Urban Plates

We had a very good meal here last Saturday night:
Salmon: 4.5 of 5
Brussel Sprouts: 5 of 5
Sweet Potatoes: 5 of 5
Bread: 1 of 5 (Change it!!! – awful – like eating wallboard)
$ 14.00 for this meal above with tax.
More:
Lemonade: 3 of 5
Blueberry Soda: 5 of 5
Cranberry Cookie: 5 of 5
Free water: 0 of 5 Undrinkable it was so bad. Please do something about this. We drink table water all over the world and this one tastes like it comes from a fish tank.
Served up in less than 10 minutes.
Service was helpful and friendly.
This is not a romantic restaurant to impress anyone.
Urban Plates is a place to go for a fast Quality meal.
You wait on line, grab a tray, pass by the items for sale, instruct the attendant what you want. They put it on a plate and you proceed to the register for add up and payment.
Then you search a free table and sit and eat.
You are set.
Another way to describe this place is that it is an upscale «Lemonade» type restaurant for folks familiar with that Franchise joint.
But we rather eat at Urban Spoon any day – much better quality.
You will feel comfortable eating hear alone, couple or group.
There is also outside seating for you camper/​picnic types.

I love how fresh and organic and healthy all the foods are.
Makes me want to eat healthy. Will for sure come back and try their other foods.

Fresh. Organic. Delicious. I could quit right there, but let me tell you more. Urban Plates offers a cornucopia of salads, soups, sandwiches, sides and desserts. And more. Following a plant-​based diet makes it challenging to find a place where I can dine with my colleagues where we can all be satisfied. Urban Plates is the best place I have found to meet all of our requirements and desires.
Vegetarian curry (vegan) is perfection. It comes with rice and grilled ciabatta bread.
They always have one soup that is vegan, and usually two others that are not. The carrot and poblano chile soups are among my favorites.
The entrée salads are large and while there is a recommended dressing to come with each, you can change it up if you prefer a different one.
My all time favorite meal here is the 4UP… choose from 4 sides and I encourage a combination of the hot and cold choices. Soup is an option that I typically go for.
They have salmon, albacore, meatloaf, steak, and chicken and as you walk through the line you are able to view all of your choices which I like.
Sides are quite varied: sautéed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, brussel sprouts, broccolini, nd more for the hot sides. Cold sides include a superfood salad (comes in both a winter and summer variety), tomato and mozzarella salad, and seasonal options.
On my next visit, I’m thinking of trying the grilled portobello mushroom sandwich. It sounds magnificent.
Do yourself a favor and if you don’t have room for it, take dessert to go. I know, you can’t have dessert all of the time (or can you?!) but you don’t want to pass on it here. Share it; whatever you have to do… it’s highly recommended. Choices includes cake slices such as blood orange white chocolate and hummingbird cake, cookies, fresh fruit tarts (mango is marvelous when available), banana cream pie, and vanilla bean cheesecake.
We placed our order online today, which I strongly encourage you to do if you’re not planning to eat in (they’ve got a comfortable dining room and ample seating in the covered patio) because they get very busy at lunchtime. I was impressed with the effort the server went through to double check our large order to confirm that we got everything (we did).
The offer both kids meals as well as beer and wine.

The layout of Urban Plates is similar to Lemonade. When you walk up, stay on the right to order a fresh salad. Go to the left for hot foods. I like that they have white and brown rice, so many places do not. Portions are generous and we always have to pack up more than half of our meals to bring home. They have a station of to go containers to the right of the take-​out counter.
Here’s the rating on what we’ve tried:
Braised beef– 3.5 stars
Mac N Cheese– 3.5 stars
Grilled steak — 3.5 stars
Grilled chicken — 4 stars
Asparagus — 4 stars
Brussel Sprouts — 4 stars
Cesar Salad — 4 stars
Cous-​Cous Salad — 4 stars
Chocolate-​Vanilla Layer Cake — 5 stars
Mango Tart — 5 stars
Hummingbird Cake — 4 stars (5 stars if you like walnuts)
Passionfruit-​Coconut Drink — 5 stars

Delicious salads but expensive and service is hit and miss. A salad with added «protein» and a drink will set you back $ 25.38. This is before tip. If you’re lucky enough to place your order at the food bar, then service is great. But if you have to deal with a line greeter to take your order, then be prepared for possible mix ups of ingredients and long delays.
In the past, service has been fast and efficient. But on my most recent visit, it was pretty bad. A line greeter took my order (even tho there were only 2 other customers ahead of me) instead of letting me place it directly with the salad workers as I had in the past. She told me to have a seat and will bring my salad when ready. She then came back to me a couple times asking me to repeat specifics from my order. I then waited for over 20 minutes before asking a waitress what the hold up was. She apologized and said that they were out of some supplies (why didn’t someone inform me earlier?). 10 minutes later, I received my meal.
Due to my recent experience, I now eat at the Veggie Grill around the corner of same building.

Came here last Friday!
It was not too busy at 2, but the line followed us shortly!
Because it is the beginning of Lent season, I unfortunately was not allowed to have meat that day! Guess me trying their steak will just have to wait for another day!
I got 2 sides: Mac and cheese and the mashed potatoes with gravy.
We also got the banana cream pie and the vanilla bean cheesecake for dessert there. I took home a molasses cookie, chocolate chip cookie, and a sea salt caramel brownie Togo.
The Mac and cheese was whatevs. I added crushed pepper for extra flavoring.
I liked the mashed potatoes very much! I cannot wait to have this with some steak on my next visit!
The banana cream pie was very light for a pie! I was expecting something super heavy! The whip cream was nice and light. The shaved chocolate on top also made it very light. The cream itself had real sliced bananas in it and you could taste the freshness. I was not a big fan of the crust. It was very hard and not light at all! To cut into it, you had to be careful not to press to hard or else you would hear the treacherous sound of the knife hitting the plate super hard and then be careful of your dessert flying everywhere!
The vanilla bean cheesecake was decent. They used the same crust as the banana cream pie. Not a big fan of that. The fresh blueberries were a nice addition though!
I liked the molasses cookie! Very nice and chewy! I cannot imagine what it would taste like when warm!
The chocolate chip cookie was very crumbly. I would like the cookie to be just a bit more cakey, but you can’t expect much when they don’t make it with butter!
The brownie was good! Next time I will warm it up just a bit and pair it with some ice cream!

The dinner team tonight executed service really well! Not sure if it’s like this every weekend nights as we’ve only been here a handful of time. But well done! The food backed up the line a little and some were sent back (our neighboring table: p but they were not the only ones) because they were undercooked but the team handled it very well!
And great job at «thinking on your feet» and clearing up the lines.
So far, each time we’ve eaten here has been very pleasant. Food can use some improvement but everything is always consistent (unlike tender greens!!) and everyone is so nice so we keep coming back!

No no no no no. How this place has a good rating is beyond me. I shared two plates with my mom and my sister. That probably wasn’t a good idea because the amount of food they put on one plate wouldn’t be filling for a toddler.
We got the salmon with the beets and pasta salad as our sides. For the second plate we had the steak with mashed potatoes and oven roasted potatoes. Bread came with each plate. We got to the front to pay. The two plates and a lemonade was $ 31.05. Geez. Salmon is an extra $ 2 while the «steak» is an extra $ 1. The price would be reasonable if the pieces of meat were an appropriate size. Anyway, my mom hands the cashier $ 40 and tells him that she’ll give him $.05. She hands him the nickel, but the cashier already put in the money and says he can’t accept it because he already input the number. He obviously couldn’t do math. Luckily, the manager was right behind him and tells him to just add $.05 so he can give us $ 9.
Here’s the fun part. I can finally eat the food. Nope. Let me tell you that nothing was good.
1. The steak was COLD. ??? No!
2. Oven roasted potatoes were flavorless. Have they heard of something called salt? Please season your food.
3. Mashed potatoes had a weird consistency. Wish I didn’t get the gravy. It made it pretty nasty.
4. The salmon was tiny. Absolutely tiny. Four bites and you’re done. They also put this honey mustard sauce on top. If you want to ruin a piece of fish, that’s how you do it. With honey mustard. Honey mustard is for chicken nuggets, not fish.
5. Pasta salad was ok. Nothing special.
6. I don’t really eat beets. I tried a piece, but it didn’t taste like anything. My mom ate most of it.
7. The lemonade was the only thing that was satisfying, so I’ll give them that.
8. Almost forgot about the bread. It’s hard. and it’s cold. I took a bite, and I have never eaten a sadder piece of bread than that. I would have rather eaten a piece of sandwich bread. I would’ve rather eaten the end piece of a loaf.
Also, everything on both plates were cold. Why is none of the food heated? With the exception of the pasta salad and beet salad, nothing should be cold. Cold protein and potatoes. No thanks. Never coming back.

Not a fan. I like Lemonade better against all these key decision factors:
1) Food quality. I had 4 sides: superfood salad, sesame broccolini, veg curry, and Mac and cheese. Kale was not cut nor massaged– felt like I was gnawing on a tree branch. Peppers and carrots in the veg curry were hard, and the tofu was rubbery. Sesame broccolini wasn’t all that fresh. Mac and cheese was bland. My family’s beef portions looked dry /​artificially colored (like dyed fuschia pink in the middle)
2) Confusing ordering system. Salads in one line, everything else in another line, holding up everyone at entrance. To make matters worse, you can’t see the sides until you get past the plates /​salad section. And even then, prices aren’t posted for a la carte sides. I had to ask about pricing to get 3 – 4 sides as a meal. Then they ask you whether you want bread, but no indication of whether that’s a separate charge.
3) ambience. It is rustic indoors, not open and bright like Lemonade. Too much seating compromised by long communal seating.
Next time, I’ll just drag my family to Lemonade…

Truly cafeteria style and that is something that I never liked. I would summarize this place like: «cafeteria food with restaurant price». My steak was almost raw and stringy not quality meat. We waited for a long time for two co-​workers to get their sandwiches because they ran out of steak in the middle of lunch. The salad was OK, most of the co-​workers I went with, were disappointed and complained about the price and quality of the food for the price, so probably not going there for a while.

Today was the third time that I tried out this place. I can finally say «okay, I tried. I’m never coming back»
After reading so many great reviews, I had pretty high hopes for this place. But I was pretty dissappointed with my first two experiences. I ordered a steak salad the first time and the steak was overcooked and dry. I don’t quite rememebr what I got the second time but it it didn’t leave me with a good impression for sure. Despite the two let downs, I thought I would try out this place once more. I thought, «maybe I came in at a bad time the first two times». But nope. Their food is terrible. For the price I’m paying, I’d rather go to Tender Greens.
Not only was the chicken cobb salad extremeltly SALTY, the chicken was under cooked, almost RAW (see picture). If I was dining in, I would’ve complained and maybe they could’ve given me a new one. However, my fiancé is the one who got the salad for me togo. All in all, I don’t think I’ll ever be coming back. Not only the food tastes horrible, but chicken wasn’t even cooked all the way.
I’m crossing my fingers that I don’t get food poisoning.

My first impression of Urban Plates was that it was like a Lemonade done better. When I first walked in I immediately liked the variety in the seating arrangement. It includes a long narrow table on which people propped up their laptops and were working while others were able to eat and chat with the person across from them. They also offered 2 and 4 person tables around this longer table and plenty of outdoor seating on their covered patio.
The ordering process is cafeteria style where you let the server know what you’d like and they load your plate for you. They have two separate lines for ordering. One of them is solely for those looking to order a salad and the other is for everything else. Their menu includes a good amount of different salad options that pretty much all sounded good to me. I wasn’t in the mood for a salad though and decided to order one of their plates. Their plates include a protein and two sides of your choice. Their protein options include salmon, free range chicken breast and steak to name a few. They also have cold side options such as a caprese salad and warm sides such as the two I ordered: a zucchini and cauliflower mix and roasted brussel sprouts with turkey bacon. They also have soup and salad options to choose from.
Just as you’re silently praising yourself for your healthy dinner options, you’ll notice all the delicious looking desserts they offer right before you pay. They had giant cookies and cakes to name a few. I managed to avoid these and instead decided on a decaf coffee which I was told comes with free refills. My meal was way better priced that I was anticipating. I’ve been to other restaurants that offer healthy, creative options and have had to overpay for them. Such was not the case here.
They also offer an array of different sauces, organic mustard and ketchup and hot sauce for flavoring your food however you’d like. I liked that they had organic stevia for coffee along with plenty of other sugar options. Overall, I had a very solid first impression of Urban Plates. I liked how juicy the chicken was and the creativity they add to their sides. They also put effort into making the dining experience convenient for those on the go. You’re given the option to order ahead and do a curbside pick up. This place proves that healthy food doesn’t have to be boring or bland. It’s a tasty, quick alternative to fast good whether you’re on the go or want to dine in.

Wow! This place is so great!
Definitely extremely similar to tender greens, which is good, but I much prefer urban plates. You stand in line and can go with salad, or entrée with sides, and there are even braises, sandwiches and pizzas to choose from.
I ordered the salmon with rosemary potatoes and broccolini. Salmon was fresh and cooked perfectly, potatoes not too salty of heavy, broccolini was a good addition. My boyfriend got the chicken which was tender and juicy, and the miso sweet potato with mushrooms is SO GOOD!
I can’t wait to come back and to try their other menu items. It was a very satisfying, healthy, but hearty meal :) love urban plates! (For those who are really health conscious, a full meal here can be less than 500 cals! And it’s still tasty :)!)

Agree with what the other Unilocalers have said regarding the business model, I totally agree. Urban Plates does remind me of a version of Lemonade… but with more options?
At Urban Plates they serve:
1. Wine
2. Kombucha on tap
3. Fresh Juices
5. Flat-​bread pizza
6. Hot Foods
7. Cold Foods (salad)
8. Desserts
Definitely appealing to our growing «healthy-​living» focused community in the OC, but also to the people who aren’t 100% into the choices at Lemonade.
We had the:
+ URBAN GROVE ANTIOXIDANT SALAD: was tasty and comes with a LOT of FRUIT, which would be a great summer salad. However, I personally found it to be TOO sweet. (3 stars)
+ GRILLED WILD ALBACORE SALAD: was delicious! GET THIS! My friend got it and I had couple bits of hers and it was so yummy! The Albacore is perfectly grilled and the vinaigrette dressing is on POINT! It was one of the most tasty salads I have had thus far. (5 stars)
*** each salad does come with chargrilled focaccia bread, which was also delicious!
Drinks:
+ Organic LEMONADE sweetened w/​organic SUGAR: 5 STARS!!! Their drinks are also served in the cutest mason jars! (so hip) I think the presentation made the lemonade taste even better. I’m glad that I chose the lemonade because it wasn’t too sweet or too sour and definitely tasted FRESH!
+ Organic Berry Juice (?): not sure what my friend ordered, but it was definitely berry based. You know it’s fresh because with each sip you sometimes get chunks of the fruit. I liked that it wasn’t too sweet either. Reminded me sort of the Berry Replenisher at Starbucks.
Dessert:
+ CHOCOLATE VANILLA LAYER CAKE: super moist and the vanilla cream wasn’t too sweet either. It was a perfect balance between the chocolate cake and vanilla cream. I didn’t think I would enjoy it as much as I did. However, I would recommend trying their other desserts that are more unique, but they all look delicious. They also offer gluten-​free options.
Atmosphere described in one word: HIPSTER (as much as I hate this word). Literally, a rustic earthy setting, which makes the food you are eating seem more healthy than it really is.
Lots of seating, which is great. Outdoor, indoor, and a large communal table in the inside.
All staff were super friendly. Shout-​out to Anthony! We came during lunch time and the line was out the door, but Anthony came out and gave everyone standing in line a menu to look at. Totally thought he was a manager, as he was knowledgeable about basically everything on the menu and was really hospitable! Now who doesn’t love happy workers? Thanks Anthony!
Note:
1. Leave your plates at your table. Staff comes around and cleans the table up after you leave.
If I were to come back during lunch time, I would probably order in if I am in a rush, since there is a separate check-​out area for take out orders, which expedites the process!

Met a vendor for lunch here. We both never tried Urban Plates so decided to give it a try. We ordered plate with two sides each.
Hers;
Chicken, greens, Khus khus?, bread
Mine;
Chicken, potatoes/​cauliflower, cold salad, bread
Food– was good we both ate l our entire meal. Food does needed more seasoning though.
Drink– I ordered Orange/​carrot/​ginger juice. It was OK! I had better tasting cold press Juice at Nekter.
Service– overall friendly.
Verdict– I would try then again in near future.

Absolutely love urban plates! It’s a step above Tender Greens for sure. And this is coming from a fan of Tender Greens!
Urban Plates has such a larger selection of food to choose from compared to Tender Greens. They cook their steak to perfection. The chicken comes out juicy and tender. Their vegetables come out crispy and flavorful. I ordered steak with veggies on the side and tried their caprese salad. My cousins ordered the chicken and the Mac and cheese. Their caprese salad was seasoned perfectly with the right amounts of salt, balsamic vinegar and herbs. The Mac and cheese was creamy and tasty. It didn’t make me feel sick or food coma afterwards from being too heavy. What I liked best was the cheese explosion in every bite. It was overwhelming but it was definitely there.
They’ve got ample parking in the lot and ample space to sit and eat in the restaurant. They even have a covered outdoor patio area that sits a bunch of people.

This place is trendy and has a lot of options that are in a sort of cafeteria line type of setting. There is indoor and outdoor seating, all self seating. All of the menus are on the walls. When you first come in there will be a separate salad line, then a line for everything else. If it’s your first time, they recommend the urban plates, which is what I tried. You choose one meat and 2 sides, and it comes with a side of yummy bread.
Mustard salmon is very good and has a flavoring of Dijon mustard, and is a little tangy.
Sweet potatoes are very good and come with mushrooms and onions.
Brussel sprouts are one of the more popular items, very flavorful, but a little oily for my taste. Still very good though.
Mac n cheese was my least favorite, it had white cheese. It wasn’t terrible, but not worth the try imo.
Overall, a great place that is casual and trendy, and has plenty of healthy options!

The steak was done… well-​done. It was dry and flavorless.
The braised beef stew with mushrooms was bland… and so were the mashed potatoes.
The mac & cheese was the only saving grace for this meal.
Service was fair, nothing extraordinary about it since it’s cafeteria-​like style.
The bathroom had no toilet paper… they had two empty rolls in the stall. Why?

Prices went up to $ 10.50. Still tasty!
No more chimichirri sauce either which is sad.

I am probably one of the last people to have hit this place up. I have Urban Seoul in DJ to still go to as well lol.
Went here on November 2^nd, which was a beautiful evening. It had a bunch of storm clouds and it made it feel «Finally. It’s the holiday season.»
Oh you want to hear more about Urban Plates, eh? Fineeee.
You enter through the side and you go around it like you’re at a cruise buffet or at a cafeteria. There are different areas you can go get your food. The first part is salads, then urban plates, then broth (I think), sandwiches, then pizzettes, and it followed up with desserts and paying.
I had the slow simmered pork braise ($ 10.50). The guy who was there must have been new, because he asked «what rice» and I was like ummm «half and half?» and he had to ask if that was okay. I don’t know if I could have substituted, but the mashed potatoes looked really good. Ah well. Rice is fine. The rice was with the broth, but the broth wasn’t enough to satisfy all the rice that was on the plate. The portions are off, well off. The pork braise was dry as well, so I definitely didn’t like that :/​The broth is flavorful but as I said before, it’s not enough for all the rice that you get. :-/​
I also decided to get fat and got a pizette. Pesto and mushroom (I forgot the actual name). The crust was more of a flatbread (yay) and the flavors were good. Pesto is amazing! Not as good as Stonefire, but still very flavorful. Was this worth $ 5? Yeah. Yes it was.
OH! I also forgot. The pork braise also comes with foccacia bread. THE GUY FORGOT TO GIVE IT TO ME AND IF I HADN’T ASKED I WOULDN’T HAVE GOTTEN IT. It was not warm (so not a fan) but it was bread, so yay?
It looks healthy, sounds healthy, and looks really nice. But not really a fan, at least not this time around. I might go back for the mushroom sandwich (sounds good!) but merp :(Tender Greens might be a little bit better than them. A little.