Foods from freshii
Comments
2013 Aug 20
Was on sparks street on my lunch break, so I popped in for lunch. I grabbed the warrior rice bowl cause it was the daily $5 special. It's rice, cajun chicken, corn, red onion, tomato and carrot. No idea what the sauce is.
Well, for $5 it's not bad. It's 90% brown rice, and the dressing is vaugely unidentifiable (Google tells me it's ranch). The chicken is spicy, but kinda bland. The veggies are ok.
It's cheap, filling, and somewhat healthy. I wouldn't pay more for it, but I may go back another day for it.
Well, for $5 it's not bad. It's 90% brown rice, and the dressing is vaugely unidentifiable (Google tells me it's ranch). The chicken is spicy, but kinda bland. The veggies are ok.
It's cheap, filling, and somewhat healthy. I wouldn't pay more for it, but I may go back another day for it.
2012 May 15
Since it was a nice day I decided to do a little loop up Bank St, across Sparks and back down Elgin to see what new place I might find.
I passed all the delicious smells of hot dog cart, french fries etc... and decided that I was on the look for something not fried and not full of cheese.
I saw the $5 deal board outside of freshie so I decided to give it a try.
It was quick! but I guess that mixing rice (MAINLY rice), carrott, corn, onion and chicken shouldn't really take than long anyway.
For what is was - $5, fresh food, not fried, tasty and quick, I would say that it is definitely worth it.
Now, if that same bowl was priced higher any other day of the week, then it would not be a good value seeing as it was mainly rice.
I should have had a closer look at the menu while I was there.
I will be back for their $5 Lunch bowl specials
I passed all the delicious smells of hot dog cart, french fries etc... and decided that I was on the look for something not fried and not full of cheese.
I saw the $5 deal board outside of freshie so I decided to give it a try.
It was quick! but I guess that mixing rice (MAINLY rice), carrott, corn, onion and chicken shouldn't really take than long anyway.
For what is was - $5, fresh food, not fried, tasty and quick, I would say that it is definitely worth it.
Now, if that same bowl was priced higher any other day of the week, then it would not be a good value seeing as it was mainly rice.
I should have had a closer look at the menu while I was there.
I will be back for their $5 Lunch bowl specials
2011 Dec 5
Forgive my absence of late; I have been travelling too much to focus on the Ottawa food scene.
Ok... let me just get this off my chest.
I have given Freshii quite a few chances, and I'm afraid it's not worth your money (or mine at least).
You can see my original post below.
I picked up the dealfind ($20 for 40) deal. Considering the fact that freshii arbitrarily charges a premium for their "high quality products", and ‘sustainable, green façade’; this deal made freshii, reasonably priced.
Believe me, I'm at the point where I am having a hard time using all 40 dollars on the card. It's almost a chore to go to freshi. In my experience, freshii's food is dry, tasteless, way too low in fat (thus no flavor), the bread they use is horrible cardboard stuff, the meat is similar to processed crap you could find at subway, and the sauces are underwhelming (mostly because there is no fat in them).
I grant that freshii is a fantastic concept, but man, the food just isn't very good.
This morning I had a breakfast wrap. Cardbord-like brown tortilla, dry-ass boiled eggs, crumbled bacon, tomatoes, microscopic amounts of cheese and no sauce. WTF? Are they trying to take all the fun (read: nutrition) out of breakfast?This thing was hard to swallow. I'm all for healthy food, but this stuff is just plain bad.
They have a brilliant business model. If they continue to trick people into thinking that their overpriced, horribly mediocre food is 'healthy', good on them. Tis the beauty of capitalism.
My hard earned dollars however, will find a home at a different lunch place. I will provide philosophical moral support to the business owners (that is if they are making good money) based on the principle that they are selling airplane food at a premium price. If that’s not value added, I don’t know what is.
But I still have to use 31 dollars at freshii.. sigh... I suppose I can try their yogurt. You can't screw that up right? But wait, they only serve low fat yoghurt…. so, I am not going to hold my breath.
Ok... let me just get this off my chest.
I have given Freshii quite a few chances, and I'm afraid it's not worth your money (or mine at least).
You can see my original post below.
I picked up the dealfind ($20 for 40) deal. Considering the fact that freshii arbitrarily charges a premium for their "high quality products", and ‘sustainable, green façade’; this deal made freshii, reasonably priced.
Believe me, I'm at the point where I am having a hard time using all 40 dollars on the card. It's almost a chore to go to freshi. In my experience, freshii's food is dry, tasteless, way too low in fat (thus no flavor), the bread they use is horrible cardboard stuff, the meat is similar to processed crap you could find at subway, and the sauces are underwhelming (mostly because there is no fat in them).
I grant that freshii is a fantastic concept, but man, the food just isn't very good.
This morning I had a breakfast wrap. Cardbord-like brown tortilla, dry-ass boiled eggs, crumbled bacon, tomatoes, microscopic amounts of cheese and no sauce. WTF? Are they trying to take all the fun (read: nutrition) out of breakfast?This thing was hard to swallow. I'm all for healthy food, but this stuff is just plain bad.
They have a brilliant business model. If they continue to trick people into thinking that their overpriced, horribly mediocre food is 'healthy', good on them. Tis the beauty of capitalism.
My hard earned dollars however, will find a home at a different lunch place. I will provide philosophical moral support to the business owners (that is if they are making good money) based on the principle that they are selling airplane food at a premium price. If that’s not value added, I don’t know what is.
But I still have to use 31 dollars at freshii.. sigh... I suppose I can try their yogurt. You can't screw that up right? But wait, they only serve low fat yoghurt…. so, I am not going to hold my breath.
2011 Nov 15
Stopped in for the first time today. Evidently there was some sort of Groupon, but we missed out on that opportunity :( We decided to check it out anyway...
We went to the campus location - bright, sunny, if not a bit crowded once the lunch crowd rolls in. If you're trying to visualize the experience,just picture the Goonies salad bar and add warm rice/noodles or soup broth. You grab a little clip board with an order form, pick what you want, hand the slip to the person making food, pay, and wait until they call your name. Not too complicated.
You pick an item (burrito, salad, soup, rice/noodle bowl) for a base price, add protein/nuts/cheese for an additional price, pick as many unlimited veggies as you want (everything from beans to cilantro to mushrooms to carrots to seeds..... on and on and on) and sauces. Note - if you start with a pre-set creation from the menu (ex. spicy noodle bowl) instead of making something custom, adding veggies will cost 25 cents each!
I had a brown rice/buffalo chicken/pretty much every veggie available/salsa and ranch dressing bowl. You get a massive amount of food (similar portion to Thai Express) although since you're mixing warm rice with cold veggies, the final product is cool in temperature. Everything was fresh, chicken was fine (not grilled, but not spongy)and the flavours were nice.
Hubby got the spicy noodle bowl, a set menu item. It had noodles, tofu, almonds, and some veggies. He really seemed to enjoy it, and it packed quite a spicy kick!
Lunch for two was $17. Filling, healthy, lots of vegan/GF options. We will probably be back. For my money I'd pick Perfection Satisfaction most times, but it's a nice change.
We went to the campus location - bright, sunny, if not a bit crowded once the lunch crowd rolls in. If you're trying to visualize the experience,just picture the Goonies salad bar and add warm rice/noodles or soup broth. You grab a little clip board with an order form, pick what you want, hand the slip to the person making food, pay, and wait until they call your name. Not too complicated.
You pick an item (burrito, salad, soup, rice/noodle bowl) for a base price, add protein/nuts/cheese for an additional price, pick as many unlimited veggies as you want (everything from beans to cilantro to mushrooms to carrots to seeds..... on and on and on) and sauces. Note - if you start with a pre-set creation from the menu (ex. spicy noodle bowl) instead of making something custom, adding veggies will cost 25 cents each!
I had a brown rice/buffalo chicken/pretty much every veggie available/salsa and ranch dressing bowl. You get a massive amount of food (similar portion to Thai Express) although since you're mixing warm rice with cold veggies, the final product is cool in temperature. Everything was fresh, chicken was fine (not grilled, but not spongy)and the flavours were nice.
Hubby got the spicy noodle bowl, a set menu item. It had noodles, tofu, almonds, and some veggies. He really seemed to enjoy it, and it packed quite a spicy kick!
Lunch for two was $17. Filling, healthy, lots of vegan/GF options. We will probably be back. For my money I'd pick Perfection Satisfaction most times, but it's a nice change.
2011 Jun 28
I went to Freshii again todya after class, mainly to avoid the thunderstorm brewing, and I ordered almost the same thing I did last time, but chose turkey instead of chicken.
Unfortunatly, it seems like everythign is worse. The turkey is bland and mushy, the noodles are practically a non-entity both taste and texture wise, the sauce is salty, and the vegetables are hiding well if they are in it at all. The sole brihgt spot is the bacon, but it's bacon, so it's hard to mess that up.
I'm just hoping it's an off night for them or something.
Unfortunatly, it seems like everythign is worse. The turkey is bland and mushy, the noodles are practically a non-entity both taste and texture wise, the sauce is salty, and the vegetables are hiding well if they are in it at all. The sole brihgt spot is the bacon, but it's bacon, so it's hard to mess that up.
I'm just hoping it's an off night for them or something.
2011 Jun 8
Just a note to add to the description, there is a second freshii location at Sparks and Metcalfe right next to the bridgehead.
I have been waiting to try freshii for a while now. My Mom had recommended it, since there is a location in Toronto. I think it's an awesome concept and the food looks pretty good.
I had a less then ideal lunch today. It was disappointing in a few respects.
For starters, it was confusing to order. Even though the restaurant was completely empty, I still had to fill out a special form - even though I was ordering off of the pre-made menu. No big deal.
I ordered the Bangkok burrito - which as the menu suggests is a "best seller". This consisted of brown rice, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, chicken and a peanut sauce. Only after the fact did I realize I could have added more ingredients for free - they didn't tell me this.
The burrito was huge - very filling and a good lunch option. BUT they didn't include carrots or mushrooms and I found one tiny piece of microscopically thin cucumber. Honestly - the contents of this burrito consisted of rice (too much in fact), chicken and sauce. The sauce was too sweet and thus I don't want to see peanut butter for a week. I was very disappointed about the chicken. Freshii's chicken is no different then what Subway serves as "chicken". Also known as highly processed chicken 'roll'. They can say what they want about quality, but the chicken clearly wasn't quality. I couldn't finish the burrito because it was huge and not very good.
While ordering, I asked if the burrito would fill me up, the lady said 'no'. (Trust me, if you have a normal appetite, it's more than enough). So I supplemented it with a soup. Freshii's soup procedure is also kind of weird. You pick a broth, then pick two veggies to put in it. Simple enough. I picked the spicy lemon grass broth and added mushrooms and broccoli. The soup was pretty good. Very spicy and tasty. Not the best choice for a sweltering day like today. My big qualm with the soup was that it was poured into a plastic container while the soup was still pretty much boiling. This partially melted the container and thus my soup ended up a with a plastic aftertaste. Not quite appetizing or healthy.
The burrito and soup was $10.50, not a bad price. I think this place is interesting, certainly better then other options, and I think I just royally failed the ordering process. I also chose (IMO) crappy options for lunch today. The menu looks pretty amazing. Also you can customize your lunch, so I guess since I didn't do that I cannot complain.
Will I be back? - yes, I will give it another try now that I have learned my lessons. Lessons:
1. Make sure you customize your lunch - and watch them add ingredients so that you don't get shafted.
2. Don't order soup to go. You will end up with a side order of polyurethane.
3. Don't order anything with chicken - it's not very good.
4. Don't let the employees give you advice about what to eat. The burrito I had today sucked pretty bad.
Not an ideal experience, but the concept is cool enough to try once again. I'll report back then...
I have been waiting to try freshii for a while now. My Mom had recommended it, since there is a location in Toronto. I think it's an awesome concept and the food looks pretty good.
I had a less then ideal lunch today. It was disappointing in a few respects.
For starters, it was confusing to order. Even though the restaurant was completely empty, I still had to fill out a special form - even though I was ordering off of the pre-made menu. No big deal.
I ordered the Bangkok burrito - which as the menu suggests is a "best seller". This consisted of brown rice, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, chicken and a peanut sauce. Only after the fact did I realize I could have added more ingredients for free - they didn't tell me this.
The burrito was huge - very filling and a good lunch option. BUT they didn't include carrots or mushrooms and I found one tiny piece of microscopically thin cucumber. Honestly - the contents of this burrito consisted of rice (too much in fact), chicken and sauce. The sauce was too sweet and thus I don't want to see peanut butter for a week. I was very disappointed about the chicken. Freshii's chicken is no different then what Subway serves as "chicken". Also known as highly processed chicken 'roll'. They can say what they want about quality, but the chicken clearly wasn't quality. I couldn't finish the burrito because it was huge and not very good.
While ordering, I asked if the burrito would fill me up, the lady said 'no'. (Trust me, if you have a normal appetite, it's more than enough). So I supplemented it with a soup. Freshii's soup procedure is also kind of weird. You pick a broth, then pick two veggies to put in it. Simple enough. I picked the spicy lemon grass broth and added mushrooms and broccoli. The soup was pretty good. Very spicy and tasty. Not the best choice for a sweltering day like today. My big qualm with the soup was that it was poured into a plastic container while the soup was still pretty much boiling. This partially melted the container and thus my soup ended up a with a plastic aftertaste. Not quite appetizing or healthy.
The burrito and soup was $10.50, not a bad price. I think this place is interesting, certainly better then other options, and I think I just royally failed the ordering process. I also chose (IMO) crappy options for lunch today. The menu looks pretty amazing. Also you can customize your lunch, so I guess since I didn't do that I cannot complain.
Will I be back? - yes, I will give it another try now that I have learned my lessons. Lessons:
1. Make sure you customize your lunch - and watch them add ingredients so that you don't get shafted.
2. Don't order soup to go. You will end up with a side order of polyurethane.
3. Don't order anything with chicken - it's not very good.
4. Don't let the employees give you advice about what to eat. The burrito I had today sucked pretty bad.
Not an ideal experience, but the concept is cool enough to try once again. I'll report back then...
2011 May 30
I was on campus, and saw this place had opened up. I was intrigued, and hungry so I popped in. The decor was pretty free and open, and although it looks fairly pricey, I figured that I'd try it out. Now, they have a menu, which is wraps, noodle bowls, soup, and buritos, but there was also a make your own dish selection. I decided to do that, making a noodle dish with rice noodles, ranch sauce, chicken, bacon, sun dried tomatoes, parmesan, cucumber and carrot.
It was very delicious. It cost $12, but I got enough food that it would last me as lunch tommorow. The chicken was well cooked, juicy, and the perfect tecture. The bacon was crisp as well. The only complaints I would have is that the celery and carrot were shredding a bit too fine for me, but overall, it was very very good. I heartily recommend it.
It was very delicious. It cost $12, but I got enough food that it would last me as lunch tommorow. The chicken was well cooked, juicy, and the perfect tecture. The bacon was crisp as well. The only complaints I would have is that the celery and carrot were shredding a bit too fine for me, but overall, it was very very good. I heartily recommend it.
James C.
So, onto the salad. It was a mix of a ton of fresh veggies, the aforementioned chicken, and some peanut sauce dressing. It was a fairly big bowl, and it came to $9.50 before tax, which compared to other options, isn't that bad.
Now, tastewise? Very very tasty. I enjoyed it immensely. A bit salty, which worked. The veggies were fresh, and varied enough that I didn't get bored. The ratio of toppings to greens was much better, so I didn't end up with a bowl of lettuce like most salads.
All in all, very good meal, will be going back soon.