sweetgreen — Restaurant in New York

I never leave reviews, but I’ve had so many negative experiences at Sweetgreen over the years that I feel compelled to write this.

This part of the review is based on my experience ordering through the Sweetgreen app: My past three salads contained what I assume are grains of sand from unwashed lettuce. It’s baffling to me that Sweetgreen is failing at this task considering they literally only sell salads. Shouldn’t this be a basic and important step?

My most recent order was the worst. It had so many tiny, rock-hard bits that I was unable to eat more than two bites. Again, I’m assuming what I’m experiencing are grains of sand from unwashed lettuce.

I get it—it’s salad—so perhaps, one grain of sand here and there is to be expected, but this is not what happened. I was literally getting MOUTHFULS of debris.

Not only does this make for an unpleasant eating experience, it concerned me from a health perspective. Are the employees just straight up not washing the lettuce and/or kale before chopping? What other basic tasks are they failing at?

Now, I also want to express my dissatisfaction with Sweetgreen overall. Every Philadelphia and Manhattan location I’ve been to over the past ~6 years has yielded a poor customer service experience.

The employees are consistently over-the-top rude. It’s like they’re intentionally trying to bully, harass, and belittle. And the thing is, this is the experience I’ve had at every Sweetgreen location I’ve been to in the NYC/Philadelphia region. This leads me to wonder: Is Sweetgreen not adequately training their employees? Are store managers not on-site? Are there little to no consequences for employees’ bad behavior?

And the last thing I want to say is the Sweetgreen app is sup-par. I’ve experienced technical errors and there is no way to express concerns other than pre-selected options. You will not be able to speak to a customer service rep, so you’ll have to email SG and wait for them to get back to you.

I like Sweetgreen’s menu and concept, but I can no longer support them after my most recent experience.

Vote with your dollar. Spend it elsewhere—unless you fancy being bullied by SG employees and/or like salad with hard,...

This branch is a threat to the sweetgreen brand.

The store needs a deep clean and the cooktops are not being adequately vented. The ordering and cashier area is covered in the yellow grime that comes from aerosolized oil accumulating on surfaces that then traps dust. The metal joints in the sneeze guard, cashier terminal screen, and return vent in the ceiling above the cashier stand need a deep clean to strip the oil off these surfaces.

The service I got was very friendly. However, I was given an inappropriate dressing for my off-the-menu salad bowl.

Also of concerns was that the portions seemed to be larger than appropriate. This may have been done in an attempt to apologize for the slow service, but this was not the way to do it. A huge benefit of sweetgreen is consistency. A scoop of chicken is a scoop of chicken is a scoop of chicken. A godsend for people with restrictive diets. That benefit is removed when portions stop being consistent.

Another problem I noticed was inconsistency in food preparation. Cilantro was not pre-chopped, slowing my salad preparer as she had to rip it up by hand while preparing the rest of my salad. Cucumbers were sliced in a completely haphazard way that betrayed a complete lack of training or quality control. Pieces varied in size by up to 250% or so with peel and seeds present in varying degrees.

I really want sweetgreen to be a profitable company with as many storefronts as possible. I don't own the stock, but I cheer it on from the bleachers. It makes countrywide business travel so, so much better than it was before and enables me to eat healthily on the road. This location is a prime risk for a Chipotle-style norovirus scare. Whoever monitors these reviews: please, please escalate. This store needs intervention.

Edit:

After visiting here again, I can say that the employees seem overwhelmed and are probably contending with an inadequate facility and insufficient training/staffing. There are ventilation issues as evidenced by grease on ceilings...

Edit: 1/27/23 They’re starting to find their footing at this location. My last few orders have been much better than my first order - portion sizes are better than they were and the vegetables taste fresh. Staff are pretty friendly and quick to help.

First review: I wanted to give them time between opening and training before I tried it out because Sweetgreen is just not my vibe, better healthy options in the city but considering they moved into the neighborhood I wanted to try it out again. I know getting the hang of a new kitchen and POS systems take time too so I didn’t want to go the first week of opening, I’ve worked food service all through college and it takes time for teams to come together when a new business is opening. Well I’ll say the blackened chicken and dressing were good, they also made the order very quickly considering I live around the corner and ordered online - everything else about the food service lacked…I modified my bowl to swap out quinoa for wild rice, open the bowl and there was nothing but half a portion of chicken, sweet potatoes and cabbage. My order very clearly said rice on the receipt and the bowl comes with 2 portions of chicken, they’re skimping big time and therefore not worth the money. Sad that health market food bar was run out of the neighborhood with all the price hikes from greedy developers and newcomers but go here daily to be ripped off - in my high school days that was a place here to get a nice warm bowl ($8) or salad ($7) full of healthy, delicious food. We’re getting new food options around here but we’ve also already lost a lot...