Fresh Choice

I’m a Pescetarian, so when I’m in need of some flavorful salad to cater to my taste buds, I go to Fresh Choice (previously CA Fresh). There isn’t a huge selection, and the soups are not that great. But what is there to complain about when I appreciate the flavors of a self — served salad and a frozen yogurt cone to finish?
I’ve had better, but overall it satisfies my tummy.

First off this place is no longer «Fresh Choice» it’s «California Fresh» and they were not that either. The music was so out of date it was almost funny. Go 80’s Pop! LOL We found wilted greens throughout the salad bar. Three of the soups we tried were very bland. The baked goods selection is smaller at this establishment. You can only refill your regular tea with the cashier and there is not always someone there. There is not much more to eat here but thankfully they still make some good chocolate muffins.
Would have given 1 star but on second thought this would be a good place to take someone with a super strict bland diet.

You know how something tastes better in your memory? This yearning for nostalgia was the impetus behind going to Fresh Choice with my friend for lunch this afternoon.
Everything started out okay, to be honest. My expectations were basically nonexistent since I went into this whole thing knowing this location has an awful reputation as pretty uncaring. I piled a plate mountain high of different salads together, grabbed a drink, and sat down to a nice, long, leisurely lunch with my best friend. After our salad course we piled our plates together on the table, moved our (full) soda glasses off to the side, turned the card on the table up to the «still eating» side, and went to grab some soup and pizza. As we came back to the table we noticed that not only did someone clear our dirty plates but they took our still-​in-​use soda cups with them as well. We sat our trays down and went back up to the cash register to see if someone could replace our cups. It happens. What pissed me off was the five minutes we spent literally SEARCHING for an employee to address our needs. I was literally yelling, «hello?!» into the empty restaurant, knocking on the kitchen doors, and peeking into the back for ANY employee. ANYONE. There were ZERO employees attending to the few customers who were still eating and watching the salad bar for new patrons. When someone DID show up he sounded like he was being inconvenienced and gave us a new cup, but was sorta weird about the whole thing. Like we were trying to get one over on him. As if.
Food was bland (who the hell has to salt mac n cheese AFTER it’s been cooked?), service was bad, and my friend found chicken skin WITH FEATHERS ON IT in her soup. I asked her fifteen times if she was sure it was feathers and not herbs but it definitely looked like fatty chicken skin with feather roots sticking out of it. She’s a germaphobe so I’m surprised she still finished the soup after pulling out a mass of cooked feathery stuff but she did.
I won’t ever be coming back here. Next time I’m craving something from my childhood I’ll grab a Slurpee and skip the sketchy salad bar from hell.

This review will probably seem passionless. Just like the food at Fresh Choice. It was like eating in the school cafeterias… in the 70’s. Bland, tepid institutional fare. I went to the San Leandro location. If you’re vegetarian it might be ok, but maybe not then either. As for choice there wasn’t much. Yeah, not for me.

Food poisoning.
Terrible salad. Everything is completely drenched in dressing. Those that aren’t have been sitting there for so long its dry and cracked. Nothing decent to eat. Food poisoning — fever, hot sweats and things that shouldn’t be published here.

Last night the first time in a year or so we came in and noticed a huge difference in cleanliness. Dessert station lacked bowls, and clean counters. Trays were not wiped and were covered in salad dressing and pieces of lettuce. The two toilets in the ladies rooms were plugged up. Ugh. The suggestion box was out of paper but did have a stale bread roll in the well.
The food was not as good either. The salads looked good, but some were tasteless and the tuna salad contained NO tuna. The soups looked awful. And the two pastas were awful tasting. What has happened? This place needs new management and worker training. I tld a busboy that the dessert station was a mess, but 20 minutes later it was still there. Clean this place up. We won’t go back.

This place has really gone down hill. Like really down hill. It feels like to salad bar is not as full as it used to be and it does not seem as fresh. I wish the soft serve machine would work. It often seems on the fritz

Well so I will start with something good… After gym me and my boyfriend decided to eat something healthy, and we went to this place that I have been here with my friends once. It was pretty nice, the veggie looks fresh and quit a lot of selection, most of them have labels for different kind of vegetarians which is super thoughtful. Anyways we just pay for 8.99, for dinner and is a very cheap price (it was a Wednesday, 8.99 all day). After we paid and there are soup and pasta bar all you can eat but we don’t like most of the stuff so, we just skip that part.
Here is the horrifying part which had ruin my evening, as I start eating my salad, I saw a WORM is crawling out of my dish and I am disgust by this dish and I could not finish what I have started, then we ask for refund and leave.
Never coming back to this place ever again, but all I mean maybe their food is too fresh that they did not even bother washing it properly?

Looking for a quick bite to eat the other evening we don’t live too far from Fresh Choice. We hit it up figuring it’s not too far, not too expensive, and hey it’s healthy.
This place was allllll baaaad!
Starting with some of their premade salads and making my own. Ugh… some of the veggies did not seem fresh and others quite questionable. We dealt with it. Checking out their options of soup, forreals? Phở?! Yeah I didn’t even bother to go near that. I figured you can’t go wrong with clam chowder right? It was bearable but it didn’t taste like the usual clam chowder. Another dish that I thought you could never go wrong with was mac and cheese. I love mac and cheese! But man… my friend who I was with noted «that looks like it’s been sitting out there for a while» after I take my first bite. It tasted as if there was no seasoning and tasted kind of funny. Of all things I ate that night it was the one I actually spit out. I’m not the picky type but shit who you gonna mess up pretty easy dishes?
To top it off my friend goes back for salad seconds. Grabs some tuna pasta salad and nearly swallows a large shard of plastic. He went to speak to someone regarding this because that’s just not cool what so ever. ULTRA FAIL!!!
I don’t know exactly what they said to him, I saw the cashier look at it and refund him for his meal. I also saw one of the other workers looking through a small window through one of the doors watching to see what was being said. Luckily we got it and no little kit choked on it.
I’ve loved other Fresh Choices I’ve been to but this place is a definite NO. What a bummer since it’s just down the street from my new spot. Wacksville.

fresh choice is a good choice if u like salad and can eat a lot. it’s a salad buffet, so u go stand in the line, all the toppings and sauces are there. there are different options of leaves, toppings such as croutons, sesame seed, wonton, olives, onions, eggs. makes no sense why the ceaser salad is the only one at the end of the line. wouldn’t u want the option of salads before the toppings? been there on several occasions, sometimes it’s dirty as ****. there’s leaves and guck all over the floor. thing is tho, it look just as dirty when it’s clean, like one of your old white shirt that u washed and ironed. da buggah just won’t look new anymore! *humph go figure *shoulder shrug

Was here an hour ago with my cousin. I honestly have no complaints. You get what you get. It’s a buffet. The salads are good. The selections are also good. The only complaints I have are some of the seats — they have duct tape on some because they’re ripped? Like… why don’t you actually pay to get them fixed? Idk. The fruits look dry and like they’ve been sitting there ALL day. The baked potatoes look like the potatoes from Wendy’s. This is supposed to be called FRESH Choice??? Okay. The service is so-​so. I had to make eye contact and shake my head in disapproval until someone actually came to take our plates from our table… Okay.
All in all, I guess I’d come back.

Fresh Choice resurrected as California Fresh, here and in Cupertino, Sacramento, Rohnert Park. If you liked it as Fresh Choice, you’ll like it now. And vice versa. If at first you go bankrupt twice, try, try again, I guess.
It is NOT a la carte, as is stated in the OTHER Fresh Choice listing.

Always good service, with good food. I know what to expect walking in, and it’s always good.

What a disappointing let down. I have not eaten at any Fresh Choice buffet in 5 years. Compared to the orginal menu of Fresh Choice food items, the difference is between great and very bad!
The variety of EVERYTHING was MUCH LESS!!! Far less vegetables to put on the salad, quality of cooked pastas were frequently stiff like cardboard and tasteless. The soups were watered down tasting and bland, all those former bread choices of squaw bread, dark rye, sourdough, and muffins, were all missing. ALL YOU GET NOW IS dried-​out, stale biscuits.
Ever seen any kids that HATE macaroni and cheese? You will here!!! This was THE WORST ever macaroni and cheese I have ever had! This whole restaurant is a poor excuse for what was once a great concept. Now, it is just a cheap, limited, and bad tasting food experience. Worse than the worst restaurant I have ever paid $ 15 to! Save your money and buy a salad at Denny’s…you’ll be much better off!
The service was so poor that the hired help didn’t care about all of the empty chaffing dishes or empty serving platters. I literally had to go searching for some semblance of a manager-​looking person so they would snap to it and replenish the food buffet.
I am bewildered at how a once reputable chain like «Fresh Choice» can fall so far from it’s once great quality standards. Shame on you Fresh Choice!!!

Clean spot. Decent food. Just no people behind the counters as much as I expected.

How bad can it be you ask? Not an edible item. Not one.
I paid $ 11.53 for my meal. Probably was in the restaurant for less than 11 minutes and 53 seconds before I had to leave out of disgust.
Ain’t nothing FRESH about this place. Make the right CHOICE and go somewhere else. Taco Bell and their pink slime might do you better. Seriously.

two visits in one week because salad is my friend and i wanted something filing. This mall is not the shiniest place to be but it is close by and I wanted a salad i tell ya.
visit number one… went well kids fliled up their plates i got a little bit of all my favorites hooray
visit number two just as smooth the manager was very polite and helpful. I really like that they help you walk your tray to a table if you have little people in tow thats customer service!

I appreciate the fresh vegetables, and the labels telling me where the vegetables came from! I notice some of the other reviews are pretty negative, but I’ve had good experiences in the 10+ times I’ve eaten here.
They offer a greater variety of vegetables than most salad bars, and while richer salads are available, I can usually fill my plate with fresh things without a lot of mayo or oil. I have never tried the pasta or soup, so I can’t speak about those.
I sort of wish the bread wasn’t so tasty! I have real difficulty passing it up.

What a disappointment. The fact that there was no cheese of any kind out for me to put on my salad (no shredded cheddar, no feta) was a fail in itself. Once I got pass the salad station, it was downhill from there. Slim pickings all around. Caked up pasta not replaced. No baked potatoes. Lackluster pizza. Fail, fail, fail.
I don’t remember this place ever being this bad, as I’ve been here plenty of times before. And I don’t know if the economy is the reason for the slim pickings. But this place needs to step their game up.

I came here expecting the Fresh Choice that i knew, but left sorely disappointed by the service and food. The original Fresh Choice I frequented was in Daly City, and that branch actually stayed true to its name. This FC was dirty, and more importantly, the food was terrible. Save your money! Upon entering, we noticed that this location was rather dimly lit. The salad under the lamps looked yellowish at a glance, and we assumed it was just the lighting. Upon closer inspection, we realized that many of the premixed salads were actually wilted black (yes, the cabbage was so old and dry that it was browning!). This goes against everything that Fresh Choice stands for! The silverware was very worn and stained, and it was rather empty the day we decided to eat here. As for the hot foods, they looked like they had been left under the heat lamps for more than 8 hours! The macaroni and cheese was caked together, and all the baked goods were dry. I make no exaggeration, avoid this place!
PROTIP: The only thing salvageable was the pizza, which still tasted like a frozen or microwaveable variety.