Flat Top Grill

I never write reviews for anything and I created an account on this website just to state that I got the worst service I’ve ever experienced at this location. It was my first time at FlatTop and I would never return to this one.

Flat Top is one of my favorite restaurants but this location is awful! If this had been the first FlatTop I had ever been to, I would never return.
I come here quite often since I love Flat Top but this location has awful service and the food is not fresh! I went there today and ordered the green beans, they were dry and they weren’t even spicy. I also asked for tofu in my bowl and they did not put any in it even though I put the stick in and requested no meat!
This isn’t the first time I’ve been disappointed by this location… :(

It’s Flat Top. Nothing particularly special about it especially considering all the other unique and amazing restaurants in the area. The price is fine for what it is, especially since it’s a huge chain, but perhaps a bit pricey on a student budget.

I’ve been here twice for dinner, and they have a rather… conspicuous approach to business.
First, the food is arranged so that the granularity increases. That is, the line moves so that you have to fill your bowl with foods of smaller granularity before you can get foods of larger granularity. Basically that means that you won’t be able to fill your bowl with as much food. Think of packing a jar with sand first and then with golf balls versus golf balls first and then sand.
Bottom line: the deal you think you’re getting by going to a place that lets you pile on food, is not a deal at all. Dinner is ~$ 13.20 with a student discount. If you want a commensurate amount of food for what you pay, just go through the line backwards. Or go out the door. You can get plenty more food with that amount than you can at Flat Top. Example: 2 giant Chipotle burritos. Flat Top would make more sense if it were $ 10 or less per bowl. But it’s not.
Second, they got rid of their unlimited bowls option. I guess they realized it wasn’t a good business model. So if you want more food, you can pay $ 4 on top of the price of a bowl for one more bowl.
When businesses make their profit visions as visible as this, I feel a little cast away. I like it better when I can ignorantly throw money at things.
Anyway, Flat Top is probably one of the best places to eat vegan on Green St. I have never before in my life seen so many vegan «meats» of so many different kinds. They have seitan, tempeh, quorn, vicken, and a lot more. Some of these meats are curry or bbq flavor. They also got that quinoa for some protein. They also make it super clear which food items are vegan; there’s a giant blackboard behind the counter that let’s you know. It’s so cool that a Midwest chain put so much care into providing vegan options. I never thought I’d have to opportunity to try so many kinds of vegan meats in such a short amount of time.

Id leave less stars if i could. Poor service, only received ¹⁄₃ of my meat that was ordered. Took 40 min to receive drinks… WATER. received bread in last 10% of meal. Manager, and server did nothing to attempt to rectify the situation. WILL NOT BE BACK TO ANY OF THEIR RESTAURANTS.

I came here for my 19^th birthday after having great experiences in my hometown and this was simply awful. They wouldn’t take my birthday coupon for a free bowl due to a $ 3 automatic discount they were giving out for their anniversary that I wasn’t allowed to opt out of. We arrived at 7 pm and did not leave until 9 pm because of the slow service. I ordered a cinnamon roti for dessert referring to the cinnamon fresh fruit roti (the only roti item on the dessert menu) and I ended up receiving burnt roti bread with cinnamon and ice cream and no fruit. I then told the waitress that was not what I ordered but she did not take it back or give it to me for free. Overall, a restaurant that I’ve always had great experiences with really ruined a birthday dinner.

Very good food and cool layout for a place to eat. They are expensive, but it is a great place for a date night or a night with friends. They are very good about keeping allergy sensitive plates separate!

Your average stir fry place. Love that they have parathas though. Service is decent.

It’s obvious this place is on a big campus judging by the appearance of the bathroom. But the food is good enough to get past that.

The change to not being able to choose your own meat seriously devalued the restaurant to me. I had been going to Flattop for 5 years and my most recent trip was awful. I was told I couldn’t pick my own meat, which was the best part of the restaurant, and then when i gave them a shot to let them pick the meat for me to add to my bowl, it was awful. The meat was very sparse in my bowl, barely any meat overall, and the sausage was not cooked through at all. The manager indicated that this is their new policy and they could not give me any more meat even when I could easily get a much greater amount before their change for the same price. I seriously advise avoiding FlatTop now; extremely disappointing.

Good but not great. They changed their menu. Preorder meat and only one combo for 9.99. A lot of food, but dont have the variety.

I would give this place 0 stars if I could but unfortunately, I am forced by Unilocal to give at least one. I’ve been around in town for 6 years or so and this is probably one of the worst experiences I have had, the other being a shut down Chinese place that was cited for unsanitary conditions. It’s sad that my wife and I ate here and then the next day, we got sick from the food. Looking back the meat was not cooked through and the food, when it came out, was just warm, NOT hot. The people they hire to cook are probably not even food industry workers. They look like people you’d get from McDonalds. Anyhow, if you are thinking of eat here, be warned.

I have always liked the build your own stir fry concept, and this location looks good enough on the inside. For whatever reason don’t go here often but always tastes good.

This place is overpriced and bland! I give that flat bread a star best thing on the plate. Takes waay too long to get your food and the options that I picked DIDNT end up on my plate. I will NEVER go there again! booooooo! :(

The first time we went to Flat Top was great. We had a large group of our family and some we’re vegetarian and some we’re not do this place for all of our dietary needs. However, we Haven’t been back in a while because during the next couple visits it got to where it would take 30−45min to get food and the last time it was dirty, tables, floors and seats all had food particles all over. On out last visit, and it will be our last, our food came quickly but it wasn’t even cooked. Most items on the bar were still frozen and were all but thawed when arrived at the table. When we said something to our server, she said that is how it should be. Great concept but this location is doomed if they don’t get it right. Can’t believe it’s still open. We didn’t finish out lunch and walked next door to Penn Station for lunch. Flat Top went from great to Very disappointing

So this is one of those places where you can create your own sort of masterpiece of food; you can make your own stir fry, wrap, soup, or mu-​shu. You add rice and various meat and veggies. Then you can top it off with sauces such coconut curry. They have a wide array of things. I think one of the issues is that you can possibly make something that doesn’t taste very good; but that’s the fun with experimenting. I’ll have to say that the meat was fairly subpar. However, the rest of the food and service was fairly good. It costs $ 11 for lunch.

Ok meal, mediocre service, lying hostess. Went as part of a group of 6 for a birthday dinner. Stephanie the server was helpful but very busy. We ordered three appetizers for the table. As we were dropping off our bowls to be cooked, the appetizers were being finished. I saw them sitting on the counter, And had a seat where I could see them sit. And sit. Finally the hostess-​like person picked the plates up and took the appetizers on a tour of the restaurant. Finally, she brought the cold food to our table. The edamame, quesadillas, and dumplings all had a glaze from the now chilled oil, and all were soggy and cool to the touch. I asked her why they sat for so long, and that’s when the real problem started– she LIED and said they just came up. I confronted her and told her that I had watched them sit for 6 – 8 minutes before she brought them to us, and she stated again that they were fresh.
I can understand a service delay when a restaurant is busy, but bad service from a lazy and dishonest employee has no place in the service industry. I confronted her and asked for contact information for the manager, and in return she avoided our table the rest of the meal, hiding in the back room and continuing to avoid her responsibilities.
It’s disappointing that this type of behavior is tolerated by what used to be an amazing restaurant. The restaurant made no attempt to make things right, except to eventually replace the tepid food after our entrees arrived.

I waited a while to write my review to make sure this was actually what I wanted to say. These kids running this donkey show pissed me the hell off. It was just after 4 on a Saturday and we came in to have what I thought would be the only intelligent offering in a town full of children. Right! We were seated and I was one of 4 guests in the building. Our drink order was taken, and because I was in my booth so tight that I didn’t want to get up to show my I.D. I changed my order to Sierra Mist! I guess the 4 inches of grey hair hanging from my chin wasn’t proof enough that I am not only old enough to drink. But I am also old enough to operate an electric wheel chair! But that had nothing to do with the annoyance factor that was brewing. The kid explained what we had to do and we went on our way. Now I love rice. So much so that I could eat that alone as my meal. Both the white and brown rice tubs were completely empty! So I asked for some and was told they would bring it right out. Then I was told to make my bowl and they would bring it out when it was ready. So I asked a simple question. If you bring it out after the meal is cooked. Than the rice will still be white! With no flavor from what I put in the bowls. Three people told me that it would take 25 minutes to cook the damn rice and they all thought it was hysterical. The manager. A young girl with her hair pulled back to give her that look of authority kept pacing back and forth through the restaurant like she actually had something important to offer. The rice. Is an, if not thee essential part of what this chains menu is built upon! And then you do a group huddle to laugh about it. Now I could see my bowl from across the restaurant sitting on the edge of the griddle. When about thirty people walk in. The cook is still scraping the grill from the time I walked in the door and I knew what was going to happen next. Bowl after bowl about 8 inches higher than the rim were pushing mine further and further away from getting cooked. That’s was it. I’m the dude in the Snickers commercial that needs to be fed. But. I kept my cool. Just not my Snidely Whiplash remarks. Every time a server walked by, I asked if the rice was ready yet? I cut the time of that rice down to 15 minutes and that shit was scorched like their underwear after a weekend binge! Of course when it came out I was finished with my meal. I thought that it would be fun to visit a college town and take in some sights. Fuck You! I told my buddy to get the car and lets get the hell out of here!

To start being carded was funny. But that is what some places do. Flat Top is a decent make your own stir fry. Grab your bowl and fill it up with whatever you like and as much as you like, Witnessed a young lady prepare enough in her bowl to last a week. But if it fits do it. Place meat in a separate bowl leave on counter and wait for the cook to prepare. Decent food the rice was scary as it looked as if it had been there over night. We did get a freshly cooked bowl and it tasty smokey. Ok place nothing special.

If I could give this place no stars, I would. I used to enjoy Flattop, a couple of years ago Flattop really wasn’t bad at all! You filled a bowl with vegetables, beans, rice, and sauce. You’d fill a smaller bowl with your choice of meats, then leave them on the side for them to be stir fried into really delicious meal.
That is not the case anymore, now you get back a bowl of really BLAND, overcooked stuff. It doesn’t even taste like stir fry, just like a bunch of dried up random bits of food. I had convinced my friend to go here instead of Chipotle and then felt really embarrassed when he had to get up to get extra sauce from the station because his food was that dry. The meal was so bad and took so long, the least I could do was pay for both our meals. Never again will I be coming back here.