Salad Makers

This place is shut down. Closed as of ⁹⁄₁₁. I am only writing a review to tell every one don’t bother making that trip like I did — don’t know what happened to the business. Over all they had good fresh salads.

I’m not surprised to go by today and see a sign on the door that this place is closing this Sunday.
I always kept on giving this place another shot, but the rude service and ridiculous hours always drove me away. Come on now… closing at 7pm Monday through Saturday, and 5pm on Sunday!!!
One time, I went in and asked one of the workers if they ever considered extending their hours since a lot of people work out of town, and can’t make it there before closing to pick something up. The worker was the owners cousin (or some relative, I can’t remember) said, No. The owner is a single dad, and these hours work best for him. What??? That should have nothing to do with the hours his business is open since he was never there to begin with.
Oh well… it doesn’t matter now. But I’m betting their crappy hours and crappy service brought on their downfall. Now, I just stop at Fresh Millions on the way home since they are open until 9 and their salads and service are WAY better!

If I could give zero stars I would. I waited for 40 minutes for a Chicken Apple Crisp and a combo 2 with Barbeque Chicken salad and half a TAB sandwich. Salad was given without any hiccups, but the TAB sandwich I never got. Three girls were working tonight and for some reason they never got my TAB order. The girl came out from the back and asked if I wanted my TAB to go after waiting for 40 minutes, by this time I just lost it and left. I love their salads but this is not the first time I’ve waited so long at this place. I don’t think I’ll be back anytime soon.

Honestly one of the most amazing places I’ve ever eaten at. The portions are big and are fairly priced, they make everything fresh and its all worth any waiting time.

Have been here few times now and each time I got a fast and friendly service and always a great salad.
I haven’t had their sandwiches yet but I have tried most if their salads and they’re all very good. The full size us a lot of salad but it’s nice to have some leftovers for later. Ingridients are fresh and the whole process from start of making the salad until paying is less than 3 minutes and the line always moves fast when they’re busy.

First timer from out of town. I came here with my friends after a hike. We ordered Hail to Caesar Salad, Asian Salad, Beef sandwhich, and TAB (turkey avocado and bacon).
I had half a casaer salad, which we a good size for half a salad. It was more like a full salad and chunks of chicken. The asian salad was good, lot of mandarin oranges. The sandwiches were a bit on the smaller side for $ 7. They weren’t small, but they weren’t plentiful.
The beef sandwhich was ok. As for the TAB, they ran out of Turkey. The cashier came out and asked my friend if she wanted chicken instead. She said that was fine. When the sandwhich was served, there was no chicken. My friend didn’t want to complain and just ate. However, there were lots of avocado slices, but tiny bits of bacon.
If you stop by, get a salad.

Just gets worse and worse. I get it, lunch is busy for them but they never seem to figure out how to make things runs quicker. Today there were 7 of us just waiting for our food and the girl wouldn’t let the cashier mix our salads. Needs better management. I’m done coming here.

I was very impressed with this place! We were looking for a salad place out this way and came across salad makers on Unilocal,the reviews seem mixed, but after reading further, most of the bad reviews are for personal and picky reasons. Our experience was great!
We arrived at 12:30 on a Monday and there was quite a long line. Thankfully the line moved fairly quickly. I was quite impressed with the prices (being used to San Francisco where I unfortunately don’t blink an eye at a $ 15 salad). $ 7 for a half salad, which included meat and was much larger than I needed for lunch. My fiancé got a make your own full size salad for $ 9 including meat, and he couldn’t finish-​it was so much food. He said it was tasty. I got the apple chicken salad and the flavor was great (and did I mention huge).
The only reason I am not giving 5 stars is because the ingredients weren’t the freshest. Now don’t take this wrong, the ingredients are delicious, and pretty good, but I could go for them to be a bit fresher. Also? The atmosphere being in that shopping area leaves a bit to be desired, but it is clean and well maintained.
I will be back when I’m in the area, and I recommend you check it out!

This review is from my wife:
Good salad. Went there once earlier this week and was impressed with the selection and the freshness. And everything tasted great.
But I will never bring my salad-​loving daughter here.
And it breaks my heart. Because they have all the ingredients out in the open, including nuts. My daughter is allergic to walnuts, and although they wash the utensils and bowls, there is constant cross-​contamination of the ingredients, since they use the same tongs to grab each ingredient.
Which means if YOU get a salad with those delicious walnuts, and then a few ingredients get added after that with those same tongs… And then if my daughter is in line behind you, she is now at a very high risk of accidentally eating a walnut fragment, since although they’re using fresh utensils and fresh bowls to make her salad, they’re dipping the tongs into the same ingredients that YOUR walnut-​tainted tongs touched.
And this breaks my heart, because she loves salad and will never be able to eat here.
There are some possible workarounds, but I haven’t asked them about it, and I honestly don’t expect them to accommodate nut-​allergic customers. So unless I hear otherwise, sadly I’m going to have to enjoy this place alone or with my husband, and never with my daughter.

Great healthy portions full of flavor and freshness. I ordered the gyro with the buffalo chicken and the half salad combo with the Brentwood Salad.
The combination that makes the Brentwood salad was delicious. The Gorgonzola cheese along with the pears give it a very good taste, crunchy almonds add a delicious nutty taste and the acidity from the vinaigrette was on point.
The gyro was excellent as well, though simple, the ingredients were natural and fresh. The tanginess and spiciness of the buffalo dressing combined with the crisp freshness of the lettuce is a winning combination. The pita tasted delicious and did not fall apart as I enjoyed each bite.
I’m definitely coming back as this place is very unique and a breath of fresh air from the salad bar, and better than a fast food salad in a box.

I’ve been lucky to go to both locations the one in Brentwood and here in LIvermore.
The salads are large portions and always tasty and a healthier option, I’ve love the chicken pesto panini. It’s soooo good.
Highly recommend if your in Brentwood or Livermore !!

I really like their salads, they’re always fresh! And like others have said the ½ size is definitely good enough for one person.

I had a create your own salad, Saturday afternoon for lunch. They greeted me, with friendly smiles. It was pretty tasty, I got romaine lettuce, grilled chicken, tomatoes, olives, mushrooms and red onion. I got the full sized salad with b. v dressing. Overall it was decent for the price.

The one time I didn’t read Unilocal reviews. I was underwhelmed by my turkey club sandwich. I seriously could have made the same thing at home. It’s definitely not worth the price. It also took forever to make it. My co-​worker joked they were making the bread.
Next time, I’ll stick to the salads. I heard they’re much better. I might go back and try a salad. Hopefully, the service will be better.

Great salad! And right next door to our dentist! Loved my ½ order chicken apple crisp! Need one of these in San Ramon!!!

Tip: A ½ size is more than enough for 1… I don’t even want to know what a Full Size salad would look like.
Found Salad Makers through Unilocal of course! We were on our way to the Livermore Outlets with some out-​of-​town friends. They are health conscious like us as well. I search Unilocal for anything in the area & at the outlets. Looking into the choices, I saw that there was a salad place at the outlet, but their most recent reviews were not all that great and the pictures of food were NOT appetizing. Then I found Salad Makers. Just off the freeway and on our way. Mixed reviews but it sounded right up our alley… Healthy alternative wise…
Small store located in the same plaza as Target & Ross. Hint: They’re next to the cigarette store. Go figure; Healthy store next to a Unhealthy store. Anyways, we walk in & there was already a line. Lunch time on a Monday. I think that was a good sign that this place was pretty promising.
Being our first time here we all had to stand back & cruise the menu. I went straight for the «build your own salad» option. You pick your greens, then 4 veggie mix-​ins, protein & your dressing.
My salad:
Romaine, spinach, tomato, cucumber, green peppers, grilled chicken and dressing was olive oil & red wine vinegar.
Photo:
They mix (toss) everything in a bowl with all your mixings & dressing.
The salad was delicious!!! Everything was spot on!!!
For those that go with what’s on the menu & the missing ingredients, I feel for you, but I say, just build your own salad. Make the salad the way YOU want it & you won’t be disappointed!
The staff working that day was great too despite the gloomy rainy weather outside!
Eat it… Love it… Unilocal IT!!!

I’ve been wanting to try this restaurant out since it opened and my husband and I finally stopped in for dinner!
The menu has a great variety: salads, sandwiches, pita bread, pizza. And you can customize your salad, made in front of you just like at Subway (but better!) We ordered a cranberry apple salad with chicken and a grilled cheese with apple and bacon. Everything was delicious! The salad was huge and the ingredients tasted fresh. And the grilled cheese was like no other I’ve had before! It wasn’t overly cheesy, the bread wasn’t greasy, an the apples were the perfect amount of sweet and not too crispy.
We’ll definitely be back again!

So excited there’s finally a salad stop in Livermore! I came here today for the first time and neglected to explore there website where I found a 15% off coupon so make sure you use that when you go. For just under $ 9 you can get a full-​sized salad with your choice of greens, 4 toppings, and a protein. I got a full mixed green salad with grilled chicken, corn, red onion, parmesan, cucumber, and carrots dressed in caesar. Everything tasted amazing but I wish the slices of red onion were a bit smaller because large slices of onion aren’t very appetizing. All in all I will definitely be coming back here again and again and again :) They also serve sandwiches, gyros, and personal pizzas.

Finally somewhere you can get healthy food!
Tried it for the first time today, drawn by the Greek salad daily special. It’s only a half size, but it was plentlyyy big for a lunch!
I’ll for sure be there again to try EVERY salad and sandwich!

The first shop was in Brentwood and has been around a few years. This one just opened. And what a great concept.
Salads! Thats what they make here. All kinds of salads. They have your basic green, greek, or asian chicken, and bbq. Its all made to order so you can really get just about any kind of salad you can think of. You can top your salads with about 20 different dressings.
Salad not your thing? No worries, they have a variety of sandwiches, some soups, personal pizzas, gyros, and pitas. Todays special was a chicken pizza.
There are a variety of fountain drinks along with a fridge full of bottled drinks including water, energy drinks, and juices.
Great healthy selection. Wish that I lived closer because I’d be going by here frequently.