Crisp and Green — Restaurant in Evansville

Oh man... I have been SO excited about having a fresh healthy food place in Evansville since I received the coupon mailer to let me know it was here, and have been eagerly looking forward to trying this place. I was so busy last month that I didn't get to go before the mailer perks expired (sad, but my own fault), but finally got to give them a try with a friend today who was also excitedly anticipating a fresh healthy meal. But in true Evansville fashion, this experience was a major letdown, a huge disappointment.... First, the (one of multiple) very young girl behind the counter tried to tell me the build your own bowl would be more expensive than a regular one from the menu (it was not, by multiple dollars, even with adding a few "premium" items). We went at about 430 and they were out of wild rice (which at least narrowed down my options for me, I guess). My friend and I were both highly anticipating how delicious the citrus/garlic shrimp would be (he picked the bowl he got because he saw it had shrimp, I later learned) and I built my own bowl with shrimp and greens and rice and Brussel sprouts and I had her show me the mushrooms and they looked pretty good so I added those as well, and asked for the C&G ranch on the side so I could control how much of it was on which bites (I didn't want it to alter the shrimp flavor before I got to try it!) - the ranch was a little vinegar-y which I found strange but not...the worst part of the experience. The Brussels and mushrooms were pretty dang good and he really adored the pickled onions. The brown rice was decent. The leafy greens were difficult to eat because they are just whole leaves that won't fit into your mouth and were hard enough to get onto a fork - forget trying to fold 'em; chopped greens would be nice. My friend also got a Fresca - he said it was just very watery with color and maybe a hint of flavor somewhere? Mostly in the bottom of the cup, he apparently discovered during his last chug - which made him react in the strangest way I've ever seen - which is saying something because he's pretty strange lol. But he had lingering shivers of....i don't even know what but it made him full-body shudder multiple times. He ended up trying a little sip of them all by the time we left and said they tasted like "musty old tea that's been sitting too long"...all I can input for the beverages was that the water I had was actually decent, which is a rare brag for a restaurant, and I sipped a sip of his apple cider which basically just tasted like lemonade that may have once upon a time had an apple sitting in it for a few minutes.... We almost sat at the tall tables near the drinks but it smelled OVERWHELMINGLY of something dead - not really what you want when you're trying to enjoy a fresh meal (or literally anything) - he pointed out it was likely the trash can behind me and I agreed that would make the most sense so we moved to the opposite corner to escape the horrid smell....but when we dug into our bowls....we could only assume previous customers had done what we then had to do: picked out every single shrimp from our bowls and throw them away - they tasted a little fishy but smelled exactly like that trash CAN - rancid. At first we placed them in napkins on the table but he had to pick them up and take them to the trash can because they kept wafting and making us want to throw up. It was truly awful. We are both scarred by this experience and it will be something we reminisce about but DEFINITELY not fondly. Very sad that this did not live up to hopes/expectations. I originally wanted to go back and try other things but after that shrimp experience, I don't know if I could...

Let me just preface by saying if you’re like me and expected this to be comparable to something like Cava, it’s not.

First, ingredients were not quality. I got the Ceviche salad and the tomatoes were not ripe, the pickled onion wasn’t fully chopped so I had to tear it apart myself, there were whole tortilla chips placed on top (why not break them into smaller pieces, it looks bad and is hard to eat that way). The greens felt like I was eating salad from a bag.

I tried several of the frescas… not good. You don’t expect something overly sweet because it’s not meant to be a lemonade or something but both I tried had little to no flavor.

Presentation is funny because they begin by putting all the ingredients you order on top in a more aesthetic fashion, but then once you get down to the end of the line, they add dressing and just toss it all together where it looks like a salad that someone had already been eating off of. It’s a salad place so I’m not expecting fine dining level plating (duh), but it makes no sense to do it this way. Either add the dressing to the greens at the start, add toppings neatly on top, and then allow the customer to mix/toss, or just give the customer their dressing on the side in a cup and let them pour it over the neatly laid out toppings and they can mix. Again, seems funny to critique but I’m using Cava/other higher end salad places as a bar setter and it simply looked unappetizing by the time I paid for it and walked to my table.

Lastly, all the employees were nice but I was asked repeatedly as I went down the line what salad I had ordered. Why not simply place a sticker of some kind or utilize literally any way of marking what each bowl is so that 1. The employees can confidently identity what bowl is what and apply toppings with confidence 2. Not have to have the customer remind you over and over what they ordered. It’s not an efficient way of getting people through the line and I noticed multiple customers being asked over and over what they ordered as they went down the line.

None of this is to purposely bad mouth the store/brand. Just simple suggestions/things I noticed that made my experience not great and most of these could be easily accomplished...

Ate here three times with my wife. That was a few months after they opened so maybe things are better now? The quality is great. The atmosphere is cozy -small seating area- but quite noisy. Because it is so noisy. I found it quite difficult to hear the mumbling employee taking my order. While my hearing is not perfect, my wife with perfect hearing also commented on the fact that customers cannot hear what employees are saying.

And I do not like being charged extra for an egg and I do not like that every single addition or subtraction on my salad order gets entered into the computer. I’m not a conspiracy theorist but every purchase is linked to your digital payment since they do not accept cash.

Some would say that this is an invasion of privacy. C&G will say it’s to keep track of inventory. I’m eating at Jasons deli right now as I write this and my thought is when items on the salad bar run low you just order more. They don’t need to - at Crisp & Greens - to try to record every single item that every single person orders on their salad.

I’m protesting by eating three eggs on my salad at Jason‘s deli. No extra charge. Ha ha. I also don’t like the small size of drink at Crisp & Greens. It usually takes six refills for me there versus two refills or maybe even one Jasons Deli. One helpful thing is that I will be incorporating a few of my experiences at C&G in a book of fiction that I am writing, of course using a different name than this company. Their food quality is the best thing. But on the regular basis, I choose to eat elsewhere. PS Seems they’re in favor of DEI and being Woke at C&G whichever way you feel...