Mrs Winston’s Green Grocery

Warning… went to our fav salad place today late. Our first mistake! At 1:30 pm it’s very slim pickings! They don’t replenish so late… Obviously!
Seconds take… Construction all over… Beautiful water scenery… Gone!
Answer… Avoid going for the next year AND only go early lunch.

Mrs. Winston’s Grocery is a regular lunch spot for many in this growing Santa Monica business locale. They have some healthy options for almost everyone, with a very unique sandwich bar (never thought I would eat «veginaise», but I do… and it’s not bad!). They are probably best known for their awesome salad bar… which is the most extensive and well stocked I have seen. The added bonus is that you can always count on fresh, healthy choices here. The only drawback is the wait during peak lunch times. Other than that, this place is almost perfect!

Kind of pricey but the salad bar is just so good

Super fresh salad bar with yummy dressing (sesame ginger) and good selection of produce and health foods and snacks
Grocery items are more expensive than at a market.

All your hipster needs in one tiny convenience store.
They have tasty food for every healthy way of eating you can think of. Salad bar is awesome but I mostly go for the sandwich bar that is hardly ever as busy. There are different kinds of bread, wraps even gluten free bread. Or, bypass the bread altogether and make a lettuce wrap sandwich. Highlights include mashed avocado, FRESH mozzarella and nitrate free lunch meat.
Every green you can think of — kale, spinach, swiss chard, purple kale, sprouts.
Crunchy things to add to your salad at the end of the line — nuts/​seeds/​hemp seeds.
Flavorings — An assortment of vegan spreads. Staples such as oil and vinegar BUT try their in-​house ranch, love it! Also, Celtic sea salt, one of the healthiest of the salts.
Also a great place to just run in for a snack. They have fruit you can buy like at a grocery store (a bit pricey) but organic from what I’ve seen. Or you could always get a small serving from the cut up fruit that is part of the salad bar.
Lots of chips, nuts, dried fruit-​healthy-​type things, my go-​to are plantain chips, yum.
I’ve only tried the soup once, not my favorite and a bit too pricey for the small container. Their chili is great according to the signs around the store. Note, it is vegan.
Quest bars! Great if you go to the gym across the way.
Lots of healthy beverages also, alkaline water, boxed water, coconut water, sparkling water, kombucha etc.
Coffee: Stumptown! In the refrigerated section, get it. I get the plain cold brew but there is also the lightly sweetened + milk variety.
You can try to get your salad for free on Fridays by guessing the weight, but it has to be right on the nose. May the force be with you on that one.
My one con — sometimes the greens are kind of wet which leads to a watery salad plus possible increase in weight/​price from said greens.
Lastly, this location does not do smoothies, contrary to some of the reviews on here. They must be referring to the other Santa Monica location. But there are plenty of other social media worthy options here so, salad on!

WOW! Delicious food. Everything here is fresh, good and delicious. You get through the line and have to deal with paying for the food. The downside to this restaurant is having to pay for whatever you ordered. The price is a little over the top and you end up paying $ 10 for a salad. Delicious and healthy though.

if you were a raw vegan alkaline 80÷10÷10 foodie and you were at home and you were going to make a salad, you’d probably end up with the exact same ingredients Mr. Winston is offering you. AMEN.

You feel healthy just by walking into this place alone! So many veggies, cheeses, and dressings to pick from. Make your rounds around the water garden during lunch time and you would notice so many people are carrying containers from this place. Like many Unilocalers here mentioned the place is very reasonably priced. It is by weight. Even with many slices of avocados and heart of artichokes my lunch still came out cheap. Definitely will come back to this place for lunch and sit in the water garden.

Mrs. Winston’s is right by my office, so I am there VERY frequently! I love their salad bar, it’s definitely one of the best I have seen! It’s delicious, fresh, and has SOOOOO many items that other places don’t have. The price is also reasonable. I usually get a bean salad, and those definitely tend to weigh more than just greens, and it’s always very reasonable!
They also have lots of delicious, random items that you can’t really find anywhere else, which is SO cool! I have discovered many unique products here!
The one thing that I find frustrating about Mrs. Winston’s is the juice/​smoothie bar. It seems that almost every time I go in there, the juice bar has a long wait. I feel like it’s almost always understaffed as well. The juice bar is hands down the busiest part of the store, so it would be helpful if they had more people working there at a time in order to get the wait reduced.
I feel that the juice bar also lacks consistency. One day my smoothie might be thick and creamy, the next it might be watery and thin.
Most of all though, the prices for their additions at the smoothie bar are EXTREMELY high! Each addition is $ 1.50. I have never ever seen such a high cost for smoothie additions. I could understand the protein additions being that high, but peanut butter? $ 1.50??? So if you get a small smoothie ($ 6), then add two additions (protein and dates, or peanut butter), it takes your smoothie to over $ 9!!! WAY WAY WAY too much. Taking the addition cost down would definitely make me want to go to their smoothie bar more frequently.
I think if Mrs. Winston’s could get the smoothie bar to be more efficient and consistent with their smoothies, so that you don’t have to wait a long time, AND get a regularly consistent smoothie, AND don’t have to spend almost $ 10 for a smoothie, then it could be the top smoothie bar in the area! But unfortunately as it stands, I just don’t like waiting 10 – 15 minutes for a $ 9 smoothie that I have no way of knowing if it will taste like it did the day before.
Hopefully they can work on the smoothie bar and I think once that is resolved, Mrs. Winston’s will be unstoppable!

Salad lines at lunch
The center has sandwiches
Guess its weight: it’s free!

agree with the other reviews, that Mrs Winston’s has some of the best and freshest salads in LA!
First time here, I thought they would have a bit more groceries, it is really just a huge salad bar, as well as some quick, grab and go drinks, chips and other snacks.
Service is super nice, there are always people in here, no matter the time of day, but the lines more quickly.
beautiful assortment of fresh, fresh, fresh veggies of all sorts, great healthy lunch, catered to your wants and needs at $ 7.95 a pound, I can dig it!

I will have to admit I was a skeptic on the Vegan Chili, but it is really good! Salad bar is awesome, it has fresh kale, spinach, quinoa blends, lots of veggies and meats… great selection! Awesome place to grab lunch on the go.
Cons: Long wait lines around noon, and can get very pricey fast.

Bottom line at the top: not a salad fan in the slightest but this is thee best salad bar I’ve ever been to.
–
The only salad I will willingly eat comes from Alice Waters at Chez Panisse… And now mrs Winston’s. Everything is super fresh, organic, meat is nitrate free, and basically as unprocessed as possible. There are soo many options to choose from. The only bummer is that the toppings/​meat aren’t warm. The line is long but moves quickly. Great spot for work lunch in Santa Monica!

Seriously the BEST salad bar in the world! The choices and options are limitless — and they have something to satisfy everyone!
They have every type of green you can imagine — romaine lettuce, mixed greens, KALE (2 kinds too!), spinach, etc. They have every type of vegetable and toppings you might want to add — broccoli, sprouts, beets (red and yellow!), red onions, green onions, tomatoes, fresh mozzarella balls, grated cheeses etc. Their avocado/​guacamole and their salsas are sooo good. Multiple types of tofu — plain tofu, curry tofu, kung pao tofu, etc. They have meats — turkey, bacon, chicken salad. They have fruits, they have nuts. I absolutely LOVE their cold noodles — like their spicy ramen, peanut noodle, etc.
Everything tastes SUPER FRESH! There are days when I literally crave a salad from Mrs. Winstons.
Of course, all this healthiness does NOT come cheap. Average salad runs $ 8 for me, but it can easily get out of hand to $ 13+ if you’re really hungry.
On Fridays, you can guess the weight and if you get it right, you get your salad for free.
They have lots of other really high quality vegan and non-​vegan snacks — chips, crackers, chocolate bars, coconut water, specialty sodas, etc.
Wish there were more Mrs. Winston’s throughout LA!

I recently found out about this place earlier this week and I really wish I had known about it sooner. I think that Mrs. Winston’s is a 5-​star place but I can’t give it 5-​stars right off the bat. The quality and the variety merit the 5-​stars but the fact that there were a few items that weren’t refilled in the salad bar.
The place gets packed during lunch and there will probably be a line out the door. There are a few options on sizes you can create and it really depends on how much food you think you can take. Be aware though that you do pay by the pound so it is easy to pay a bundle for a salad. You can not only make your own salad but you can make your own sandwich also. The possibilities are endless on what you can create and there are so many things to try.
For my first time I ended up with getting a salad. I got a much larger container than I probably should have. I made a mixed salad with spinach, arugula, mixed greens, green onions, white corn, edamame, mushrooms, and some cajun turkey breast. I also tried a little bit of the two kinds of spicy noodles. I paid about 9 bucks for my meal and had plenty left over for later.
I will probably be back often now that I know it is there. I look forward to trying some of their other items and creating new tasty meals.

Wish they would label each item! Some of the vegan options in the salad bar are a little unhealthy and processed. But this is the healthiest and most fun salad bar I’ve been to! It’s always a blast taking a friend for their first time. And on Friday, guess how much your salad costs for a chance to win a free lunch!

«It ain’t easy being green,» Kermit the frog once lamented. Not easy, maybe, until you get to Colorado and 26^th! One of three stores owned by the Winston brothers, Corey and Eddie, the Green Grocery is probably Whole Foods’ worthiest lunch bar competition, and everything I want Soup Plantation to be. Located in the Water Garden’s business plaza, this small, but inviting, natural foods store makes it simple to be green with a healthier assortment of convenience snacks, drinks, DIY salads, and more. The local, organic, effortless fresh foods concept is just about as L.A. as you can get, yet Mrs. Winston’s still manages to keep a down home feel. Salad making options are sure to please almost everyone on the food chain spectrum, and there are several bread choices, condiments and fixings to make sandwiches with as well.
Not surprisingly, the place gets super crowded during lunch hours, so stay alert, don’t hold up the lines, get what you want, and keep on moving! S.O. and I built one salad high to share, with a couple of lettuce mixes, spinach, avocado, mushroom, cucumber, carrots, tomatoes, mozzarella balls, a little cold pasta, a bit of tofu, and a few kinds of beans and nuts — and had the whole thing rubber banded to go. Priced by weight, our colorful creation came to about $ 12. Pricey for rabbit food, maybe, but we’re pretty big rabbits, so for us, grabbing a healthy, filling lunch in L.A. for $ 6 per person is one solid deal!
There is limited outdoor seating in the area with corporate fountain views, but if you’re on the run, your build-​a-​bear salad in its recyclable plastic container (key word: recyclable) is super easy food to take with you and create an instant urban picnic date anywhere for one, two or more!

Me and Mrs. Winston…
We got a thing goin on
We both know the line’s too long
But it’s much too strong to let it go now
We meet everyday next to the same Café… Bizou
12:30 and everyone in the Water Garden is already there
Holding plastic boxes, making all kinds of salads
While the radio plays some hipster pop song
Me and Mrs., Mrs. Winston, Mrs. Winston, Mrs. Winston,
We got a thing goin on
Both know the line’s too long
But it’s much too strong to let it go now
We gotta be extra careful
That we don’t build our salads too high
Cause there are paralegals waiting
And letting out a sigh
Me and Mrs., Mrs. Winston, Mrs. Winston, Mrs. Winston,
Well it’s time for us to be leaving
And it hurts so much, it hurts so much inside
Cause I added too much potato salad and now it’s like $ 7.95
But tomorrow we’ll meet at the same place, the same time
Me and Mrs., Mrs., Mrs., Mrs. Winston
(Same place)
Oh that line’s way too long
(Same time)
Everyday next to the same café
(Same place)
We got a thing goin on
(Same time)

Eating Healthy? Starting a diet? Looking for a place to start?
COME HERE! Everything they have here is good for you!
This place is a lunch time hit! Just follow the line and roll right out.
Super FRESH!

Although I live really close to this place, I haven’t had a chance to check it out because it’s actually not too convenient to get to unless you work in the Water Garden. But today I finally got a chance, and let me just say, it’s the first time I was jealous of everyone working in that behemoth office complex!
I expected to find a tiny little salad counter but instead I found a charming, rustic grocery filled with fun natural snacks. I dove right into their salad bar, ‘the best in LA’ according to their signs, and was immediately impressed. Lots of salad bars consider lettuce to be a cheap filler but even the greens here are top notch. I had so much fun picking and choosing my fixings… and it takes a lot to say that I had fun at the salad bar.
One complaint I often have about salad bars is the sad dressing selection. They usually have only the basics, and they’re usually way too rich. But today I tried the chipotle ranch and absolutely loved it! It added a nice, spicy kick to my salad.
My only regret is that I didn’t pick up a nice natural dessert to enjoy afterward!