California Crisp

this restaurant is closed. california crisp at 401 s hope street, los angeles is no longer in business.

Tried several things from here and the salads and smoothies are consistently large and filling. Drinking the Green Kale smoothie for the first time… and it will definitely be my last. Their other protein smoothies are much better — just don’t like this combination of ingredients.
The Chinese Chicken salad and High Protein salad are good, healthy if you put the dressing on the side. The BBQ Chicken wrap is pretty good. California Crisp is conveniently located near me, but I don’t get excited to eat there… that’s why I gave three stars. And because that Green Kale smoothie is just gnarly!

They have awesome bagels here, and pretty delicious muffins if you get them in the morning.
Also, there are quite a few smoothie options here — I tried the kale one, which contained almond milk, banana, and mint?! The concotion actually tastes a little bitter due to the herb, but it’s healthy and HUGE compared to smoothies you’d get at similar establishments.

BEST CHINESE CHICKEN SALAD EVER!!!
Yes, that’s a bold statement but oh so TRUE! Everyone that I introduce this salad to falls in love with it. Immediate obsession! The lettuce is so fresh and crisp, filled with bean sprouts, water chestnuts, slivered almonds, green onions, rice noodles, grilled chicken and the amazing dressing. Love love love it! Oh, and pay the 50 cents for the corn bread. It’s homemade and delicious as well.
The owner (corrine?) doesnt mess around. She’ll deliver but only if you order early and not in the middle of the lunch rush. Yes Ma’am =)
My co-​worker loves the chicken caesar. Again, only the freshest ingredients are used and the portion is huge.
Honestly, I haven’t tried anything else. No need to when the salads here are UH-​MAZING!!!

I got a chicken panini and a fruit cup for lunch. It was pretty plain. The fruit was old and the chicken was pretty dry. Not much more to say, just another mediocre option in a sea of the same.

I told my friend that one day I would eat lunch here.
That one day was last week.
Ordered honey roasted turkey breast sandwich.
Honey roasted turkey breast with cranberry chutney, pesto, goat cheese, arugula & tomato on rosemary artisan bread ($ 8.99): The worker was nice enough to change my goat cheese to brie. I liked my first bite. I forced myself into eating half of it.
The place was cold, the trash bin was sticky, we saw 5 fruitflies and the place smelled funny.
2 stars!
California Crisp is not yummylicious!

Good, healthy, and fast.

I work in Downtown LA, and am on a budget, so try and root out healthy affordable places in Downtown LA for lunch because I am frequently too lazy to make my own. California Crisp, next to the YMCA, meets all of my needs. You can even get a salad with kale! Which really gives it 5 starts for the health nut department.
They freaking roast their meats in house, no nitrates here, which is so hard to find!
Love the lettuce options on the make your own salad, and the fruit/​protein smoothies for after a workout. The sides also frequently change, which is nice when you go to a place at least once, if not twice, a week.
If I think a place is affordable, its pretty affordable, some people just don’t realize that real food means real food costs. Processed/​fake food will always be cheaper. Also, the line cooks are always really accommodating and super friendly, and will make anything the way you want it. I have seen people go up and want something changed and they always do it no problem, people just need to ask for something to be fixed– soooper simple.
Also, for those cheat days, or just one of those days, the espresso brownie and chocolate chip cookies are worth every lovely calorie. Hey, you can go next door to the Y after and spin it off…
If you need a healthy, fast, and affordable finance district staple, this is it. If you need something in Little Tokyo, refer to my Korean BBQ review :)

Decent sandwiches. Ingredients are fairly fresh. Fast and easy. Available indoor and outdoor seating.
Really the biggest downside is it is overpriced. Just grabbed a wrap and a can of soda and it was almost $ 12…

I came here during my lunch hour and was a little disappointed. The food was mediocre at best. Everything was fresh but there were not a lot of vegetarian options for a place called California Crisp. And the price was a little overblown, especially for the area (where everything is already a little overblown.) I probably won’t be back.

I came here on a business lunch because an employee of our sister company had referred it. Walking in, it wasn’t crowded since we came for a late lunch at 1PM, but it was still very confusing. Yes, there are large menus displaying their main items that they offer, but the confusing part was the additional items that you were advertised on signs throughout the front counter, but no where to be found on the main menus. No where were there prices, selections, or anything… just the small sign mentioning «oh hey, we have this today too!». After a while of standing in front of the counter which seemed like an agonizing half hour (really wasn’t but the confusion and the searching eyes looking for stuff mentioned), I finally gave up on their «small sign items» and ordered their Italian Club Baguette.
Once I told the man my order, he rushed off to make it, but didn’t give me the chance to say anything more. I blindly waltzed over to the cash register to a woman who rudely asked «What did you order?». I told her, and she was about to close my check without even letting me add on my drink, and I had to butt in and throw it in that I did want one. My order came out to $ 12.05…for a roughly 7″ half-​empty sandwich that was so «California Crisp» that it tore up the inner top part of my mouth trying to chew/​bite into it, and a medium soda. I had to stop after half of it, and «donate» it to whomever wanted to go through the trash.
1. Rude service that in addition didn’t understand English well (my questions got passed amongst 3 employees). :sigh: I know you’re only there to really take orders, and then fulfill them… but c’mon, customer service please? I just wanted to know the soup of the day?
2. Lack of ingredients.
3. Lethal bread.
This place isn’t my kind of place I guess. If I have to come here again, which probably won’t happen, I’d rather try one of their salads… hopefully their lettuce doesn’t try to saw a hole into my mouth too.

This is one of those 3 – 4 stars dilemmas, I actually went here Today as it was actually open (weird hours) when I finished with the gym at lunch time and figured why not try something other than Ralphs Sushi (very good fyi). I got the chicken crisp wrap, and it was good; decent flavor, lettuce was a little less than grips, but not bad. The price wasn’t great, but it’s downtown so I guess it’s fitting. I may go back, but the weird hours seem to have an impact on that.

Do not get the turkey classic sandwich. I’m so dissapointed that I paid $ 8 bucks for a plain and bland turkey w/​mayo, lettuce, and bread!
They weren’t courteous w/​their lettuce. i had like 3 tiny leafs. and there’s no cheese!!!
Gawd I don’t know what they’re thinking charging $ 8 for a sandwich that tasted so bland!!!

Corrine is AH MAZING, and the rest of the staff is SUPER friendly and FAST (SHOUT OUT TO ALEX!!)
Moreover, the chinese chix salad dressing is like crack, and the ceasar dressing is the best ceasar dressing I’ve ever had ever in my life, ever… ever.
I give an A+ to the spicey pork sandwich (easy on the sriracha), and the italian sub.

After a long morning of crunching numbers there is nothing better than taking a trip to my newly discovered favorite little lunch spot. The service here is excellent and is only matched by the quality of the food. I’ve been there consistently for lunch for about 2 weeks now and with the combination of there specials and regular menu items I’ve yet to get tired of it. Even if they only had their Tortas and potato chips this place would be exceptional. There’s a lot more that could be said but you should really check it out yourself, I guarantee you won’t regret it.

This place is great! If you are looking for something fresh, healthy and affordable then this is the place. I have tried the sandwiches, salads and wraps and I have had a great experience every time.
The service was great, friendly and knowledgeable. Also, 5 stars for cleanliness!
I will definitely be going back!

I’m giving this place an extra star for the location, because it’s convenient to my office and it has some nice outdoor seating. Unfortunately, location is the only thing this place has going for it. I ordered a wrap, and they put only the tiniest amount of ingredients in a giant tortilla, resulting in a wrap that was very small and consisted of approximately 50% tortilla (which wouldn’t have been as bad if the tortilla hadn’t been stale). On top of that, the chips that came with my wrap were also stale — instead of giving me a small individually packaged bag of chips, they gave me a pile of chips on my plate from a large bag that had apparently been open for weeks, if not months. And what did I pay for this most mediocre of lunches? $ 8.00, not including tip. For $ 6.00 I can get three delicious tacos from the taco truck a block over, so there’s no way I can justify spending $ 8.00 for a small, stale wrap from California Crisp. Needless to say, I won’t be back.

I’ve been here 3 times, and I have never been to any other CA Crisp locations. This one is close to my office and isn’t very busy. I like the salads, I cannot comment on the sandwiches. The wrap I had was pretty good, but the wrap (lavash/​tortilla) was not too great — it was a bit dry and styrofoamy. I might enjoy this place more than some since I get a discount with my work ID.

This location of C. Crisp (in the YMCA building in Bunker Hill) gets surprisingly little traffic, so I had to give it a try.
As it turns out, the limited number of visitors here is a big plus, as you are spoiled for choice with seating options — inside, patio, across the street at the Bank of America fountain. This is more than can be said for most downtown quickie-​lunch places.
The food is what you would expect from a chain that is more commonly found in malls — but at least you can assure yourself that you are getting your daily dose of green veggies!
Finally, being next to the Y boosts the people-​watching factor for reasons that will become obvious if you sit on the patio… ;)