The Garden Cafe

First week at my new office and already love this place! Clean environment, friendly staff (they give samples) and huge menu that has something for everyone, even gluten-​free lovers. Definitely my new lunch spot.

Staff was obnoxiously loud and rude. I won’t be going back here. Food is overpriced.

I’ve worked in Centruy City for a little over 5 years and there really aren’t that many quality places one can go to for lunch or breakfast. Sure, there is a Trimanna in the 1875 Building and in the Twin Towers… but there is something about food in troughs that unnerves me.
With that, Garden Café has turned out to be an even better alternative. I’m drinking the apple strawberry lime fresh pressed juice right now and it’s fantastic (not $ 6.75 fantastic, but that in and of itself is still a good price for juice, which typically goes for $ 9.00 or above).
Good place, great service.

Is there an option for no stars? I work in the building and decide to go there for breakfast, most important meal of day. Order something simple, waited for 15 min so they can tell me they will deliver it. 45 min to an hour passed and still no food. Called to cancel my order and told them I’ll be coming down to get my refund during my lunch, well they decided to deliver it (cold) which infuriated me even more, went downstairs right of way returned the food and got my refund, the girl at the register was nice and apologetic but at that point my morning was ruined. Don’t mess with people’s breakfast guys, this could have been avoided with a simple «we are really busy now and it will take longer than usual» not that an hour is acceptable for a sandwich but could have been avoided regardless. That’s all.

I have been here numerous time and not once have I had a horrible experience. I see so many negative reviews. Well I am a regular customer here and this place is amazing. The staff is respectful, friendly, and young. I am completely in love with their chili, salads, sandwiches, burgers and ESPECIALLY their garlic seasoned fries! Ugh I nearly died haha. But seriously, the owner, Lisa Hawkins is phenomenal. She is such a kind and reasonable person. She takes good care of her clients and staff! Although they are still a young restaurant, they are very successful. They have delicious food with a reasonable price. My experience there was great. The staff was punctual with my food and have never made a mistake. The most they forgot was a cup for my drink. Other than that, no harm, no foul. I highly recommend this place to all those in the Century City, Los Angeles area. If you’re looking for breakfast, try the breakfast burritos they are hearty and affordable. I will definitely be back here.

Omg that’s it i’ve fricken had it with this place i’m so sick of the attitude and the constant getting the order wrong… i’m seriously over it.
One of my first experiences in here involved a bagel. A simple bagel. I take it upstairs to my office, it’s missing cream cheese. I come back down and get MAJOR attitude from the tall white guy working the kitchen
him: Oh? I didn’t know you wanted cream cheese
me: who orders a bagel with no cream cheese?
him: I don’t know you. I don’t know how you like your bagel. It’s loud back here, I couldn’t hear you…(and other such excuses)
I get the bagel back, take it upstairs and they had slathered a pound of cream cheese on it. It was literally inedible — RUDE.
Went back months later and every time something is wrong — the order wasn’t ready after ordering online and waiting the quoted time frame. The sandwich is missing something and is ALWAYS really messy and falls apart. Heavy handed with the dressings. Heavy handed with the schmears. Missing croutons in the salad. Slippery, watery, you name it. Always something.
Plus why charge extra for cheese on a deli sandwich? Deli sandwiches come with cheese everywhere else…
Anyway, this very last time really was the straw that broke the camels back. The people in front of me were waiting in line and there’s a woman who indicates out loud that she will take the next person who wants chili or soup — the people next in line walk up to her and order a tuna sandwich. She tells them in an extremely RUDE and BITCHY tone «I SAID (emphasis on the said) i’ll help you if you want chili or SOUP». Poor people are like «Okay I guess we’ll go back to the line then».
**JESUS**
I’m shocked… then I get my Tuscan Kale Chicken Salad special and it’s drenched in dressing and missing croutons…
I put up with it all this time because it’s attached to my building and SOO convenient but i’m done. I’ll walk a few extra steps to 1880 Café — food may be lower quality but at least they are NICE.

I was excited when this place first opened. As a long term Century City resident, new food options are nice. But these guys have SO many issues with their service. They have repeatedly gotten orders wrong, are extremely slow (even when it’s not that busy!), and do not listen to feed back from the customers. My friends and I have politely offered suggestions and given feed back to the manager about what it takes to be successful in the working environment of Century City. Every time the manager (female) disregards and kind of blows us off…
But the most frustrating part is the wait times. If we ever go to the Garden for lunch, we HAVE to call a head at least 20 minutes in advance, or you end up spending your entire lunch hour waiting on your food. And listen, they have good food, but it is basics. Sandwiches, burgers, wraps, soups… there’s no reason for these high wait times.
I usually do not write negative reviews, but today was the tipping point. I called and ordered a burger, and was told it would take 30 minutes!!! Are you kidding me? 30 minutes to make a burger and fries? And again, they usually are not that busy, and still have consistently high wait times.
Another issue– often times they will quote you a 20 minute wait time, but then they say they will call if it is ready earlier. This is Century City. A professional, busy work environment. Nobody has time for this. The staff are also wasting time by making these calls. If you quote me at 20 minutes, then let me come in and pick up my food in 20 minutes. Do not call me! It is very bothersome, especially when we have a lot of work to produce every day.
The Garden is a tease because they do have great food. It’s kind of like having a hot girl friend, but she is completely unbearable to take out.

It’s a horrible place. No wonder they are empty all the time. Today was my last time going in there to take breakfast to go.

There are not a lot of great options for the office crowd on Century Park East, so I was very happy when this place opened. The food is always pretty good, the daily specials are a pretty good value. I appreciate that they’re still new, but I do wish the service and processing of customers was a little faster.

Its the next day, im Eating my leftovers from the garden café and the quality is still shinning through. I loooove this place and the fresh quality of the food maked me continue to stop in.

I really wanted to like this place but the customer service is poor. Given the limited amount of decent food options on the back side of Century City I was hoping this place could a weekly go-​to. Customer service/​wait time was atrocious after opening but I told myself that they were just working the kinks out. Now six months in I’m giving up on the place after eating there 10+ times. Very disorganized and the people at the register/​answering the phones to take orders act like they are doing you a favor. Only reason they’re getting 2 stars is the food, which is pretty good but not worth the customer service headache.

First time here, enjoyed the roast beef on toasted rosemary bread, tomatoes, red onion, and arugala with a cup of the vegetarian chili which had quinoa. All very flavorful and I was happy with the portion of meat provided for the sandwich. The staff seemed a bit unorganized though, but I would say it’s from a lack of leadership; nothing to do with their attitude, as they were all very friendly. Management needs to step it up.

Opened my box to find my burrito had been cut in half. They want a war? I’ll give them a war.
Tasted great.

Update: Good afternoon Unilocalers! Garden Café is charging $.75 for a side of ranch dressing. I will not lower my star review since the food is still good but here’s another example of shitty customer service.
If this place didn’t have such good food at a reasonable price, I would never go.
The simplest way to say the problem I have with Garden Café is that they are disorganized and their customer service leaves something to be desired. I was less annoyed by all of this when they first opened but they have been around for at least six months.
I order from Eat24 sometimes and every time they ask me to pay. I have to remind them every single time that it is prepaid.
The clerks never seem to know how to use the register.
Two of the ladies there are always suspicious of what you are saying. I can’t tell you how many times I have argued with these ladies. My favorite example was their salmon nicoise salad.
When they first opened, I was excited to see that I could get the salad for $ 8.75 (listed online on their menu). The first time I ordered it I didn’t even notice that she charged me $ 9.75. When I came back and had the salad again, I noticed. When I pointed it out to her, she did NOT accept responsibility for the mistake and for misleading me. She simply said, «Oh, I need to go online and change that.»
As if it is my job to find her mistakes and that I should have to pay the price for her mistakes. Customer service and making the customer happy was clearly not something she was concerned with.

The best breakfast burritos in the area… and their lunch is awesome too! Now that they have been open for a little they have worked out a lot of the kinks.
Delivery to the offices in the area is an awesome perk, too.

Pastrami sandwich was terrible. The salmon salad is not bad. Sometimes you can wait a long time. They also have pricey freshly squeezed fruit/​vege juice concoctions that you can’t find everywhere.

Service is pretty rough. It seems like they’re doing you a huge favor by taking your order. Naw, I’m doing you a favor by eating at your restaurant.
Also. why do they cut burritos in half? That’s ridiculous.

I loved today’s special, honey Sriracha chicken wrap! Incredible!!! Please add this item to the menu!!!

When they first opened they were a bit disorganized, got order wrong, didn’t have many of the items I wanted on the menu, and rude.
One day, I ordered the steak salad and one of the guys told me we they didn’t have it, then the other guy said yes we do… I stopped coming here because of the disorganization, and rude attitude. Today, I thought I would give them another chance. Unfortunately, the place is the same as when they first opened.
I ordered the Kale Chicken Salad today, obviously thinking I was going to be very healthy by eating Kale today! But, no, got back to my office and there was NO KALE in the salad!!! It was Romain and Arugula with Chicken salad! Why would they name a salad a KALE SALAD if it doesn’t have ANY KALE IN IT AT ALL!!!
If I order something its because that is specifically what I want… but here you order and get something completely different.
By the way, employees here have been very, very, rude to a co-​worker of mine and she no longer comes here either.
Never again, will I spend my hard earned money in this establishment! I rather pay more money and walk further and get a high quality salad from PICINC which is about 2 blocks away.

Excellent food, very friendly staff, and they are always willing to take my order by phone and in some cases even had it delivered to my office!
Definitly gets my 5 stars! =)