Souplantation

This place is great! Came here twice during my visit to San Diego and both times didn’t disappoint. Being from Maine I was skeptical about the clam chowder but this was great. As good as home. Derive is fat and staff is great!

Very good spot to eat a healthy meal. My personal favorite is the Santa Fe black bean chili and the baked potato section is also great. Perfect spot on a cold cloudy day.

This location gets very busy. We arrived at 12:45pm on a Friday and we had to wait to be seated because there were no open tables. We noticed right away that the silverware, coffee mug and drink cups weren’t clean. The salad bar was good but the soups were no good. The clam chowder was spicy, which was weird, and the noodles in the chicken noodle soup were really weird. The corn muffins were okay. The pizza was no good. The ice cream was good but the sprinkles and fudge had a weird after taste. The service at our table was good. They were constantly clearing our table.

Nasty, and horrible prices. The couple of times that I have eaten here, I got very sick to my stomach both times. The thought of all of those other people touching the spoons, and then the spoons falling into the salad, and then you grab it to get your portion… gross. The salads are disgusting. Bread has very little taste. Having to fight with people to try and get around them to get your soup, bread, or ice cream… just not a pleasant place or experience. The clam chowder is not bad, but not enough for me to give more than one star. To top it all off, it is WAY too expensive for the cheap food you get. Stay away from here if you don’t like food poisoning, and getting price gouged while you are at it.

Delicious, healthy, an all-​you-​can-​eat salad bar. The focaccia breads are simply delicious.
Sometimes I have to wait a lot for a table, and I find it a tad expensive (considering my currency is expensive against the dollar), but something I’d pay for anytime, nevertheless.

Amazing experience every time. The food is fresh and consistent. The sense of urgency displayed by the staff was excellent. Overall 5 star, the manager even shooted the breeze with myself as i was visiting alone recently. Thanks!

The best souplantation in the South Bay because it is the only one. I keep coming back. Healthy if I avoid the frozen yogurt.

This place is so so so good. I am a real big fan of home style cooking and in today’s world it is hard to find something that is not fried for the kids. This place has really good food and my kids love it. I have noticed the last 1 ½ are very slow which is a good thing.

Came in with a coupon for 6.99 for breakfast. First thing on the line was where you make your own scramble. When I went to pay I was charged $ 3 more for the scramble since i used the coupon. So my coupon only saved me 40 cents. Now for the scramble they were out of ham when i picked the ingredients and it took almost 30 minutes to come out and was cold when it got to my table. Dont get one! For the other breakfast item all were cold and the french toast was dry tasting. I dont think i will be trying breakfast here again.

Food here is delicious but honestly, I cannot get full off this place. It’s just too much salad and other non-​satisfying foods like baked sweet potatoes and soups.
Obviously that’s not a bad thing. I love to eat healthy; however, I need animal protein. Usually when we come here I end up eating a plate of fresh salad, several baked sweet potatoes and spreads, a handful of pizza squares, and a few bowls of soup/​bisque. Then, it is dessert with coffee and ice cream. If that sounds like the recipe for a stomach ache, it is. But that’s what it takes to feel full here and not piss off the wife.
If I were a vegetarian, I would RAVE up and down about this place. But I’m not. Therefore I can only stand eating here maybe twice a year. Call me old fashioned, but for me, you can’t spell buffet without m-​e-​a-​t. The blueberry muffins are stellar, though.

I love this place and my family goes every week! It’s very clean and the workers are so friendly. The raw vegetables are always fresh and the soup selection is outstanding — great for babies just learning to eat solid food to have them try new things. My picky four-​year-​old loves the chicken noodle soup. They always have some kind of focaccia with a topping — we just call it pizza. The breakfast lineup includes yummy chilaquiles. My favorite is the mini blueberry muffins. This restaurant also recently began a campaign highlighting its farm growers, which I really like. Make sure to sign up for the email coupons — I always use them on my phone. Whole family of two adults, two kids with coupon usually eats for $ 25!!!

Didn’t have real butter? Wtf. Didn’t have gluten free bread options. Had chopped white onions for baked potato and no green onions. Invent a better way to serve your pizza so the cheese ends up on all the pieces? Thursday 5pm, not good. Maybe try another day.

Since this place is located right off the I-​805 freeway in Chula Vista, it’s always busy. I’ve been here for lunch and dinner. Mostly for dinner. The lines are long on both sides, due to having to wait for open tables. Some people have bigger parties, so they would have to accommodate seating, as we all patiently wait and munch on our salads. Want to save a little? I recommend that you get on their Club Veg program. They will send you email with great deals and coupons. No need to print the coupons. Just show the email of the coupon to the cashier, to take advantage of your discount. It’s a great program! I also like how they serve breakfast on the weekends.
There are a few dishes (mainly soups) that have meat. They also have some chicken in their salads. My go to and all-​time favorite is the broccoli salad mixed with cashews, raisins and onions doused in their yummy dressing, chicken noodle soup with big flat pasta and hearty chunks of chicken, Mac and Cheese deliciousness, clam chowder, corn bread and their blueberry muffins with honey whipped butter. They also have baked potatoes, sweet potatoes, all the salad greens and garnishments, pastas, focaccia breads. Beverages and of course can’t forget their desserts. Cottage cheese and fruit. Ha! I know you’re waiting for me to say ice cream! They have that too! Chocolate, vanilla or swirl with all the fixin’s. They also have different types of muffins. This location’s fruit section isn’t as big as other locations. I don’t know if their still do the fresh out-​of-​the oven chocolate chip cookies. I haven’t tried them here yet. I sure do miss them! Great place to replenish the nutrients your body needs… greens, greens and more greens!

I freaking love soup plantation. The food is so good. The atmosphere is clean and hospitable. Eating at soup plantation is more than a meal, it’s an event.
I make sure I’m hungry going in so I can eat a bowl of the clam chowder AND the chili as well as a salad plate and some dessert. Best place to eat ill probably haveavr my birthday there.

I usually do not mind coming to Souplantation, but my visit to this location was below average.
We came with a party of 4 on a Sunday around 6 pm. There was a line throughout the salad bar when you enter. Once we got our trays and plates, 2 of the 3 pre-​made salads were empty. The line was at a complete stop for maybe 5 minutes. During this time, 1 of the 2 empty pre-​made salads were refilled. I got a serving of the caesar salad. Once I got my salad, again the line was at a complete stop for another 10 minutes. At this point I didn’t understand why the line wasn’t moving, and it was both lines at a complete stop. It took over 15 min from the start of the pre made salads to get to the register.
Once we were seated, I got up to get my drink. I’m not sure if the ice machine was broken or if this is typically how they serve ice– but the ice was in a bin with a scoop that has a handle, to scoop the ice from the bin into your cup. When I saw the scoop, the handle was laid down touching the ice. I realize several people use that scoop handle and some/​most probably don’t have clean hands, so there was no way I was putting that ice in my drink. So without ice, their drinks are warm.
Aside from the ice, the mini cones are put in a stainless steel container. There’s a fork or spoon in the container, and perhaps that was meant to spoon a cone out, but people were just reaching in grabbing cones. You do have to separate your cone from the rest, so you end up handling other cones. None of which have a wrapper.
Part way through dinner, I wanted coffee, so I went to the register to ask for a coffee cup. They had completely run out of clean cups so I had to wait. It took probably five mins of me waiting for a cup.
So this was also probably a prime dinner time, but on top of the unsanitary observations, the wait for clean cups, the food stations were messy! Food was on the counter, on the tray railings. More staff was definitely needed. And the ones that were there were focused on doing their job that they didn’t seem happy or greeted customers.
Disappointed with this location. Other locations (Rancho Bernardo) are far far better.

I hadn’t been to soup plantation in a long time. Surprisingly, it was pretty busy, and unsurprisingly, the diners were predominantly senior citizens (and who made up that name?!).
Any way, I came here during the breakfast hour on a Sunday ironically with my senior citizen friend completely unplanned. This was my first time during the breakfast hour, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Soup and salad were still in full effect, they just added breakfast items like french toast, waffles, oatmeal, eggs, biscuits, cinnamon rolls and apples, fruit, and sausage pizza-​like breakfast quiche looking things to the mix. If you’re looking for meat, there is little to no meat on the scene… go elsewhere. Your plate (s) can get pretty random pretty quick with things that you don’t typically eat… together, so be careful.
Cost for two was about $ 27. While that’s not a high price for two, I somehow felt it wasn’t worth it and would have been more content with Denny’s. What I enjoyed mostly was the broccoli potato soup. And, I really dug the refreshing infused cucumber mint water in the fancy glass «milk bottle». I now use it at home and on-​the-​go often.
It’s not really cool that the soft serve ice cream dispenser was malfunctioning this day. It’s summer and it was hot. Boooo!
The staff the cleans the tables and picks up finished plates and eating utensils are awesome! Very pleased with their service considering this is a buffet. Great attitudes!
Umm…I don’t really want to come back here to be honest. But, I would for lunch or dinner. Likely without enthusiasm, and likely with a senior citizen.

Nice place to get out of the heat and into some cold crisp vegetables. We got here during the breakfast lunch transition (11ish) so there was the best of both worlds. The donut muffins mixed in with some ice cream is a pure amateur wannabe gourmet cup of heaven.
Come in hungry and leave stuffed like the baked potato you scarfed down.

I like to go here when I feel like eating for 4 hours and taking in 20,000+ calories. I like to go for at least 4 plates of spinach and use 20 scoops of blue cheese dressing for each plate. That’s like 5000 calories per plate. I call it beast mode salad. I also like to eat several baked potatoes and pizza. I don’t eat the soup. Not enough calories.
I also like to make my beast mode ice cream. I put the toppings in the bowl first for maximum calories and a greater chance of going blind then the ice cream and cones on top.
4 Stars. I would give them 5 stars but they aren’t open 24 hours. I’m hungry now and I feel like eating for 4 hours.

Came to Soup Plantation to meet up my brother and mom for lunch at around 11:30 am. They open at 11 am.
As soon as we walked in, I felt the blast of air conditioning hit my face. When we approached the entrance, there’s a salad bar. There were premade salads and salads that you can make your own by adding your own toppings. After you make your salads, you tell the cashier how many adults and kids in your party. It’s $ 9.99 per adult for lunch. They charge kids over 3 years old. It’s $ 2.99 for our daughter. Total came to $ 47 with our 20% coupon. Not bad. After my brother treated us and paid, we grabbed a table. Thanks bro for lunch!
I had a spinach salad with cheese and ranch. It’s good and tasty. I had a strawberry lemonade. Yum! I also had a baked potato with sour cream, cheese and onion (not pictured). I was hungry because I didn’t eat breakfast. I was saving my appetite for this place. I also had two blueberry muffins with low fat butter spread on it! The baked potato was hot. Had to let it cool off. The blueberry muffins were soft and had lots of blueberries in them. So addicting. I also tried a bowl of chili soup. Really flavorful with beans, meat and tomato in it. I was already full from getting a lot of blueberry muffins. My mom liked them too!
The only thing is there’s not much to choose from. You basically eat the same thing over again if you are a picky eater.
The only reason we came here was for my brother. He eats so healthy. This was the only place he wanted to go to. Hubby doesn’t care for this place. I really enjoyed the food here. Healthy options here. My daughter enjoyed her ice cream. Yum! You really can get full here if you load up on the corn bread and muffins!
The lady didn’t clear up our tables until we were almost done. She was nice about getting all our dirty dishes. They also cater to your parties and events. There were three Soup Plantation catering trucks in the parking lot. Pretty cool!

I’d like to review the food, but let me tell you about the real attraction: the salad line. I entered with a 1-​month old and left just in time for his Bar Mitzvah. I’ve been here so long that police sent a search party for me. I saw the flashing lights near the door, but it’ll be at least a couple more years before they get to the dining area and find me.
Obviously, with a line 1,000 items long, you’re going to have a lot of options, but all of the exceptionally fresh items decayed to dust by the time I sat down.
The vegetable barley is outstanding. The chicken noodle is watery. This range of quality doesn’t make sense for a place that only has 8 soups out and then names themselves «SOUPlantation» in honor of their great soups. It’s all good, but it isn’t $ 11/​plate good. When you go to Cheesecake Factory, you expect exceptional cheesecake, but when you come here, I hope you like salad.
They also have a strange buffet. There wasn’t enough room to bypass the idiot in before me in line, so I waited, eventually feeling pressured to get a salad. Having come for the soup, I don’t care about their salad selection. The salad line is at least 5 times as long as the soup line, and then you must pay before seating, at which point you can now get up and have some soup, pasta, potato, and dessert. It doesn’t look like you can have seconds when it comes to salad since the register separates the salad bar from the dining area.
It’s a unique food concept, but it has a lot of kinks to work out.