QDOBA Mexican Eats — Restaurant in Newark

Parking was easy, parked on the street. If you can't find a spot on the street, they have a few different pay to park options that are cheap.

This is a build-a-burrito type establishment so you do the normal thing. They also offer different kinds of nacho's and tacos as well. The place had a nice clean look to it. It wasn't very busy when I came in to pick up my online order. This place is pretty large, right there with the size of Caltort across the street. I still don't understand why they have 4 build-a-burrito places on one street...The service was good, I had everything from my order in the bag.

I didn't get a drink here, but they had fountain drinks, and a small variety of beers to choose from. Which, does set them apart.

Chips & salsa!!! Chips...nothing special, just ok. Salsa...I chose the pico, which was so so. It didn't seem much effort was made. The cilantro was almost whole leaves, not chopped, and seriously heavy on the tomato.

I ordered tacos choosing:Drunken Yardbird, Triple Threat, and The Gladiator. Drunken yardbird...Grilled Adobo chicken, guacamole, salsa verde, cilantro, minced onion and cotija cheese. $3.55. The chicken was tender and juicy, but the avocado took away from the flavors that were working well together. Not terrible, but not even close to how good Caltort does chicken. Triple threat...Grilled steak, bacon, 3-Cheese Queso, fajita veggies, pico de gallo and cotija cheese. $3.55. Steak was a bit chewy, the lettuce was a bit much, decent taco with solid flavor. The bacon didn't really go well here. The Gladiator...Grilled steak, bacon, pico de gallo, lettuce, Mexican caesar dressing, cilantro and cotija cheese. $3.55. I'd say this one was the best, the steak wasn't as chewy as the other. I still wasn't into the bacon, but the caesar dressing made this pop in the right way, I would do this again. The tortillas weren't bad for a chain restaurant, blew Caltorts away.

I ordered PORK & QUESO BURRITO: Tender Pulled Pork, cilantro lime rice, black beans, fresh pico, shredded cheese, creamy queso. I chose to do this without the rice.This thing was stuffed!!! The pork was seasoned perfectly and everything else was married together flawlessly. I'm surprised in how much I really was into this...

Somehow, I got here at 2 am when they close at 3 and it is 2:35 and the dude was serving the same guy for almost 18 mins because they were laughing and talking. I understand having good customer service to connect with your customers. I do understand that. But the 19 people behind him would kindly like to be served by the time yall close. Crazy crazy stuff. I expected it to be crowded on a Friday night, I also understand that. I would think on a Friday night, y’all would have more than 1 person making 1 persons order at a time. Also kind of strange to blare your own music behind the counter on top of the music that is already playing in the restaurant. A bit of sensory overload. Also, I feel like not everyone is a fan of the derogatory terms and profanity included in the music the staff member chose to play. Also weird for that same guy on staff to hit on the girls here? Tonight has been my worst experience here ever. Updating: People ended up just giving up and leaving. This is the slowest serving guy. He asked customers to set their own timer for their food? That seems weird, but maybe that’s normal. I eventually got my food at 3:06 am. The nice guy who rung me out but didn’t serve anyone said the other guy was new? I don’t know, in my mind that seems like they should’ve had an extra person on staff even more so. I feel like a major Karen posting this, but it’s likely because I’m hangry and now have to drive all the way home to eat my food or eat it in my car to potentially make a mess in it because the staff weren’t able to handle the crowd so I couldn’t eat in the restaurant before the place closed. I was also a bit sad that they were out of steak and fajita veggies by the time I got through but that’s ultimately okay, I get it, it was close to closing. Takeaways for me: Qdoba needs to hire more people and put more people on night shift on Fridays...

This is my favorite QDoba location of anywhere in the chain. The quality here is consistently better, fresher ingredients mainly. I also like the spacious interior, which is a kinda attractive aesthetic too with the interior walls made of colorful brick-like tiles. My main complaint is that this place stopped serving beer. Why? What's up with that? I hate how beer is to buy casually in the US, you can only get it in dedicated bars, I like to be able to have it casually in a simple place to eat like this, so I am frustrated that they stopped selling beer here. Besides that though, this place is great, I love it. Also the staff here are always super nice. Seriously I have seen a lot of different people work here over the years and they're always really nice and I appreciate that. Also, I am upping my review from 4 stars to 5. Why? This restaurant is one of the few fast food places that maintained good quality throughout the pandemic. Impressive! The prices have also not increased as much here as in most other restaurants. This was always a place I liked but it has become my favorite place on Main street mainly because other places have declined while this place keeps...