Honestly, I wasn't crazy about my meal. I'd been wanting to try Noodles & Co since before I moved because they had just put one up by my old job but I never got around to it. So you can imagine how ecstatic I was when my new job sent out an email about a fundraiser at a new Noodles & Co right by my favorite supermarket where I needed to go that day anyway. So, I actually don't remember what organization the fundraiser was for but I'm going to make an assumption that based off of my appearance (I'm black, in case you couldn't tell) they thought I wasn't going to donate any money so they pretty much skipped over me when explaining what they were all about and what they were trying to accomplish. I ended up donating but I wish I hadn't afterwards once I had really take in the fact that they almost completely ignored my presence. BUT, I digress because that actually has nothing to do with Noodles & Co as an establishment. It would be unfair for me to rate the atmosphere because this was before they actually opened and since this was technically a "free" event, it was packed out. The line was out the door and once inside there was a waiter asking whether we wanted to dine in or out. Initially I wanted to eat in but I could see that he was obviously very stressed by the lack of seating and the never-ending line of people requesting to dine in so I opted to eat in my car and he thanked me, lol. My food was just okay. I ordered the Japanese pan noodles with the steak. The steak was good and at first I was really into my noodles but as I dug deeper, there was definitely an underlying flavor of burnt. I wasn't sure if it was coming from the black sesame seeds because my noodles didn't look burnt but the taste made it so I couldn't even finish my noodles. I ate maybe 1/3 of the dish and ended up tossing it. I'm actually really thankful that I was able to try Noodles & Co for a small donation as opposed to having come here on my own because I think having paid full price for the meal would have left me extremely disappointed. I don't think I'll be giving them another try but I would recommend (as another Yelper also stated) to maybe stay away from their Asian options and opt for their Italian or American fare noodles. They would have probably been much better.