You can tell a lot about a place by the attitude of its employees.  I could tell immediately when we showed up to Moe’s Southwest Grill in Layton that this was a good place because the employees were engaged and smiling. It was late on a Saturday night after a huge group meal had just finished and they were still happy. Surprisingly, the restaurant was spotless after the big group had left.

Michael Lin has been in the restaurant business for 35 years. When he decided to open his own restaurant, he founded Moe’s Southwest Grill that now has tow locations, one in Layton on Antelope Dr and the other in Clinton on 2000 W. Michael opened his first restaurant four years ago and has loved working with Moe’s which has 700 locations nationwide. He brings his own brand of management to his stores, treating employees like family. He has extremely high retention rates in an industry where that is not common. He also believes cleanliness is of the utmost importance. He passes every inspection with flying colors and the inspectors are always pleasantly surprised at how well they perform. I for one find this to be of utmost importance, there is nothing worse that seeing a dirty restaurant and wondering what the kitchen looks like.

Moe’s Southwest doesn’t just deliver on cleanliness and happy employees, they also have some awesome food. Starting with a food mission that includes fresh ingredients prepared daily with no microwaves, zero trans fat and no MSG. There isn’t even a freezer in the place. We are talking fresh. You can tell when you eat it too. Very delicious and fresh tasting with just the right amount of seasoning. The menu is a riot with meals with crazy names from pop culture. We enjoyed the Wrong Doug from Hangover “That is the wrong Doug!” (I had to YouTube it). My wife had the Close Talker, their salad named after the “Close Talker” scenes from Sein-feld. The restaurant is also very family friendly and lots of fun.

My Wrong Doug was a mix of flavorful Chicken and Pork with beans, veggies and the best queso. It is like a southwest Mexican sandwich. I loved every bite, I could only finish half of it because they have unlimited fresh tortilla chips and salsa. I might have eaten too many of those … nah! It was a good choice. My wife got the Close Talker which is a delicious salad, she opted for the grilled steak and it was awesome. I had a few bites of it too. The Chipotle Ranch is delicious and they have other traditional options too.

I have to say my favorite part was the queso and chips. They have white queso and chili con queso which we just had to bring some home. The kids loved it too. Michael mentioned a local family that saves $1000 a year because of his queso. The husband said they used to have to travel twice per year to San Diego for authentic queso. Now they only have to go once because they can get their queso fix at Moe’s. I have a special fondness for queso too, we had an anniversary trip to San Diego where I was introduced to the creamy cheesy delicious sauce.  As soon as I tried Moe’s Queso, I was taken back there. This stuff is the sort of thing you find yourself licking out of the little condiment bowl and not caring who is watching. Yum! Plus there is an assortment of salsas which are awesome. If you are like me and don’t like when salsa is branded as hot but it really isn’t,  well, they actually have hot salsa! It’s awesome. A local favorite that is offered year round is their pineapple cucumber salsa.  For your date night or family dinner out, I highly recommend giving Moe’s a visit.