Fresh Kitchen + Juice Bar — Restaurant in Oakville

I am a huge fan of Fresh, and order takeout from their Spadina location (Toronto) at least once a week, and have also tried several of their other locations in the city. I was so excited to try this new one for when I’m in Oakville, but sadly I was sorely disappointed - it was not up to Fresh quality at all, and most of the food had to be thrown out.

First, the Buffalo/BBQ cauliflower. This is my favorite cauliflower in the country, and I’m always impressed by how it stays crunchy despite the takeout box. Well not this time. We ordered takeout, and it was swimming in way too much sauce, completely soggy and falling apart. The breading was also gooey.

Next, the tiger bowl with soba noodles, which is again my go-to that I’ve had countless times. I’ve even sourced their official recipe online and make it often at home. Well, this was absolutely unacceptable and inedible. It was as if they poured an entire glass of water over the whole dish. I really can’t imagine what they did other than actually spilling water, because the vegetables were literally swimming and oozing water, had absolutely zero flavor other than water and were complete mush (not even salt). Then the noodles were so over cooked, they were one congealed mush and again tasted watery. Further, the tahini 365 dressing had zero flavor either - it was nowhere to be found, to be honest they might have forgotten it or maybe it was absorbed by all the water. Also zero chili oil to be found. Bell peppers were also rotten and mushy. Truly, the bowl was completely inedible. Two of us ordered it (based on my recommendation), and we both had to pick out the tofu & cashews (the only edible part) and throw out the rest.

I am so so sad and disappointed!!! We not only wasted a ton of money ($100 for the meal for two), but we were still hungry and had to source a different dinner. The only saving grace was the onion rings - those were well cooked and perfectly seasoned, to the Fresh standard I’m used to.

Part of me wondered if they had maybe changed their recipes due to the expansions, so I ordered both dishes again at Fresh on Spadina in the following days. Nope - they were perfect and delicious, as usual.

I can only hope this was just an off night and will update if I try again - otherwise it might seem like they haven’t properly trained the chefs at this new location. Based on the other reviews though, I do hope it was just an off night (and maybe being not used to cooking for takeout like the...

I’ve been to this location a couple times before and loved it but recently went with a friend and the service was the worst. We entered and weren’t even greeted properly, the waitress seemed annoyed and wasn’t smiling or welcoming (felt like she didn’t want to serve us). Once we sat down no one brought water to us (the whole time we were there) and it took almost 30 minutes for someone to even come and take our order, when the tables us were being treated with great service. Took another 20+ minutes for us to get our food (we just ordered two drinks and the restaurant was not busy, no one was waiting to be seated). Once we finally got our drinks, our original waitress disappeared and another one came to serve us. Not once were we asked if everything was going okay, and it took so long for her to recognize that we needed the bill. Now is the part that really blew our mind, and why we will never be visiting this location again: we finally got her attention and got the bill (keep in mind service was horrible and the restaurant wasn’t busy). My friend and I didn’t tip because we felt there was nothing to tip for. The waitress called us out on it and said that if we chose not to tip we should do a take out order because she has other people to seat and serve. ?????????? I have never been told this before. We were so offended, not sure if this was because we just got drinks or what the issue exactly was, but openly saying you will not serve us because we didn’t tip is crazy. Staff needs to be trained better on how to serve and speak. I also work in customer service and food and never would say this to a customer....

I have a peanut and nut allergy and had called the restaurant to clarify whether they could accommodate this. The Uber Eats option allows for me to specify a nut and peanut allergy on each item when I order, in addition to doing this, I also wrote that I was allergic on each meal item I ordered. The restaurant told me there is a risk that items made at external suppliers "may contain nuts" / the risk of cross contamination possible in a restaurant, and I said I had never had issue with "may contain" items (i.e. items that may contain traces of nuts, often a legal notice printed on items or ingredient lists) as long as there were not nuts in the actual food.

Unfortunately this request was apparently not honoured. I received my meal (the ingredients of which did not have nuts as per their website and Uber Eats menu) and which I had eaten before at Fresh without problem. It was just vegetables, tofu and a dressing (which was not supposed to have nuts). I went into anaphylactic shock requiring me to call EMS, 4 shots of epinephrine and an epinephrine drip in the hospital. My family found the food and noticed that the bowl and the dressing both smelled clearly of peanuts. I had never eaten peanuts before and I did not visibly see any solid peanuts (we think it was in the dressing) so I did not recognize the smell. I had no other meals that day that would be a cause, and the reaction happened minutes after I ate the food from Fresh.

I will never eat at this restaurant again and I would not trust them with the handling of food for any person who has a serious...