Fresh 50

Long wait, too much sesame oil, and flavorless food
I was not impressed with the food at Fresh 50 and fail to see the appeal. Authentic Asian food doesn’t take long to prepare as it is, so I prefer to order from my favorite restaurants instead.
FOOD: I ordered noodles, tofu, and broccoli/​onion/​zuke. Everything else looked stale or unhealthy. They generously added additional vegetables and asked if I wanted my box filled with more noodels since I wasn’t getting a salad. Not sure how salad and related cold items go with hot Asian food. I was disappointed at the sauce selection. Only two, plus soy and siracha. I opted for no additional sauce since they are were unhealthy with mayo or other adverse items. When I reheated my food at home (and added some flavorings since everything was oily and bland) I realized how greasy the noodles were — and I believe it was just an overzealous amount of sesame oil at that.
PRICE: A little overpriced for carryout Asian food.
LOCATION and ATMOSPHERE: the location is okay, there is parking available. I preferred when this location was Tava, but that’s another story. There is a laid-​back atmosphere and many people choose to eat inside. I took mine home to heat up to appropriate temperatures (I like hot food to be hot, not warm).
Not going back. Not ever. Great concept, but lacking the variety and execution I hoped for.

So, I really want to like this place. I love the concept. The problem is the execution. My wife and I ordered online for pickup tonight. The site said to allow an hour advance notice — so I arrived an hour later. When I got there, there was just one guy working and he was in the middle of taking another guy’s order. I waited patiently — despite the fact that the guy was slow as molasses and kept complaining that he had been working alone for the past 3 hours. When he finished putting the order together, the customer presented (2) $ 10 coupons with QR codes on them. After about (15) attempts to scan the coupons, he finally gave up and charged the guy full price using his disgustingly dirty iPad. Oh, and I also must mention that the server was wearing soiled clothes with a soiled baseball hat that he kept grabbing with his gloved hand. (Kinda defeats the whole purpose of wearing the glove, doesn’t it?)
Anyway — it was then my turn and our order hadn’t been prepared yet. Also, the server informed me that they were out of the herbed chicken that my wife had ordered, so he offered the sweet basil chicken. I didn’t notice it at the time, but there was definitely something «off» about the chicken. Not sure if it was undercooked or microwaved or what it was… but it was NOT good. My wife also ordered the beef stew — which I thought was weird for an Asian-​themed restaurant — and it was not even as good as Campbell’s Chunky Soup. I got the steak and it was ok.
In summary, the service, cleanliness, and food quality were all poor. Really sucks too, because like I said, I love the concept and the location in Gahanna is very convenient for us. My guess is that this place will not last long…

FRESH! FAST! and GOOD!
I was able to get a guilt free lunch that was fast and delicious. The food did not have a thick layer of sauce on it like most asian places rather it was fresh and colorful. I can see this being a obstical for some, considering people are used to heavy/​salty/​falvorable sauces on their asian food. But personally I really appreciate the light sauces, you can actually taste the vegetables (not just sauce). The service was decent, not the most friendly of staff but easily overlooked by cheerful and clean interior. I will definately be back a few times a month to get my Fresh 50 fix!

OK so my experience here was awful. Theres nothing «Asian» about the food here and honestly at 7PM on a Thursday evening all the ingredients looked left over and hardly «Fresh». The service was terrible, the dude behind the counter acted completely disinterested, as if he didn’t even want to be there. But thats not the reason I’ll probably never go back there, it’s really just the food, it was *that* bad.
The irony is the concept has all the ingredients of a successful venture but dear lord thats some poor execution. Don’t just assemble the ingredients for christ’s sake. Marinade the meat, sauté the damn veggies, add some flavor to your rice and noodles but do something. Alas Fresh50 chose to do very little with their ingredients which left me dissatisfied, disillusioned and very unlikely to ever return. Fresh50 FAIL.

The service was great and checking out on an IPad was cool but the food was just ok. I was expecting 50 FRESH ingredients and it was a small selection and didn’t seem extremely fresh.

Stumbled upon this place looking for a place to get a light lunch before an appointment. After the employee explained the concept, I tried a sample of the chicken dipped in an «Asian» sauce. The meat looked like it had been sitting a while and like another reviewer said was just room temperature, so I opted for the veggies and rice. I did like the options of the veggies. It was a healthy meal, but not as good as I would have hoped.

Just like the name says, everything is fresh and very good. I’ll be back!

Not-​so-​oddly enough, it tastes fresh. That is definitely a good thing. You move on down the line, chipotle-​style, but the range of ingredients is a little wider. I like to go for it all when it comes to that area of the meal-​building. Your food comes on steamed rice, fried rice, or noodles. They have steak, two types of chicken, and tofu (I think), and an assortment of vegetables to top them with. You can also have salad in your bowl. There’s a range of sauces, the Yum-​Yum sauce is creamy and likely mayo based, but a little spicy and delicious. They sell chocolate covered almond cookies at the checkout which are worth a try. I like ‘em.
If I had one complaint, and I believe it’s been mentioned before, it’s that the proteins could be served a little warmer. Everything is kind of room temperature. This good food could only be improved by some appropriate serving temps.
Overall, an excellent choice if you’re in the area.

The Chipotle clones are beginning to dominate the intersection of Morse and Hamilton road — and this is a good thing!
Within a 2 minute walk of either Piada or the granddaddy of the scene Chipotle, Fresh 50 is an Asian-​ish take on the style. Choices of chicken, hibachi chicken, steak, or tofu served over salad, rice, fried rice or Asian noodles make the primary dish, then it is garnished with either fresh or cooked veggies and your choice of sauce.
I had steamed rice, hibachi chicken, with fresh carrots, onions, tomatoes, and cucumbers with the go gi sauce. I had a spicy mayo-​like sauce on the side (I forget the name), which added a nice kick. The veggies were perfectly fresh and the chicken had exceptional flavor.
Two kids meals and two full meals ran $ 36, which isn’t Wendy’s Value Meal cheap, but in line with Piada or Chipotle.
I wonder if this place will get the crowd to support it. I sure hope so since it is a great addition to the area and gives another non-​fast food choice. (I guess you could consider it fast food. Kinda. Maybe it’s Quick Food.)

50 Fresh is a Chipotle style restaurant. They offer a large variety of vegetables and have a good quality meat. The price isn’t bad either. You start your bowl with either lo mein, white rice, or fried rice. Then you pick your meat, steak, thin steak, chicken, or tofu. Then you choose warm vegetables, broccoli, sauteed onions and mushrooms, and zucchini. Then your selection is topped with raw vegetables/​cold toppings like onions, tomatoes, green peppers, carrots, lettuce, cheese etc. Then they have several sauces to top your bowl off with. The food was not temperature hot, only luke-​warm, so I wonder if that is how it is suppose to be or if it was a fluke. I knew immediately it wasn’t temperature hot because I was allowed to taste test the meats, and upon trying one, they were just warm. I did have good customer service and their restaurant is high tech (signed for credit card on iPad). You can eat there or take it to go. My steak bowl was $ 7.25, so it was cheap. The chicken is even cheaper ($ 6.xx) It was fast and efficient, and my concoction tasted good :)

The same delicious food you’re used to from the downtown location, but without all of the traffic, hustle and bustle of being downtown!
As the name implies, the food is fresh and absolutely delicious! Kind of like a chipotle or Piada with an Asian twist; Fresh 50 is a great way to get a pretty healthy lunch at a very reasonable price.
This location is definitely smaller than its downtown counterpart, and has less patio seating, but the interior is beautifully decorated with gorgeous wood trim everywhere.
I had tweeted that I was going to eat at the location about 15 minutes before getting there, and while I was there the manager, Vince, came up and asked if I was the one who had tweeted I would be there (referred to me by name via the tweet). When I told him I was, he let me know he appreciated the business and asked me how I liked the location and food compared to the downtown location. He mentioned that Joe, the owner of Fresh 50, had said I had been in their downtown location a few times. It was a pretty cool touch to be known and have the manager personally introduce himself.
Since it’s only about 15 minutes from work, and very affordable, I’ll definitely be back often for lunch (and some dinners) and will most definitely be bringing friends and co-​workers!