepped in front of me and said "You good...?" lol, so I said oh that must not be my food and I proceeded to stand there and wait another 5 minutes, until I realized I was reading my name on that bag - I never saw that employee again and had to ask them to give me my food. Yes, my food is entirely cold. I'm sure it tastes fine, place is super clean, etc etc - but this taller short haired dude just pissed us off pretty good. Food...

The food here is great. I've been three times and I feel more inclined to spend my money here than jacks urban eats - comparong for pricing in sandwiches and salads. I think it has slightly more of a healthier approach, no fries and no soda station- only house made lemonades, a black tea, and green juice of kale, arugula, lemon, and ginger. They do have bottled/ canned drinks. It's amazing that I can get refills of the green juice, it's pricey to make or even buy bottled at the store. The Mango Thai chicken salad is one of the best salads I have ever had. The happy hippie was texturally just not pleasant to me, just too much mushy ingredients - beet caviar, avocado, and hummus. I do like the freshness to it and my stomach appreciated it. The caprese pesto chicken sandwich was good. Just needed to dial back on the amount of pesto as it made the bread much heavier. The chimichurri steak and bacon sandwich had more pronounced of the onion jam and not so much of the chimichurri. Avo salsa Verde turkey sandwich was my second fave sandwich. The choice of cotija mixed with the avocado Verde is a good pairing. It offered the right amount of heat. The Italian sandwich was my favorite. That aoli is just amazing. For the sides I was pleasantly surprised I enjoyed the spicy curry couscous, not knowing what couscous was when I ordered it. Basically like a pasta salad. Not spicy in heat but fairly spiced and flavorful of curry. The Greek chicken and lemon soup looked better in person than it did online. If you like chicken noodle you'll enjoy. Just has farro instead of noodles. I had ordered my kid chicken tenders which she like. The apples were weird. Kinda salted, maybe to preserve? Going to be...