MAD Greens - Lakewood — Restaurant in Lakewood

I was SO happy to find a salad place just 10 minutes from home in Lakewood, CO. The website is fabulous- best I've ever seen for custom ordering, and the food looked fresh and delicious. I said to someone, "Oh, man! I'll probably eat here every day now!" (I'm on a mostly-salad diet.) I combed through the wonderful menu and chose the Athena salad. I removed the chicken as an ingredient (vegetarian), and added several additional ingredients on the really nice ordering page. This was going to be a great meal, I thought.

So... half an hour later the salad is picked up by someone in our household and delivered to me. I was shocked. What I got looked more like day before yesterday's throw-outs than the Athena salad on the web site. Attached are photos showing what I was supposed to get and what I actually got, along with the actual order form (name removed) to show what I asked for.

What I got was wilted lettuce that was starting to brown, a teeny bit of very finely chopped egg white (no yellow), and some small crumbles of feta cheese (not enough to even taste, as photo shows). Completely missing were the tomatoes, Kalamata olives, onion, and cucumbers (both the cucs that should have been included and the extra ones I'd paid $.75 more for). Also missing were the two extra cheeses I'd paid $1.50 for. (Or, if those cheeses were added, they were in teeny crumbles too small to recognize, and certainly not worth the extra $1.50 I paid for them.) I dug around and finally found some very small pieces of avocado that I'd paid an extra $1.25, but it was so hard that I could barely stab a fork (metal, not plastic) into it, so I decided I'd better not risk eating it. To be clear, I am not exaggerating or overstating one bit.

So, I paid over $14.00 (including $3.50 for extras that either I didn't get or couldn't eat.), none of the 'toppings' that come with the salad, and a bowl of stuff that most people would throw out from their fridge. I am SO disappointed! If what was provided had looked anything like what's in the pics, this would have become my new go-to spot in town. With such a disappointing first order, I may never go there again, darn it!

Photos: 1. Salad promised vs salad received, 2. avocado (Chapstick in pic for size reference, 3....

My wife and I have given this location 2 chances, first time about a year ago with different staff - yet the same results. We've been to other locations throughout Denver and had a great experience. While the food is fine the service here is consistently poor. Both times we came in around 2-3pm with only a few other people in the restaurant. While we waited in line we witnessed them struggle with nearly every order that came through and had to re-make several items for other customers. My wife had to remind them 3 times she wanted tofu instead of chicken, they forgot the pesto on her wrap, I asked for no pumpkin seeds (I can't eat them due to a dental issue) but they added anyway, and finally they used the wrong dressing on my bowl. As we were paying the cashier sarcastically said, "It's awesome working with people who have no idea what they're doing." I guess that was her way of apologizing but it felt extremely unprofessional to talk that way about co-workers to customers. At every turn they seemed unprepared, unprofessional, and incapable of preparing meals without issue. I will gladly drive an extra 15 minutes to go to the location at...

The food here is good but I'm pretty disappointed in their online ordering..I ordered online about 30 minutes ahead of time and got there 10 minutes after it was supposed to be ready..it wasnt.wasn't.. I waited another 10 minutes before just getting in line(like I could have if I had just walked up without ordering ahead) after getting through the line I mentioned that I knew they were busy but I'm on a lunch break and if I could just go ahead and have it made since I was already there I'd like that...the guy at the counter said I'd just have to wait...so I waited another 10 minutes while I watched them prioritize other people who didn't order ahead..if you can't handle online orders you shouldn't take them and having me wait was just bad customer service when they could have just canceled out the online order and made it for me faster..now my lunch break is over and I spent it waiting for them to make something that should have been made by their estimate 30 minutes ago..2 stars since the food...