Freshii

I’ve been to the other Freshii locations in the DC/​MD area: 15^th street, National Harbor, so I decided to give this one a go. The eatery is a bit cramped and it’s hard to read the menu. I ordered the Tex Mex with peanut sauce and tofu, and it was delicious! Probably the best burrito I’ve had. I noticed that this location (unlike the others) had Smoothies and more toppings (oreo). Curious, I wanted to try the Oreo Smoothie, but they ran out of oreos. :(
It’s hard to find casual fast food places around Penn Quarter, so I’ll definitely stop for a burrito and an Oreo Smoothie.

Love this place for lunch during the week. My go to summer pick has been the asian chop salad. I can eat the whole thing which is saying a lot because I usually hate salads. The dressing is sweet and sesame-​y and the chicken is perfect, no weird pieces of mystery chicken here! I also like the asian noodle bowl for when it gets cooler out.
They also have Fro-​Yo happy hour on Fridays where you can get half-​price yogurt. Perfect way to end the week.

I needed a quick dinner before an event in Dupont circle and decided to try Freshii because I had so much flexibility over what I could choose in my wrap, salad or bowl. Recently diagnosed as lactose intolerant, I had the vegan wrap which was fresh and flavorful. I’d eat here again!

This is heaven for health nuts like myself. My goal is to try every item on the menu. I’m making good progress so far. This location is pretty good at gettig you in and out. They work really hard to expedite the many orders. Lunch time traffic is crazy. If you check in on Unilocal,you will get 10% off a frozen yogurt. I’m saving mine for the perfect moment. The choices of items are endless and for the price you can’t help but to keep coming back. Good, guilt free eating for lunch. I haven’t tried the breakfast items yet. Give me some time folk. I’ll be back with an update in the months to come with my favorite items. My punch card they offer you is almost full. Purchase 9 meals, get one free!!!

The service was just fine here. The food came fast and the people were helpful.
But the food was, well, shitii.
I got the Bliss bowl and it was lacking in taste and the texture was just weird. I had to load it up with Sriracha sauce just to give it some flavor. And don’t expect any sauces to be available. I had to ask someone for the Sriracha. Like I was at a fancy restaurant where they don’t give you salt and pepper because the food is perfect.
The food is not perfect here.
The whole «fresh» concept just seems like a put-​on. They want to sell expensive food to downtown workers because it makes money. So they need to market it as «green» and «healthy». Nothing original, innovative or particularly good here. Next?

I’ve been here 3 times so far and my order has never been right. I tell them this before I order and they assure me it will be correct. It never is. The food quality is okay. Seems like a green-​washed business because I know for a fact that plastic bowls are not eco-​friendly in any sense. Nobody cares about that though.

This is a decent place to grab quick, healthy wrap or salad on the go. I had the buffalo chicken wrap and it did indeed taste quite fresh. Not a place you need to go out of your way for but I will be back during the summer months I’m sure. Bonus points for carrying Lemon Peel Mash.
–Keep an eye out for LivingSocial’s instadeals for this place!

Speaking only for the frozen yogurt — LOVED it. It was everything a girl could want in terms of real, healthy froyo (not the kind that you can just dump sprinkles and oreo crumbles over, though that is sometimes a necessity). I don’t know exactly what they make it out of (some places actually make it from Stoneyfield Farm), but it is chock-​full of probiotics and make me feel awesome.
Looking forward to trying their salads or wraps when it’s not $ 1 Living Social lunch day…

I like this place. Just a like.
First and foremost the staff and so friendly! They got me laughing after a terrible work day. By the time I left we were on first name basis and was smiling the whole way home.
I personally love the paper format of ordering. I get exactly what I want, without sounding like an idiot trying to order almost every single vegetable (unlimited toppings). I can specify that I want just one scoop of sauce and double hot sauce without having to scream across the room.
I can only speak about the make your own rice bowls. I am impressed with the serving sizes, I feel like they are pretty large for the price. I am always full after I eat here. And I LOVE that you don’t have a limit on your toppings for no charge. It is nothing special though. I come here when I want something quick, somewhat healthy, and am in the area.
I do wish the staff was more knowledgable on the allergen information, or just had a printed sheet for customers. I couldn’t remember what sauces the owner told me were vegan and the staff didn’t know any of that information. And I thought this location was supposed to have mock meats? I didn’t see them anywhere on the menu.

Fantastic wraps — I love the brown rice option. I think of this place as a Chipotle/Chop’t hybrid, with:
Better tortilla, better (and healthier) rice, and endless customization options (and most toppings are free).
Yeah, it’s expensive. But it is fresh, fast, and extremely tasty. Great veggies, meats, sauces, etc. I would skip online ordering and do phone ordering if you are in a rush.

Unlike others, I didn’t have super high expectations of Freshii, it just seemed like a good lunch spot for some healthy food options during the work day. The staff is super friendly, the paper form really doesn’t bother me too much (in fact, I find it makes it easier for me to get what I want), and the food is good and guilt free. I’m a big fan of the buffalo chicken salad, which may not be as enjoyable as the typical battered and fried buffalo chicken strips over iceberg lettuce, but it is certainly easier on the waistline, and with all the unhealthy eating I do on the weekends, that’s just what I’m looking for in the middle of the week.
Also, I just tried their soup, and the spicy lemon grass one was fantastic. I have a cold and it seriously cleared me right up. I find that when I typically buy soup at lunch spots, it is overpriced and the portions are small – this soup came in a HUGE container. It wasn’t cheap, but nothing is at healthy food spots, and the portions were fantastically large.

Freshii gets a solid «mehhh»… I want to like this place, I really do. It’s a block from my office, affordable for lunch, has a fairly diverse menu, «environmentally friendly» and doesn’t normally have long lines.
However, it doesn’t live up to the hype. I’ve been here a half dozen times and always tried different dishes. I’ve noticed that the servings are all pretty small — an $ 8 rice bowl is the size of a small fried rice at your typical Chinese restaurant.
They tend to go really skimpy on everything accept rice and plain yogurt. I ordered the TKO bowl (very tasty), but there was only one slice of avocado and 4 pieces of tofu — for $ 8. No thanks.
What really bothers me about this place is the paperwork — I do paperwork all day, the last thing I want to do on my lunch break is fill out another form. Please Freshii, just let me go to the counter and order my lunch like every other restaurant in the city. This «fill out a form and turn it in» business is annoying.
If they bagged the order forms and gave better portions, I’d be eating there weekly. I hope Freshii’s management checks their Unilocal account…

I really like the salads at Freshii — they have quite a few options, and the salads are all very large — definitely a filling lunch. I’ve tried almost every salad on the menu, and have yet to find one I don’t like. I’ve also tried the soups and they were good as well — and there is an option to get a smaller portion of soup for less than $ 5.
It’s also nice that you can create your own salad, if you don’t want to order one off the menu. They have an easy-​to-​understand form you fill out, just checking off which items you want in your salad.
My only complaint is that it’s a bit expensive. Salads seem to average around $ 8 each, which means it’s probably not practical to make it my every-​day lunch place. But I still head there once in a while when I’m in the mood for a big, but healthy, lunch.

I really want to like Freshii more than I do.
I was pretty excited for their grand opening back in April, especially because that area of Dupont needs more personality. Led by the incredibly bland KPMG headquarters, rows of impersonal buildings line 20^th and M Streets like zombified Wal-​Mart greeters. No matter how hard you try to appreciate the brown 60’s aesthetic, it’s pretty impossible. So, Freshii shows up and brings some color, they bring some salads, and, of course, they bring the fro-​yo…
I’ve been in here a couple of times, mainly because it’s across the street from my gym and I often need a burrito after hitting those weights as hard as I do (…ladies ;-)). The employees are very nice (they’re the main reason I keep coming back) and they will usually remember me, which is a nice touch, but there are just too many idiosyncrasies about Freshii to make me not like it as much as I should. Case in point:
— Eating at Freshii is a daunting task. Instead of going up to the counter, saying hi, and ordering, you’re given a clipboard with carbon-​copy paper and told to write down your order, hand it to a person who’s sole job is to give the order to the people who prepare the food… it’s labyrinthine at best and baffling at worst. To keep customers returning, they should either make the forms easier to fill out or do away with them completely. I like the concept but not the implementation. They claim to be environmentally-​conscious, but all of those carbon copies just end up in the trash. :(
— The salads are mixed in a plastic bag. What? They used cute terms like «environmentally-​friendly salad mixologists» when I asked why it was done this way, but it seems more wasteful than simply chopping it up and putting it into a reusable bowl.
— The frozen yogurt is good… it’s very good. It’s also $ 5 and only comes in one size (12 ounces) which is far more frozen yogurt than any human being should consume in one sitting. Plus, the toppings are $.50 each. Provide different sizes or introduce unlimited toppings like Tangysweet did… it just seems commonsensical.
— The wait for the food, even when the store is empty, is well over 10 minutes. I don’t order anything special: a Bombay (chicken burrito), maybe a salad, but I have always waited an inordinate amount of time for the quantity of food ordered.
Still… the prices (with fro-​yo being the exception) are reasonable and the food is decent. If you’re looking for a quick meal (after the wait, of course) within walking distance from whatever business you are conducting downtown, give Freshii a try.

This update is solely for their salad.
While it may be confusing for some people, Freshii is unique in a way that you order your food by filling out a small form of what you want. It’s very systematic and works well during lunch hours when they have any where from 15 – 20 people stuffed in their little store. I love the varieties of things you can put in the salads. I had mixed greens with grilled salmon, bleu cheese, feta cheese, walnuts, sun dried tomatoes, roasted peppers, sweet corn, and avocado (I think that’s all.) with olive oil on the side as dressing. Yes, so I went a little all out on my salad but that’s the magic of this place. I love how fast my meal comes (takes about 5 minutes) and it’s customized to what I want.
Now my only reason for giving them 3 stars is the price. While Chop’t down the street would’ve costed about $ 10, this place charged me $ 18! It’s a little pricey but I love it, and not to mention, the manager is always there up front with the staff and talking to customers, and the staff is always really friendly.

Freshii: Impossible
Here is your mission, if you choose to accept it. Go to a crappy sandwich, salad and wrap place and have a good breakfast wrap. Try to find the goat cheese in your Goat cheese, tomato, mushroom and spinach wrap. I dare you. For nearly $ 4 for this wrap, I am very disappointed. The actual wrap doesn’t feel very fresh, almost stale. The spinach isn’t really cooked or heated to where it is actually tasty, the mushrooms are meh and there isn’t much goat cheese. The sad part is, the goat cheese that is in there is great. That is the only good part of this experience.
I would have liked to like this place, especially with the poor reviews, but unfortunately I have not. I would like give this place a chance at lunch, but honestly, not after this.
Oh well

I hope this place improves, but right now it rather sucks.
The décor consists of tufts of plastic grass set here & there to make you think it’s fresh in there. Fresh plastic. The staff seem disorganized & slow even when there’s almost no one in there. And the food is just OK. I had to wait an awful long time for my food even though no one else was in there and there wasn’t any artificial sweetener for my iced coffee, which was served in a paper cup (yuk) and it was quite small, too. All in all, it doesn’t seem like it’s working right yet.

I was excited to try this place, looked like the new salad place to go. I got the custom salad which was reasonably priced and had so many free options you can add. However I thought the place to be very disorganized. Yes the staff is friendly, but for a first time person coming in it just looks like chaos with people standing everywhere, not sure where the line is. I was told the freshii mix salad includes lettuce and spinach, nope just fancy lettuce.
I watched them prepare it and was turned off by how they mix your salad in a plastic bag. Yep you know those white plastic bags that line your office’s small trash can, that is what they mix your individual salad in. Every other salad place uses a metal bowl that they wash, much more environmental friendly. Then I saw all the employees add the food with their gloved hands, not the scoop in each food. As a vegetarian, I don’t like the idea of that glove touching meat then making my salad. I got a random piece of raw onion in my salad. I think the most important thing about a salad store is to keep each container clean of neighboring food debris.
The one redeaming quality is that on Friday afternoons their frpzen yogurt is half price. If only the cashier would change gloves after taking money and hand touching the oreo toppings.

2.5 Stars.
I guess.
Decided to give it a try today as it’s only a few blocks from my apartment. Noticed a handmade sign «50% off Yogurt from 4 – 6.» That clinched it.
I got the Fiesta Salad and the husband got the Teriyaki Chicken bowl. That plus the ½ price fro yo came to $ 18 and change.
Service was fast and very friendly, and the trendy-​tangy yogurt (with 2 free toppings– we opted for strawberries and honey) was yummy. We ate it on the way home to eat our entrees. Life is short, dessert first, etc., etc.
Had we been smart, we would have dropped the rest of the food in the trash can in front of our apartment building.
Okay, I’m exaggerating. It was mediocre, not terrible. But that’s hardly a ringing endorsement.
Neither dish seemed… «well-​balanced.» And I’m hardly a food snob. I’ve had a million different versions of the Southwest-​style chicken salad, but this one was just… off. The corn and beans had no flavor, the «Cajun» chicken just didn’t go, the dressing was watery and the lettuce was downright old (the romaine was browning around the edges). Meh.
The Teriyaki Chicken was like airplane food (with slightly better-​quality meat). Or maybe baby food. Or food made for babies meant to be served on an airplane. In other words, bland and kind of gummy. Again with the lack of balance– what was with all the carrots and the bean sprouts? Maybe I’m not hippie enough to get this one.
And even worse, to paraphrase Woody Allen– not just lousy, but such small portions! They were adequate– I guess– but if we wanted to stay in the neighborhood, we could have gone to Chop’t for the salad and China Café for the rice dish, saved a few bucks and gotten twice as much food.
The yogurt really was good, though. Not good enough or big enough a serving to justify the usual $ 4.99– but a good deal at $ 2.50. If they keep up the 4 – 6 pm promotion, I’ll be back for that. But I just don’t see giving the food a second chance when I have so many other, better, cheaper options nearby.

I went a bunch of times in the past few weeks, mostly not by choice but many co-​workers wanted to try the new place in town.
Food is fine, but nothing special.
What really ruins the experience is the utter chaos from when you walk into Freshii until you leave. It is unreasonable that you need to write down your order even when you want something off of their menu board. I am not even totally sure if this is standard practice or just happened because they are so disorganized and the service is so bad. On one occasion, I ordered salsa with a rice bowl, but they gave me ketchup instead (gross). You never know who is in line and who is waiting for their order. You never know where your food will come out. By the register? On the other side? Why don’t they do crowd control of some sort? My order was left sitting behind the counter on one occasion and I had to inquire where it was after 10 minutes.
Freshii is a really unpleasant experience and I hope never to be dragged there again.