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Zoe's Kitchen, an Alabama Quick-Serve Greek Franchise with Several Area Locations


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Having been to Zoe's in other locations, Zoe's has opened in the D.C. area. I believe there is one out in VA. I went to the one in Potomac (in the new center, where there is also an Elevation Burger and a Harris Teeter) For a qsr, the food is fresh and tasty. I would recommend it if you haven't been. Have had a number of items on the menu -- chicken orzo soup, hummus, Zoe's Pita and Greek Chicken Pita. Nothing has disappointed me so far.

Menu can be found at My link

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I thought I posted on this place.

We went a month or so ago and did takeout from the Potomac location. Meh. Very salty, not appreciably better than buying pre-prepared food from the adjacent Harris Teeter.

For general Mediterranean quick service in that area, I'd go to Lebanese Taverna in the Rockville Town Square instead.

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I would have welcomed the salt. My meal lack any flavor at all. To add insult to injury we called for a pick up order 25 minutes before we got there. They were swamped and we still had to wait another 30 minutes. It was so bad there were out of rice and we convinced them to substitute orzo as I could not wait any longer. The pita bread probably was bought from Harris Teeter and tasted old. The family dinner for 4 did not do well in my house. The food is probably healthy as It wasnt good enough to chow on.

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I haven't eaten here yet. I did walk in to the Potomac location and looked at the menu but just couldn't get excited so walked across the street to Elevation burger (really don't feel like I missed anything).

The place looks bright and airy but just feels like something is missing.

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So this has taken over the new location of death in Ballston (formerly Aladdins, Mongolia BBQ previous to that). I have had chicken skewers with rice pilaf and grilled veggies, and then chicken salad with grilled veggies. I really like the rice pilaf and the grilled veggies. I thought the skewers and chicken salad were both good too. This isn't a destination place, but for a easy lunch or dinner, it isn't bad at all. I really liked the Hibiscus tea. Oh and they have a four square special and we got good coupons recently.

So not a travel to place, but definitely will be somewhere we go when we need a quick/close dinner, which unfortunately may happen a good bit the next two months.

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So don't love the chicken spinach roll ups, not bad just not my thing. Would rather have chicken salad, or the skewers.

We got the family meal deal one night and it was a huge amount of food, but had a nice amount of veggie and was really convenient when we just needed to pick up some food for some people and wanted something that wouldn't be controversial.

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They apparently packed quite a kick, too! :lol:

Yeah, that's the I have spent too many night working late kick. Not that I don't love my work, we've just been really busy, which is good and bad. But all the businesses with decent carry out options in the Ballston area are benefiting.

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After eating their slaw a few times, I like it so much I recreate it at home with goat cheese instead of feta.  But the other night I had leftover taco filling and taco shells and no lettuce.  I was walking Max by Zoe's so I went in and grabbed some chicken salad and slaw.  I am so glad there are places within a couple blocks that have too tired to cook food that is decent.  Not gourmet, just decent.  And the slaw is addictive, I ate a whole medium size tub in one night....

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Went here last night because it is our usual not feeling well, close to the house, safe food available, option.  I had their orzo soup- I found the onion chunks to be a little large for chicken, orzo soup, and larger than in the past, I wish they would mince their onions. Normally if you are eating chicken, orzo soup you are not in a state where large onions are appealing.  I really like that they serve it with saltines.  I also got a steak stack sandwich (mostly for today because Hubby left for a work trip while I was sick and knows I won't eat a lot that isn't made) with rice pilaf.  I thought their rice pilaf used to have vegetables in it- maybe I am wrong- this did not.  It was just rice cooked in broth and was definitely overcooked and a bit dry.  The sandwich was fine.  They are normally pretty consistent at our location- not the best, worst, but food cooked how it should be, but not yesterday.

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9 minutes ago, Al Dente said:

i noticed last night that the Zoe's on Franklin Farm Road in Herndon just opened. It looked packed! I live about a mile away, so I look forward to trying it out soon. Why do I have a feeling I'll be bitchin' about it here afterwards?

Just don't have incredibly high expectations.  They have a few good things and are very good for general purpose occasions.  I actually like their slaw so much I make it at home. It isn't fancy, just very all purpose. And if they have coupons, they can have some really good deals with their coupons (normally when they open they do local papers, online coupons, etc.)

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1 hour ago, ktmoomau said:

Went here last night because it is our usual not feeling well, close to the house, safe food available, option.  I had their orzo soup- I found the onion chunks to be a little large for chicken, orzo soup, and larger than in the past, I wish they would mince their onions. Normally if you are eating chicken, orzo soup you are not in a state where large onions are appealing. 

You know, for whatever it's worth, this inconsistency at least tells me they're mincing their onions in-house instead of having them machine-minced at a central commissary and shipped in frozen. Obviously, there are drawbacks to doing this (as you experienced), but I prefer the imperfections to mechanized mediocrity.

Hoo, boy: Me sticking up for Zoe's Kitchen ... we've reached the point where you have to take your signs of humanity wherever you can find them, no matter how small they may be.

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1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

You know, for whatever it's worth, this inconsistency at least tells me they're mincing their onions in-house instead of having them machine-minced at a central commissary and shipped in frozen. Obviously, there are drawbacks to doing this (as you experienced), but I prefer the imperfections to mechanized mediocrity.

No, you are right.  They say they make their food from scratch each morning at each location and don't have a central commissary- how much they are ordering that comes pre-done from other places like sysco, etc. who knows. BUT as a positive- when I am in their locations waiting to pick up food I see them actually making food, not just assembling food- and to me that is a big positive.  It means things are fresh. From a personal note, I rather employ people than robots, and from a food safety perspective- I just don't love the big food commissary system.  It's one reason I really like going there, despite the big onion chunks in my soup.  But I go there a fair amount between the location by my work and house- so they might hear about my big onion complaint.

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I hate to admit this, but I just ate at Zoe's again tonight.  (This is what happens when you are sick for days, your fridge is literally empty because it was almost empty before and then you tossed with abandon any food in it while you were sick because it could have potentially gotten any germ that may have strayed from you and those germs are not allowed back in your body, then your husband leaves town and you don't have the energy to grocery shop by yourself.  Then your husband calls, asks if you have eaten dinner yet, tells you to go eat for goodness sake that you haven't really eaten in days, and you aren't really hungry so you are indecisive, but you know you should leave the house as you haven't been in contact with real humans for quite some time, except via the internet.  So you go to the closest place to your house that has food your stomach will accept and talk to a human for oh about 1 minute.)  I could have gone to Earl's, but  I felt my stomach was finally ready to venture into the world of vegetables again (I mean besides the chunky onions in the orzo soup, which I told the manager about in a very nice way and he laughed in a very nice way and said noted).  So here is a pro-tip if you are trying to eat healthy- get the kabobs, I like the chicken- for the "simply 500 menu" they sub in fresh fruit, but they will sub any side you want for the rice, I normally get roasted veggies instead of fresh fruit, it's about 60 calories more, but good meaningful calories and I am picky about my fruit in the winter.  So worst comes to worst and I eat the whole thing 560 calories plus some for dressing and pita (which I doubt they count in the calorie count).  BUT if I am not starving- I eat all the roasted veggies, plus the veggies on the skewers and half the chicken and half the pitas for one meal, and the greek salad with the other half of the chicken and leftover pita for at least most of another meal because they give you fairly big portions (and they have little to-go cups of dressing so you don't have to pre-dress the salad and it doesn't get wilted). Also, if you are a tea/lemonade fan.  I like to mix their green hibiscus tea with the light lemonade on the soda fountain.

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Very nice manager this week gave us a buy one get one entree coupon with our to-go order of chicken kebabs and gruben.  I don't know if it is because of how much we have been there lately or what, but he was very nice and also gave us some free pita with our hummus tub.  

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14 hours ago, ktmoomau said:

Very nice manager this week gave us a buy one get one entree coupon with our to-go order of chicken kebabs and gruben.  I don't know if it is because of how much we have been there lately or what, but he was very nice and also gave us some free pita with our hummus tub.  

No doubt he recognized you as loyal customers - restaurants cherish customers like this, and the problem lies in figuring out who they are.

Did you know I've never tried a Zoe's? Your posts alone are convincing me to give it a go - is it the one near Uncle Julio's? I know it's just a little quick-serve place (which is why I haven't felt any need to try it), but your posts are piquing my curiosity.

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1 hour ago, DonRocks said:

No doubt he recognized you as loyal customers - restaurants cherish customers like this, and the problem lies in figuring out who they are.

Did you know I've never tried a Zoe's? Your posts alone are convincing me to give it a go - is it the one near Uncle Julio's? I know it's just a little quick-serve place (which is why I haven't felt any need to try it), but your posts are piquing my curiosity.

I have been to the one in the same building as Founding Farmers on Park Potomac Avenue (Montgomery County), more than once.  I always found it good for what it is and reasonably priced.

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3 hours ago, dcs said:

I have been to the one in the same building as Founding Farmers on Park Potomac Avenue (Montgomery County), more than once.  I always found it good for what it is and reasonably priced.

I'll second that!  Also the Kentlands location.

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I recently started eating here given the RTC parking fiasco.  Solid place for reasonably healthy lunch which tastes good.  It is predictable, quick and consistent.  Several vendors who bring lunch in to my staff big it from here for the same reasons.

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Well I don't recommend the orzo pasta with chicken dish.  Matt had it a couple years ago and it seemed pretty good, but I got it this last week and it was just kind of a hot mess.  It tasted ok, but the sauce wasn't mixed with the orzo, the chicken wasn't well crusted.  I will go back to my more standard orders.

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Two recent encounters at Zoe's Ballston- first I got the chicken pita- this had WAY too many carmelized onions (they could have cut the serving in half and been fine) and the lettuce was bad.  We literally had just landed from over 20 hours in the air, I wasn't that hungry and I didn't feel like complaining, I was exhausted, so I just took all the onions and lettuce out and ate the sandwich.  The slaw seemed onion heavy that night too, despite normally being really good, I will give them an off night though.  This might not be a top order going forward without asking for no-onions and requesting tomato instead, the lamb pita seems better though.  The second I got chicken kabobs with roasted vegetables and white beans, their white beans are pretty much always good.  The roasted veggies are very standard, but fine (and paired really well with Popeyes rice and beans for lunch another day- don't judge me, the jet lag from Asia is real).  This is a dish that never seems to really vary in a good way- I mean you get to pick your two sides, but the dish is never amazing, but never, ever bad.  They also gave us a free order of hummus and pita chips.  Their pita chips are great.  Their hummus is just abysmal, it just is, it always has been, it is what it is, it is better in a bowl mixed into grains, but will never EVER, EVER get close to Cava hummus.

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Kentland's location closed last week.  Supposedly not related to the Cava purchase, however, there was no way that both a Cava and Zoe's would remain in eyesight of each other, so at least in my eyes, this was a foregone conclusion.

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I am sad that the Zoe's Kitchen in Alexandria is in the Bradlee shopping center, that place is such a zoo,  I hate going there.  Given that we have a Cava in Potomac Yards though, we are pretty happy, but Zoe's was a little different and we liked both as an option.  I am a bit surprised there isn't a Zoe's Kitchen down Route 1 closer to Mount Vernon, etc.  I think a Zoe's Kitchen down that way would do well, there are so many chains, and not a ton of them have easy, somewhat healthy options.

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5 hours ago, jandres374 said:

Zoe's Kitchen closed back in January and is now being replaced by Attman's, which recently closed at Cabin John.

"Attman's General Manager Targets mid-August for Opening in Park Potomac" on bethesdamagazine.com

I checked Zoe's "Locations" page, and out of ten area locations, two remain open, and one is going to reopen:

Alexandria 
Ballston (closed)
Vienna (closed)
Fairfax Pointe (closed)
Reston (closed)
Herndon (closed)
Ashburn
Germantown (reopening Jul 20)
Columbia Mall (closed)
Gainesville (closed)

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