Qdoba

For those of you unfamiliar with Qdoba, imagine Chipotle and Moe's had a baby and it grew up to be an underachieving drunk; that basically sums it up. It's a tex-mex fast food place, and I don't know if they all have bars in them, but the one in Oakland (PA not CA) does.

Anyways, I ate indian food last night, as well as left overs for lunch today, so I wasn't in the mood for chinese food which is usually among my top options. I went to Chipotle but they were closed for maintenance or something. I crossed the street and headed for Brugger's, thinking I could get a sandwhich and get half-price later (half price at certain restaurants at certain times for certain items). Brugger's closes at 7 and it was 7:30 so I went, nervously, to plan Q. (damn that's corny)

My one previous experience with Qdoba had not been exactly positive. For some reason my friend Jeff and I had decided to try Qdoba instead of getting Chipotle- the latter may have been closed or busy. Everything was going fine until we went to pay. They suddenly could no longer accept credit/debit cards. Jeff had a total of $2 cash and a $6.something bill; I had a similar bill but I had about $10 cash. Therefore, we were able to pool our funds and purchase our food. In addition, the burrito I had was not nearly as good as even a bad Chipotle burrito (if one can be made, I don't think it's possible).

Anyway, this was a second chance for Qdoba. Unfortunately, they would really need to blow me out of the water to win me over and make me forget my previous negative experience. The service was good, the food was good, the experience was still lacking.

There is something to say for having a clean, well staffed establishment. I think that Chipotle is well layed out, it's clean, the service is excellent and so is the food. There is a bucket of dirty soapy water with a towel in it on the counter next to the hot sauce in Qdoba. The floor is pretty dirty. There are only 3-4 visible people working, seemingly, at any one time, including the cook.

Perhaps other people have different opinions of Qdoba... just my thoughts