Smart Alec’s Intelligent Food

Today on 1÷28÷2016 a male worker who looks the youngest of the mes there spilled my drink and tried to blame it on me when another worker looked mad that the drink spilled. The worker had audacity to ask me of I spilled it in front of his manager (I think) just so that he wouldn’t get in trouble. What a bad customer service experience. I obviously said I didn’t but was too shocked to say um hello, you spilled it. If I go back there and it happens again, I’ll have a few words with you! I hope he reads this. Be warned, you may be blamed for stuff you didn’t do.

Smart fast food. .. They have a loyalty card & nut free menu. Restroom keyfob was a broken garden trowel. Hmm

Good options vegetarian-​wise but there just isn’t anything special about their dishes unless you’re a salad person, and I feel like given the ingredients even with my limited cooking skills I could make just as tasty food on my own.

Came here on a Saturday 1÷9÷16. My girlfriend and I rushed over before it closed because she wanted a salad really bad and the reviews looked great! We arrived with 20 mins before closing time and the doors are locked with three guys watching the Warriors game on TV. Hmmmmmm…

Food is great. The only bad thing is ¼ of the tables are occupied by guys playing backgammon? No eating not buying drinks just taking up space. We came at lunch and the place was packed and every Seay was taken, these guys planning games don’t even bother to move! Very annoying. We hate to wait awhile for an open table. Also the cooks were watching a football game and kept yells and hooting very loud.
Over all its a big Meh. I don’t know how this place can make money with so many tables taken up by board games.

Buen lugar para comer rápido, bueno, a precio asequible y quedar lleno.
El comedor es enorme con mesas que pueden moverse, así que es ideal para ir en grupo. Se pide en la barra y te sientas a esperar que te llamen para recoger tu comida.
Tienen gran variedad de hamburguesas de carne, vegetarianas y de salmón (muy rica!). Muchos bocadillos y ensaladas enormes! Hay combos para hacer menús diferentes y no quedarte con hambre.

Smart Alec was a convenient healthy restaurant from my apartment when I went to school in Berkeley. Salads are large and their cornbread is yummy. Other items on the menu are just meh.

My go-​to salad place in Berkeley. Service is amazingly quick here, even among the hustle and bustle of all the students. Get their Supreme Salad with eggs, wheat berries, chick peas, carrots, alfalfa, salad, edamame, corn, croutons. I promise it’ll last 2 meals and make you feel better about your bad decisions last night…
And of course the CORN BREAD IS THE BEST PART. So, delicious, I could eat sheets of it.

Great food and taste for a reasonable price. Love the big salads and cornbread. If you are in the area and feel like you want to have a big, healthy meal, try smart alecs. The gourmet salad with chicken and ranch is great, and there are so many variations. They also have a rewards card for free food: D

This place is ok. The burgers are ok, not great, and the fries are really not good (you may think you want garlic fries – you don’t from here). Side note: If you want to get fries anyway, you may as well just go all out and get the actual fried stuff, because the air-​baked fries that they have here are somehow both dry and not crispy. Figure that one out. The salads are a better choice, and get the cornbread with it. They have a non-​dairy Caesar salad, which in my mind, doesn’t really count as a true Caesar salad. The salads come in huge portions; the burgers, not so much.
Be aware that there is an $ 8 minimum for the use of a card.

Hmm… I think there are both good and bad in this place but unfortunately the latter slightly outweighs the prior.
I guess the portions are great for the price. The quality of the food was subpar. The seating is great, I saw tons of people studying together or grabbing their dinner to burn the midnight oil. I like that their food is sustainably raised?
I ordered one burger, planning to pay with card. The worker was about to take it until I pointed out the sign about the minimum. I mean everyone makes mistakes but I’m guessing the minimum is imposed by the work place rather actual necessity. Not sure how I feel about that because a majority of their items are under their minimum, forcing you to get more than what you want so bring cash.
I ordered the avocado burger beef with no pickles and mayo as well as the garlic fries — due to the sparsely enforced minimum. The food was really… Idk idk idk. The bun really confused me because the bottom part of the bun was kinda stiff but the top part was nice and soft to the point where I couldn’t hold my burger without fear of it being squished to flat bread. The meat was really dry and avocado couldn’t compensate so I got some of their special spread? (I think that’s what it was, it was in the condiments section in the nameless silver dispenser, next to the ketchup and mustard etc) and lo & behold was a thin spread of mayo… Don’t ask, I mean I couldn’t even detect it, it’s just a psyche thing where I just don’t like mayo but whatever, if it’s there I’ll still eat the burger cause I don’t wanna waste food. It would’ve been nice if they just told me they added it on accident…
Was super stoked for the fries cause you can smell garlic heaven but I kid you not it felt like I was munching on boiled potatoes in the shape of fries. No crunch just grainy mush garlic flavored. Wasn’t soft enough to trick me into treating it like mashed potatoes. I cried a little bit tbh.
Maybe will try again for benefit of the doubt. Maybe.

Ugh, this place is not great. I came with a friend who went to Cal and swore this was her favorite place during undergrad to grab a bite. I think because it’s affordable, close to campus, and quick is why it gets so much business. The food is super mediocre. I got a Superior Chef salad with tuna salad on top. It was just ok. Nothing special at all. I did think the tuna salad was good though, so I made sure to eat all of it. But I left like half of my salad after that. I have to eat gluten free (Celiac), and the lady at the cash register was helpful. She told me I could only have the Caesar or honey mustard dressings. The tuna salad was safe too. My husband got a burger which he also thought it was just ok. I think there are way better options in Berkeley so I would go for those instead.

After years of wanting to try this place, I finally went for lunch. It was super busy. I like the vibrant college energy here. The food was okay. I ordered the soup and sandwich combo. I love corn chowder and was looking forward to trying their vegetarian, non dairy version. I was pretty good, the potatoes replaced the cream. I had the tuna sandwich also. It was nothing special. I probably won’t order that again sandwich again, they had some other options that may be good.
The price was normal, about $ 8 with no drink.
I will definitely come back and try other dishes. The food seems healthier than a lot of other lunch options.

It seems that people believe that tasty food and healthy food are mutually exclusive concepts? I had dinner at Smart Alec’s a couple of days ago and after checking the Unilocal reviews of this place, I’m surprised that it’s rated so high (3.5 stars as of writing this).
The fries, they are downright terrible. California is state known for terrific fries. The fresh one’s you receive at In-​and-​Out. The double cooked fries at IKEA. Even the Golden Arches has some pretty decent fries. Smart Alec’s managed to create a «baked» French Fry that was not only limp, but also lacked salt for taste. I would dare to say that the Cal Dining Service has better fries. Yes, that’s right.
Sandwiches served here are also nothing noteworthy. They might be healthier than other sandwich places, but they lack taste and the bread has a funny aftertaste to it.
Berkeley has a lot of great places to pick up food fast, cheap, and with an healthy focus. Smart Alec’s is not one of them. Skip.

I was really excited to try this place. «Healthy» burgers and fries?!? Count me in! Unfortunately, I ended up being SUPER disappointed.
Burgers were «ok», not bad, but nothing great. Definitely not worth the high prices. The fries were HORRIBLE. This coming from a french fry lover. They were so bad, I couldn’t eat more than a few… and had to throw away the rest… a definite first for me!!!
They were disgustingly soggy. My boyfriend actually enjoys somewhat soggy fries, but even he couldn’t/wouldn’t eat these. Bad. Just bad.
The bathroom was a disgusting cesspool of disease. Trash on the floor, graffiti on the walls, filth everywhere and a horrific stench.
On top of everything… THEY CHARGE FOR REFILLS!!! WTH!!! Who charges for a soda/​iced tea refill!!! Not even 1 free!!!
Definitely won’t be back, and wouldn’t recommend. DO NOT WASTE YOUR MONEY, go elsewhere.

Smart Alec’s is a great go-​to place near campus for lunch. Nothing special, but it fills me up and can be cheap.
One of my favorite things to order are the soups, usually the veggie chili with cornbread. It ends up being like $ 4.50! They also have salads that I like to order with cornbread, but I always forget to ask for the dressing on the side because I think they put too much on it.
The food comes pretty quickly too, and there are TVs if you like watching sports.

Guac burger all the way!
This place is definitely cheap and offers great food. The burger bun was wheat and the guac was smooth and yummy. The restaurant space is open and spacious. I would definitely come back to this place for a quick bite to eat. The dishes are roughly $ 8-​$ 12, which is not bad honestly.
wouldn’t mind coming back here again :)

Smart Alec’s is that one place everyone likes to go to just to people watch while eating (if alone).
Their food is alright, nothing too special. Portions are huge though!
Salads are ginormous, even for me! **Ask for your dressing on the side! They put way too much themselves.
Cornbread: So delicious! They have perfected it.
Soups: I have had their vegetable soup and potato soup. Vegetable soup lacked flavor, but it’s the «healthiest» option they had. The potato soup was creamy and really filling.
French fries: I actually love their fries (I know a few people don’t). They make their crispy on the ends but the middle is still a bit soft. Also, you get a TON of fries for less than $ 2.
I still need to try out the burgers but I probably would go elsewhere, like Bongo Burger, if I really wanted to eat a burger. Overall, this a chill place to grab lunch in between classes or on the weekends.

I was craving for a burger after work so I decided to Unilocal search some places nearby and this place popped up. Checked out the photos that have been posted and the food looked great but sadly, it was disappointing.
I’ve passed by this place numerous times but never stopped inside. Inside is spacious, many seats, great for groups. Menu has a variety of foods: burgers, salads, hot dogs, fries, etc.
CUSTOMER SERVICE:
If you have gone through the their menu above the register and know what you already want, I don’t think they’ll have a problem. But customer service wasn’t horrible, just wasn’t impressionable. I had a sense that the worker don’t hear enough «please» and «thank you“‘s around here which gives them a lackluster vibe.
WAITING:
Great if you bring someone along with you so you can talk to them while you wait, I didn’t notice how long the food was taking. I doubt it took very long for me to care enough to get up and check.
FOOD:
Salmon burger: salmon fillet on a sesame seed bun which was way too big for the piece of salmon that was provided. Came with the standard lettuce and tomato along with mayo, and I substituted raw onions for grilled onions (+$.50). I think the burger could have been great if it wasn’t for the oversized bun, which ended up being soggy at the very end.
Garlic fries:
Now these were pretty disappointing for me. I guess because I was excited for some fries, especially since they were garlic fries. They give you a big bag full for, I think, it was almost $ 2. When I was reading up on the board, they wrote that their fries are cooked a different way (?), maybe that’s why the fries tasted stale and flavorless. Even my friend said they were stale. :(
NOTES:
— I think this place is great for people on a budget. For my burger and fries, total came up to almost $ 9.
— if you’re in the mood for a salad or you’re a vegetarian, this is the place to go. All their salads looked delicious.
— bring cash if you can. They charge a fee if you’re total is $ 8 or less.

I expected Smart Alec’s to be way more healthy-​Berkeley-​hippie-​rabbit-​food than it was. I mean yeah, they’ve got salads but most of the menu is burgers, sandwiches, soups, and desserts. I settled on the Superior Chef’s Salad and it came out looking a lot better than it sound in writing — peep the pic.
And BIG. For exactly $ 8 dollars and 44 cents, Smart Alec’s salads are the way to be healthy on a budget. You could split this beast with two hungry vegetarians. Red leaf lettuce (so superior to romaine), red cabbage, sliced carrots, garbanzo beans, wheat berries, tomatoes, alfalfa sprouts, edamame, croutons and an egg. Plus, you get a big ol’ hunk of cornbread with your salad too! The meal just never ends.
FYI, for the avocado lovers: I asked to add avo to Superior salad, but they gave me a little tub of guacamole instead — not the same thing, but workable.
The ambiance and service are definitely lackluster. The staff could stand to put on a fake smile and be a little more helpful with the menu for first-​timers.
For an Elaine-​style BIG salad, Smart Alec’s is the place to gorge.

Back in the day, when I was really ambitious about weight loss, I was a regular here. And by regular, I mean like 7 times a week just eating their salads!
Their salads are SUPER FRESH! And large portions too. All salads are around $ 5-​$ 8 for half sizes, which is still a large portion for me. The chicken is fresh and soft, and they don’t skimp out on it. It also comes with a large piece of cornbread or sliced wheat bread. Overall-​great value compared to SF soup company!
Ask for less dressing since they tend to drench it.
I only speak for the salads. The burgers are quite pricey for the serving size, and don’t compare to the next door Pappy’s. Not a fan of their burgers.
On the bright side, the place is huge for a Berkeley restaurant. Always clean too and self serve water.
As for the workers… always very indifferent. Not the best «friendly» service-​but I get it. The salads are large and fresh and that’s what counts.