Fresh Counter & Catering

I got soup and a sandwich. The ingredients were fresh and tasty. My soup was vegetable and it was, as others have said, pretty salty. It was good and the veggies were fresh, but it could have done with half the salt in it. For my sandwich, I selected my own ingredients and it was very nice. Overall, fine, but I’m not adding it to my favorites.

The food has way too much salt. I spoke with the manager about the level of salt in my soup. It was so salty that it was inedible. She didn’t care and basically said too bad. She didn’t even offer to make up for it.
On a separate occasion I tried to take a picture of the store front for a friend who wanted to try the place. The employees yelled & scowled at me & accused me of trying to steal the idea of their business. I was so taken aback by how rude & unprofessional the management & staff were here. I won’t be coming back here.

I wanted to order a yummy salad, so I asked a counter person what was in a particular salad. She got (presumably?) her boss who I asked again, and the woman pointed at the menu board and said «well, as you can SEE — vegetables». LOL! I guess she didn’t want to explain which vegetables, and she was pretty rude. The food could’ve been good but I’d rather spend hard-​earned cash where they have manners.

Fresh is great at making hearty salads. I’m not talking about the leafy iceberg type salads that are mostly fluff. Fresh’s salads are lots of beans, and broccoli, and cabbage… that ‘large’ salad container may not seem like much, but it’ll weigh plenty. The salads are pre-​made and you can choose a little of everything if you want variety. The light dressings are the perfect complement.
The hot foods are delish too… again, mix n match as you please. I like getting the large container to share with co-​workers or to take home for dinner.
Fresh is a great choice for hearty and healthy.

They make OK food here. They are very heavy handed on the SALT. Everything seems to taste rather salty. The Soups and salads are usually ok. The baked goods are amazing though. That is the only thing i usually buy from this food counter.
However, i have had enough… they are just too rude.
I tried to get my usual baked good treat today, and was spoken to so rudely about using my bank card that i opted out of getting my lunch hour treat.
I wouldn’t have minded being charged the additional .50cents or whatever it is that they have to pay. But, they didn’t ask me to. All she barked at me was «You have to spend $ 3!!»
I felt like i was in NYC or something. Just a level of aggression and rudeness that i don’t often see in Vancouver.

3^rd times a charm? Unfortunately not.
My first experience here was last week with a friend for a lunch date. My friend ordered a panini and I had the mixed greens with sandwich toppings. The woman helping me didn’t have the slightest clue what I was ordering and took about 5 minutes to figure it out. While ordering her sandwich, my friend was treated very rudely. While ordering her sandwich, my friend was treated very rudely. We stared at each other in disbelief as we felt like we were in grade 8 all over again getting in trouble by the principal. My server started putting the select toppings and lettuce in the mixing bowl when the other woman said, «What are you doing? Don’t mix it in the bowl. Put the salad in the small to go container. It’s easier for us.» Easier for YOU? How am I supposed to mix a salad that’s crammed in a to go box with dressing without everything falling on my lap? With that being said, she packed my tiny salad to go and met me at the cash register. I paid for my friends sandwich and my salad and grabbed a seat outside. When the sandwich was finished, she went to collect it at the cash register and told them she was sure I had already paid. The server says «oh, I dont’ know. I wasn’t the one helping her.» ??? We then spent the first 15 minutes of lunch talking about how we felt we were inconveniencing them and were in trouble for ordering our lunch. My salad was delish. And that made me angry cause I wanted the food to suck just as much as the service did.
I suggested my co-​workers grab a salad from there for lunch but warned them of my experience. Their experience was very similar to mine as they felt they were treated quite rudely.
I went back a week later and ordered the same salad. It was good but the dressing was alot saltier than the week prior. I didn’t get yelled at. But they certainly don’t make you feel welcome.
Today I ordered the same salad and was told I would have to pay more than the $ 8.50 (because I had a boiled egg) for the same salad I’ve been ordering with the same toppings (each time with a boiled egg) which I have been paying $ 8.50 for. I told them I have been paying $ 8.50 the entire time and they rolled their eyes and said «Fine. But next time, you will have to pay more.» There won’t be a next time.

Food here is good. Experience of the service is also good as long as you don’t get the Manager/​owner servicing you. She makes faces at your food choices and communicates badly to her staff. She wasn’t serving me so i am glad but did notice her behaviors which didn’t leave a good impression.

I work in this area every tuesday and although i always want to try new restaurant, i always come back here.
For 8.75 you get to choose whatever you want and you can even mix and match between entrees and salads. Honestly everything taste good here and its just so flavourful!
If you pay in cash you get a free cookie too!

My previous experiences here aside… great staff (now) best breakfast wrap I’ve ever had, and so many food options for those of us that are wheat/​gluten free… totally worth it. If you’re in Bentall, you should eat here. period.

This is, by far, my very favourite lunch spot downtown. Heck it’s not even a ‘spot’. It’s a counter in the food court, between Bentall 3 & 4. If you’re attempting to eat healthy on a regular basis, the soups and salads here are absolutely fantastic. Lots of tasty, well-​spiced vegan options. I’m sure the rest of their offerings are delish too, but I haven’t bothered trying them– why not stick to extremely healthy when it’s so damned good? With all the awesome places to explore downtown, Fresh brings me back again and again, and I’ve never been disappointed by the fresh and tasty and HEALTHY food here.

The food is good the first time, however it gets old very quickly, always the same spices, flavors and ingredients. There are too many ingredients, its kind of like when you mix too many colors together you get brown.
It is quite expensive compared to other options. They do give you alot of food, but i never eat it. I would prefer to be able to order smaller quantities and pay less.
I am most disappointed that they increased their prices (sneakily) when PST/​GST returned. When HST came in they made their prices to include the HST and had a sign up saying «Includes the #**# HST. We hate it too!». However when GST/​PST returned their prices stayed the same.
They give you a small free cookie if you pay with cash. They charge an extra 50cents (without warning) if you pay with Visa (even if purchase is $ 8).
The staff are not friendly. They serve you quickly and say thank you, but never seem impressed and it never seems genuine.
I will not be returning.

Favorite lunch place in Vancouver. Healthy, all original recipes.
Like a better version of whole foods at a more reasonable price.
Not the standard quinoa salad, spinach salad, pasta with cheese or baked lasagna variations you see at places where they don’t know how to cook.
6 hot entrees on the left, some vegan some not. 1 small container at $ 4.95 would be 3x the price at whole foods.
Salads are all original recipes. Not 90% lettuce. Different compositions better than what you would see at whole foods, mixture of par boiled al dente broccoli, red/​green cabbage, beans, corn, bean sprouts, carrots, eggs, cucumber, cauliflower.
Dressings are slightly acidic using rice vinegar and assortment of dry herbs like dill to layer flavors.
Soups also all handmade from scratch. Very good base stock flavor, not the standard clam chowder/​chicken soup/​tomato soup combinations. Some are asian inspired using thai or curry spices.
Samosas available, sandwiches/​wraps available.

Customer Service — Great
Food Selection — Awesome
Food Quality — Awesome
Portion — Amazing
Over all Fantastic — great vibe from a locally owned and operated company who have been in business in a corp world for over 16 years.
Support your local owners — comfort food and lovely service.

I had a chicken pot pie today, and the filling was ABSOLUTELY filled with multigrain bread chunks. There were veggies and chicken but they were low in quantity compared to the bread filler. It was like eating a stuffing pie, which could be good if you advertise it as a stuffing pie, and price it as such.

For $ 3, much better alternative than a mcdonald’s sausage egger ;)
Enough tuna, tomato, cheese on a slice of multigrain.

I want to love this place, I really do. I keep coming back time and time again hoping that something will be different… but alas… the dishes all taste the same, are over salted, waaaaaay over priced and fall way below my expectations.
Vegan soups, yes! Vegan salads, yes! Multiple veggie choices, yes! The girl that runs the place is AWESOME! I love that all the things have that homemade feel, but it’s just not cutting it for me. Truth be told, I have yet to have a sandwich or wrap, so maybe I would feel differently after experiencing that?
Bottom line: This place charges too high price for a rather low quality of food.

As far as lunch goes, this place is awesome for quality, quantity and price.
I always go for the low fat chicken whole wheat wrap and pile it up with the huge selection of extras: avocado, olives, hot peppers, spinach, just to name a few. Their wraps literally weigh 3 lbs.

I’d like to thank all my fellow Unilocalers who wrote a review for this place. I didn’t know what to eat today your reviews guided me here.
Fresh Counter & Catering is perfect to grab a quick lunch with my gluten-​intolerant friend. They have a huge assortment of salads to choose from and they really pile it on!
I love variety and being able to have 4 – 5 different salads in my container makes me giddy with excitement. I ended up getting the medium sized one and I am about to burst. All the salads and rice dishes are extremely flavorful. I am so happy to have tried the food here and will be back Monday morning for lunch!

I’m eating the «veggie-​licious mac and cheese» and a salad I didn’t catch the name of as I type.
I actually searched «mac and cheese» to see what came up for downtown and this was the closest place. The mention of disco balls in Evilyn T’s review had me pretty excited.
Holy freaking crap was this place easy to find. Basically, you walk into the food court entrance at Bentall 4 (or is that the only entrance?) and look for the purple food counter with giant glittering disco balls right in front of your face.
First I ordered the mac and cheese and the lovely lady behind the counter suggested a salad as well and told me the one with sweet potatoes was really good. Since carbs are my second love (after my cat) I was down. I wasn’t too impressed with the fact that she piled my «salad» on top of my pasta, but I did order it after she’d put the pasta into a smaller container, so for all I know this could have been to avoid wasting styrofoam. So I will let that one go for now.
It was love at first bite the second I put a piece of sweet potato in my mouth. The vinaigrette was delicious and had tons of flavour, I didn’t even need to add any salt! It has potato, sweet potato, spinach, onion and big hunks of tomato in it.
The mac and cheese is definitely veggie-​licious! There is tomato, zucchini, onion, herbs and what I think might be tiny chunks of mushroom but they are too small to tell. There are a few different types of noodles in it too including spirals and penne. It’s very cheesy too! No need to add any salt either! (wow, what is going on?)
I took one star off because when I walked down to the right of the counter, all the food on that side looked like it had been sitting out all day and the cheese looked like plastic. All the food on the left (where I ordered from) looked delicious and fresh though!

I was drawn in by the disco balls, yes DISCO BALLS in the food court! You can have a dance party while you order your lunch, this is the best idea EVER! I wonder if they’re hiring any go-​go dancers? You could dress up like a vegetable with knee-​high go-​go boots and promote the place, that kinda reminds me of that Fruit of Loom Commercial that’s on TV right now, where the guys are dressed up as fruit in a rock band… Anyways…
I saw all of these veggie and vegan salads and I knew it was love! I had two different salads in one little cup, but I kinda wish I knew what each salad was called so I would know which one to get next time. Luckily they were both pretty good so I’m pretty confident whatever veggie salad I get, it will be awesome.
My only complaint with my salads was that after getting halfway through the bowl I realized my salad had turned into soup! There was waaaaay too much dressing on them and I actually had to pour some of it into an empty cup that my friend had. Other than that I loved my whole Fresh experience, the ladies at the counter were all very friendly and took the time to tell me a little bit about the salads, and what was in them and were able to answer a few of the questions I had… I’ll be back fo’ sho! It’s gotta be lunchtime somewhere in the world right now!