The Greenhouse

I just stopped by here at 3:30 on a weekday — an hour and a half before closing — and the spot for pre-​made salads was closed early… again.
An hour and a half early.
That makes ⁴⁄₄ times for the past two weeks.
I’ve had it with this place. They’re not «open until 5» if they pack up the best stuff… some time before 3:30. Who runs this place? I don’t even know when they close up shop. Noon? 2pm? 3pm? I keep coming earlier. I thought 3:30 would do the trick. Not yet.
Best salads on campus. From some time in ~late morning until ~early afternoon. If you can catch them. Posted hours are not accurate or reliable.

This place is my savior on campus!
There are way too many choices and you can pick and choose all you like. You pay based on how much your salad weighs. Apart from salad and fruits, they also have ready made pastas and steamed veggies. I have been eating here for the past four months and I’m not bored yet! I’m yet to try their soups but I’m sure they won’t disappoint :)

Wow. Amazing location and the variety of meals is outstanding. I love how you can edit your own meal, if you got certain preferences :) I am a very picky eater, and this place is a heaven for me, I would definitely recommend.

I’ve eaten at Greenhouse more than a few times now. I like that I can custom-​make a salad for myself with any of their available fruits, veggies, toppings and dressings. Yesterday, I had made a salad at Greenhouse that was topped off with their tofu and teriyaki sauce. The tofu and teriyaki sauce was cold and disgusting. It left me with a bitter taste in my mouth. In the past, I’ve made some decent salads at Greenhouse, but yesterdays with their tofu and teriyaki sauce sucked.
Note: The cost of your salad is based on the weight of your salad.

Awesome! Very nice place to stop by. I really enjoy the fact that you can design your own meal, and the chefs are always on top of their game. I appreciate the freshness of the cuisine and the variety available. I highly recommend this place to anyone who is interested in controlling what goes into their meals.

Greenhouse used to be my favorite stop on campus for a quick, healthy bite. I can’t speak for the weigh your own portions, sometimes it comes out really cheap, other times pricier than you would expect.
I almost always went to the salad bar. All salads around $ 6 – 8. Loved their chicken caesar and occasional chef’s salad. It’s a great healthy option in the middle of campus, and the salads they make are actually pretty well sized.
The food is probably 4 stars, but the salad chefs working there have always been so nice and friendly. Be nice to the chefs and they will definitely return the favor.

If you want fresh soup and salad Greenhouse is where you should go. The beef barley soup is one of my favorites! They also have sandwiches, fresh fruit and pasta. It’s a full salad bar with a multitude of choices. The quality of the food is excellent, and it’s one of my top ten best places to eat for lunch. Take it to go!

I’ve never actually tried a salad here but I do like their pasta bar. I’ll usually get the Macaroni and Cheese and top it with some other cheeses and bacon bits and add some chicken on the side. Its a pretty filling and tasty lunch that usually costs around ~$ 5

Act one, scene one: walking for what seems for miles with my new friend who was smart enough to get a map of campus…
Act one, scene two: Ackerman. We have arrived. And it’s UCLA and southern California, I’m thinking healthy/fresh…and it’s literally a mall food court, including Panda Express and Taco Bell. Loud as heck and NOT clean bathrooms. I’m not feeling this.
Act two, scene two: a decent salad bar with a lot of choices including add-​on protein. A modest salad with a couple of slices of chicken and a tiny dish of penne pasta is weighed at the cash register scale.
Act two, scene three: $ 14.95 for lunch including a diet coke and a tablespoon of salad dressing. UC system, we have a problem. If only I hadn’t put those two slices of chicken on the salad… Might be reasonable if you grew up in Beverly Hills but not for this Midwest transplant.

One of my favorite places to grab lunch on campus. Never any long lines, and the food is super affordable. I usually get a Caesar salad and a side of Mac n cheese. Their Mac n cheese is sooooo good. It’s not consistent so some days it’s more creamy and delicious than other days. I’ve had some bad batches, but for the most part, it’s amazing! The salad bar has a lottttt of variety, and the items are fresh and constantly restocked. Some of the items are permanent and others are seasonal/​weekly/​not sure if there’s even a pattern.
Overall, greenhouse is a great place to go if you want to skip the lines and eat a lighter and healthier meal for lunch.
And that Mac n cheese…

No line for the specialty salads. Super good!
A really nice treat. I don’t come to eat at the food court at UCLA very often, but I was driven here because of the hordes of people in the other lines, including Panda Express, a Mexican fastfood place, or the Wolfgang Puck Express restaurant (see my review for that). In any case, I was in a hurry, so got in line for the specialty salad, which is about $ 6. Specifically, I got the steak and avocado salad.
It was well-​mixed and had the right components for a good salad. The only issue is that the steak was actually roast beef and not a real steak. But hey, you’re paying $ 6 for a large salad.

A self-​serve salad bar with a very vast and fresh selection.
My favorite healthy place to eat on campus. In fact, I’ve been losing SOME weight thanks to the salads at The Greenhouse. I say «some» weight because Wetzel’s Pretzels is 20 feet away… and I have no willpower.
But seriously, if you want to eat right, this is your best bet at Ackerman.

I haven’t been to Greenhouse since my Freshman year. What I remembered was that it was expensive, but that was probably because I was a starving freshman, too poor to buy a $ 6 salad.
Came to The Greenhouse today and I ordered a Southwest Avocado salad. SO GOOD. So so so so so so good. I almost wish I hadn’t discovered it because now I’ll be here all the time during lunch. Total came out to around $ 5.50 which I felt was VERY REASONABLE based on the large container your salad comes in. I don’t know if it was the lady who was making the salads today or that’s just the serving size of the restaurant, but she definitely packed it in there for me. So delicious. I could go to a restaurant and get a plain Caesar salad for $ 5-​$ 10. LAME.
Will definitely be back.

I LOVE THE GREENHOUSE!
My absolute favorite part of The Greenhouse is their premade salads. Not the ones where you ask the people behind the counter to make it for you and it’s like $ 8 for a box of salad, but the ones in the second section after all the cold stuff (worst explanation ever).
They usually have 3 premade salads that they rotate weekly. Keep an eye out for their BLT PASTA SALAD. It is SO BOMB. I wish I discovered it sooner. Whenever they have it, it’s my daily lunch, real talk. I think it’s semi-​drenched in Ranch (but not really because I don’t actually know), which is what makes it so good, but ugh even if it’s not, there’s just something about it.
After discovering their amazing pre-​made pasta salads, I never got anything else from The Greenhouse because honestly, I don’t think anything else is really worth it (except maybe their soup). I always spent less than $ 5 on a small box of pasta salad that sustained me for the rest of the day or as long as I needed.
And if you have the same taste buds as I do (which there’s really no way of knowing, why did I start off the sentence with this), I always loved adding pico de gallo to any of the salads I got from here and the HOT chicken. That chicken is SOOO good and juicy. I don’t know if you’re actually allowed to do that, but I mean… I always did and they never stopped or scolded me even when it was steaming up the clear plastic container!

When I’m on campus and I feel a hankering for some veggies, I’ll head to GH for some non-​pre-​packaged greens. I don’t frequent salad restaurants where weighing your food determines how much you pay, so I can’t really comment on how the prices compare to other «fresh» places, but it seems reasonable. Surprisingly, the food is always pretty well stocked (and fresh), even during the lunch rush.

This place is Fantastic!
There are so many things you can do at The Greenhouse:
1) Make your own salad using their salad bar
2) Have someone make you one of their signature salads (they rotate different salads every week to keep things hip!)
3) Make your own baked potato-​goodness at the baked potato bar
4) limited hot-​foods
5) AMAZING Soups (also rotated out! Try their Mexican Tortilla soup, it’s off the hook!)
I pretty much only eat at The Greenhouse in the Ackerman union when I have some spending money. It’s a great substitute for those who enjoy eating at Wholefoods for their salad bar… though it can be just as expensive.
It isn’t a cheap eat… besides the soups, but it’s definitely worth the money in terms of selection and quality. It’s not something you can eat and feel guilty about later.
I recommend their made-​on-​the-​spot caprese salad and Mexican Tortilla soup.
Tip: feel free to mix soups — a.k.a. add meatballs and cheese to your Mexican tortilla soup for some extra substance. They don’t mind at all.

THIS AINT NO SOUPLANTATIONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN Or Sweet Tomatoes.
I was there to actually watch this place blossom from the ground up. However, with that being said I’ve never been a fan. There is salad, Odwalla juice, pasta, some rice dishes but just never really liked the taste. Maybe I just have a secret obsession with Souplantation… Yeah. That’s it. Maybe if I ate salad from Greenhouse I’d be betrayin my «Tropix» roots… Maybe if I liked this place I’d break my Pretzels/​Boba diet that I successfully kept on up for 3 years during undergrad. Whatever the case maybe. If you’re the in area and you’re looking for Salad bar on UCLA’s campus than look no further…

After two years, the place is still the same; in fact, it’s the same chef at the express salad bar.
As an undergrad, I often frequent to this place, just because it’s salads that are really good (I was too lazy and too confused to make my own salad, so I always got in line for the Express Line). Still, the place is still great, as I had remembered it.
My only drawback is probably that there might be TOO much dressing on the salads, but I guess that’s just me.
The cool thing about this:
Cashier: «Are you a student?»
Me (contemplating if I should lie about being a student, but decided to go the honest route): «I used to be.»
Cashier: «I like that.» (rings me up as a student price, with no tax)
Still, if the cashier questioned me, I have my BruinCard with me, in cases like this, for a student discount and such.

I didn’t expect much from this place until today when I was curious. It’s clean, fresh, & it’s like a mini-​Souplantation.
Their macaroni & cheese was organic & bland, however, their penne pasta with vodka sauce was really good. They have an array of selections from fresh salads, toppings, soups, & pasta. Definitely recommend this place if you don’t want to clog your arteries with «Chinese» food from Panda Express.
So far, this is the healthiest of the food options on campus & the better tasting one as well.

I really didn’t expect to write about any of the Ackerman restaurants on Unilocal,but I simply can’t help but write about the Greenhouse. I absolutely LOVE this place. I used to eat here all the time. Their salads have always been fresh –whether you get a pre-​made salad or make your own. I usually made my own salad. I absolutely loved their toppings. I really appreciated that they had a really good hummus topping, as well as a very tasty Asian sesame dressing. I still get cravings for that. I also really liked their blackened chicken. I think they have a really good selection of meat in general to put on your salad. I also really appreciated that they have tofu in their choice of toppings. Whenever I go to souplantation, I wish they offered tofu as the Greenhouse does.
Overall, this place is great. What I didn’t like is their prices. Prices are a bit steep for salad, especially for college students living on a budget. I sometimes found myself paying $ 10 for their salad, even when I got a small bowl! It’s kind of ridiculous…
And just another word of advice, though: this place gets really crowded around lunchtime, as most restaurants in Ackerman do, so try and beat the crowd because I’ve seen the line for Greenhouse go almost to the entrance to Ackerman before…
But overall this place is great and offers a much healthier alternative to the nearby Panda Express and Sbarro…