Last week Barry’s Bootcamp had a “Bikini Bod” event that included some sweet swag, Vitamin Water and a live DJ that spun during our butt kicking sweat sesh. The workout was as intense as usual (see a full recap of Barry’s here), and afterwards as I was rehydrating and sporting my new headband, I noticed a bunch of coupons for Greenleaf ChopShop in my swag bag.
I had heard of Greenleaf when I lived in LA, but never got the chance to make it there before I moved to OC. Greenleaf recently opened a location in Costa Mesa, so I was excited to finally check it out and use some of my coupons.
The concept behind Greenleaf is pretty simple – the restaurant offers a variety of salads, sandwiches, soups and even breakfast items, or you can build your own salad creation. Greenleaf also has a small market connected to the restaurant that is full of pre-made salads, sandwiches and has a small drink bar for those on the go.
When I arrived at the restaurant on a late Saturday morning, it was packed. Tons of people were sitting on the patio enjoying their large plates of eggs, greens and steaming cups of coffee. Since I arrived at the weird in-between breakfast and lunch time, I decided to order a customized salad to go.
Creating a customized salad at Greenleaf is pretty simple – choose your greens, 4 veggies ($0.65 to add more), cheese, carb, fruit, nuts, legume, herbs, and then add your protein which costs anywhere from $1.50 to $6.00 extra depending on the protein you choose. You then get a dressing of your choice and viola! Your salad is done. For my salad I went with arugula as a base, and added tomatoes, sunflower seeds, mozzarella, carrots, cucumber, hummus and olives with balsamic vinaigrette on the side.
The salad was good, although definitely lacking in the hummus department. There was only one small dollop of hummus and it was located at the bottom of the box so it basically got lost among everything else. More hummus next time please!
I will say that the salad was quite good, but it also wasn’t anything that I couldn’t create at home myself. I think next time I visit Greenleaf I’ll try one of their sandwiches or a breakfast dish to change things up a bit. I did like the atmosphere inside the restaurant and the outdoor patio is just too cute.
If you are ever in the Costa Mesa area be sure to stop in and check this place out!
