California Fresh

So I went here a little while ago with my friends, and it seemed to be okay. I miss the old fresh choice though, I used to go there a lot with my parents and it always seemed so much more highly maintained compared to now. The salad bar was pretty clean and they looked fresh so that was good. For a Saturday afternoon it was pretty empty which was surprising but it was okay. The tuna tarragon was actually really good and the food was good. Unfortunately the ice cream machine was broken so the only selection we had was vanilla so that sucked :(overall it was good and I would go there again!

I like California Fresh Cupertino… whoever is the owner
GOD BLESS YOU !!! Maybe healthy and organic and vegetable based foods were not in fashion earlier and hence the earlier joint and its branches went out of business.
But I definitely feel that people now want fresh and healthy and there is a high demand for these kind of outlets.
Good Luck !!!
Krish

So went to this place for the first time since Fresh Choice went bankrupt. Name outside still says Fresh choice, but inside they are California Fresh. The trays were dirty took 3 to find what appeared to be clean. When you start down the salad line the signs are placed in wrong spots. It looked ok as ok could be. The drinks are not filled at the cash wrap they give you a cup and have you go to the main station on the hot line.
The soup’s look kind of like they have been sitting there for a while. Actually to be honest all the food on the hot line was sitting there. The seating area had trays on every table just about. To be completely honest it is not like the old Fresh choice not even close.

They had good selection, but I wasn’t impressed with the quality. Seemed like it had been out for a while which is odd because we came at dinner time. Also the ice cream machine was broke. BUMMER!

Go to Sweet Tomatoes/​Soupplantation instead. I’ve been going to Sweet Tomatoes instead, but because there was a buy one get one free coupon, we sent here. What a sad place this is. Usually, the blueberry muffins are a standard staple. No muffins in sight, I asked and was presented with one blueberry muffin. Also, there were maybe 2 blueberries in my muffin, if that. Sweet Tomatoes always has at least 2 muffin choices and the blueberries are plentiful. There are so many more soup choices at Sweet Tomatoes. Sweet Tomatoes creates more excitement on their website, they give you a menu of upcoming items. CF could care less. They really don’t know anything about marketing. Very sad…
I wish I could make some suggestions because I would like to see California Fresh do better, but they don’t even care enough to leave a phone number or email address. Talk about wanting to remain ignorant about why business is poor. Check it out, website and Facebook page, absolutely no way to call or email, or leave comments.

This was the first time I’ve been to a Fresh Choice since I was a kid. My boyfriend and I walked in and there wasn’t a single customer there. Several of the tables were dirty with past customers left over food. The booth we sat at had duct tape all over the seats. There were several employees there, so I’m not sure why the restaurant was such a mess.
There was no ice in the soda machine, so I kept trying to get an employees attention in the back kitchen since the door was open. I never ended up getting her attention, but I was disgusted by how dirty the back kitchen was.
The salad wasn’t as cold and crisp as I would have expected. The food is mediocre at best. I wouldn’t go back.

Came here tonight for the first time since there was a Groupon sale going on. When I checked on Unilocal,it says the restaurant closes at 9pm on Sundays.
I drove for 20 mins, got there at 7:40pm and was told that they’re closing in 20 minutes!
Who is responsible for updating or validating the info listed on Unilocal is correct and current?

California Fresh is the renamed Fresh Choice which went bankrupt a few years back. The Fresh Choice in Sunnyvale closed, so the Cupertino store in the Vallco mall is the closest one.
We went on a Saturday evening at 630pm, finding the parking structure next to the restaurant almost full, probably with teenagers and millenial generations checking out the next door AMC theater.
California Fresh is a salad buffet restaurant It’s main competitor is Sweet Tomatoes, one in Mountain View at the Grant and El Camino, and the other at Costco in Sunnyvale off of Lawrence and Kifer.
We don’t go to the Sunnyvale Sweet Tomatoes, due to long waiting lines of Costco shoppers and scarce parking on weekends. And the Mountain View Sweet Tomatoes is overrun with kids and toddlers screaming and roaming the pathways between the tables.
Some comparisons between Cupertino California Fresh and Mountain View Sweet Tomatoes:
1. The Cupertino California Fresh has fewer toddlers and children, and more older teenagers and 20 year olds, so the ambiance is much better. It caters to the AMC movie crowd on weekends. Cupertino is an older and more Asian population. No toddlers screaming in your ear, or children stepping on your toes.
2. The restaurant is less crowded, and more spread out, with more numerous and plusher booths –people aren’t packed together like sardines at the Mountain View Sweet Tomatoes.
3. The everyday price of California Fresh for adults is $ 10 for dinner, compared to $ 12 for dinner at Sweet Tomatoes. Lunch is $ 9, and children 6 – 12 are $ 6, and children 3 – 5 are $ 3. Children 2 and under are free.
4. Similar salad buffet, except that you get your utensils at the head of the line, and so can taste samples of the salads beforehand, something you can’t do at Sweet Tomatoes. Similar salads, like tuna tarragon, Chinese chicken salad, Caesar Salad, etc.
5. The quality of the salads is similar –avoid the salad on the bottom of the bowl, as they are inevitably drenched in dressing, and have gone soft, as was the case with the Caesar salad.
6. Salads and soups with meat in both restaurants are inevitably cherry picked of the meat by earlier guests. My Chinese chicken salad had no chicken. People go to a salad buffet but are craving for meat!
7. The quality of the soups is better at Sweet Tomatoes, comparing the Yankee Clipper to the Boston claim chowder. The California fresh soups were on the watery side.
8. You can make your own Phở noodle soups in both restaurants, adding tofu at the buffet area.
9. California fresh has a very limited selection of bakery items, compared to Sweet tomatoes.
10. Both restaurants offer meatless heated pasta dishes, with noodles and marinara sauce.
11. California fresh offers pepperoni pizza, fresh out of the oven. The pizzas at Sweet tomatoes are meatless.
12. Similar drink selection of punch and soft drinks –Sweet tomatoes no longer serves orange juice. Drinks cost extra –about $ 2.25 at both places.
13. California Fresh has two big screen TVs for sports fans mounted on the wall. Sweet Tomatoes has no TVs.
14. Service is worse at California fresh –piles of used dishes and trays remained on the tables longer than at Sweet tomatoes, which has a whole cleanup crew roaming the area for dirty dishes.
15. We get out of there for $ 10.86, using a two for one coupon available to e-​mail members. I don’t remember paying that little for 2 dinners at Sweet Tomatoes.

I don’t know if they are currently trying to improve the quality or are people just harsh here on the reviews. I have to say that we are pleasantly surprised by the quantity and variety of food offered today. We also didn’t come for a long time due to bad quality before. I think last time we came was about 6 – 7 years ago. But I am very happy with the value freshness and overall quality today.
Keep it up and I will be your frequent customer

Avoid at all costs. The food was bad, the bathroom was dark, no chocolate ice cream, even though there was a picture of it taunting us on the machine. The fettuccine soup used to be made fresh, now it’s basically canned soup. The noodles were so soggy, they turned into mush when I poured it into my bowl. The signage everywere says «Fesh Choice». What is going on with this place? It’s as depressing as the rest of Vallco Mall. Stay away!

I hate to write one star reviews. As you can tell I don’t give them away very often. So you can say this is a special moment. Not really…
Where to start off? Let’s start off with the very beginning of my «Fresh Choice» experience. They’ve changed their name back from California Fresh, back to Fresh Choice to confuse us customers. I grabbed my tray with two plates and proceeded to the first station of salad. I started to become scared because I noticed three of the bowls with salad looked wilted!!! Walked down a little further and I’m battling with little tiny black bugs flying around competing with me for food. Yuck!!! The food looked like it hadn’t been touched in hours. The restaurant was super empty, biggest warning I know. However, I was meeting friends here, should have changed locations.
Grossest of them all. In the women’s bathroom, there was only one functional toilet that didn’t appear to flush, so previous users just left it as is. GROSSSSS! I had to walk over to Sears to use their bathroom.
It was not a wonderful healthy dinner experience. I couldn’t wait to get out of there. Plus I had a gurgle tummy ache after the meal. Can’t pin point what out of the unfresh choices I put on my plate that caused me to feel sick?

I’m so glad I didn’t take the reviews too seriously, this California Fresh (now renamed back to the good old Fresh Choice) is what I remember Fresh Choice used to be. It is a lot better than Sweet Tomatoes (at least in my area) and the salad bar is plentiful and really fresh. The Kale options is nice since the old Fresh Choice never had that. The non salad option is not bad, a bit smaller selection than the old Fresh Choice, but still good (pizza much better here than Sweet Tomatoes). I would highly recommend to give this place a try and to those that have came here awhile ago with bad experience.

Thankfully I wasn’t deterred by all those low star reviews for this place! California Fresh (which has now been renamed back to Fresh Choice) is really good. Is it Sweet Tomatoes? No, but it is almost as good and some of its best parts are even better than Sweet Tomatoes (which is one of my favorite restaurants).
We went for lunch on March 22 and all was good. It was $ 8.99 for the buffet and the salad bar was delicious (they have a little different variety than Sweet Tomatoes — so its nice to go for a change of pace). 4 main things I really liked over Sweeties :
–Its not crowded. You’re not battling the crowds for food or waiting in long lines
–They have different variety of prepared salads and vegetables not available at Sweet Tomatoes. Pretty solid Kale salad. And of they the golden oldies of the fresh choice of old (e.g. Chinese salad).
–Pizza is better at Fresh Choice
–They got beats! Yea I said it. In the background they had 80s greatest hits going on (GnR, Journey, Eric Clapton, etc) while you are eating? Hell yea. It wasn’t too loud if that isn’t your thing, but its a nice touch.
Don’t get it twisted: Sweet Tomatoes is the king of salad buffets which it has earned over the years. But Fresh Choice is a worthy alternative. I’d normally call this a 4-​star joint, but I’m going to give it an extra to counteract some of the earlier unfair reviews.

So Happy that prices went down and quality went up and I hope this place does well because it’s a great value —

It was tough at the beginning of the transition. One time in the summer, they didn’t have phở noodles set up by 1130 but they did have the broth. They opened at 11. And they didn’t seem to have any sense of urgency when I asked about it. Another time, there were no spoons, and I asked and the person told me he’d look into it. Then he went back to what he was doing. So I was going to give a 1 star review, and then thought I’d wait to see how it went after a few months.
I must say the offerings on the salad bar are getting better. I was able to get phở the last time I was there, but the broth is no longer good. It had too much ginger and was rather weak.
My daughter used to love the pizza. Whatever they’ve done with it, it’s no longer good. The brownies are still amazing.
The baked potatoes stayed consistently good.
The pasta and sauces stayed consistently ok.
And the dessert offerings are of better quality. (although the last time I was in, there was only vanilla soft serve… the chocolate was either out or they were in the process of removing it, not sure)
Bathrooms are always clean and well stocked.
In the beginning of the transition, there were often dirty tables and not enough staff. The tables were clean when we went in for a late lunch. I’m still not sure they’ve got enough staff, but it didn’t impact us this time.
So, I like how much progress they’ve made, and hope they continue to improve.

I would give this a ⁵⁄₅ only because it is exactly like Fresh Choice. So for $ 8, I’m hoping people don’t expect linen table clothes. It’s amazing people get so heated up about saving $ 4 when most drop that for a coffee at Starbucks.
We went on Sat Jan 11 at 7pm.
Everything was as expected. I’d say every salad item was fine.
A spot in some of the soup bowls but no major problems.
Note to management team– you’ve got to advertise this. Losing Fresh Choice was disappointing, so this new name is not well known.

It’s basically the same as Fresh Choice was… *meh*. I mean, if you’re looking for a quick stop for all-​you-​can eat salad, this is the place to go. It’s not really «fresh», but it’s decent.

Visited California Fresh, not knowing of the name change and ownership thinking it was still Fresh Choice and had an Entertainment Book coupon. Got to the register and the so-​called cashier who was the manager had refused to take the coupon. I had asked why? And her response was we are no longer Fresh Choice. Although the awning outside as you walked in the door still said Fresh Choice. Her name is Maria, her attitude was very sarcastic and unprofessional. I would not want her running my business the way she did. If you want repeat business, treat your customers the way you would want to be treated.
Regarding the name, is your produce all local?
The restaurant was very run down. There was very little of everything out on the salad bar, not sure why as it was 7pm. Got to the baked goods and there was nothing out. Very slow at replenishing stuff. Waited 7 minutes for the only thing that was good from there and that was the breadsticks that was fresh out of the oven. The pasta was over cooked the sauce was very dry like it was sitting out forever with very little of it in the warmer. Their phở soup base was bland and tasted like flavored water.
I recommend the owners provide refunds to all the negstives on Unilocal,visit there restaurants and take care of the multiple issues and invite us back to a new and improved California Fresh. That’s if they want to keep the business running.
I will not be visiting any of their restaurants until I receive a call from someone at Corporate inviting me back.
See my photos.
Sorry California Fresh

I completely agree with Julia M. which said that it’s essentially the same as Fresh Choice, just under new ownership. In other words, nothing has changed. It has the same feel and the same look as Fresh Choice. Even the restrooms have not changed from when it was Fresh Choice.
After having gone here since the change, I am not going to return. There is one reason why. It’s because I was charged the regular price for my lunch. I didn’t get the 10% off that I was supposed to get as a member of a professional networking organization. Yes, the cashier goofed big time. Especially when there was a whole stream of fellow members. It could be because I was not wearing my badge.
As another person has said and which I agree, this place has gone downhill since the change in ownership. I don’t see this place lasting very long as our group filled up the whole place. Seriously!

A lot of people aren’t pleased with this place, so I am guessing that I’ve been incredibly lucky with the timing of my visits.
I’ve eaten here three times since it converted from Fresh Choice to California Fresh. The salads have been fresher, and more items have ingredient lists than ever before. They even have lentils and mini artichokes.
The soups are clearly labeled with calories, ingredients, and if it’s vegan/​vegetarian. I only have the salad and soup, so I can’t comment on the pasta/​pizza quality.
The staff is friendly and attentive.
Bathrooms are clean.
Big mall parking lot with lots of parking. Next to Sears.