Adding Moe's to Our Lunchtime Routine?

 Moe's Deli

23052 Lake Forest Drive

Laguna Hills, CA 92653

Since I'm always talking about food, giving restaurant recommendations, and giving my opinion about what restaurants I like and ones that I don't, it's not surprising that I have become the food guy at work. When someone is going somewhere on vacation, it's my job to give restaurant recommendations. Someone needs a special occasion spot, it's me to the rescue. I don't really mind because it gives me a chance to talk about and research restaurants, something that I really enjoy doing, and it also gives me a chance to stop working, something that I'm not too fond of. 

My restaurant obsession has also made me the guy to pick a place for lunch. With nearly 260 workdays a year, our heavy rotation of places we eat at can make our midday reprieve from our work seem humdrum. So, I'm always on the lookout for something new to breathe new life into our dreary life as supermarket workers. That means checking out Yelp, which helped me find Moe's Deli. 

As with any place we try for lunch, I like to visit a restaurant solo for the first time, to see if it's any good. Moe's gets a perfect 5 stars on Yelp, with close to 300 reviews. Pretty impressive. A potential lunch spot also must have a good diversity to their menu for our usually hard to please 4 person lunch brigade, and most importantly, it must be close enough that we can get to it, eat, and get back before our hour is up and we have to get back to the rest of our glorious day, (yes, you are right to detect the sarcasm there). 

Moe's Deli had enough variety for all of us. They boast 24 sandwiches on their menu, an eight pack of salads to pick from, and a build your own sandwich section, just in case you are not feeling any of their regular sandwich offerings. All sandwiches come in either an 8-inch size or a footlong version. The extra four inches will cost you $2 more, which makes that choice pretty easy for me. 

Ordering could not have been easier. You could call in, but I'd suggest that you take advantage of their easy online ordering option. Their website was extremely easy to navigate, and a lot easier than ordering sandwiches over the phone with all of the options you can add and subtract on each sandwich. Yes, my friends at work are very picky. There was also a 10 percent discount for first-time customers. A very nice touch. Let's see if this dry run at Moe's Deli will make us want to add them to our rotation of places we frequent during the workweek. 

The most popular sandwich online at Moe's is their Hot Pastrami Sandwich ($10.25) and for good reason. This was a very good pastrami sandwich. They use navel black pastrami, which was lean and flavored well. The rest of the sandwich was made up of swiss cheese, sauteed onion, mustard, pickles, and a touch of mayo. I'm not the biggest fan of mayo and pastrami, but it worked on this one, maybe because they used it sparingly. The bread was pliable and had a good chew to it. I'd probably ask for double meat next time, but that's the only thing I'd change about this sandwich. 

Since I was doing a reconnaissance mission for my friends at work, I had to try another sandwich, so I went with one of my favorite sandwiches, the Philly Chz Steak ($10.50). Moe's Deli makes there's with a house cream cheese aioli, sauteed onions and peppers, and double provolone. This was a very mellow cheesesteak. The meat was fine, but this sandwich was missing something. The onions and peppers really didn't represent here. I'd maybe add jalapenos next time to liven things up. Not bad, but there's better cheesesteaks out there. 

I have a Broccoli Cheese Soup ($3.00) addiction, so when I saw that they offer it, I had to give it a try. How can I put this politely? It was not very good at all. Very watery, no substance to it, and I'm not even sure that there was any cheese present in this cup. It sure didn't taste like it. To be fair, I'm pretty sure that they are not making their 5 soups on the premises, but maybe they should think about switching soup vendors, and if they do make their soups in house, don't forget the cheese and broccoli next time. 

Even though the soup was a real bummer, the sandwiches at Moes Deli definitely warrant repeat visits. I'd like to try their meatball, Italian, and french dip on upcoming trips. I felt the prices here are more than fair, the ordering process was easy, and the sandwiches were ready at the time they were promised. Moe's Deli will definitely make it into our lunch rotation. 

Out of five bar stools, (because when I hear the name Moe, it always makes me think of Moe from the Simpson's, who runs Moe's Tavern), five being best to zero being worst, Moe's Deli gets 3 bar stools. 

For more information about Moe's Deli, head to their website by clicking here: https://moesdelioc.com/