The Loop

My wife and I went there for lunch today. Ordering went fine but it took a very long time for our food to come. When I went to pick it up only my chicken sandwich and fries were ready. My wife’s salad with salmon was not ready. Once I got back to my table I realized my food was almost cold. I was almost finished by the time my wife’s meal came. She insisted on taking it out because it was so late showing up. So much for a nice lunch with my wife. On top of that my chicken sandwich was so so it best; and who likes to eat cold fries. Take my advise and go somewhere else for lunch. Too many good places to go to so don’t waste your time and money at this place

The Loop is busy place for the lunch and dinner crowds. Order your meal at the counter and they’ll page you when it’s ready. I ordered their Grilled Vegetables with Couscous Salad. It was very good, large size croutons with a nice vinaigrette that just right. The serving size was ample, enough to take home for leftovers. One of my friends ordered an individual traditional pizza, which was just enough for one person. My other friend ordered the Veggie Melt Ciabatta sandwich. It was served open faced and she said it was very good. The Loop is a popular place with a friendly staff.

Not been back in a long time. There were the same problems. And tired of it. The employees who clean up the tables. Would walk in front of us. And block the walkway. And tried to step on the foot. And would not clean many tables. And we had problems with getting our food. The employees would make us wait after everyone else they made the food. And we had to ask the manager to ask them to make it. And they made the pizza wrong. We ordered cheese. And got sausage and pepperoni on it. And would not make another one. WE got a refund of the meal. And an apology and gift certificate from the corporate office. And the next time we were in the restaurant. They gave us a free meal. The manager did. There were the same problems. The female cashiers ran away from us. Talk back rude. Rush to get rid of us, yell at us and interrupt, try to stick the sharp fingernails into the skin of our hands, eat food and repeat the same questions while wait on us, walk away from us while wait on us, and stop wait on us and look elsewhere. And then start to wait on us, and not volunteer to give us the change due back to us, and talk to employees while ring us up. There were many dirty tables during the visits. And the employees that clean the place up. Not volunteer to do much. The décor is plain. And the menu offers a lot of food. At moderate prices.

Love the chicken pesto ciabatta and the burgers. Great atmosphere, love the new renovations!!! Have never tried the pizza, but hear good things. Sweet tea is great and they have the good ice that’s like little pellets

Nice facelift for the restaurant. Although there is new tile and paint in the bathroom, too bad the disgn is not ADA accessible! The ADA stall is too small for a wheel chair to fit in it to close the door, hence NO PRIVACY. I mentioned this to the manager and he had no clue what I was talking about.
Will not go back.

Great facelift to this location! Love how much brighter & cleaner it looks in here (new booths, brighter walls, and art). The food was good — love their fries & burgers. Pizza is always spot on too (portobello is delicious)! They’ve had the same bus boy crew for years & they are very friendly.

Their recent renovations have brightened up and organized the room considerably. .
Something for everybody on their menu: pesto based pizza, fish sandwiches, salads, soup, and burgers. We enjoyed our various orders of artichoke & bacon pizza, tomato soup, caesar salad, Great American Cheeseburger with either un-​greasy fries or a side of veges, a wrap sandwich.
Self serve drinks except for the most popular item, the milkshake. Try the strawberry.
Busy especially on Friday nights and popular with sports teams, families, couples, and professionals (police and firefighters). We usually run into somebody we know there. Lots of take-​out customers, too. Kudos to the guys who clean up the tables in a hurry!

A friend of mine suggested this spot to me for lunch or an informal dinner. Solid place with a really good menu of pizza, salads, burgers, and sandwiches. My burger was pretty average but well prepared. I liked the healthy choices of sides including cole slaw or steamed veggies. My wife had the Asian chicken salad which was «perfectly dressed». She also liked being able to have a glass of wine with her salad. Service was very quick and the counter staff was friendly and engaging.
The setting is very spacious and good for families or large groups. It’s location is ideal if you are heading into Chapel Hill but don’t want to deal with the crummy places right around UNC. This is a surprisingly good spot for a quick bite. Everything is made to order while you wait.

This is one of my favorite places to eat in Chapel Hill!
Pizza is GREAT and the salads, burgers and sandwiches are good as well. We eat here a couple of times a month and have never been disappointed!

The Loop is an interesting place. Loud, crowded, cracked leather on the seats… and yet you just want to keep coming back. In addition to pizza, it carries sweet and creamy milkshakes (personal recommendation: Mint Oreo or Butterfinger) and Boylan’s soda. The atmosphere is delightfully casual (although I am biased towards casual stuff, not being the dressiest person myself), and it has a feeling of warmth that I can’t quite place. The food is quite good, but the main draw (at least to me) is the selection of soda and milkshakes. The Loop is also great for sports people, as it has multiple TVs showing sports games. I would have given five stars, but I had to take one off because less than half of the booths are in decent condition. If that were fixed, this would be five stars all around.

The Loop is one of those American joints that I’ve gone to time to time for years. The variety of staples they sell is not bad: anywhere from pizzas, salads, wraps…
The food here is decent. Everything is average-​priced; your lunch/​dinner will range anywhere from the $ 8 – 15 range.
What I find most problematic about the Loop is the service and ambience. Management always seems to be pushy or harsh, not only to customers but their own staff. The rest of the restaurant desperately needs renovating.
Now in this day and age, we all crave something unique and different. I would prefer to go out to a place that serves food I cannot make as good as at home. However, the Loop is strictly average; its mediocrity determines my rating.

I’ve been eating here for many years (10+) and in the past I would have given it five stars, however during the past couple of years the maintenance and cleaning have fallen badly. The bathroom very dirty looking, the walls throughout the restaurant are stained and very dirty, and many of the seats have vinyl that is literally wearing through.
On the positive side, I still like eating their Salmon sandwich with fries and the cost is reasonable.
Living only about a mile from the The Loop, we’ll occasionally order take-​out and again it’s a mixed bag. It seems that no matter how I try and work the order, such as paying ahead by credit card, it always ends up that I have to stand and wait five minutes while they get the order together. Usually it’s not that you’re waiting for the food to be prepared, rather, the staff simply hasn’t put it into a take-​out paper bag and so then you have to wait while they deal with other customers at the counter as you can see your food sitting there getting cold.
All of the problems I describe are indicative of a huge lapse on the part of management. It strikes me as a situation where there is some remote financial backer (owner?) who never checks on their investment while the on-​site staff let things slide down, down, down.
I hope they find a way to revitalize this place because, as noted above, I do like the food, but the conditions are becoming intolerable.

I eat here more than a few times a year and have been doing so for over 20 years. The burgers and salads are excellent, the pizzas are very good, but I’ve never tried most of the other dishes. The Chicago hot dogs have the wrong relish, the wrong peppers, the wrong bun, the wrong pickles, and no celery salt, but I eat them anyway. Oh, it’s noisy too.

Stopped here for lunch with a colleague. Having only driven by the restaurant in the past, I didn’t realize that you placed/​picked up your orders at the counter. Tried the Asian chicken wrap which was pretty dry and light on the dressing which was a disappointment. The highlight of the meal was definitely the homemade bleu cheese chips! Hope to try more of their menu in the future as you can’t beat their quick lunchtime service!

Our first impression was that the dining room is really worn and desperately needs to be refurbished. Not only that, but it is dark because there are so many lightbulbs that are out– which there is no excuse.
But The Loop is a popular spot. On a Friday night it was full of families with lots of kids, it felt like a Chuck E. Cheese. I think the appeal here is that the menu is good for a kid-​friendly place and there is beer and wine, combine that with $ 2.99 kids meals and it brings in the younger set.
At The Loop you order at the counter and grab a table. You are given a flashing pager to notify you when you food is ready. There was a long line to order, but it moved very quickly. The dining room, even though it is worn, was kept clean by a crew that continually bused tables.
We ordered the traditional five cheese pizza with mozzarella, goat, parmesan, feta, bleu and the pesto based sausage and goat cheese pizza, with sundried and Roma tomatoes. Both pizzas were excellent. The crust was fresh and cooked perfectly with a nice combination of thin with a puffy edge– if that makes sense. The ingredients were fresh and the amount of toppings was spot on. I noticed several people eating salads which also looked really good.
We enjoyed the pizza so much that we will definitely order take out from The Loop, just skip eating in again. I’m giving it four stars because the pizza was that good.

Having grown up eating at the Loop I can honestly say I haven’t had a bad experience yet (knock on wood). I absolutely love their Oreo milkshakes, their blue cheese chips, and anything that has their chicken tenders in it.
To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever had a meal messed up in the 10 plus years I’ve been eating there.
Love this place!

Loved the burger and fries! Tasty and chargrilled and just what I wanted. Oreo Shake was so-​so.

My cheese burger was a little small compared to the bun. I had an issue where my fries came out cold, but I told the manager and he took care of it. The next batch was hot and fresh. My wife had the Pesto Ciabatta and it was really good.
I would eat there again.

Want a good thin-​crust pizza after a long day of shopping? Loop’s a great place to stop. There’s enough seating space for a small army (if you have one of those you need to feed), and a good roster of pizza options. Being boring, I had a simple cheese pizza and an Oreo milkshake, while my family ordered a meat pizza and a classic burger (sans cheese).
The food was done in a reasonable amount of time, and one of the employees even helped me get the trays to our table – seeing as I’m not quite Hollywood waitress enough to carry two heavy trays at once. Our Oreo milkshakes were so huge that they practically filled a glass and a half, and had a good ratio of cookie chunks to ice cream. Both my pizza and my brother’s were well-​cooked, with delish sauce and a tasty crust, although I wouldn’t say that they were worth dropping everything to try.
Be aware that there isn’t table service. You are given one of those little buzzer disk thingies to alert you when your meal is ready, and then you fetch the trays yourself. Silverware, straws, and napkins are all accessible at a bar to the right – they aren’t on your table. The employees will clean up your table once you’re gone.

The Loop food is good but not nearly worth the price. Their salads are $ 8 and decent, but again, not worth that price. Their burgers and pizza are good, and their homemade chips are delicious! I’ve tried their shakes and they’re also very good.
I was disappointed that they raised their prices though!