Garbanzo Mediterranean Fresh — Restaurant in Fort Collins

While the concept for this restaurant is great, the execution is just not there. This used to be my favorite restaurant but it has gone down hill in recent years. I've encountered product quality and ethics concerns regarding Garbanzo since just before Covid. If you want a health inspector approved meal and care about the rights of laborers, this may not be the restaurant for you. At the beginning of the pandemic, this store reopened as quarantine restrictions lifted. Most places reopening had food and staffing shortages, which is understandable considering the state of the economy, but Garbanzo did not seem to take any actions to resolve these problems and at some point seemed to neglect them entirely. A lot of the menu items were constantly out of stock, the employees looked overworked and , more than one piece of dining room equipment was in need of repair (an ice machine and a drink cooler which are accessible to customers and should be temperature regulate according to health code), I even spoke with some staff members who said their paychecks were repeatedly bouncing (even before the pandemic when a franchisee took over and they were instructed to cash their checks at cash advance places to avoid suspicion of fraud. Some staff even said they had overdraft fees in the hundreds. I also watched them haul in car loads of food from the nearest grocery stores and food distribution centers when Garbanzo could not provide the funds to supply the store themselves. These employees where paying out of their pocket to be reimbursed at a later date. This was shocking to me considering how Garbanzo is a multi-million dollar company. This was especially concerning considering every time I went into the store it was extremely busy. Business was exploding after quarantine. It just didn't add up. I can overlook the product shortage issues, but broken equipment and labor violations are not something I can support...

Super bummed... loved this place prior to our last order. We ordered 3 meals w one side (ordered through DoorDash)... 1st meal was made w NO meat when chicken was ordered. 2nd one was a wrap w falafel and maybe (maybe) had one or a partial one (Falafel) and the size was a 3rd of the normal wraps ordered in the past. And wait, a LONG black hair was wrapped up inside of it. Vomit. 3rd meal didn’t (yes did NOT) show up. Super disappointing, especially when we are trying to ordering and support business during the world pandemic. I know the order could have been caught by the door dash deliverer, door dash took care of us. However, I called the store and I got they have a whole new staff in training (Which I should accept the half a$$ order and the hair in my food?!?! Don’t think so)... and that was it. No nothing. He apologized and said he would help me out next time... bahaha I won’t be back. Unfortunately....

I would digress in saying I had a horrible experience. Its sad that i even had to make this review because i previously liked to eat here. The previous staff seemed really good. And the food is supposed to be better than most fast food. Its been a while since ive gone to garbanzo and today was a definite eye opener for how this place is starting to be run. The new employees seem to not care as much about the job and i overheard them saying negative things about the previous management as well as hearsay. Its sad to see people not taking their jobs seriously. I can understand if there may be problems in the workplace but you dont talk so openly about it to your co-workers loud enough that the customers can hear it. Not professional. And the way customer service changed. They have raised their prices, provide less food than they did before, and the take-home plates are cheaper. I probably wont be...