Liam D.'s Profile

This is one of those places i'd give a 3.5 if I had the choice, but because I find the proprietors to be rather pleasant, I'll round up instead of down. As of late, Banana Leaves has become my go-to order-in Asian cuisine because they have convenient online ordering, a wide variety of cuisines, which normally turns me off but in this case they pull it off relatively well so I'm cool with it, and because the food does taste just a bit better than other Chinese places.

I generally always start off with a Tropical Salad, and a heads up: it comes with peanuts, so specify if you do not want any. The salad itself consists of papaya, mango, and cucumber all julienned. The dressing is zesty, fruity, and refreshing. I generally ask them to spice it with chili Sometimes I'll order either the egg drop soup or the hot and sour, both of which are tasty. I ordered Tom Yum once, but it wasn't all that great so I don't order it. *One thing to note is that because delivery times take so long, soup is sometimes luke warm by the time it gets to you, which isn't ideal.

For my main meal, I'll generally go with either the Mee Goreng or the General Tso's, which is some of the best I've had in DC. The Mee Goreng can be a bit oily, more so than I'd like, but it's still pretty good and definitely hearty. The Tso's chicken has a bit of a sweet and sour tang to it, and the chicken is nice and tender, and cut into smaller chunks so that you're not trying to gnaw away at huge chunks of meat with your teeth.

I'm definitely able to relate to the folks who express frustration with the wait times for delivery, and the varying quality of the food, but on a whole, it's significantly better quality than your average Chinese delivery place, and they offer Thai cuisine, which is a bonus. Aside from MeiWah, this is my favorite place to order from - i've never eaten there in person.

So let me get this straight: you take a bunch of veggies, and maybe some cheese and chicken, throw it in a bowl, toss it up, and charge me $10 for it.....seriously?

The answer is yes, seriously, and people gladly open the wallets and line up out the door at this creative salad company that is likely to put a real dent in the business of nearby Cosi, which I have all but boycotted based on inattentive staff and lackluster product quality. Chop't is cool, hip, new, and fresh. Will I continue to frequent the place months from now? Time will tell. Would I pay $10 for a sub? No. But for a healthy salad that fills me up? Sure....What a business concept...Today I was in there and I just said to my buddy, "I wish I owned this place."

First off, are there kinks that need to be worked out? Sure - but what start-up organization doesn't have that. C'mon people...perfection from day 1 is a lot to ask. This company brilliantly had "live training" where they gave away free salads from 11am-2pm on opening day. And yes, I was waiting in line for 45 minutes to see what the fuss was about. Upon later thought, the opportunity cost of standing in line for that long to save $10 actually put me in the hole a few times that, but whatever!

Walk into Chop't, get greeted by their friendly management staff who directly into the assembly line where your creative salad is put together. There are a wide variety of ingredients for your choosing, but you can also order their specialty salads (The Cobb is what i get on the regular). They have something like 20 dressings, many of which are low-fat "Spa" choices that taste great.

Now, one thing that cannot go without mention is that the bread rolls that come with their salads are currently awful. A little anecdote though, that is what kept me coming back: I get this rock roll from them, and while eating someone in my office says "i won't go to chop't because Cosi's bread is just so much better, and they are cheaper!" I decided, "why not let this new business know about this," so I sent a comment to them. Within hours I received calls from both the VP of Operations up in NY, and the GM of the Chop't location asking for my insight and letting me know that they are working on getting better bread and will do so by month's end. I'm holding them to it, but the VP of Ops used to work at Cosi, so he knows what he's up against...hopefully they'll get something tasty in their ASAP, but regardless of that, what customer service!!!

Regardless of this, Chop't seems to be doing business as rock solid as their bread rolls, with people lined up constantly to get their fill. And because the salads are chop't you get that much more...I'd highly recommend. Will it be perfect every time? No. But you're eating a salad for chrissakes...get the nutrients in and get on with your day....