Café Zupas — Restaurant in Idaho

I ordered a personalized box lunch catering order online for my work for 13 people (to celebrate a new employee that just started with us). My confirmation and the email as I placed the order, had the same time for pickup: 12:45pm. I arrived at this Zupas 15mins early, hoping they’d have it ready early. I waited until my pickup time, & still no order. A lady who arrived after me was waiting & attempted to ask the manager (Ethan) her order status. Ethan immediately interrupted her & talked over her & said that her order will be ready when it is placed on the to-go order counters. Ethan didn’t even let the lady finish (I get it somewhat, Zupas was super busy, but you can be nicer & have someone check your paying customer’s order status). Due to this interaction, I decided that I’d wait & not try to bug them about my order.

As time went on, I saw big orders come & go, none that were mine. 20mins after my pickup time, an employee asked for my name so that she could check on my order (because I’d been there for over 30mins now waiting). That employee couldn’t find it, so she asked another employee. The other employee couldn’t find it either. Then Ethan-the-manager asked me for my name so he could find it. He had no luck either. Them checking all this took another 10+mins. Ethan then asked me for my order confirmation so he could look for it again. No luck. Ethan said that they did not have my order & then offered to call the other Zupas in the area to see if my order went to another store, no luck again (my order confirmation showed this store). Ethan apologized & stated that what he could do was put my order in now & it’d be ready in an hour. I told him no because by then, my coworkers would all have had their lunch hours over with.

Ethan stated that what he could do was to make sure my order got refunded. Yes Ethan, you’re going to refund my order, that’s not even a question. He took down my info & stated that the order will be refunded within 2-4 days or a maximum of 2 weeks! Ethan then said that he would have his catering supervisor for the area, Eric, call me to see what happened with our order (because I received confirmation that it went through along with an order number & pickup time). I asked Ethan what kind of compensation he could do for me since I had been at his Zupas for an hour now. He stated that he’d let Eric know. I asked again, well what about compensation for right now for my time that I’ve wasted being here & now I have to go back to my coworkers empty-handed. He stated that he could give me some drinks or something else ready-made. I asked for some desserts I could take back to my coworkers. He gave me 13 cookies to take them (the complimentary kind you get with your orders, so really, did I gain any real compensation for all the hassle I had to go through? I think not). Ethan could have given us better desserts/treats, but no, only free cookies was our worth to him.

My work’s custom-cater-order experience was terrible. If Ethan-the-manager would just let people ask him or other employees about their order status, then all this could have been avoided. And I could have known early-on that my order didn’t go through and Zupas could have had time to make it. If Ethan is that bothered by his paying customers asking about their orders, I think Zupas (or at least this location) should invest into getting a TV screen that shows customer’s orders on it and their status (like other restaurants I’ve seen do). Then Ethan or the other employees wouldn’t have to be bothered by their paying customers asking about their order. After I left I realized Ethan did not get my phone number. So I do not expect a phone call about this incident from him or his area supervisor, Eric (because again, they said they did not have receipt of my order). I hope that I am reached out to & receive compensation for my time & my coworkers’ order through this review & that Zupas will make this right (then I will change my rating...

Do you like bland food? Then you'll love Cafe Zupas! My wife and I went on a Thursday evening and ordered take out. She had the pick 2 combo with the turkey bacon avocado sandwich and tomato basil soup; I had the large California protein cobb and the California turkey sandwich.

The ordering experience was your typical lunch line format (welcome back to public school, kiddies!) but with upselling. The thing that got me, though, is they neglected to mention that they were upselling. The lady offered Parmesan cheese on my soup. Another recommended peppers for my sandwich. I accepted both and didn't find out it was extra until I hit the till. Sure, it was only $1.38 but you really ought to notify customers in advance you're charging them for seemingly innocuous suggestions. Also, where's my $0.69 credit for not getting tomatoes in my salad? Yeah, that's what I thought.

So we got our food, went home, and were underwhelmed. My "large" cobb salad was almost enough to fill a standard sized soup bowl (barely holds ~16 oz of soup) despite the fact that it came with enough dressing for three such salads. It came with an astounding three small slices of chicken; a smattering of bacon; a scattering of olives, edamame, and egg pieces; and the tomatoes I requested not be included. I recall the menu said it had avocado so I did some searching and found a tiny scoop of some green guacamole-like substance cowering in the corner of my salad box. I recall looking down at my salad, thinking "I paid $8 for this. Eight. Dollars." I tossed my salad, placed it in a little bowl,and found it was pretty...well...bland. It wasn't bad, it just wasn't GOOD. It didn't really taste like much. The chicken was bland. The frightened little green guacamole blob didn't taste like anything. The ranch dressing was nothing to write home about. So: 1. Tiny salad 2. Tiny flavor 3. Big price for what you get

After eating my little salad, I decided to try my little sandwich. Unsurprisingly, it was just as bland as the salad! Two thin slices of turkey, cheese, cucumbers, and more of the boring ranch dressing. I checked out the menu and apparently it was supposed to come with some sort of red pepper hummus. Apparently the person making my sandwich missed that memo.

My wife was similarly disappointed. Her soup was bland, as she noted that "tomato basil soup from the can has more basil flavor". She's not a fan of the canned soup. I tried it myself and found it to be very sweet and lacking in flavor. Similarly, her sandwich was boring. The bacon lacked flavor, she also found there was so little turkey that it might as well not be there, and her avocado was the same guacamole-like substance found on my salad.

That was our experience with the Zupas. For nearly $25, we got food we could have made better at home for less than half the price, even if half of it came out of a...

This was my first time eating out in the pandemic and Cafe Zupas wasn't a bad place to go. The staff were attentive, friendly, and helpful, the menu was decent at telling me what was what. I ordered the Thai Steak Salad, and it was okay, but not really Thai. Maybe because the person was new, although she was overseen by the first person in the assembly line. Also, we got there at 2, and boy where they busy. Much like Chipotle, they have several people in a line that each does a bit of the work for your order. So person #1 took our order, and started my salad, adding a vinaigrette dressing.. My companion got a soup that she normally orders, so she knew what to expect in the first place. Person #2 was new, and she looked up at the board to try to figure what what went with the salad. She was helped by person #1, and all was good. Person #3 got my companion her soup, then person #4 put each of our dishes on trays. Person #5 rang us up. Kind of a lot of people to do what 3 maybe could have done. Then finding a place to sit was a bit of a process. Although every other booth is blocked out and several tables are also placed so as not to be used, I did see a few people sitting table to table, back to back. One of their employees saw that we were looking for a place to sit and told us that she just cleaned off a table for two. So we were able to have out mean and not been close to anyone. But although the table was clean, there was some salad waste on the floor of the table. Again, my salad was good, but not a Thai steak salad, just a steak salad (Which were cold in the first place) with a vinaigrette dressing. We ate out meal and talked, no one bothered us, and we were there for quite a while. With our meals we each got a roll and a small chocolate dipped strawberry. When we were done and just before leaving, we decided to use the restroom. The men's room was clean, but quite small. Everything there was fine, but when we bused out table, taking the trays and bowls to the dish drop off area, it was crowded. It was a bit of a finagle to balance the bowls with others, and dump our garbage. This disappointed me as there there plenty of people working there, and the place slowed down as we were there. I saw employees looking like they were taking breaks, some took the garbage out, and even one got off work, but at no point in time did anyone clean up the bus area. This place is much like Panera, but I think that I would rather go there next time. Which is...