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| - A new "fast food" restaurant located on Grant Street is always welcome! For those of us who walked by the sign in the window teasing of a grand opening for months, it was Super Awesome when it finally happened. I was so excited when it opened that I ordered a salad and a soup, and could not wait to dig in.
In retrospect, $19.00 was *entirely* too expensive for the tiny, tiny portion of salad that was served and the quart of soup. Yes, the salad had a nice flavor... but it tasted like a small salad and nothing more. The lemongrass soup was flavorful, not authentic, and the portion size was generous. Considering I can enjoy a larger bowl of vegetable soup at an Asian restaurant just a few blocks away for almost half the price, jam packed with fresh vegetables, Freshii does not offer a good value there either. The best $12 salad still goes to Bluebird Kitchen on Stanwix or Villa Reale (based on price, quality, serving size, healthiness).
My coworker swore on his mother's grave that the Oaxaca bowl was amazing. I went back for the Oaxaca bowl with chicken later that week. The Oaxaca bowl with chicken was, in all honesty, mostly a bowl of kale (some of it brown and wilted), two tablespoons of rice, a tablespoon of chicken, a tablespoon of beans, a teaspoon of corn, two slivers of avocado, a tablespoon of salsa, and a dried up lime wedge for just under $10.00. The lovely woman at Sree's will triple the quality, flavor, and caloric intake for $3 less. We bought a POUND of kale for Ribolitta on Sunday and let me tell you -- the amount of kale in my bowl was about 35 cents' worth AND old. Not to be deterred from making Freshii my new "Go-To" destination for lunch, I tried the Oaxaca bowl with chicken again, thinking maybe it was a blip, but had a repeat experience. Don't get me wrong, who doesn't love kale, right? I also love popcorn but am not going to pay $10 for a small bowl of it.
The employees are very nice, friendly, and I will give credit to management for trying to shepherd customers through the ordering and pick-up process. The layout is strange, but they're making as good use of the space as is possible.
Perhaps I will try again in a month, after they've had some longer run-time.
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