Just Salad — Restaurant in Boca Raton

Not one but… TWO DIFFERENT HAIRS… in my food.

I would like to start off by stating normally I would let this go, hair in food is usually and accident but after leaving I just couldn’t stop thinking about how the whole experience was terrible.

My husband and I popped in for lunch around 2:00pm on a Thursday. Restaurant was filled but calm, and there was one person in line in front of us. Now I can’t speak for how busy they were prior but there were maybe 10 employees on the line looking rather frazzled and rushed despite the line being small. No friendly greeting - just right to ordering (fine I don’t expect a whole conversation about my day). I’m pregnant and asked about the goat cheese being pasteurized, two of the girls shrugged and said “I don't know” (ok, I suppose it might not be a common question). A young man said he wasn’t sure but he would find out. Stood there waiting on an answer and it seemed like he forgot before someone asked him and he said they weren’t sure. Another employee finally confirmed. Ok- annoying but not the end of the world. Get to check out, stood there for a good 5 min waiting on the second part of our order (mind you 10 employees on staff with small line) when the employee to cash us out said, “oh have you been checked out yet” we were clearly standing there with food, drinks, and dessert … yes that’s why we are still standing here. My husband went to pay in cash and a different employee not the one we were working with to cash out very rudely snarked “we don’t take cash” twice. Okay, one we heard you, two give us a second, three it’s fine that is policy but the employees need some training on delivery because no one wants to be snapped at for no reason. We check out and go to eat. Right at the end of the meal after most of the food had been eaten I found two very obviously different types of hair in my food. Of course my first thought is “disgusting, I’m pregnant and just ate contaminated food”. My second thought was “don’t freak out, it happens”. So my husband politely and quietly might I add brought it to the attention at the register. He even tried to diffuse with “I’m not saying it’s a hair but it really looks like one” the guy who’s attention it was brought to did not apologize, pointed out the trash can and very blase asked if we wanted it remade or a smoothie”… no I do not want something else from here after I have found HAIRS in my food.

I wish I would have taken a picture but I was so grossed out and just wanted to leave. Offer of a refund would have been appreciated and we did not ask because we are fully aware it seemed as if we ate our full meal (because we did) and then complained. We did not yell or insult because things happen and one of these details would have been ignored but all of them together made for a terrible experience. The entire staff really needs some training of customer interaction because the whole experience...

Update:. This location has closed permanently.

Wow! Those of you who read my reviews know I don't often say that. Just Salad recently opened at Boca Town Center Circle just a few shops down from Panera Bread. You'd think the owners may have been concerned about being so similar as far as price, dine in/carry out, healthy foods, etc. but they are not really alike at all.

I walked down from my weekly discussion group at P.B. (shhh! it was afterwards!) This was several minutes after 9 p.m. and I really thought they wouldn't want to serve me as I'm guessing it was after closing. Brilliant! They left the front door wide open, were not at all obvious that they were beginning the closing tasks, and everyone welcomed me in. Finally some basic smarts!

Not knowing the menu and with difficulty reading boards (my own issue with vision), I tried to hurry but no, I was offered a paper copy to read. Again, basic smarts! I settled on the Winter Bowl and asked to leave the nuts out. No problem and I was offered any replacement item I wanted. More smarts!

This bowl contained a lot of unusual items such as black beans but they were chopped and made a great protein addition without being overwhelming to anything else in the salad. This is a HUGE salad and don't expect the greens to be what takes up so much space. Hefty portions of roasted sweet potato, delicate sliced apples, chunks of grilled white meat chicken - everything tossed by hand in a stainless steel bowl. You'll be asked if you prefer a light, medium or heavy hand with the dressing (more smarts!), prior to being served in your recycled paper bowl.

I loved the salad and now expect that everything on the menu follows Just Salad's high standards of all fresh ingredients prepared in the morning and only served that day. Kudos on a job well done. I just wished there was a hunk of crusty bread to come along...

To preface, my mom has an accent and English is not her first language. I ordered first without any issue while my mom was trying to find out what my aunt had wanted. The girl who helped me (had on a collared shirt so I am assuming she is a supervisor) had repeatedly called out into the cafe “What are you getting?” multiple times and ignored my mom when she said she needed a second. There was 1 person behind us who was being helped by someone else.

My mom asked a question before ordering because she wasn’t sure what the one she wanted was called. The lady ignored her, went to the back for a minute, and started doing something else. My mom asked one more time and was still ignored and the lady proceeded to raise her voice one more time asking what she wanted with an attitude. She had to settle for something she didn’t want since the lady was obviously getting frustrated with her for no reason.

My aunt had finally replied so my mom went back to the start so she can order. The girl had rolled her eyes when I told her she wanted to order something else (there still wasn’t anyone behind us). When my mom asked for extra sauce on the side, she kept replying with “What?” and my mom was getting visibly upset. She barely even put anything in the second order.

I don’t understand why some people decide to take jobs in customer service and promote themselves to positions like supervisors if they clearly don’t want to do so. When you apply and accept jobs like these, it is quite literally within your pay to have to deal with customers and be polite at the very least. I typically like to give service workers the benefit of the doubt but like I said, it was not busy and there was no one behind us...