sweetgreen — Restaurant in Manhattan Beach

Sweetgreen: when you want to pay a LOT for mediocre food and indifferent service. I ordered the caramelized steak bowl. The worker decided she wanted to do the 2 people behind me at the same time. Fine, except mine was a bowl and theirs were salads, which meant that my food got cold while she was serving up salads that don't need to be served warm.

That bowl comes with sweet potatoes that are supposedly served warm, but you could tell that they were at the end of their lifespan, as they were at the bottom of the metal bin and looked old. So I asked if I could get the crinkle cut fries instead, and I was told that it would cost me extra in order to do that. Seriously? A potato for potato swap? When their sweet potatoes are dried up and tired? Wow.

And instead of a "sorry, they don't allow me to make substitutions" or similar, the worker instead just said, "Extra charge for crinkle fries." In retrospect maybe I should have paid it because the sweet potatoes were indeed dry, overcooked and awful. The caramelized steak didn't taste caramelized, and overall everything was room temperature and bland. With a Sweetgreen iced tea (meh) the total without tip was $23.50! For cold food you could find in a Denny's (even Denny's has healthy choices these days) and indifferent counter service....

I went over here for my break around 5:30 since I needed something quick. When I got here it wasn’t busy besides a few people in line. However, the staff at checkout kept talking to a group of people for over 10 minutes. I was told that someone will be right there for me to take my order. But I was waiting for over 10 minutes to even be seen. But the cashier and everyone at the FOH was just talking to that same group of people. Rather than to do their jobs. I was finally seen and one of the workers rolled their eyes when they took my order. I wasn’t treated with respect or with any sort of apology about the wait. It seemed I just ruined their yap session just for ordering. The worker just put my food with no care whatsoever. And even forgot to put a to go bag for my order since I couldn’t enjoy my meal on time. When I finally had another break to go eat. I was extremely upset that the quality of food was absolutely awful!! I ordered a hummus mezze which is a kids meal and I wouldn’t serve this to an adult let alone a child.. The chips were crushed and I was missing an additional ingredient. I love Sweetgreen and this was my first time at this location. But I honestly wouldn’t go back to this location unless a manager owes me an apology for the awful...

I don’t usually leave reviews, but I had such a great experience the other day at the Sweetgreen in Manhattan Beach that I had to say something. One of the employees, I think her name started with an “S” was amazing. She was on the shorter side, pretty, and had this British-sounding accent.

She was super friendly, gave me thoughtful suggestions, and patiently walked me through the menu. You could tell she genuinely cared and wanted me to enjoy my food. And I did, everything was fresh and seriously delicious.

It’s rare to come across that level of customer service. She honestly made my day. Sweetgreen, please give her a raise or at least a shoutout! I’ll definitely be back—service like that...