I have mixed feelings about the Loop, so I'll start with what I like. The Loop serves a variety of items, including salads, burgers, wraps and pizzas. I've had quite a few of their menu items, and some are better than others. My favorite is the fantastic fried chicken salad, which comes in a huge bowl with tons of lettuce, great fried chicken pieces, cheddar cheese, croutons, tomatoes, onions and ranch dressing. Everyone raves about their burgers, but they're kind of greasy. The pizza is really good, though the personal pizza is more like a snack. The Caesar salad wrap is decent, but they usually drench it in dressing. I really like their fries and onion rings, too. The milkshakes are amazing, and I highly recommend getting an Oreo milkshake. As much as I love their crushed ice, I wish they'd add some sugar to their sweet tea, it's the South, dammit!
There are also quite a few things I do not like about the Loop. First, the Loop is very popular and always out of control. There are usually a ton of families with young children, and it's a very open restaurant, which means it is very noisy. I have no problems with it being busy (I actually enjoy the friendly crowd), but I don't think the restaurant's service stands up to its popularity. To get served at the Loop, you stand in line to place your order before taking a seat. More often than not, the line to order is outrageously long. There are two registers but one is generally closed. I understand that they sometimes do this to slow the line down when there are no seats in the dining area, but this isn't usually the case. For some reason, ordering just takes FOREVER. I'm not sure if it's the employees, the computer system, etc.
Also, I find the employees here to be rather unfriendly on the whole, especially the ones who work the register. These are people who I see working on almost every visit, so they can't use the "new employee" excuse. For example, the last time I was here I presented one of the store's text coupons (be sure to join their coupon club in the store) for the cashier to read. She then made some smart remark about not knowing what I was showing her and proceeded to roll her eyes when I explained. A simple transgression, but representative of the service as a whole. To make matters worse, I cannot tell you the number of times I've been ordering and the cashier will strike up a simultaneous conversation with another employee. This is a big annoyance for me, so the behavior definitely stands out. On top of the less-then-cheery staff, the food service can be slow. Big crowds mean longer waits, but a salad shouldn't take 30 minutes at lunch time.
Overall, the Loop is a fine place for a casual meal. My review may seem quite negative, but I frequent the place so don't think I hate it. If the service were better and prices slightly lower it would definitely rank at four stars. read more