honeygrow — Restaurant in Strongsville

Amazing place, esp for those who suffer from food allergies, or are vegetarian, vegan, Paleo, etc!! Many safe options! I hesitated to post this bc 1. I'm thinking selfishly-a positive review can help the place be busy, but then 2. I thought, EXACTLY!! This place needs to stay busy so it's here to enjoy for many years!

Ordered last night & it was positive from start to finish. It was around 7pm but still quite packed. The were a few seats scattered around and bustling activity over by the kiosks & in the prep area. I went in with screenshots of a practice order I created online so ordering from the kiosk was easy. An employee greeted me, offered assistance so I asked what I do about my husband's allergies to egg, nut, shellfish? She explained how they'd ensure safety & no cross contamination. To see how busy the 9-10 cooks were was a bit intimidating, but was able to rest easy-they truly cared about his anaphylactic allergies; handled the order phenomenally!! They had plans, knew what to do-put one person on the order & kept our orders bagged separately & came to me in the eating/waiting area to give me my bags as they were completed!! Service was top notch, despite it looking hectic with 12 employees that I counted. I heard more in the back which I'm sure is the kitchen and dish washing area.

Only "bad" thing is, they don't accept cash tips!? I paid cash & was told they couldn't accept the tip. I asked what if I "accidentally" left a $5 bill on the counter & was told that they could not take it so some future customer would get a free $5 bill eventually. I believe that's ridiculous & management should just put a glass vase or something for those paying cash who want to show gratitude. Kudos to the honesty of the employee (Alexis, I think) who took my payment though as I tried my hardest to get her to accept my $5, lol!!

Food was made to order, pasta was al dente, veggies were plentiful, not overcooked, my shrimp were perfect sized & so tasty! The to-go boxes were a bit deceiving. I thought sizing looked meh until I started eating. They thoroughly mix everything so your ingredients are layered throughout the pasta. It was made with much more care/love than other places with similar set ups. I hit the wall halfway in! Couldn't eat another bite, much more filling than I'm used to! I recommend $.59 add-ins-you can't beat it, crazy affordable!

I ate the rest for breakfast & honestly felt it tasted even better bc the flavors absorbed and meshed with each other overnight. I really can't find fault with any ingredient in my garlic shrimp stir fry. I guess I'd say that the focaccia bread I ordered was given to me quite cold-would have preferred it warm, esp bc we ate outside, fireside. But at home, 10 sec in microwave would have solved my only "issue" (not a complaint, just my honest opinion). I left my other piece sit overnight in the bag and it was much tastier this morning room temp.

Otherwise, HG's a very fresh, tasty concept on food that's prepared just for you, very expediently at very reasonable prices. In and out in 8 min!!

I wish Honeygrow luck in the greater community as they set roots in a very busy part of Strongsville. I hope they can keep it up c it was beyond impressive & I just wonder how they can sustain everything!!

Not a fan of that area, but we live a short distance so we can plan trips accordingly based on traffic-aka rush hr and mall peaks. It's about .5 mi from I-71. Well worth a trip! Go in prepared with an understanding of the menu online and it'll better serve you....

Honeygrow is a great addition to Strongsville. It is nice to have a quick serve location with FRESH ingredients. I recently went to Panera and I can’t believe anyone would want something like that over Honeygrow. I’ve read some of the reviews and here are my thoughts seeing as I’ve been here about 10x since it opened: I see a lot of complaints about price. THIS is what you pay for fresh ingredients. And in this economy, even McDonalds is costing a lot so why wouldn’t you pick something fresh for the same or slightly higher price. Bottom line: You get what you pay for. I see complaints about portion size. I was actually going to post that I’d be willing to take a SMALLER salad so I could mix things up easier in the bowl. My toppings were falling off my plate because it was so overpacked. A good problem but I missed some of the fun ingredients at the bottom. No clue how you’d think this wasn’t a complete meal or you had to go to McDonald’s after. I’m 5’4, 145 lbs and I took half of my food home. The staff is very nice and take pride in the food. Jessica made our salads yesterday and she was happy to bring them over to us because we were in early. I saw her helping people that came in and were staring at the menu. Have I been greeted every time? No … but I’ve been greeted more here than most other places. My favorite quick serve place to go is Mashiso Asian Grill in North Olmsted, so if I’m comparing and nitpicking … I like a mild sauce that really gives the dish moisture and taste. The garlic butter sauce at HG is heavy and I now know I have to put it on the side, otherwise I’ll taste it for 2 days after. I’m experimenting with the sauces and I’m sure I’ll get it right at HG. I think because the bowls are taller, it’s harder to mix the ingredients together at HG versus Mashiso. The broccoli and green beans at HG need another couple mins to soften them a bit more. The Mashiso broccoli is divine and I’ve yet to find anything comparable. My biggest complaint - it’s FREEZING in HG. This has been true since day 1, not because of the subzero temperatures in Ohio. I purposely sit away from the door. Yesterday my husband had to put his hat on and hoodie up while eating. My mom actually wanted to go somewhere else the last time I suggested HG because she didn’t want to freeze. Thankfully I convinced her to commit to HG. The fountain soda has been good quality and that factors into my decision for a dining place. I’d prefer Pepsi but if the Coke is good enough, I’m in. So far, the fountain has always been properly balanced between syrup and CO2. The dessert is AMAZING. I actually took a friend to dinner at Mashiso and then we drove to HG for dessert. For those that say honey isn’t on the menu, did you even look at the desserts? It’s there and it’s delicious. Please keep the chocolate mousse always. The ordering kiosk is easy to use and it’s fun picking my own items. Redeeming a gift card was very straightforward and that can’t be said of all places.

This place is a SOLID 4 to 4.5 and I hope it’s...

I was excited to try this place because I will devour a good stir fry, but was met with disappointment.

Walking through the doors you find yourself walking into the seating area; odd. You have to navigate your way around to the back to get to an unattended kiosk where you place your order; no people to interact with, huge negative for me. I want to interact with people, your business should have personality and it can’t have that if all I get is my name called and “here’s your order.” Furthermore, navigating the menu was a little clunky, not the most user friendly. Regardless, I was committed because stir fry was on my mind.

Pressing on, I was able to get my order entered, and then I’m met with “do you want to leave a tip?” Really? I’m not even greeted by a real person and you want me to tip for, what exactly? I’m not tipping on food I’ve not even tasted or seen yet. There is a small button to leave no tip though.

From there, you have to squeeze your way out from the ordering area and awkwardly wait in the seating area to hear your name called for your food. Knock more personality points off.

Now for the food; it leaves so much to be desired. The broccoli is crunchy yet tastes charred, the roasted garlic was palatable, ordered scallions but I’m not sure there were any in my container, and my goodness the egg white noodles are so chewy I had to make sure a rubber band hadn’t snuck in. The sauce, if you can call it that, lacked any sort of complexity or meaningful flavor. Add some honey to your average soy sauce and that’s basically what I could taste. I chose this sauce because I lacked confidence that any of the other sauces wouldn’t be too spicy. Maybe if I had been able to talk to someone while ordering I could have picked a palatable sauce based on input. I digress.

In closing, $12 isn’t the end all be all for what I got, but I can’t justify it again. The food gets 2* because I was able to at least eat it and not still be hungry, but I’m being generous there.

Great idea in concept and on paper, just...