Urban Plates

Quality food in a cafeteria style environment.
Everything our group ordered was good. Servers in the line were knowledgeable about what they were dishing out.
Can’t wait until the new store opens in La Jolla.

Love urban plates! The albacore sandwich is delicious. I suggest adding roasted tomatoes to it. The tofu kale salad is also good but the menu doesn’t list the tofu as organic or GMO free so I no longer order it til I find out for sure. If anyone knows if the tofu its non-​GMO please Lmk!
I docked a half star cus the older man who answers the phone is super cranky and rude when taking my take out order and is very unfriendly when I pick up my food. We order from UP take out almost weekly too.
I also docked a half star cus they always make mistakes on take out, in store I don’t have this problem. Even after asking me if I want goat cheese on my beets the last time two times I have said yes and received no goat cheese! :(They often forget to add my sides of sauce or dressing too.
Overall a solid staple in our weekly rotation though.

Such a great place for a fresh and healthy lunch!
It can get packed, line out the door packed, but it is well worth the wait and the line moves rather quickly.
Order when you come in and watch them prepare your food while you are in line.
Love the open kitchen concept and though the menu is simple, you can add and modify the items to your liking.
Chose from a plate, sandwich or salad, pick a protein, all around $ 12.
A bit steep and the portions are on the small side, but the quality is well worth it and the flavors always on point.
I usually go with the ahi salad, very satisfying, a perfect lunch that won’t weigh you down the rest of the day.
Excellent dining option in the area!

This place is like Tender Greens’ less competent sibling. The people aren’t as friendly and the food isn’t as fresh. I had the Cobb salad, which was okay, and my cousin had the beet salad, which she felt lukewarm about. To be fair, it does seem to have more options than Tender Greens, but the quality and service are just not quite up (ha) to par.

Everything is fresh and ready to eat, although food tastes as home-​made meal. I tried their organic lemonade and it was delicious, sour a little. My chicken sandwich was perfect, so I ate it really fast. I like to come in here once in a while, for a full lunch. Customer service is excellent, so don’t hesitate to ask for anything. Enjoy

I would have given a 4 star rating but because of my most recent visit I had to downgrade my review. My husband and I ordered the grilled steak and the grilled wild albacore. For the side dishes, we got the chicken & vegetable soup, cauliflower & zucchini, and couscous. The soup was salty with large chunks of very dry chicken meat and the zucchini was too mushy. At least the steak and tuna was cooked and seasoned well.
Picked up my order about 30 minutes before closing, so I think maybe that is why my food wasn’t as good as before. I would return to urban plates but only going for lunch or early dinner.

Urban Plates really is my go to order-​out restaurant when I’m too tired/​busy to cook. The Family Meal is a crowd pleaser and it’s a great deal for the money, plus there’s usually left overs and you don’t feel like you sacrificed the ones you love best to crappy fast food, again. Plus if you are ordering online & picking up, they have dedicated parking spots in back, so you don’t have to brave the oppressive Del Mar Highlands parking.
But, that’s not all… this is a great place to meet for lunch. Great ambience and it’s affordable. Plus, you don’t have a split a check because it’s all cafeteria style. They also serve wine. And you can always find a seat, even when you think you can’t because the line is snaking out the door.
As for the food, everyone loves the steak and the salmon (if they have the cajun flavor, that’s better than the mustard one, imo). My kids freak out over the Mac & Cheese, but the Margherita Pizzaette is also a crowd pleaser. Kids love this place.
I’m all about getting the plate instead of the sandwich because you get two sides and chips aren’t forced on you. But, if you like potato chips there’s are house-​made and not too bad (but they are greasy, you can’t escape that).
Lastly, I feel like I have to talk about the desserts because they all look so pretty and you’ll want to know about them. Well, honestly, I’m not a fan — except for the cookies. The cookies are amazing. First choice will always be their Cowgirl Cookie, then then Molasses. If you must do the Chocolate Chip, go ahead and be pedestrian, it’s cool because those are good too (just not as good).

Quality has gone down. Prices have gone up. I usually get the Asian chicken or barbecue chicken salad.
This time I ordered the Asian chicken salad to go. Chicken was dry. The extra cucumber I asked for was missing. Also I didn’t get the cilantro dressing on the side that I asked for. The quality was Better when the salads were $ 10. Now they are priced at $ 11 or $ 12 depending what u get. So I Lowered my rating from 5 stars to 3.5.

2 years later and I still love this place! The food is so delicious and the brussel sprouts are still one of my favorite things here!
Food is from $ 11-​$ 15 depending on what you get. They also have mini-​pizzas for $ 5 too!
Parking in this plaza is pretty bad when you come during dinner time but it’s expected because the plaza has so many good and yummy places to eat for dinner. You can also go shopping for other stuff too before you eat!
We stopped by on a weeknight at around 6:30pm and still had to wait in line for about 10 minutes. However, once we got food, we were able to find seating pretty easily.
My only negative comment about this place is that it seems like the staff may skimp on the side dishes for certain people. I noticed that he gave way more brussel sprouts to the person in front of me and that made me sad because I love the brussel sprouts.
I highly recommend!

First time at Urban Plates and it didn’t disappoint. I like the upscale cafeteria dining vibe this place gives off. Feels modern and rustic at the same time. The entire restaurant throughout has an open, airy feeling.
The line was pretty long when we got there, but moved quickly. There was a gal there handing out trays and moving the line along. I ordered the entrée with 2 sides. Steak cooked medium rare and chose the mac and cheese and mashed potatoes as my sides (there are both hot and cold sides). You’re given your plate of food, you put it in your tray and continue down the line (past all the desserts… they make it so hard to walk by without choosing one) to the register to pay.
There is seating indoors and on the front and back patio. We chose the back patio where they have heat lamps to chase off the evening chill. The front and back patios are dog friendly, a big plus for pooches that tag along a lot.
The food here is really good. The steak was tender and easy to cut and fairly flavorful. The mac and cheese was deliciously tangy, very grown up, the mashed potatoes complemented the steak well. The bread on the side was rather dry and hard, didn’t finish it.
Quick service, good food, I’d come back.

After a morning hike, my friend and I came here to try to keep up our «healthy» streak LOL. Their setup is a little confusing: it appears as one long line, but it turns out there are actually different sections (salad, hot plates, etc.) depending on what you actually want to order. We waited in the salad line for a while until a worker informed us that we could actually move ahead to the hot plate line. Each hot plate comes with one protein, two sides, and focaccia bread. I was originally set on the steak but changed my mind when I saw all the protein in front of me because everything just looked so good. Eventually I ordered the herb marinated chicken with roasted potatoes and brussels sprouts, with a mint green tea on the side.
Chicken is always a bit of a gamble because when it’s dry it’s really not good, but it was juicy and flavorful. The potatoes were fluffy on the inside, and I ended up liking the turkey bacon in the brussels sprouts more than I expected. The sides were both a little on the oily side, however, so in that aspect I think I still prefer Tender Greens. However, after trying my friend’s mac n cheese, I’ve decided that’s what I’ll get in the future — I could definitely taste different cheeses in there, but unfortunately I’m not a cheese connoisseur and can’t identify it :(The green tea wasn’t sweet, so don’t get it if that’s what you want, but it was a refreshing contrast to the heavy flavors of the food.
The meal came out to be around $ 15, which was well portioned and filling. Parking isn’t a problem at all since it’s located in a huge plaza, so I’d definitely come back if I were in the area again.

Hungry and want your health conscious mind to be at ease? Then Urban Plates is the answer. I like to work out and stay fit and this places meets all the nutritional needs. The plates come with 1 choice of protein either steak, fish or chicken and 2 sides ranging from potatoes and rice to grilled veggies and/​or a soup. Great places for and afternoon lunch, dinner or even a post work out meal.
I had the plate for lunch with the free range grilled chicken breast. As for my sides I had the potatoes and grilled asparagus and the slice of bread. My drink was the fresh lemonade.
I highly recommend this place to all.

I had gotten a salad with salmon, which was an additional charge of $ 2. The salmon was worth it! The salmon was a honey mustard glazed, which was amazing.
Their portion was huge! Defiantly enough to share or spilt into 2 servings. I never usually get full with eating salads, but this one did!
I also got a side of their broccoli, which was bomb! I believe it was marinaded/​soaked in some type of butter.
I really wanted to try their mac n cheese, but I guess I’ll have to come back to try that!

I want to like this place, but the quality of the food is just not that good! My co-​workers love coming here and I love getting out of work to grab a bite, but next time I am going to sit it out and find another place to go.
Every time I’ve gotten lunch here, my meal has tasted weird or was low quality. I have had the Salmon Cesar Salad with avocado which was about $ 4 extra than the normal salad. The salmon was bad. Really bad. Super old fishy tasting. And the mushy texture of the avocado made the bad tasting salmon absolutely nauseating. And I paid extra for that?!
The next time I took a chance with UP, I had the Asian Chicken Salad. The chicken is very low quality — lots of fat that needs to be trimmed, gross tendons, etc. My friend shared with me that she never gets the chicken on salads because it is gross, and I should have listened. I also feel like the amount of toppings on this salad cannot justify the $ 11 price tag.
The atmosphere is rustic and casual with open seating. I liked this, and it is probably the only plus I have found so far to contrast my obvious distaste of the food and the nightmare of a parking lot around lunch time. To sum it up, the lack of fresh and healthy lunch options in the area won’t ever drive me to come back to Urban Plates.

I’ll still give Urban Plates five stars because the majority of things that I’ve tried here have been amazing but I must say that neither I nor my boyfriend were impressed with the Caesar salad dressing.
I decided to mix things up from my usual plate and go a bit healthier for lunch with a salad. I thought a chicken Caesar would be the safe route to go and ordered it without the kale (I’m not into that hype) and asked for the dressing on the side. I originally asked for the dressing on the side because I knew I couldn’t eat the whole salad in one sitting and was afraid the lettuce would get soggy. I ended up being extra grateful because I didn’t care for the Caesar dressing at all. I took a few bites but found it to be way too strong and pungent for my liking, and I usually like Caesar. I ended up bringing the rest of my salad home and using my own Caesar dressing from the grocery store.
Also, I made the mistake of assuming that they would top to salad with chicken breast. I know from past experience ordering the chicken plate that they’re willing to accommodate white meat requests and I should have done so here too. I’m not a fan of fatty dark meat and it was a little gross having to remove the fat from my salad.
All said, I do highly recommend the plates and love the steak, salmon and white meat chicken plates with mac and cheese (amazing!) and mashed potatoes or rosemary potatoes. I love my carbs! I think I’ll be sticking with the plates in the future.

After a day of hiking, this place is the go-​to spot! Especially if you’re near the Torrey Pines hike, it is closer in location. They have a wide selection of salads, sandwiches, and plates which consist of a meat and 2 side choices! But of course you can always add more sides to whatever your mouth desires. I have tried one of their salads (totally forgot the name), and recently tried their plate of fresh Ahi with the sides of sweet potatoes and asparagus! You can never go wrong with asparagus (although watch out for the smelly urine afterwards). The sweet potatoes were cooked to perfection sautéed with red onions (yum). Although their ahi was fresh and cut to serve!
The portions are huge and for the price of about $ 11 for a plate and two sides? Not bad I must say! Both times I’ve gone here it has been always crowded, which always means its a popular spot! I wish they would open one more down south of San Diego, we need one down here! Would definitely want to come here more often to try the other delicious things on the menu!

Busy place for lunch during the work week. We were greeted right away and directed to the appropriate line (you need to know if you want salad or a plate/​sandwich). If they didn’t have people directing you, it would be a cluster… but they do, so it was helpful.
Got my tray, got my place in line, ordered my sandwich, and I was on my way. My sandwich came with chips and I could pay extra for a side (which I didn’t this time). Decent selection of food choices, sides, etc. They have fountain drinks (I don’t think you can get refills since they fill them for you). It’s seat yourself and grab your own utensils. Clean restaurant, healthy food choices, friendly employees, and reasonably priced.
Parking is a bit of a bear during the work week after 11:30am so plan accordingly.

I can always count on Urban Plates for consistently fresh and high quality food. I order their takeout often when I don’t feel cooking and my order is always ready for pick up within 15 minutes. I’ve had the grilled free range chicken sandwich with slow roasted tomatoes and basil aioli and the baked salmon plate and salad. My first time trying the sandwich I was literally blown away by how juicy and tender the chicken was! The salmon is equally delicious, always perfectly cooked and super flaky!
My favorite sides are the superfood salad, sesame broccolini, and roasted brussels sprouts with turkey bacon. The salad has a light refreshing dressing, and the brussels sprouts are seriously addictive! I’m excited to have found a restaurant nearby that serves such satisfying and healthy options at an affordable price!

This is the best take out option for those of us working in the vicinity.
For what it’s worth this location is a peg lower in quality than the other Urban Plates in Southern California. No explanation other that something has always been off. Like with any cafeteria, the experience one has in the line has a big impact on your overall dining satisfaction Urban Plates is a bit quirky for the first time customer. You’re either ordering a salad or an entrée. If you don’t use the right line chaos will likely ensue.
As for the food I’ve always been satisfied, but a few times at this location there was something a bit off. Mostly it’s the inconsistency with their salmon, but the other locations have always been perfect.
Dessert —
I’ll put this as a separate line item because if you eat here, especially if it’s your first time you should splurge and try one of their urban plates made sweets. It’s the topper to the experience that will make you come back.
Note — Parking here sucks, and there is major construction going on right behind this restaurant.

DELICIOUS FRESH FOOD! :D I came here for dinner before a movie and it did not disappoint.
It was pretty crowded (Tuesday night at 8PM) and it’s seat yourself and the restaurant is a bit small so big crowds might have a harder time getting a table (they don’t let you «reserve» tables…) during rush hour times.
They have options of salads, sandwiches, and then plates. There’s 3 different lines you can go in depending which one you want. I went with the grilled herb chicken plate which comes with 2 hot/​cold sides. You can see the sides too and they give you samples too if you’re unsure which to pick! :) I ordered the Brussel sprouts and broccolini for the sides. Everything is about $ 10.50 but for add on’s for the salads-​it can get a bit pricey.
The chicken was good but a bit on the dry side. I still finished it nonetheless! The broccolini was nice and crunchy but I wish the Brussel sprouts were a bit more crunchy. Portions are relatively reasonable but the price is a bit high but at least the quality is good.