Fresh Choice Restaurant
Category: Restaurants [Edit]
1105 W El Camino Realat Grape, in Cala Center
Sunnyvale, CA 94087 (408) 732-7788
- Price Range: $
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Private Lot
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: No
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: No
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
262 reviews
San Jose, CA
"This is the best burger joint I've even went to! The decor is downright "dope" with all the urban paintings and the overall industrial look.…" read more »
16 Reviews for Fresh Choice Restaurant
Lord this place is tiny and dark.. the clam chowder was watery..the breads are always good but the salads were not filled so the options were very little.. and for 8.00 bucks a pop I would rather eat something more filling.. but it is healthy.. a very healthy option especially for my vegan friend who had lunch with me..but since I am not vegan I would not choose this place other then to make my friend happy..The other Fresh choices are larger and the salads are better prepared.. it was more soggy, and I saw baby tomatoes and my 1st thought was Salmomella..terrible..
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I only eat here if I have to. The food is too plain. I am not sure about the "Fresh" part of the name. They should've called it "Choice" to avoid contradiction.
This place is super tiny. After we got our food, we had to wait at least ten minutes before a table opened up. It was bad.
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This place was ok.
It was obvious that they haven't done much since the 1980's to update this place. The decor was dark with wood paneling (who has wood paneling anymore?) The muzak was blaring some funky type of music - maybe to hide the noise of the air conditioning compressor when it started up? We had to ask them to turn down the music a bit because it was hard for us to talk over the music. There weren't a lot of patrons in the place and most of them were definitely taking advantage of their senior citizen discount.
The salad bar was not really extensive, but at least they had the basics. Their bread and soup bar was nothing phenomenal, but I did like their corn bread. I think that Sweet Tomatoes has better chili.
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The first time I came here, I was stunned by how SMALL the place was. It looked kinda old, too. And the back of the chairs feel reaaallly grimy (I hate it when restaurants don't clean the chair backs).
The food is the same with all Fresh Choices, which is usually decent with the occasional hit and miss entree (like they added too much salt in the soup or something).
Sadly, the last time I ate there, my MOST favorite food (which is pudding!) was yucky. BLEH!! They added too much salt to the pudding and I couldn't eat it :(
Because of that I give this restaurant 2 stars instead of 3.
Wild horses could not drag me back here. And heck, I've eaten at Olive Garden at least 4 times in the last year. I tried all of the prepared salads. They all tasted exactly the same, except for the tabbouleh which was good, fine. I then moved on to the soup station. I enjoy canned chili actually, so I liked the turkey chili. I moved to the pasta station which had some mushy pasta and canned marinara sauce. They had a potato bar, which I steered clear of except to pick up some sweet potatoes. The bread station had some brown colored white bread and white bread and some other baked goods.
Each item has a helpful little tag about why the item is healthy. Like, above the blueberry muffins which had maybe two blueberries in them "Blueberries are a good source of antioxidants".
Don't know if its actually fresh but its my brothers favorite restaurant. The only thing I like are the baked potatoes. I think that I have been here about 2 times and I pretty much hate it. When you look at the people working the only thing clean about it is the bathroom.
I like Fresh Choice, but I don't plan on coming back to this one.
I visited around 8pm when they close at 9pm so that could've been why things were out of order, but here it goes
- mess around the restaurant, bottle caps and random stuff all over the ground. Someone came to clean the table next to ours, but apparently did not see the paper napkins left on the ground.
- Ice cream machine out of order and they had no more pizza. Out of order? When I pay at the cash register before going in, I'm paying the amount expecting there would be pizza and ice cream.
- the tables were all over the place from customers moving them around. It just seemed like workers could've done better to pep this place up.
- lighting of the restaurant was dim, but maybe that's their intention.
Tip : Sign up for their email list and get 25% off
http://www.freshchoice...
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My girlfriend said and I quote "this is by far the worst fresh choice I've ever been to". It was her first time here, and my 4th or 5th. We came around 3pm. She's right, today was probably the worst experience I've had here... the breads and crispy noodles for the salad were stale, the garlic butter looked like it had been sitting in the sun for 2 days, and my girlfriend said all the soups looked "f**ked up"... and the chocolate pudding wasn't very good either.
I'll give it 2 stars cuz the chinese chicken salad rocked as always, and the orzo salad was hella fresh. I'd give it 2.5 if I could but 3 is pushing it, and this is kind of a combined review between me and her and I'm sure she'd give it zero stars. So there you have it.
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Yeah, it's a salad bar chain, but Fresh Choice really isn't bad.
Oddly enough about five years ago the boyfriend made repeated visits to Fresh Choice and Sweet Tomatoes and graded them in several categories (salad, muffins, pasta, fruit, soup), and Sweet Tomatoes won all but the coveted muffin category. After that we vowed never to step into Fresh Choice again.
But then recently I went back. I'm not sure what happened in the last five years, but it's like Fresh Choice and Sweet Tomatoes reversed in every way possible. Now Fresh Choice is better in every category, except muffins. On that - I think all of Fresh Choice's muffins are low-fat or bran-based, which accounts for the lousy taste (though I appreciate the attempt at healthiness).
Their monthly specials are always pretty good (especially their recent strawberry shortcake), the potato salad is good and bacon-less (take that Sweet Tomatoes!), the soups are good, and there are sweet potatoes. I repeat, there are sweet potatoes. Oddly enough you can't find any sweet potatoes at Sweet Tomatoes.
At this location it's easy to get a table (unlike the massive lines at the Sunnyvale Sweet Tomatoes), and they have a AAA discount that's cheaper than the Fresh Choice website coupon.
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This is one of my favorite locations. If you come here at 11:49AM no one is here and the food is super fresh and their selection is better than other locations.
A servicable FC that is great if you have picky, messy little tyke eaters! Metro weekly also carries coupons. During the heat wave last summer my ass was SAVED by spending an hour on a nice, leisurely meal in the air-conditioned FC.
I've been to some great Fresh Choices. However, the food at this location hasn't been "Fresh" since MC Hammer. I've gone here about five times, and each time a majority of the following was true: the baked potatoes were cold, the salad greens were wilted, the mac & cheese was watery, the bread dry and getting stale, the soups were watery and flavorless, and the pizza had been sitting out (or only crust was left).
This location is so bad, it makes me second guess the chain as a whole.
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Even with a coupon, I felt ripped off.
Poor quality, low variety. Went there for dinner. Premade salads were horrible (as if I just rinsed some lettuce and chopped it up in big chunks and tossed with some dressing and sides). Baked goods were barely warm (vs out of the oven fresh at Sweet Tomato off Keifer).
A smaller FC but still ample selection in their salads, soups, pastas, breads and desserts. Next to the Sunnymount fruit/veggie store. Gets so busy on the weekends. You also get discount coupons in your Sunday newspaper.
This Fresh Choice location is not in a mall, but it can still get busy. I think of this one as being rather dark inside, but it was recently given a makeover according to the new style of the chain and it looks better.
See my Sweet Tomatoes review for an in-depth yet superficial look at the salad bar buffet restaurant in its natural habitat.
Tip: Show them your AAA card for a discount. But do this before they hit the buttons on the cash register -- you can't retroactively get the discount even if you suddenly notice the person behind you in line (me) digging out her card.
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