Despite all the jokes and puzzlement surrounding the fact that State Street is home to not just one, but two burrito joints; despite the fact that Chipotle moved in one year ago a mere block away from Qdoba; despite the fact that many students see both places as corporate giants taking away from the unique character of State Street-Moe's has somehow made it in.
Moe's Southwest Grill, 651 State St., is the latest fast-casual-Tex-Mex amalgam to hit State Street. Just a hop, skip and jump away from Chipotle and Qdoba, it seems the only advantage it can possibly have is that it's closer to Library Mall than the other two, so maybe people coming from campus will stop to eat there out of pure laziness.
Moe's redundancy is so appalling that Cardinal Food decided to resurrect the equally redundant \burrito wars"" taste test in honor of its arrival. Perhaps, we thought, this new place will rise above the rest, after all.
Read on for the Cardinal staff's discerning opinions of two restaurants on campus everyone either loves or loves to hate-and with the advent of Moe's, a third stop to choose from when heartburn is on the menu. Staffers sampled three items from each place; their opinions of each follow.
Qdoba
For those in the Qdoba camp, nothing beats the late-night comfort Qdoba brings after a long night of bar-hopping. The monstrous size of its burritos, combined with the knowledge that they're a full day's worth of calories, makes them disgusting or delicious depending on what side you're on. The place doesn't try much for ambience-its functional brick walls make customers feel like they're eating in a dark alley and its lighting is horrific. But those guys behind the counter work fast, the line moves quickly and the food is relatively reasonably priced.
Comments on Qdoba ranged from raves to disappointment-though many of the criticisms could stem from the lag time between purchase and consumption.
Beef Nachos with the works
-Mushy
-Not fresh but oh-so-good
-Nachos-too much going on, too many flavors
-Sour cream makes a sad mix-nachos are tasty, though.
Cheese Quesadilla
-Nothing special, cheese sandwich-esque
-Screw the quesadilla and chips-the burrito is where it's at.
-Borrrring-needs some sort of meat or at least flavor
Chicken Burrito with the works
-Excellent flavors, HUGE! Perfect spiciness
-Burritos are all you need to get; everything else is just side dishes.
-Good, a little high on the sour cream, but lots of great flavors
Chipotle
Many Qdoba diehards at first saw Chipotle as something like Qdoba's pesky younger brother, and plenty of people still do. Others have been won over by Chipotle's ""Choose your own adventure""-style menu, with its fixed prices for any dish depending on what type of meat one orders.
The long lines at lunchtime and on game days attest to the fact that Chipotle has come into its own as a burrito haven. Plus, the place has a retractable window-front seating and brighter d??cor than its elder competitor-no brick walls here; only mock-Incan industrial wall art and bright, smooth wooden walls. The lines don't move quite as fast and the ingredients are slightly different than Qdoba's, but the burritos are, as they claim, pretty close to ""as big as your head.""
Commentary on Chipotle was generally less favorable than that for Qdoba-no one seemed to like cold rice. But once again, that could be the fault of a certain food editor who took a little too long to get the food back to the office.
Chips and hot salsa
-Chips too salty
-Good consistency
-The hot salsa has the consistency and appearance of vomit.
-Salsa is citrusy and not good.
-What a weird flavor... not that spicy.
-Super hot? Super NOT!
-Salsa leaves peculiar aftertaste. My mouth is tingling like I just got a Novocaine shot.
Burrito Bowl (chicken)
-Suffers from too much bowl, not enough burrito wrap
-Burrito bowl excellent
-Cheese and beans in bowl good
-Burrito bowl-a delicious mix, without the shell is an interesting change.
-Seems like it lasts longer than if it was in a burrito-I like it.
Pork Tacos
-Tacos sort of flavorless
-Lots of cilantro though-good!
-Not much to the tacos ... I need more toppings, then I'll make a decision
-Pork is not the right meat for a taco, come on now
Moe's
We must admit we were curious about this brazen newcomer billing itself in its press release as ""quirky, irreverent and fun."" Maybe it was going to be more authentic Mexican, we thought hopefully, or perhaps offer more of a variety than the other two establishments we've come to know and tolerate.
No such luck. Instead of ""quirky, irreverent and fun,"" Moe's comes off as odd, irrelevant and out of touch. Maybe some people will actually have a brighter day because the employees yell ""Welcome to Moe's!"" at them as they walk in the door, but somehow the greeting sounds more like an accusation coming from Moe's harried workers. Customers' senses are jarred by the bright red walls adorned inexplicably with pictures of Jimi Hendrix and speakers playing Sinatra-isn't this a Mexican joint? Oh wait, the press release explains it: It's ""stylish and bright, comfortable and laid-back"" as the speakers pipe ""music from dead musical legends."" Right.
The entrees all have self-consciously flippant or just plain weird names-the ""Ugly Naked Guy"" falling in the latter category, the ""John Coctosan"" and ""Triple Lindy"" in the former. For most of us, it's hard to remember anything more complicated than ""cheese nachos"" after waiting five minutes in line, and a bit irritating when the workers aren't even quite sure what food every cute name refers to. Worse, when we went up to order, we found that ordering a burrito was currently impossible since Moe's was temporarily out of rice. And despite the assembly line of workers putting orders together, it took over five minutes for our boxed food to make its way to the cash register.
True, Cardinal Food tried Moe's out on its first day of business, so any snap judgments would be unfair. The workers were friendly despite being visibly stressed. But judging from the Cardinalistas' comments on the quality of the food, Moe's will have to work awfully hard to catch up to, not to say surpass, its competitors, if it's going to keep the attention of discerning burrito-holics.
""John Coctosan"" Quesadilla
-Beef in quesadilla too chewy
-Beef in quesadilla is very squishy. Like tofu. It is scary.
-Quesadilla is thick.
-Everything from Moe's is squishy.
-Not a whole lot of flavor, just squishiness
""Billy Barou"" Nachos
-Beans really good
-Chips are really salty but I like that they're tri-colored.
-The red chips make me think I'm more daring than I really am.
-I love the red chips.
-Chips aren't very crunchy.
-Chips soggy, not my favorite
-Salsa is watery, tomatoes have too little flavor.
-Cheese is creamy-pleasantly melted.
-Cheesy sauce on nachos really good
-Nachos are jumbled-flavor is strange.
Cookies
-Authentic Mexican chocolate chip cookies
-Amorphous cookies ... have they already been digested?
-They sort of taste like the kind that are made with applesauce ... i.e. not good.
-They're kind of spongy.
-Everything from Moe's is spongy.
-I like the cookies!
All in all, Moe's seems to function like a third-party candidate in a two-party racee. No one may love the front-runners, but they're better than the afterthought who's just barely made the ballot.
