sweetgreen - Healthy Salads, Bowls and Plates

Sweetgreen’s New Park Avenue ‘3.0’ Location Somehow Makes Ordering Lunch Even Worse | Eater NY

"At the experimental Sweetgreen on Park Avenue South — part of a chain known for its sustainable ethos, quinoa kale bowls, and valuation estimates past $1 billion — I experienced a high-tech vision that aims to be “a cross between an Apple store and a farmer’s market”: app orders can be grabbed from giant green shelves while in-store customers check in with an iPad-wielding concierge and wait for salads to appear. The space offers outlets, free hummus samples, a digital message board about local suppliers, cushy benches, and selfie mirrors, but at peak lunch it devolved into chaos — a DMV-like line, an expeditor shouting names repeatedly, and workers hidden behind a grid-like metal structure that made finding and retrieving orders awkward. My salad included a tahini sauce that tasted like honey mustard, gritty hummus, and lukewarm, gravelly falafel; exclusive items fared no better — the burrata bruschetta’s cheese was bland and marshmallow-like, and the Greener Goddess’s steelhead resembled jerky until a few drizzles of dill-laced dressing helped. Practical frustrations — a front door that wouldn’t close, hard-to-read price tags in “the market,” and a hexagonal garbage opening that made tossing my bowl difficult — compounded the service and execution issues. The app and pickup system are slick when they work, and the format has real potential to democratize VIP-style Outpost convenience, but right now this location struggles with basic hospitality, service, and making good ingredients taste good." - Ryan Sutton