Souper Salad

This place is disgraceful. Everything came out of a can. Nothing was fresh. Lettuce was soggy, croutons were extremely stale (even for croutons), eggs for the salads were watery and the potato soup was so bad I didn’t even want to try any others.
We tried to speak to a manager and the shift lead working tonight (Sat Aug 2^nd) came out and didnt even identify herself as the shift lead until we asked who she was. She had the gall to tell us that she couldn’t refund our money because we had taken a few bites from our plates and that she’d get fired and there was no manager there. The shift lead also told us that they «weren’t as good as Golden Corral.» Are you serious? That place is nasty too. Never going back again.

This place has terrible food and an attitude to match, I heard the owners gossip about customers behind closed doors and even joked about spitting in their soup because they didn’t tip well before.
I’d hate to think what they do in the kitchen to the food since most of it tastes like plastic anyways.

Favorite salad bar in the universe. Date night with the biological leaves me feeling satisfied every time

Again. Not a fancy place. Pretty inexpensive and great for a quick soup n salad. Don’t certain with über expectation, but you do get more than just a soup and salad from a restaurant.
I have ate here several times over the last 5 years and have never got sick. I guess those things happen, but I’m fortunate that I never got sick here. Place was being cleaned regularly throughout lunch. Food was also replenished.
There are a variety of salads to choose from, a taco bar, potato bar, soft serve ice cream, pizza, bread sticks, corn bread. A seasonal bread, brownies, pudding, strawberries and whip topping. Not bad for the $ 5.99 special they had today. Lots of choices. Also offer reduced calorie dressings for salad. Also offer grilled chicken for $ 1.69 for those wanting that option.

Huge variety of fresh salads, fruits, soups and some other delicacies and all for only 8 bucks. Place is not really welcoming but it’s clean and the service is OK. I’m not a fan of buffets but this one is recommendable!

OMG. this is the place that made me hate buffets :(
I ate here almost 3 years ago & I still remember what happened afterward very clearly.
That day my BF & I went to the BJ’s that used to be in Matthews to check out the huge sales they were having, since the store was going to close down. After we left BJ’s we decided to get some lunch & Souper Salad was nearby. I love soup & salads so it sounded like a great idea to me! And actually while we were here I thought the food wasn’t that good, but it wasn’t that bad either for the price. I got a plate of salad with different types of veggies & dill pickles? Weird, but who doesn’t like pickles?! I put a lot of pickles on my salad. I also got a bowl of minestrone because I think that was the only vegetarian offering they had at the time. My BF had the exact same salad as me & a different bowl of soup. Everything seemed like it was going very well!
To be honest, the salad wasn’t particularly memorable (dill pickles were yummy, though), but I really liked the minestrone so I got another bowl of it. BF ate his salad & whatever soup he had. We left Souper Salad around 2.
I had work later on in the day & was supposed to stay there till 10. Around 7, I noticed that my stomach started feeling a little weird but I figured I probably deserved it because I ate like a pig at lunch & tried not to let it bother me. By 9, my stomach pains had gotten much worse so I asked if I could leave work & it was no problem.
For the next couple of hours I just laid in bed & cancelled whatever plans I had made that night. then the puking started :(threw up until about 1 AM. that’s not even the worst part.
Every hour, for the next 4 hours, I basically peed out of my ass. I know, sounds disgusting but that’s the best way I can describe what happened. I had never experienced anything like this that I could remember & haven’t since then either. I had gotten food poisoning a couple of times in the past at other places, but this was on a whole new level. I knew it had to have been caused by the minestrone because my BF didn’t eat that & he didn’t get sick. I guess I deserved it for going back for seconds?
If I had not gotten sick, I probably would have given this place 2 or mayyybe even 3 stars. but after what happened, unfortunately I cannot give it more than 1 star.
The lady who was working that day was really nice. That’s pretty much the only good thing I can say about this place. & that I probably lost a few pounds because I couldn’t eat for the next couple of days. wah :(

For a place that just opens pre-​made packages and plops them on a salad-​bar, I would think that this effort might not have been to challenging. Perhaps I had my hopes up too high.
I went here for a quick bite as I had business in the neighborhood. I must say, I would have done better anywhere else. The salad selection was less than fresh to say the least. A person kept barging out of the back to refill things, and was super surley. Just get in her way and get an elbow.
After the salad selection are random canned things. I guess those were ok. I am not sure.
They also have a «hot bar». This is where things get really depressing. They had a kind-​of taco set-​up thing going with what appeared to be ground beef. Except it wasn’t! It was straight-​up textured vegetable protein! Who even does that? I got a baked sweet potato, and that thing had been sitting under a heat lamp for what seemed weeks and was inedible. The soups were just blah. Who serves french onion soup without the topping? The pizzas they had on the platter were less than what you would expect from the cheapest of frozen pizzas.
Just all in all horrible. I left having drank and unsweetened ice tea and left a plate from the all-​you-​can-​eat salad bar totally full.
What a waste of time and money. This place is gross.

We’re Matthews residents and have been going to Souper Salad for the past 7 or 8 years. It’s always very busy there… a sign of a successful restaurant.
If your children aren’t really «into» salad, there are plenty of other options… a taco bar, potato bar (with all the fixings), pizza station, etc. They shouldn’t have a hard time finding enough to eat.
Every time I’ve been there, it’s always been clean, safely prepared, and well-​staffed.

Gone downhill fast

I’m not sure what made me wanting to try this place… I’m still sick from eating there. How can a salad bar NOT be fresh and have more canned options? Eveything was at room temperature… the lettuce was warm and wilted… the dressings warm… the pasta salads crusted over… the nacho cheese… really? At a salad bar? The soups were warmed up from a can… the pizza reminded me of what I got in forth grade… the breads… really?
Why… why… why. This franchise should take study from places like Souplantation or Fresh Choice…
This place was soooo bad, I left after six bites… so not worth $ 7:49… not worth a cent.

Souper Salad is good as buffets go. Nice assortment of salads and soups and the servers are pleasant. Best part is the ginger bread and soft serve ice cream.

First time here… aaaaaaaannnnnd…my last time.
Look, I am totally a soup and salad girl. I love fresh veggies and fruit and can always get down with a nice hot soup, especially during the winter.
I have always been a little curious about this place but for some reason my inner foodie resisted the motivation to actually ever try it. Well, I rebelled last night in act of pure desperation. We were attempting to go to Bonefish (next door) but there was a long wait and we had a movie to catch… so, we gave it a whirl…
I could easily pick this place apart from the atmosphere, the bright lighting and the service but I would rather just simplify…
Bottom line… the salad bar was decent… the lettuce was a little brown and looked old. The spinach in particular was sticking to the bottom of the serving tray… They had decent options for toppings but nothing that was super fresh or exciting. The fruit was okay and semi-​fresh. The pasta salad section looked okay although I didn’t get that adventurous… it basically looked like pasta tossed with mayo so I took a pass.
Next, the soup bar… they had a couple options but most of them looked pretty pukity. The one I tried was actually decent… loaded with salt but certainly edible. It was a butter bean soup and it was actually a vegan option which was pretty cool.
They had other «things» to choose from but some of them were literally unidentifiable (is that even a word??) The pizza looked like it was from ci-ci’s, the tacos looked like they were from taco bell and the soft serve was milk and sugar frozen.
I KNOW, I KNOW… I shouldn’t expect much for 7 bucks and all things considered, it wasn’t THAT bad but it wasn’t good either. I felt kinda gross just sitting in there though. just something about it… bleh
Your better bet? Go to Harris Teeter (the Tajmateeter in Southpark in particular) and hit up their salad bar, fresh sushi and soup options.

Oh gosh, where to start. First off, trough dining is not usually my thing. Places that require a sneeze guard kind of turn me off. With that said, it’s not like I am a complete stranger to the buffet restaurant concept and know a good one from a bad one, and Souper Salad is BAD.
To put it another way, my 2 year old dining companion wouldn’t even touch the food. That is saying a lot.
So, for those first time Souper Salad people (this was my first trip), you start with the salad bar, then to the table and then you can select «hot» food, soups and desserts. The lettuce was passable, but not really that fresh and crisp which is strange from a place with Salad in the title. The topping choices were okay, not great (dill pickle chips???), the mixed salads were decent and then there were the obligatory canned puddings.
I passed on the soup as it didn’t look appealing. The «hot» food was all lukewarm and super gross looking. Super gross. The soft serve and oreos were good though:)
I’m sure nothing at Souper Salad is made on premises, it is merely warmed up or dished out. There really is just a feeling that they don’t try very hard — and it shows.

Let’s be honest. The salad bar is just ok. They rest of the food is really terrible. So if you like this type of food, your in the right place.

I love salads, soups, and bread, period. So its hard to mess up a restaurant that serves these three things. For a $ 7 buffet, the bar is set pretty low anyway. But Souper Salad well exceeded my mediocre expectations on my first (and subsequent) visits.
The salad bar is one of the best salad bars I’ve seen. You have a choice between three «bases”-Caesar salad, iceberg lettuce with carrots and cabbage, or some romaine base with walnuts. Then you can add topping to heart’s delight. I’ve never seen wilted lettuce or less-​than-​fresh toppings, so I’m already impressed.
The soups are pretty good as well. I love the vegetable beef (which is a staple) and the bread sticks are comparable to Olive Garden. I’ve never felt daring enough to get a taco, something about looking at the seasoned ground meat in large quantities makes me queasy. The self-​serve ice cream is way too sweet, but who needs ice cream after pigging out on salad and bread sticks?
The staff are friendly and generally keep drinks refilled. Yeah, its a little impersonal and not particularly charming, but what would you expect from a chain salad buffet? If you’re tired of the fast food circuit in Matthews, Souper Salad is a nice diversion.

I love salad bars. Love. LOVE.
But I can’t eat here. And by that I don’t mean that it isn’t veg-​friendly — it most def is — I mean that the quality of ingredients, salad, toppings, potato bar, made-​from-​powder soups are so low that I get scared. Fear is an appetite inhibitor.
I’ve hit this trough three times, and had gurgley tummy after each and every one. The ladies that work here are totally great — even acknowledge and remove and replace, say, the cukes, when I express concerns about their harboring of evil bacteriums and such (WOW they smelled weird last time I was here). But any effort on my part to save my and others’ bellies from grossville feels like polishing the brass on the Titanic.
So I continue to harass Sweet Tomatoes via email, monthly, with the hopes that one day we’ll actually have a decent Bar in Charlotte. Fingers crossed. I might start a petition. Let me know if you want to sign.

Souper Salad is very much like a restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes located throughout the Southeast… same type of food fare and offerings.
My husband & I have enjoyed this location quite a few times. He doesn’t maintain much of an appetite because of health issues, but he made plenty of rounds each time we have visited so far.
Off the top of my head I cannot think of too many salad toppings/​options that were NOT on the bar. A very nice selection indeed. As great as the pre-​made summer salad was, it was raspberry dressing overkill in the batch I tried. Second trip around I made my own version of the same thing.
Hot food items (potatoes, breads, pizza, soup) were really good for the most part. However I strayed away from the veggie lasagna & taco meat offerings. As much as I wanted to try the veg lasag, it seemed like it was a «dump pan» from where past multiple pans had been consolidated together. The taco meat was swimming in grease, but then I dare you to tell me where taco meat doesn’t swim in grease in any other restaurant. I was disappointed when the tortilla holder was empty each time I tried to get one.
The Cherry Berry bread and the Gingerbread were absolutely to die for. I could’ve just noshed on that alone and been happy. :)
The staff assisted us in getting my hubby navigated OUT of the busy restaurant (wheelchair-​bound) by moving tables/​chairs and holding the door. All friendly staff, we were checked on throughout our visit by more than just one person.

I just don’t know what to think about Souper Salad. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not a salad guy. You don’t even have to know me — just read the reviews and you’ll know that I’ve said it a few times (probably in the last couple days). But I also dig the buffet from time to time, because it keeps the family happy. So this one could go either way.
In this case, I’m going to have to give them an overall thumbs up, and it was actually more because of the salad than the other stuff on the bar, which shocked me a bit.
The model is more like your cafeteria than a standard restaurant — you pay as you come in, then you get to hit the bars (yes, plural). First the salad. I’m sure they do that intentionally, with the salad likely being the cheapest ingredients. That way you fill up on that first. But the selection there is probably the best and freshest, so it’s not all bad.
We had three salad selections — a caesar, an apple walnut and something else (just a generic green salad, I guess). I was going for the apple walnut, but the apples didn’t look good and there weren’t many walnuts. So I did caesar instead. Pretty solid choice. Then you can pile on the toppings, and they have a good selection. The only downside is that they aren’t duplicated, so if you want everything, you have to go down both sides. Same for dressings — you might want something on the other side of the bar. That could use better planning.
After the salad bar, you get to the hot bar, where you may have the choice of tacos, pizza, potatoes, bread and of course soup. I wasn’t really impressed. I did make a soft taco and tried the pizza. The potatoes were a bit small, but that’s okay. Our youngest made nachos that looked decent. But the salad still was the star of the meal.
Finally there was an ice cream station that did okay but the soft-​serve just looked off, so I passed (and I was really full from the salad — a bit of a rarity). I don’t know that we’ll be back, but I was surprised, and if I feel the craving for a salad, I’d hit it again.
As a bonus, the service was really friendly and kept glasses full and plates moving off the tables. Always a bonus at a buffet.

You really can’t go wrong here. The food itself isn’t so outstanding, but the buffet style makes up for it. I always eat too much, but I don’t feel TOO guilty, since it’s mostly veggies I’m eating. The pizzas are alright as well, and who can resist pizza with a side of ranch for dipping? I also am a great fan of soft serve, so the ice cream bar is a nice touch.
It’s a great place for families, and especially families with kids, as there’s a lot of options to satisfy picky eaters and adventurous gourmands alike.

Souper Salad reminds me of a restaurant called Sweet Tomatoes that I used to frequent in Orlando. While not as clean-​looking and with not as many different options on their buffet, Souper Salad does the trick when you’re looking for a decent salad bar and/​or someplace to take the kids.
We were there just recently on a dreary, overcast weekday for lunch and had a decent meal that filled us up for the rest of the day. You can’t go wrong with a big salad bar because if you screw it up, it’s your own fault, being the assembler and all.
Their soups are just okay, but every once in awhile, there’s a standout one. The chicken enchilada soup this past week was outstanding. There was so much flavor in each spoonful that I wanted the recipe.
Souper Salad also has some generic pastas, cheesy pizzas, baked potatoes with a topping bar (that I can never get to after filling up on soup and salad), and an ice cream machine with a few toppings to cap off your meal.
Don’t expect a lot from Souper Salad (and don’t be silly and use this as a date place), but all in all, it’s a decent place to catch a good (and occasionally healthy) meal. Sundays can be crazy here — the church crowd uses this as a gathering place and kids meals are offered super (souper?) cheap.