Roots Natural Kitchen — Restaurant in Virginia

For a while now we've been frequenting Roots as a place to get healthy food with decently sized portions and have enjoyed our experiences coming here. Sure, the food wasn't anything to write home about, but the fact that you could get a big bowl of grains and veggies that were enough to fill you up and take home for later was enough to keep us coming back pretty frequently if we wanted a healthier option.

However, the corporate overlords at Roots have made the inexplicable decision to reduce the size of the green bowls to the same size of the grain bowls, making all of the green bowls (basically half of their menu) a terrible deal. The cost-cutting measures seem to have extended past just the green bowls, as we've been skimped out on the portions on our last two visits as well. Usually if we get a smaller portion on a single visit, I can usually chalk it up to a minor oversight by the employees, but talking to them on my last visit about the smaller bowl sizes makes me believe that these cost-cutting measures aren't limited to just the size of the bowls the foods are served in.

The official reason from the responses I've read on here is that the bowls "taste better" if there's less greens in the bowl, giving more room for the flavors to shine through. And, well. It tastes about the same as it has ever tasted. Probably because there's less of everything, not just the greens.

Also, this location in particular doesn't have AC and (based on other reviews) hasn't had working AC for a few days now. The employees...

My visit 10/2/2021 5:45PM ET My wife recently placed a carryout order here for my daughter and asked for me to pick it up. When I arrive, the carryout shelves have some bagged orders with names, and a couple just bowls with numbers on them. Not necessarily knowing what the numbers were and not seeing my name, I walk over to the register to ask for help.

There were no other customers in line. There weren't even any other customers in the front of the store! I'm the only customer in eyeshot. The employees behind the counter are socializing. I'm standing there at the register, seemingly invisible, trying to make eye contact with an employee, to no avail. Employees walk by—I even meet eyes with an employee at the beginning of the line, only for them to avert their eyes.

As I start waving my hands around and calling out, finally the person working the register graces me with her awareness. When I state that I'm there for a pick up order, she's like "oh yeah some are in bags and some aren't. The number is the end of the order number" and that's it. No offer to help look it up for me, no offer put my bowl in a bag, no apology for the confusion or for leaving me standing there. She has nothing to offer me.

So I message my wife, get her to send me the order email, dig for the order number, determine which order is mine, bag the order myself, and walk out.

Maybe the food is great, but the service...

We're big fans of Roots! We usually order it to go from the downtown location, but we were in the area running an errand so we decided to eat in and I was so impressed with how bright and airy the space is and the amount of available seating! The kids opted to sit along the bench on the wall, but there are large windows all around, which lets in a lot of natural light.

Our family gets a lot of value from Roots' "kids eat free" policy (one free kids bowl for every paid adult bowl) since we have two adults and two kids, so it balances nicely. The kids love being able to make their own bowls (though I do sometimes strongly encourage some vegetable options to be added), and I appreciate knowing they're going to have a fairly balanced dinner that they actually eat. They both love the BBQ tofu and the chicken.

I'm personally a big fan of the Southern and the Balboa, but we've also gotten the Cobb before as well. Unlike a lot of bowls places, I find that Roots bowls all have distinct and different flavors (cause let's be honest, most places the bowls taste the same for the most part, just with different mix-ins), so I enjoy...