Noodles & Company

I’ve only eaten here about three times in the several years Noodles & Co has been here. I’m not sure why, it’s a cool food concept with fresh herbs, veggies and protein. I guess I’m just anti-​chain, ‘cuz if it where a local business I’d be all over it. They have a small conference room which can be reserved for meetings. I usually go for the Asian items like Pad Thai and Spicy Peanut. Lots of people go nuts over the mac & cheese but that’s like ordering a PB&J or tater tot casserole at a restaurant. Are you just too lazy to make your own? Even though it sits on high traffic Collins Rd, you can’t get there from here. There’s an access road behind the Casey’s on the corner but only if you know the password.

My first time at a Noodles & Company was today. My brother however it was his third time. He decided to give it another try (third times a charm!?) and so he invited me along for lunch since I have never actually eaten from there. The food was just meh. for the most part. My bro got stroganoff and it tasted strange and not at all like it is suppose to taste like. Luckly they let him exchange it for something else. but because of his previous experience there he just played it safe with mac n cheese.. This place is not great. its kind of bland. my pasta only tasted decent cause i added chicken. with out it tho it was really bland. I suppose this is probably not a place someone who knows how to cook and what good food tastes like should go. It was like cafeteria food kind of. My brother who was with me said the other times he was there it was much of the same deal. bland or very lack luster. extremely disappointing. Which is sad cause we hear good things about Noodles and company. So I am going to guess its just this particular one. My suggestion is. if you have other choices for places to eat pasta. Go with your other choices. Cause i dont know about their soups and sandwiches. but the pasta isnt even on par with the flavor of what you could cook easily at home.
plus sides
The place looked nice.
has one of them new Coke machines that lets you choose flavors (raspberry lime hi-​c is good)
Decent portions
staff seemed relatively easy to talk to.
might be good for family’s with picky children since they have a create your own bowl thing…

Had a wonderful experience here. There was a lot of people there but the staff was quick and polite taking orders. It was also easy to find a table. We had 5 people and all our food came out within ten minutes. The food was fresh and tasted good. After the terrible night we had at a different restaurant where we waited an hour and half and got no food., this place turned our night around. The staff was very friendly and super sweet to my son and other kids there. Great family place. I will come back again and recommend it to others.

The atmosphere in here is electric. Solid pasta, liquid drinks, they’ve got it all. Would recommend to anyone who is looking for noodles.

Really good tasting, quality food. Food is usually out pretty quickly. If I had to label the atmosphere, I would say that it was electric. They have pasta, as the name would suggest. Have yet to find company though.

I won the business card drawing and was totally surprised at how wonderful of treatment and all the yummy treats my family and I were blessed with by them. What a great business, with happy sweet employees, and such great food!

I love Noodles and Company. Like, a lot. That’s why I was surprised to find that, at least by our experience, this was an average Noodles & Company at best.
It’s a gigantic location located nearby the Lindale Mall, so it can definitely get plenty of foot traffic. This is the biggest Noodles & Company we’ve ever been to, actually, and we’ve probably been to almost all of them in Iowa. This one is large enough to warrant multiple stalls in the bathrooms, and it has a huge variety of seating including tables as well as bar stools and counters. In fact, this location is actually large enough to have their own conference room that’s available for rental. Yay!
The interior is actually pretty clean. The bathrooms show their wear and tear, but the restaurant area is pretty clean. It’s easy to get around the place, and all of the seating seemed comfortable and up-​to-​date.
One of the bigger complaints I had was that, for a gigantic restaurant like this, they only had a single Coke Freestyle machine. The place was pretty empty when I went, and I still had to wait behind 3 people to get a drink. I love the idea of the Freestyle drink machines, but they seriously slow down getting a drink (especially when all I want is water) because people take their time to choose a drink. For all of the capacity to hold people in this place, a second or third Freestyle would have really improved the experience.
The other issue I had was that the service was pretty average. The cashier wasn’t particularly friendly, but they weren’t particularly rude either. They just seemed pretty «meh» about the entire situation. Employees who were cleaning tables were joking a bit too loudly about some of the negative aspects of their job. Not a huge downside to our experience, but it didn’t add to it.
The final issue was that the food was jsut average as well. I’m not sure if this location is always like this or not, but compared to the «usual» taste of my meal, it was kinda meh. There wasn’t nearly enough cheese topping as well. My partner’s meal didn’t have the usual amount of seasoning on top, and it tasted a bit bland as well. It was definitely edible, but it’s not the «pure awesomeness» that we’ve come to expect at Noodles & Company.
Final thought: This is an okay location, and maybe we just caught them on an off night, but I’d be sad if this was the location nearest to me. I’ve just had so much better at other Noodles & Company restaurants. Still worth going if it’s the only option in the area, but we were disappointed by our visit.

I’ll just say my last visit was less than stellar. Won’t be darkening their door anytime again soon– I make better pasta at home!

So… last week a guy delivering produce to this store dropped a box of tomatoes on the ground. He looked around, and wiped a few of the tomatoes off on his pants before he put them back in the box. Does this restaurant wash their produce? Hope so.

Great place! Wonderful food! Catered to gluten free noodle request and were very friendly!

Tried the Indonesian peanut. It was meh (considering that I come from that area). Not authentic at all but that’s ok. I didn’t expect it to be anyways. But it’s good enough considering it’s in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. It gets 5 stars for attempt, 2 star for authenticity and 3.5 star for taste.

Fresh, fast food. Vegetarian options. Classics like spaghetti and mac and cheese as well as great asian and spicy options. I like the asian noodles, relatively authentic (I lived in SE Asia for two years) but MUCH less oil than an asian restaurant. Cheap sides, too. Nice smaller size option.

In my last review I had confessed that I had yet to try their soup or salads. Well, I am happy to report this has changed and also happy to report they are AWESOME! My fave is the Chili-​Lime & Ginger Salad, Caesar or the Med Salad (the dressing is surprisingly spicy!!) Totally love their salads!!! You can add a side salad (Caesar, Green w/​choice of dressing or Cucumber Tomato for $ 1.00 to your meal… again, awesome).
Soups: equally awesome. The Thai Curry is sort of a sweet not-​too spicy broth with rice noodles, cabbage/​few other veggies thrown in and this one is my fave. But the classic chicken noodle and tomato basil bisque are WAY good too. What surprised me was that I was expecting them to be fine… it’s not a salad shop or a soup place, it’s a noodle place! But their soup and salads are just as awesome as their noodle dishes. Big fan… big fan ;)

Uh. MAY. Zing.
I have always loved Noodles. I used to hit it up whenever I went out of town. I was jazzed when I heard it was opening here. Their menu is varied but not sprawling, the presentation is slick, modern and fun, and hey, their taste in music is great.

I have been here a couple times. The first time I was here I tried the beef stroganoff and added meatballs which were actually great. Sad to say the second time I returned I found the service to be almost non existent I waited for 5 minutes at the register while the cooks just stared at me. I got the Wisconsin Mac and cheese this time and was very unpleased with the fact that it had almost no taste and was topped with what seemed to be un-​melted bagged cheese from hy-​vee or something. I guess it’s just hit and miss with this place but I plan on returning to try more of what they have to offer.