Fresh Choice

This Location has closed, not sure why. Open one day closed the next. Make you wonder.

This used to be a pretty good place (I’ve been coming here on and off for 2 – 3 years) but as of late, this place has really fallen apart. Last few times, salad was passable but hot food was terrible… food were sitting out all dried up. spaghetti noodles and rice were bone dry but no effort to replace it. Also sauce for the spegatti was watery like soup. Nasty !! Soups tasted funny too. Lots of condiments also looked old and tired.
Also, lot of stuff was missing. I heard some lady asking for sour cream and they said they don’t have it. Thats basic stuff they are missing. It seemed like no one working there cares.
This place really needs a owner/​manager to oversee it. As it currently stands, its falling apart. I will not be returning anymore.

If you are a vegetarian and want a salad bar with great variety, then this is definitely worth a try. If you don’t like salads, this place probably is not for you. My husband and I have been here several times now and are so pleased to have a place we can go that is not all about meat and unhealthy carbs (although they are available here too — just not on the front burner). It is clean and has plenty of seating. The staff has always been very friendly.
What I really like is the idea that Fresh Choice has locally grown produce. I believe they own their own farms in Southern Cali and the produce is organic. I think the prices are reasonable considering it’s organic — especially if you hit the early bird special. In fact, I don’t think you can beat that deal.
I think they have about 5 soups or more to choose from and the ones I’ve eaten have been good. The only reason for 4 stars is the pizza. It really is not that great, so if you want pizza — go to a pizza place.

This is one of the cleanest salad joints around… even after my kids eat there!

Once upon a time, I loved me some Fresh Choice. Back then, it was cheaper, and the muffins were bigger. (To be fair, the muffins don’t really need to be bigger, but they were, once upon a time.)
Anyway, my biggest complaint nowadays is the price. Get over yourself, Fresh Choice. You’re just a giant salad bar, and you’re not worth $ 9 plus drink! Sure, you have soups and pastas and really crappy pizza with a ketchup-​based sauce, but I only come in for the salad bar because all the rest of those things are mediocre, at best, anyway.
Honorable mention for the sweet muffins and soft serve though. I wish I could afford to eat enough carbs to get my $ 9 worth…

Myself and two others dined at this location on Friday, January 13^th. We arrived around 1:50PM and noticed that it wasn’t too busy. All of the staff members were pleasant and friendly. I read the Unilocal reviews prior to dining in and was hesitant. Luckily, ALL of the food was fresh, warm, and yummy. I have zero complaints and would return. For what it is, you can’t beat the food portions (buffet) and prices. Also, go on Fresh Choice’s official website and Subscribe for Coupons! I used my handy «Buy one get one Free, with two beverage purchases» coupon.
*Prices*
Adults:
Lunch (11AM-​4PM) $ 8.69
Dinner (4PM-​Close) $ 10.49
Mon-​Fri, 3PM-​5PM $ 7.49
Children:
0 – 2 Free
3 – 5 $ 1.99
6 – 12 $ 4.99
(With purchase of Adult plate)
Beverage:
$ 2.29 each
Note: AAA Members receive 10% off total bill. (Proof required) If you’re Subscribed to Fresh Choice’s coupons and it’s your birthday, you’ll receive 25% off total bill. (E-​mailed coupon required)

I’m from SoCal where we have a place called Souplantation (known in some states as Sweet Tomatoes) and this place totally tries to copy Souplantation in everything from the three main salads served to the seating. If you’re wondering if they measure up to Souplantation/​Sweet Tomatoes, the answer is no. They fail miserably!
Their salads are horrible, condiments and dressings don’t look fresh, their soups taste like bad water with food coloring, and their macaroni and cheese is dry looking like it has been sitting under that heat lamp for hours!
Their cashiers are super friendly but unless they seriously up their food freshness and overall quality food and taste, I would suggest you stay clear of this place and drive the extra distance to find a Sweet Tomatoes or Souplantation. It’s worth it!

Wow-​wee! The mixed reviews for this Fresh Choice have me questioning, have I just been extraordinarily lucky? Have I managed to time visits with the Fresh Choice gods accordingly?
I go here for the salad. The SALAD toppings and selection are the best. I like to run the gamut with my salad and a «dinner salad» is not really a salad at all to me. Rarely, do I venture outside of the salad bar. I like the fruit and ice cream in the dessert bar. I also dig the muffins and honey butter. I try to steer clear of the pizza and soups, pretty much because I am there for salad. I have yet to try the Phở noodles, but again, I am there for the salad. I always leave full and happy.
If you have a student ID you get $ 2 off your salad bar. Sometimes I even get a giant salad to-​go and me and my BF just split it at home (that’s the best deal). You’d be surprised by how much you can jam in one of their clear plastic to-​go boxes — try it!
The atmosphere is the same as a Sizzler or another buffet. Everything that I have had has been fresh. The salad bar clean and organized. Service prompt and available. If you want a big fat salad and you want it now… go! If you’re looking for amazing soup and pizza with a side salad, maybe consider Round Table…

At one time this was a good restaurant, and I wrote a pretty good review for them at that time.
Note: I edited this review because I am not quite as satisfied with this location as I used to be. They no longer cater as well to what I want as a vegetarian. They dont offer vegetarian broth to the phoe noodle soup unless you ask for it specifically, and the only other vegetarian thing now is salad, and cheese pizza. Not so worth the money anymore.
~A Disappointed Customer :(

Not impressed. We ate there on Saturday July 2 at noon. Prime lunch hour on a holiday weekend. The pre-​made salads looked wilted and were bland. Don’t bother with the «Phở» in a dispenser, it tastes like water. Blech!
I was hoping that the soups and bread would save the day but the bread was all stale and the soups were not appetizing. The other ‘prepared’ dishes were not well made. How do you screw up pasta with marinara sauce? (It was watery and bland). The bacon at the baked potato bar was suspiciously pink, though it tasted alright.
This place is definitely not «fresh» nor is it that healthy. Skip it. You’d have a much better dining experience at either Habit Burger or Fudrucker’s in the same plaza!

Fresh choice on Arden is much better!
Everything was dried up, old looking, and hard.
The pizza was about gone when I arrived and by the time I left there still wasn’t any fresh pizza out.
Only one flavor of ice cream worked on the ice cream machine, went to use the third and it wouldn’t work either.
The macaroni had a hair in it.
Salad was getting old and some of the veggies were dried up.
Pretty much there was nothing good there when we arrived and when we left nothing fresh was put out.
They’re slow at everything… only good thing there was the Drink.

This place is slipping.
I’ve always liked the Fresh Choice concept — buffet service of fresh salads, soups, pasta, etc. — and we eat at either this location or the one on Douglas Blvd. in Roseville about once a month.
At our last visit to this location, however, some of the food and service quality had dropped: caesar salad had been sitting so long it had gone limp from the dressing, brownie was more like a square hockey puck, salad bar hadn’t been wiped up recently so there were anonymous gobs of food clinging everywhere.. .. The soda dispenser was having issues, with two or three types not working and the others spurting all over from excess carbonation. Had to stand in front of the pasta/​bread counter for about five minutes waiting for plates to be brought out while the staff were having an obviously-​not-​work-​related chat in the back. Place seems to need a new and better (or at least present) manager.

OK… As far as buffets go… Fresh Choice is not really a major league player in your lineup of options but when you want to eat, you don’t want to think, and you don’t want to audition for biggest loser — this is the place to go right?
Decent food, decent price, decent selection and most importantly you don’t want to shove a finger down your throat afterwards.

A salad bar that is a couple of feet long, everything does in fact look very fresh. I love making myself a salad with everything that I am in the mood to eat. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy a nice little before dinner salad but this place makes a meal out of a salad. After my salad I like to walk over and get anything that looks good to cover the gaps my big salad didn’t. Pizza, pasta, soup… Then the big finish, dessert! Soft serve with some toppings is my personal favorite.
Besides the obvious, one of my favorite things about this place is that it’s not a hit or miss for kids. There will definitely be something for all of them to eat and who knows… maybe they’ll try a new thing or two.
Most importantly for me is that the place is very clean.
So overall this place is a Great choice!

My wife loves a good salad bar. I love a good value. We both love pizza and soft-​serve ice cream. So I guess it’s no surprise that we love — or really, really like — the Fresh Choice.
You really can’t beat Fresh Choice’s salad bar. It’s got pre-​made salads, including Caeser (hail!) and fruit and pasta and potato and tuna saffron. It’s also got all the standard salad staples, like lettuce and carrots and croutons. But it’s also got the rarer stuff, like tofu nuggets and edamame and, oddly, ingredients to make phở noodle soup. If you’re a salad enthusiast, you’ll be in heaven.
If you merely dabble in salads, though, there’s plenty more to like: pizza, soups, fresh-​baked bread and muffins, pasta, and potatoes — with no shortage of choices. For example, they had four different types of pizza yesterday: cheese, veggie, pepperoni, and something with pineapple and pork. Also four types of soup, including two veggie and two non-​veggie options. You get the idea. Choices — so you can take little samples and this and that
Notably, the aforementioned hot dishes aren’t the crème d’ la crème of their respective categories. This stuff is made in bulk, cafeteria style. It’s good but not great.
Finally, there’s a nice dessert bar with brownies and soft-​serve ice cream and pudding, plus fruit and assorted toppings.
The restaurant itself is aesthetically nice and comfortable. The people that work there are also nice. There’s no table service, per se, but they do come by to take away plates you don’t need anymore.
If you plan to go, check to see when they have their specials (such as the early bird, which is fine for a late lunch). They also give a AAA discount.

They have a Phở bar! WOO HOO!
They have TONS of booths.
It’s as good as fresh choice gets. The buffet is always clean, full and everything looks appetizing. Nothing worse that fishing thru a bowl of lettuce trying to find a piece that’s not wilted or brown.
My only complaint I’ve ever had with this location is their frozen yogurt/​ice cream machine was broken one night. :) awh snap!

I come here with my buddy about once a year to see who can make the bigger salad. He unfortunately won this year, but I shall exact my revenge next time. You know it is a salad with tons of stuff on it when I cant even figure out where to put the croutons without having them roll right off the plate. I also tried the lentil soup and the clam chowder which were both pretty good. I got lucky because they had just brought out two fresh pizzas (veggie and pepp), they both kicked major ass. Loaded baked potato, assorted mixed salads and breads. Then I topped it off with a brownie covered with vanilla soft serve, oreo cookies, strawberry topping and hot fudge. This was gluttony at its finest.

I’ve been here over 30 times but have finally stopped for many reasons. Well, this place is a buffet with a large variety of salads, dressings, pasta, soups, pizza, breads, desserts. It’s nice to go here if you want to eat as much as you desire for an okay price. This is the place for all kinds of eaters: vegetarians and non-​veg., picky-​eaters, or people w/​big appetites. Dinner is a few bucks more for pretty much the same amount of food, so go for lunch if you are planning on going here.
The thing with buffets is that you eat so many different foods, you end up feeling sick in the end. The food is decent, nothing grand, just boxed soups, the first three salads are fresh, the other veggies are great cuz you can make your own salad, and the pizza is okay.
All fresh choice’s open at 11am, and this is when they are the cleanest and freshest, so come before 1pm. If you go in the evening like 7pm or 8pm, sometimes they run out of salads, ice cream is broken or empty, and dessert area and some of the tables are messy. The bussers are friendly and work fast, maybe they need an extra person for the «rush» during lunch and dinner. There have been times where it was so packed you had to wait for seats.
If you’re going with a kid, go when it’s not lunch time on weekdays or in the morning.
Overall, it’s a nice place to hang out and eat anything of your liking, but go when it isn’t too busy.
Waring: if you have to get to-​go food, go somewhere else. You can’t fit enough food in those boxes for that price.

This Fresh Choice is a little better than the one in Roseville. Seems to be cleaner and have more salad selections. We like the way the food is presented too.
This is a great place to take your family or even company… everyone can get what they want including dessert and seconds if they want!
A good time to go for dinner is before 5pm. and you can take advantage of the early bird special for dinner which is $ 6.99. A great deal!

Went around 2pm on Saturday. No lines but the drinks, dessert and dining was a mess. Ice cream machine was broken and ice cream cones ran out.
Staff was friendly and attentive.