Moe's Southwest Grill — Restaurant in Town of Colonie

Wish this could be zero stars.

To summarize my first visit to Moe's in years. Poor service, sloppy/messy food service area, and a potentially harmful foreign object in my food. (The managers response to my complaint of a foreign obejct in my food? A free nachoes IF I purchase a soda, so they'd still be making money. Doesn't matter I'll never go vack)

I'm typically a Chipotle person but saw the 'Moe Monday' sign when I was in the plaza so decided to stop in since earlier that week I'd been debating Moe's v Chipotle with a friend, he was pro Moe's, I was pro Chipotle.

I entered Moe's and there was a line of 3-4 people, no problem it was 12:30, maybe a little earlier. The line proceeded to move very slowly. The guy in front of my had some custom order and it took a while, so be it that wasn't really the employees fault but the girl at the second station seemed more interested in smiling and flirting with him then she did in completing the order. She tried to wrap his burrito and it split so she had to get another wrap - fine same thing happens at Chipotle sometimes, but it almost seemed like she was moving in slow motion. The other girl at the beginning of the line seemed to be the only one trying but she seemed overwhelmed, she took a quick break before serving me but it seemed like she was using the time to wash her hands so I was fine with that. There was a taller guy who walked around a lot and was joking with the flirty girl but didn't seem to be doing anything, they probably could of used his help since it was busy. An example of the training issues and non-efficiency was at one point when the flirty girl when for another wrap to fix her mistake and the first girl was getting one for the next person in line they entire package of them was sticking together and they belabored over that for a few minutes. I get the need to save money/inventory but set the package aside and mess around with it after the lunch rush. Also, the food line where the employees was generally sloppy and disorganized, the food in the bins didn't look particularly appealing, I know it was rush hour but I don't know as compared to Chipotle it just seemed... grimy. I proceed to the end of the line where someone is dedicated to putting chips in a bag and another person was dedicated to the cashier, maybe that's the normal way of doing it but because the line was moving SO SLOW one person could of easily occupied both of those jobs. All in all I got my receipt at 12:45, so it took 4-5 customers 15 minutes to move through your queue, I know that's not an acceptable metric.

This brings me to the final part of my story, and the most disappointing. I took my lunch home and started eating and thought to myself it tastes like the ingredients looked, so-so. I'd prefer Chipotle but for $6 I can't complain its good enough. Then about 2/3 of the way through the burrito I bite into something rock hard. My initial thought is it must be a bone from the chicken. I take it out to examine and its just dark, I try to break it in my hand to make sure it wasn't just an over cooked pepper or something but it was very very hard. I clean it off a bit and much to my surprise its a piece of wood. No idea why wood would be in any of the food but...

I normally go to this particular location on weeknights including Friday night. I always have a very positive experience. The gentleman that usually takes my order always makes a concerted effort to please. However on this Saturday evening I had a much different experience that will probably prevent me from coming back. At least during the weekend.

The girl that was working on my order was preoccupied with conversation and banter with other employees behind the counter. Every time I tried to tell her what I wanted on my homewrecker she would interrupt me to continue her conversation. They were laughing and even cursed at one point where one of the other team members tried to remind them that there were customers around. Instead of focusing on my order she kept trying to finish wrapping the homewrecker before I was done with the items I wanted on it. She couldn't wrap it up so she grabbed another tortilla and dumped the contents of what she prepared for me on to that minus about a third of it. She wrapped it in the aluminum foil and set it down on the counter. I stood there for nearly 5 minutes before somebody finally rang me up.

The gentleman that worked the cash register was extremely courteous. He was also the one that greeted me when I came through the door. I wished that he was able to take my order from start to finish.

Unfortunately my overall experience was bad enough that I will not be coming back to this Moe's. At least not on a Saturday night. It wasn't even that busy and there was no excuse for the girls having conversation constantly while preparing food. It's unsanitary. Not paying attention to the customer when they are trying to place the order is...

I've been frequenting this establishment for a very long time now. I've seen management come & go. Well this management this time is HORRIBLE!! I just went tonight & we waited over 20 minutes in line because they were filling online orders BEFORE the ones in line!! I had my kids with me & they got extremely restless. When we finally cashed out we were told the receipt machine is down but yet they could print online orders? Also the total did not add up. It should have been only about $30 but instead we were told it was $36. Of course how convenient we could not check the receipt for validation. Then I went to get a drink that we paid for & the machine said performing maintenance. So I asked if we could get a refund on the cup we paid for but couldn't use (no the other machine did not have what I was looking for. No I don't drink anything else.) I was told that someone would change the machine. After waiting several minutes I approached the counter again only to be told they're completely out. So again, I asked for a refund. Then someone else came over & asked what I wanted so I repeated the drink or a refund please. He said he'd change the machine but at this point we're nearing almost 40 minutes in the store. So I said i didn't want to wait that long can I just please have a refund you were taking care of online orders before people waiting in line & thats just ridiculous. The guy then says well I don't know what to tell you & walked in the back. So I'll definitely be calling corporate as well. If that guy is management he SUCKS AT IT. I always tip too..tonight I did not. You need a whole new team about there. Attitude & service...