Fresh Choice, Inc.
Weitz, Janet
ho...@netcom.com (Howard Rosenberg) writes:
>I am interested to know what you think of Fresh Choice restaurant.
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>If you know the company and have eaten there, please email or post your opinion on it
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Howard, you must be wanting some attention in the form of a deluge
of e-mail, to pose the ? of what people think of Fresh Choice - but
I must admit I could not resist an audience for my opinion:
I think that the popularity of the place(s) speaks to how many
people have very mediocre palates; and how many people are
accustomed to overeating on a fairly regular basis.
If one is to get full $ value at one of these places, they must
overeat. 12 varieties of salad - "freshly baked" (don't fool
yourself) muffins - soup - pasta - o.k. I've seen my teenage sons
able to get a good deal here, but most regard it a bargain even
though they could never begin to get their money's worth. First
they put the salads (cheapest for them) first. How many kinds of
salad do you want in one sitting? IMO they all taste too much the
same anyway - no need for more than one. Then they have all the
other stuff. I find the pasta very bland and mediocre and the soup
under seasoned in most cases and downright bad in others. I won't
go back! I will be interested in other's ideas on it.
jw
Howard Rosenberg
Glenn S. Tenney
They have a large selection of salads and salad fixins. They often have
Chinese chicken salad (or other salads with meat), but you'd have to
search to find the meat. They have a pasta station and a soup
station. The soups tend to be creamy (the clam chowder is ok!),
but the meatball soup is not (and is ok too).
They also have a muffin station where you can choose from a large
selection of muffins and breads. The muffins are way too large
(a strange complaint, but I want to taste a couple of different ones
and I hate to waste food) -- but they are also VERY sweet.
And they have a desserts: chocolate pudding, tapioca pudding,
bread pudding, frozen yogurts, and fruit.
All in all, it's ok, not great -- but it seems that everything is
a carbohydrate. I've been to much better buffets for the same or less.
When my youngest wants to go, I try to avoid going... unless I want
carbo's and desserts...
--
Glenn Tenney
voice: (415) 574-3420 fax: (415) 574-0546
ten...@netcom.com Ham radio: AA6ER
Richard Goldstein
Janet Weitz's posting (ie, bland or bad soups, mushy tasteless pastas,
undistinguished and undistinguishable salads, and finally, a plea for
gluttony -- of which I have been guilty! :)
I don't hate it, but I certainly don't love it, and only go when
in a group of others who want to go.
Howard, what is it about the company you want to know, or am I reading
too much into your question?
Rich Goldstein
Sophia W Wang
I used to load up on a lot of their prepared salads, but they
usually fill them with lots and lots of onions! I do think
that it is a pretty good deal, especially for dinner before
5 pm (still lunch price of $5.95). It is a great deal for
kids under 12 who eat a lot. A co-worker of mine loved it
when they had those coupons for $9.95 for 2 adults. He took
his wife and sister who don't eat much with his 3 kids who
all passed for the 5 and under and paid under $20. But his
two boys ate more than his sister and wife and had gotten
in free! I do think that the quality has gone down somewhat
as someone pointed out a few months ago. It is definitely
better than Sweet Tomatoes IMHO.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Sophia W. Wang (sww...@iscnvx.lmsc.lockheed.com)
The views expressed above are only mine.
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Ahhh, comforts: thick down comforter on a cold night...
and the smell of fresh bread coming out of the oven...:)
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
David Cornejo
>2) I've heard from friends that the quality varies between restaurants.
>We go to the one in Campbell, on Bascom Ave.
The quality varies greatly. The nearby one for me is the one in Newark,
which is much worse than the one in Concord. The flavors in Newark are
noticeably blander than the ones in Concord. I've never been disappointed
by the Concord store - the vegetable always fresh and crisp (where crispness
applies), the muffins are always hot & fresh, and the soups can actually
be spicy! The help at the Concord location has always been courteous and
helpful regardless of the conditions. The Newark location usually has
vegetables that look a little old - the lettuce is getting a bit brown
around the edges, the sprouts a little dry. Their soups are incredibly
bland, and their bakery offers dry, hard, tasteless muffins.
dave
--
Dave Cornejo, Telco Systems NAC voice 510.490.3111
4305 Cushing Parkway ext 5158
Fremont, CA 94538 FAX 510.490.9396
Dana Crom
>aa...@netcom.com (Mean Green Dancing Machine) writes:
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>-> We go to the one in Campbell, on Bascom Ave.
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>Quality sure does vary! I've been to the one in Newark at the New
>Park Mall, and one waaaaaay down in South San Jose (would recognize
>the cross-street names, but cannot recall them). The SSJ one is
>better by far. Service (such as it is) is diffident at best at the
We go to the SSJ one, mostly. It is in the Almaden Plaza, at the Blossom
Hill Road/Almaden Expressway intersection. One of my favorite places.
>Also gotta agree on those carbos--I usually want a little bit of
>protein after leaving there. And if you're trying to watch your fat
>intake, those flavored butters are *dangerous*.
Yes, some of the food can be bland, mostly in the soup/pasta area. I am
mostly a hot-food addict, but I really enjoy the salads, squaw bread, and
(occasionally muffins). As far as the lack of protein, most of us eat
too bloomin' much animal protein and fat already. If the flavored butters
are your downfall, they have a low-fat margarine substitute (sounds terrible,
doesn't it?) that is really pretty good.
It's nice to have a place to go where if I choose wisely I can eat a large,
filling, meal without exceeding my calorie/fat limit for the day. I think
that is really the whole point about Fresh Choice.
I am probably too paranoid about it, but I have maintained a 40 lb weight
loss for almost a year now. I can only visit some of my favorite places once
every couple of months, but I can go to Fresh Choice whenever I feel like it.
If you ask, they have a pamphlet that gives the nutritional info on everything
they serve. Interesting stuff - go heavy on the dressings, muffins+butter,
and some of the prepared salads and you an consume vast amounts of fats/cals
without even noticing; use their nonfat dressings, lowfat margarine, and
more of the fresh veggies and you can eat twice as much for half the calories.
Most of the complaints I have seen seem to center on the pasta/soup bar,
which is admittedly their weakest point. If you go nuts on fresh veggies
the way I do, the pasta and soup become irrelevant; and their bread pudding
(in the dessert bar) is wonderful; my wife claims I go there just for that.
Guilt-free, too - a small bowl of bread pudding with the nonfat frozen yogurt
is only about 350 cals with 1-2 grams of fat. I better stop - I am sounding
more like alt.support.diet than ba.food ;-)
>On the definitely-a-plus side, all their restaurants are entirely
>smoke-free.
Yeah! I have a real, medically-verified, allergy to tobacco smoke. In a
lot of places, even the non-smoking area is rather smoky. I put up with
it if I like the food enough, but having fresh, clean air is *nice*.
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Dana Crom DoD #0679 | Silicon Graphics, Inc. | Smile - let them *WONDER*
da...@morc.asd.sgi.com | (415) 390-1449 | what you've been up to . . .
Sylvia Fong
Stanford shopping center is pretty good, but the one on Hamilton in
Campbell has very bland selections and the food's not always fresh.
Unfortunately, that's the one I'm close to now.
I really like Sweet Tomatoes. The one in Sunnyvale (Lawrence Expr/Kifer
next to the Price Club) is good. The food is fresh and you can distinguish
between the different salads.
Sylvia
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Sylvia Fong "Mondays are an awful way to spend
syl...@swdc.stratus.com one-seventh of your life." -unknown