Maybe they’ve done market research and a lot of folks like walking into a place in being yelled at.  It just reminds me of being at the office.  Opening the door to a chorus of “welcome to Moe’s” is likely intended to be inviting, but it just seems forced.  I did enjoy the humor of their short lived Asian sister restaurant, Mama Fu’s, where they yelled “come to Mama” when you walked in.

I’ve eaten at Moe’s a number of times, usually at about a four month interval (that seems to be just long enough to forget that I don’t like it).  My general dislike continues from the yelling on to the oddly named menu items (I’m sure it was cute back when they opened their first location in Garden Hills) where it’s challenging to know what you want.  They have at least separated the items into menu categories now. 

They may have been the harbinger of the “fresh southwestern” concept, but it has been vastly improved upon by their competition (Baja Fresh and Chipotle, in particular) but Moe’s hasn’t changed much.  But as I was looking for something quick and they were close to the office (and it had been at least four months), I was back again. 

After staring at the menu dumbfoundedly for a bit, I decided on the Billy Barou with chicken – a name taken from Caddyshack.  I have no idea that’s why that is what they call their nachos.  But whoever developed the genius idea of putting nachos with cheese into a plastic bowl (with holes in the sides) covered in paper wasn’t destined for designing the next space shuttle.  One of the best parts of nachos is dipping your chips into the left over queso, but every time I tried the paper tore.  I ended up with more queso on counter top than I ate.  

And, on top of all that, they didn’t give me my free chips!