Souper Salad

Disgusting! I’ve been to other Souper salads in Texas and Arizona, and never had an experience like this.
The restaurant was dirty and dingy with a weird smell, food was old and disgusting. The noodles I tried were soured. Worst of all, our waiter had snot running from his nose and liquid oozing out of his left eye. HE was the one making the food. Gross!
After trying to stomach the food for about 5 minutes, we left hungry and went to a local sandwich place.
Recommendation: avoid this place. If you decide to go, ask to see the bar ahead of time.

I’m not sure what to make of my first trip to Souper Salad, but I’m feeling generous and I’ll round them up to three stars.
I expected Souper Salad to be more like a Jason’s Deli, but the restaurant is more like a Cici’s or Golden Corral. I didn’t know it would be a buffet or that they would have a fairly eclectic variety of offerings (salad, potatoes, pizza, and some nachos– who’s idea was this?).
At $ 7.49 per adult without drink, it’s not exactly cheap, but I really did like the salad bar and pastas. I’m not sure if I’d come back though; maybe if they had a Groupon or other promotion?
Pros:
–Salad bar
–Pasta salads
–Fresh fruits
–Baked potatoes
-(Vegan) cornbread muffins
Cons:
–Pricey for a salad bar buffet
–Some hit or miss items
–Your «server» brings you a drink and clears your table, although you pay at the counter and get your food yourself. It’s apparent that the servers/​busboys bring your drinks so Souper Salad can pay them $ 2.15 an hour + tips instead of $ 7.25 an hour minimum wage. Furthermore, it’s uncomfortable that a tip is expected in this situation, especially when it took my server 10 minutes to bring our drinks out to the table and wasn’t terribly outgoing.
–It was quiet, awkwardly quiet, and a little dimly lit.

I was really excited about coming to this souper salad and ehhh. There wasn’t as much out there as in usual locations. Breads were hard. I just expected better.

What more do you expect out of a buffet? I never eat at these type of joints, so I don’t have a lot to compare it to. The selection was average, some ingredients (on the opposite side) was too much of a reach and there’s another line going down the opposing side so I would recommend your friend going on the opposite side to help you out. Nothing spectacular about the food, or quality. Everything was fairly edible. Then again, the name of the restaurant really doesn’t hide anything– you get soup and salad.

The only thing I felt comfortable eating was the inside of a baked potato. On the plus side, my 4-​year-​old son ate 3 bowls of the chicken noodle soup. Still didn’t eat my $ 6 worth though… poor salad bar, dirty restaurant, unappealing food in all areas…

Owned by nice family who is always there running things. Very well kept and fresh salad bar. Very inexpensive for what you get. We go a lot.

Utter Trash.
Like another poster I decided to give this place another try after swearing I would not a few years back. Huge mistake.
We went in on Saturday during lunch and it was nasty. Nasty. Nasty. Did I say Nasty? Even my husband with an iron stomach and the ability to stomach just about anything, could not even finish his one plate when he rain into the «slimy» chick peas. That’s right, they were coated in slime. Uhm… GROSS!
They couldn’t even muster up decent mac and cheese on the hot bar section. How do you mess up mac n cheese?
Besides that nonsense, the restaurant was dirty and in disrepair. The high chairs were coated in sticky grossness, the bathroom had NO toilet paper. I had to use hand towels!!! (Glad I checked before I went…)
Lastly the management seems to have changed hands for the WORSE since the last time we went. It kinda looks like it may be similar people who took over Doc Greens and we all know how «that» turned out.
Anyways– if you value your stomach. AVOID!!!
AVOID! AVOID!!!
OH and the dead plants out front by the door should have been my clue to keep walking. Shame on me.

«Extended salad bar…»
Tried this with a few friends earlier this week. It’s a little hard to find, being around the corner from the Kroger. One price for entry, and then all-​you-​can-​eat– for lunch on Thursday, it was ~$ 7.50 including tax, but I saw they have an all-​day Tuesday discount advertised.
Brightly lit, this place is basically an extended salad bar. In addition to a pretty good salad bar (including pasta salad, potato salad, and a surprisingly tasty «cornbread salad»), they also have a few soups (including chili, and counterintuitively, a taco bar), breads (including pizza), potatoes (including sweet potatoes), and desserts (pudding, soft-​serve, and fixings for strawberry shortcake).
Pluses:
+ Definitely fresh, healthy options here– good for people with dietary restrictions of any sort (except carnivores)
+ Attentive staff who clear your place quickly and bring you drinks/​refills
Average:
+/​-​Not exactly «cheap» but a fair price for what you get, especially if you eat a lot. Costs a little more than the Jason’s Deli salad bar, for example, but there are way more options here.
Minuses:
— Somehow, I expected more interesting soups, but the ones that were there were pretty boring/​standard.
— Same for salads/​veggies– there were some interesting options, but for a place called «Souper Salad», I perhaps (presumptuously) imagined they’d have more interesting fixings– maybe something like avocado, too? Not just mostly plain, standard veggies and a few mixed salad types.
— Cleanliness not the best– OK, but tables not super-​clean, and bathroom was not great. Also, weirdly, a TON of the forks had their tines bent, making it uncomfortable to eat. Weird?
Synopsis:
So, the real question is whether this is a better option than someplace like Golden Corral, as one reviewer noted. Honestly, that’s a tough call– Golden Corral does have way more options, though perhaps not as many or as fresh vegetables. But based on my one visit, this is certainly acceptable– if I was in the area and felt like a «lighter» or veg-​heavy meal, I’d consider it.

This place was perfect for what I was in the mood for. I wanted a salad bar but I haven’t been very happy with Ruby Tuesday’s, my old de factor salad bar place. I found this and it was great. They had a nice selection of salad bar toppings and the pasta salads were also very good. I really appreciated that they had fat free dressings too.
The hot food was underwhelming but it served as a nice contrast. I only tried one soup and it was fine. But again, I was there for the salad bar.
The ambiance was a bit like eating at a cafeteria which was fine, especially since I was dining alone.
I am definitely a fan and when I am in the mood for salad, this will be my go-​to place

This place sucks! There is nothing here that is very special. Salad is ok… pizza is dry and soup is kept too hot. The owners are rude. I came for a business meeting and asked to use there wifi and the owner told me that she would not let me use it. Spend your money else where!

For some reason, I was feeling generous today and thought I’d drop back by SouperSalad to see if there had been any improvement over the past year or so. Let’s just summarize it this way: I hope I’m never feeling generous toward this place again!
I should have known things were worse when one customer was inside eating on a Sunday evening just after 7:15. I saw the 8:30 closing time on the door but decided I ought to ask, just to be sure. The cashier – franchise owner, one would assume – assured me they were open until 8. Hmmm. (To make it weirder, I left before 7:55, and he locked the door behind me…)
The vegetables were of the same caliber as previous visits, but there were several items missing: green olives, beets, etc. Also missing were the chopped eggs, and the potato bar was missing the bacon, one of the former few redeeming items.
The chips for nachos were very old and bent considerably before crunching. The taco «meat» was bland and tasteless; in fact if you closed your eyes, it was like eating rice that’s gotten a little dry. The chili was like chili powder mixed with a touch of sugar.
I couldn’t talk myself into trying the soups or dessert. I left just feeling cheated… and I had a coupon. Oh, and the coupon was for 5.95, but my total was 6.75. SouperSalad must have their own special tax code.
The only thing positive I can say is that their ranch dressing doesn’t suck. But most places around here, other than Applebees, have decent ranch.
Do yourself a favor. Write this place off. When SouperSalad closes and something else moves in, maybe the location will be worth a try. Otherwise, they’ll need to pay me to even sample.
My Previous Review (May 2012)
So, a year has gone by, and as I promised I didn’t go back. I waited for my birthday coupon to show up. It showed up, and just as I was about to head out the door to use it, I noticed that it’s not a free meal like the one they wouldn’t honor last year. This year it’s a buy 1 get one free, so it’s really just fifty percent off. No one I know wants to go there, and I was going to go, just to give it another chance. Now, there’s no need.
Too bad you can’t get less than one star.
Tragically, I just realized my review from exactly one year ago today is gone with my edit today. In that case, let me recap last year’s story.
Souper Salad sent me a coupon good for one buffet – no strings attached. For fun, I had signed up as nickname I use. A really nasty-​tuded woman at the cash register refused to accept the coupon without ID. Naturally, I don’t have an ID card that has my nickname on it. I couldn’t believe she wouldn’t honor the coupon.
Of course, the only reason I went was for free food. And I use the word food rather loosely. As Christina G. said… «It kind of sucks.» I think she was generous with two stars, though. And when it’s not free, it’s not even cheap. Golden Corral isn’t that much more, and the food is significantly better.
One word for this place: avoid.

It’s not just soup or salad, it’s pizza, nachos, breadsticks and ice cream!
I like this place a lot. Once I get past the chemically clean smell (which isn’t great, but better than dirty) I find that the food is pretty fresh and the people are pretty friendly. I do suggest skipping the mac ‘n cheese (it’s never good) and the pizza is a slight step down from CiCi’s. However, that aside, the salads and soups are delicious. There are so many toppings that are fresh and of so many varieties. I really love building my own salad.
The soups are pretty good too. They’re not the healthiest, but I love the chili. Can’t get enough. There’s even a baked potato bar with all the toppings you could want!
Oh, and did I mention the soft serve ice cream? Whipped topping? Pudding? Pound cake?
Dear god it’s a fat-kid-on-a-diet’s dream restaurant.

While Sweet Tomatoes is bigger and more like the Golden Corral scene (think after church crowds), this place fills a niche that doesn’t exist in most (if any) of Durham. A salad bar/​buffet with a decent price. This is a healthier option than the other restaurants in the area (depending what you dump on your plate) and a better price too. I’ve been here several times and not seen a dirty buffet. The hot bar area is smaller but no worse or better than Sweet Tomatoes as that really isn’t the focus of either. The breads are about the same in taste. Never had a problem with service and we don’t go here expecting something great.

That was gross.
My wife and I had lunch here, and when we were done, we realized that none of the food tasted like anything. It was an exercise in eating different textures and temperatures, they must have zapped all the flavor out of the food.
If you want to experience the soup+salad kind of place, go to Sweet Tomatoes. They’ve got it figured out.

This place was the worst restaurant we’ve been to in the area since moving here last year. It was not clean, forget the bathrooms, and I didn’t want to touch anything. The food was tasteless and it’s a salad bar, so not sure how this could happen. Not just the salad was bad, it was everything. We all looked at each other when we sat down and kinda knew we made a mistake coming here but ate fast to skirry on out of there to never return.

I have to say that most of the reviews I see here don’t do justice to this place. It is a treasure! If only more people would come here. I’ve eaten here three times, so I think I state with confidence that Souper Salad is a tremendous bargain. The main feature is the salad bar. The night we ate there, we found lots of fresh veggies, such as spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, radishes, celery, carrots (chopped, not shredded), broccoli, cauliflower, pasta, pasta salads, and, unlike their competitor, Soup Plantation, the salad bar also features meat (ham and pepperoni) at no extra charge! I made a salad piled high with veggies, ham and sunflower seeds. There are lots of salad dressings to choose from, all of them good. My companion made a pasta salad with rotini pasta, pepperoni, garbanzo beans and broccoli. Awesome!
The next feature is the hot bar. There are about six soups to choose from, and other hot foods, such as baked potatoes, pizza, cornbread, and do-​it-​yourself tacos and chili, with condiments like salsa, green onions, sour cream and cheese. Our favorite soups are the chicken tortilla and vegetable beef. I have to say that the chicken tortilla soup is the best I’ve ever had, and I lived in San Diego for thirteen years, where I sampled tortilla soup in a variety of Mexican restaurants, so I think I can speak on good authority that this is hands-​down the best I’ve ever tried. Who knew I’d find such great tortilla soup on the East Coast?
The customer service was wonderful. The waitress came over to our table several times to check on us, and clear our plates.
Then came dessert. Although I didn’t really have room in my stomach after finishing off my gigantic salad and a bowl of chicken tortilla soup (OK I’m not a really big eater), I did manage to survey the desserts, consisting of ice cream do-​it-​yourself sundaes, a fruit bar, and pudding, and made myself a vanilla ice cream sundae with caramel and chocolate syrups topped with oreo cookes and nuts.
I highly recommend trying out this restaurant. Durham needs more healthy choices!

Awesome deal for the price!
Not as good quality as Souplantation, but cheaper and definitely worth the price!
Wasn’t impressed with the blueberry bread or the gingerbread… But the sugarfree jello was yummy with whip cream.
Would come here again– especially if Souplantation/​ST keeps raising their price!

I have fallen in love with this place… it is such a steal. For about $ 7 you are faced with a good-​sized salad bar with lots of healthy and tasty options. The veggies are always super fresh– more than you can actually put on any one salad. You can either be healthy or decide to load up on the saturated fat and go for the pizza/​taco/​bread/​ice cream bar. The soups are also suprisingly great for a place like this– always well-​seasoned and good variety.
I frequently get take out from here which is an equally awesome deal– for under $ 6 you get a gigantic takeout container which you can pack full of tasty salad treats.
Don’t go here for ambience or a gourmet food experience but try it if you want a healthy break from your normal lunch or casual weeknight dinner.

I usually pack my lunch and today was no exception — except I didn’t really find my Lean Cuisine Herb Chicken all that appetizing. Add to that the fact our office deposit scanner wasn’t reading some of the checks we were trying to deposit and the bank was out in the direction of Souper Salad. I figured I’d make a bank run during lunch so I talked one of my peers into heading out of the office with me for some grub.
I was reminded, almost instantly, of Sweet Tomato when I walked in the door, except smaller and a little less «upscale» in appearance, not that I know how a buffet can appear to be «upscale.» Then again, I have vowed never to return to Sweet Tomato but that’s an entirely different story (feel free to see the related review).
I paid for my meal and got in line at the buffet — lots of greens for me to help keep things (ahem) moving. There seemed to be an okay selection of pizza and fixins for tacos. Plenty of bread with a potato bar too.
Nothing fancy here, nothing to write home about. Just an ordinary (and cheap) salad buffet with less than ordinary soup, pizza, bread, taters, dessert etc…
Yes, I’d come back again if I was in the area.

This place is horrible. The salad bar was dirty. The lettuce had brown edges. The hot food looked like it had been under the hot lamp for 3 days. The soup tasted like they dumped a box of salt into it and was inedible. We decided to leave and go somewhere else for dinner since this place was so bad.
If you were my worst enemy, I wouldn’t tell you to eat here…