The Purple Onion Moody — Restaurant in Moody

Why I gave 5 stars, but didn’t necessarily have a 5 star experience…

My daughter had a softball game in Moody and we decided to grab some Purple Onion on the way home to take back to Trussville. (I love the Purple Onion, but this is the first time to try this location.)

I placed my order (chicken finger kid’s meal and a gyro plate) in the drive thru and when I pulled up to the window I added a baklava. After I paid, the worker told me to pull into the parking space across from the window and wait. I was fine with that bc I correlated waiting with my food being freshly prepared.

I waited about 10 minutes and my food was brought out to the car by the same worker that took my order and payment in the drive thru. After inspecting, I saw the baklava was not in the bag. My daughter and I decided to go inside to get, so we could also wash our hands. I saw the same worker from earlier with one other worker in the back getting orders boxed up. No one was in the restaurant. I did take note that it looked very clean. The restroom was also clean and stocked. When I went to the counter to get the employees attention, I noticed two different stacks of applications on either side of the counter. After waiting for a minute I was noticed and the same employee apologized and quickly grabbed my baklava. My daughter and I went back to the car and as we were pulling out I realized we also didn’t get the drink that came with the kid’s meal. This time I pulled back in the drive thru and waited at the window. And waited. And waited. I knocked on the window, but the two employees were some distance away and didn’t hear me. So I just sat there and watched. They were both hustling and working diligently to complete orders. By this time there were four other cars waiting. I probably waited at least five minutes, but when he finally realized I was sitting there, he again was very apologetic and grabbed my drink and then apologized again. I told him not to worry about it and thanked him.

I say all of this to say that getting my order was not a seamless experience, but those two employees were doing all they could and were wearing many hats. I don’t feel like it’s fair to hold them accountable because of inadequate staffing. We have to have grace with people that are doing the best they can. Although I waited a lot longer than I had hoped, my food was fresh and delicious and I will go back.

Oh and I did notice there was a sign on the window that said “Call ahead for quicker service” which is what I plan to do next time.

**Edited to add that I read the review of a customer having a similar experience with having to wait and then when he pulled around the only person working was on his cell phone. Again, give grace… how do we know that this person wasn’t on the phone trying to get someone else to come and work or find out why the person scheduled wasn’t there yet? It was probably more efficient to use his personal cell rather than the back office phone. I know this might not have been the case, but I feel like we shouldn’t always assume the worst and give folks the benefit...

We visited this location two days in a row. Despite being VERY SLOW, our food was good. Each time, there were three people but no other customers besides us. The menu is confusing. I wanted the wings and fries on one visit and the menu showed $11.99 (see pictures), but when I placed the order, the person said it was $14+. When I asked about it, she said the menu on the drive thru was wrong. Not to mention, the screen kept having software issues or something. I would go again when I’m in that area. Hopefully the experience is better.

Side note: The management/owner should definitely be more involved if they want to be successful. Yes, I understand that staffing may be difficult, but if you plan to be successful here, extra hands on work may be involved on your part. Maybe research different companies that are able to do this. Hire talent, not just bodies to work WITH your team. Management can’t expect the team to be successful if there is minimal training and they are “thrown to the wolves” to figure it out, so to speak. Always remember: if you take care of you’re people, they will take...

I ordered the beef shawarma, and it was undercooked—grilled but not properly cooked like a traditional shawarma. The service was poor. I initially ordered two shawarmas and two Coke Zeros, but they didn’t have Coke Zero and were only serving two drink options from the soda machine. I ended up canceling one shawarma and both drinks. The total should have been 10.10 but got charged $12.09, then I was charged $13 because the cashier didn’t have change. The food was overly salty and didn’t taste like authentic shawarma. Overall, not a place I would recommend. Their health score from March was only 83, which now makes sense. I should also note, as you can see in picture, they had no cash register to track orders and the place looked like a ghost town. If this is a franchise, you would think Purple Onion would have...