Red Leaf Salad Company — Local services in Wilkes-Barre Township

Where to begin. For a place with a seemingly unusual way of doing things, you'd think they would offer more assistance to first time customers. The person preparing our salads spoke very quietly and didn't take any time to explain the process. We gave her our desired greens and they packed the hell out of the bowl up to the very top. I thought maybe I had made a mistake not telling her that I'd also like toppings on it.

But then she asked us what toppings we wanted. Now, I had seen a menu prior to this and I realized they were going to nickel-and-dime us for every topping over 5 base toppings. I understand that you're running a business but is it really necessary to charge 0.49 for two tablespoons of shredded carrots? The amount of toppings they put on was ridiculously tiny. Apparently they are used to salads that are literally (not exaggerating) 85% lettuce.

As the person didn't describe anything about the process, I was thinking that I was stuck with a salad that was a massive pile of lettuce squeezed down with a pile of toppings on top. I asked for an extra bowl so that I might use it to mix my salad. Like most things, they told me it was 49 cents extra. I imagine that's what they would have said if I had asked to use the bathroom as well. I declined the extra bowl and next I saw that they did plan to toss it together...after chopping it up?? I'll admit, I didn't see that coming. Perhaps I'm showing my lack of salad expertise but I can't see why the hell that was necessary. Perplexed as I was, I didn't really mind except for my poor, poor croutons. Apparently no one has taught Red Leaf that crumbs are not the same as croutons. I really think they are determined to have you experience nothing but lettuce. It seems they take offense to you besmirching their lettuce with toppings and have to pound out their frustration while ensuring that you can't taste the toppings.

After crushing my spirit, not to mention my salad, it was time for the dressing. I'll admit, I should have said that I wanted the dressing on the side. But seeing the mincing of my salad taking place, I was in no fit state to remember. They tossed the dressing with my salad, which I guess is reasonable. Though certainly it would have been nice if someone had pointed it out when we arrived. When I finally tasted the salad, it was sorely missing dressing. Then again, I'm not sure if the business could stay afloat giving out enough dressing to coat all that lettuce. And as I'm sure you've guessed, extra will be 49 cents. At least if they had put the dressing on top, I could have had portions with and without dressing - or seen that I would need to order extra.

The good thing is that most of it seems fresh, at least from what remains of the toppings. A very small amount of the (iceberg) lettuce was brown, but given the sheer volume of lettuce, it was bound to take on all colors of the rainbow at least once. I thought the cost would be much more, but seeing the volume of toppings I was receiving and how overfull the bowl already was, I decided to skip the additional $2 chicken.

Some tips: Tell them to add your croutons on after the chop. Or to skip the chop altogether for that matter. Tell them to put your dressing on the side. Or at least get an extra on the side (for $0.49) so you have extra. I would personally have them fill it only 2/3 of the way with lettuce. At least it would feel like a better ratio of lettuce to everything else. If I went again (highly unlikely), I'd probably chide them about topping amounts and guilt them into adding a little bit extra. I literally was getting less than two tablespoons for an otherwise large salad (i.e. lettuce).

Exclusive copy-cat recipe: 1 and 1/2...

I feel like I need to write a review on behalf of my dad to the owners of the company. Personally, I love Red Leaf. I am a loyal customer to both locations and recommend this place to people a lot. When my dad and I go out to eat, I like to take him to healthy places, and I really wanted him to like Red Leaf. He really wanted to too! So much. He has tried it 5 times and every time he was disappointed. This last time was the breaking point for him.

I got my salad, and as usual, everything was fine (honey chipotle dressing). However when my dad got his salad, the dressing tasted as though it went sour. He ordered a parmesan peppercorn dressing and he said, "This is the worst parmesan peppercorn I've had in my life." I brought it up to the front and said that something was wrong with the dressing. The guy tried it and said that it tasted how it usually does. I think he was biased and just wasn't expecting anything to be wrong, but in my head I thought "They're serving people dressings that have spoiled!" He made my dad another salad and this time we ordered honey mustard on the side. SAME THING!!! We ended up leaving and my dad ordered a burrito bowl from Chipotle. I brought the extra salad home for my mom and she opened the dressing and said it smelled like "bad eggs."

I feel like management needs to deliver a more consistent product and improve how they store dressings that have dairy in them! Spoiled dairy can make people seriously ill and this is a public health concern. From now on when my dad and I go out to eat, I will still get my salad from Red Leaf, and he will get his burrito bowl...

Never had a bad experience until today. Had a salad made like usual and everything looked great. Got down the line and the associate who chops and puts dressing on the salads put very little dressing on today. No big deal…..so I asked for a little more. Nothing to be concerned about up to this point. Then, I go to ring out, the associate tells the cashier/ manager to charge for extra dressing. I asked why when she literally put very little in the salad in the first place, and manager Katie’s response was: “we charge for extra dressing, it’s made in house”. So once again stated hey I come here all of the time, not asking for anything free but she put a few drops of dressing in the salad to start, so why the extra charge? No reply. So I stated to my fiancé that I won’t come here anymore. Katie, listening in on my convo said “all because of salad dressing” and laughed. I replied not because of salad dressing, but because of principle. I had an issue and stated my case logically and got no resolution. When I asked for a manager, Katie stated she was the manager. There is no corporate number or any way to reach the owner according to Katie. I will not be returning to red leaf ever and will take my business elsewhere. It’s a shame because majority of the associates there do a great job but because of one manager, the brand itself will be tarnished because of poor judgement and attitude from one that is supposed to lead by example when it comes to...