Moe’s Southwestern Grill needs a usability specialist
October 18, 2007
A new restaurant has opened at the corner of College Avenue and South Main in the space that used to be a drug store when I was in school and a CD store when my brother was. The place is called Moe’s Southwestern Grill. It’s something like a Chipotle with more “flair,” the faux kind of flair, the kind dreamed up by marketing execs and then packaged, designed, and enforced by corporate policy.
Anyway, I want to talk about the designed-to-obfuscate menu.
For example, here is the section on burritos. You can choose between a “Joey Bag of Donuts,” a “Triple Lindy” (A Joey Bag of Donuts + sour cream or guacamole), or a “Homewrecker” (a Triple Lindy with lettuce). In the Quesadillias section, the difference between an “Instant Friend” and a “John Coctostan” is the addition of meat. The difference between an “Alfredo Garcia” fajita and the “Fat Sam” is not that the first is made out of head cheese and the latter is hand-rolled by George Wendt. Instead, the Fat Sam has sour cream.
A colleague of mine ordered an Instant Friend and said he felt like he was soliciting sex rather than ordering a bean and cheese dish. Another colleague unwittingly turned a Joey Bag of Donuts into a Triple Lindy simply by asking for sour cream — much to the frustration of the burrito engineers behind the counter.
See, when you order they don’t just assemble it for you and hand it to you. No, they quiz you on the ingredients. But you better choose from what they offer you, not what you see, because this ain’t Subway and the lettuce ain’t free. Screw up and they’ll have to run and get a marker to change the code on your burrito basket and be all irritated.
They have a right to be irritated. It’s busy. They’re supposed to have “flair” but the menu is stupid and confusing and the subway-style presentation is stupid and confusing and when they’re busy they don’t have time to explain it to people. That would make me irritated, too. We’re all irritated except the person who created the menu, who probably thinks it has “flair” and is cute.
Anyway, at least the food is a step above Taco Bell.
Posted in Food
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October 18th, 2007 at 7:32 am
If a Qdoba ever opens near you, ditch Moe’s immediately and go there instead. I went to a Moe’s for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and I agree with you 100% about the ridiculous menu — I came home still talking about how silly it was. (I also refused to order a Joey Bag of Donuts, and instead ordered the way I do at Qdoba — beef burrito, please.) Qdoba’s food is a lot better, their freshly made chips are to die for, and you don’t feel like a sit-com character as you place your order.
October 18th, 2007 at 8:09 am
So in other words, their marketing department is a bunch of mindless jerks who will be first against the wall when the revolution comes?
October 18th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Viva “La Revolution” Down with Corporate. Damn, I guess I AM Corporate. I always liked the Slogan down at J.Brian’s Taproom in Fredericksburg, “Think Globally, drink locally”.
October 19th, 2007 at 10:40 am
Am I a cultural moron because I don’t get any of their names?
It does sound like an annoying place to order from, but I’m curious about their tofu. Do you know if it’s any good?
October 19th, 2007 at 8:17 pm
Anytime I’ve eat at Moe’s, I’ve just closed my eyes and pointed…
December 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 am
[...] this interface feels like it was designed by a small army of marketing middle-manager rejects from Mel’s Southwestern Grill directing a beleaguered team of user interface professionals who sit in their grey cubicles and [...]