Roast Kitchen

Roast Kitchen is your typical health-​conscious, fast-​food lunch option with hearty bowls, wraps, and salads with grilled meats and add-​ins. I am usually not a fan of pork, but the Shio Koji Marinated Pork from Roast Kitchen is to DIE for. It’s so savory, full of flavors, and tender — just thinking about it makes my mouth water!
I got the Build Your Own Bowl (you can get it «hot» or «cold,» the latter of which does not include grains) with a choice of greens (I had baby spinach, but next time will try grilled kale!), grains (organic farro, basmati rice, or quinoa), and four add-​ins. Proteins are additional, and again, I highly recommend the pork!
The only thing that was a bit annoying was that they put the sauce in the bowl when I specifically asked for it to be on the side… the sauce was REALLY spicy and oily… didn’t like that at all!

I love the idea of this place but sometimes it lacks… The employees are very nice, but sometime the chicken is inedible and the steak is tough as leather.

I ended up here because I was hungry (obviously) and had time to kill before a meeting. Food was tasty and the combinations in the hot bowl section were interesting.
But never frequenting this place before and not knowing what to order, I soon realized there isn’t a menu posted anyway. Alas I found these flimsy pieces of paper tucked away in the Pick Up cubby section. Maybe these should be more easily accessible? but I could have been looking wrong.
Also my other peeve was the cashier. She rang me up and held her hand out for my card. And held it there while I took out my wallet. Almost gesturing that I hurry up. That really gets me. Then when my transaction was done she didn’t slide my dish over to me, hand it to me, nothing. It was practically dangling off her end of the counter. She immediately turned around and walked away. So I had to reach over the cooler to grab it then gave me a side eye when I went to grab a cup also. Okay…
Anyway, food wasn’t too bad so if you’re starving like I was and moseying around wasting time, give it a try

Food is good, but the portions are way too small! Also last time I was there they accidentally gave me chicken instead of salmon. Cool concept but nothing thats is worth returning for. Much better options in the area.

Roast is a fantastic alternative to the boring salad scene and the food is really tasty. The play here is the hot bowl, which gives you a bunch of healthy options that will fill you up and you won’t feel gross afterwards. I really love this place. The only drawback is price: You’re going to end up in the $ 16 dollar range for lunch, which isn’t terrible but is probably 10% — 15% beyond the going «takeout lunch rate.»
WHAT TO ORDER: You have to go with the hot bowl. Otherwise, Just go to Just Salad or Chopt. Try a warm avocado melted around your cooked salad — fantastic. Also, the creamed spinach is very good.

Three stars because the food is tasty.
— Two stars because service seemed irritated.
I’m new to a place like this where choices as plentiful and unique. Expected more excitement to show me what’s up. Guess not.
The wait was short. Food was finished fast. Everything tastes fresh and hot. Very filling as well.
Would go to Roast Kitchen again, but most likely another locations.

Was very happy to stumble across this place when looking for a place to have lunch near Union Square. When we first walked in before the lunch rush started, there were maybe a handful of people there, but in the span of 25 minutes there was a significant line.
The concept is similar to Chipotle except with roasted meats or fish, and it’s not Tex-​Mex. You can select from a menu of preset cold or hot salad bowl options, or like me, you can build your own. You get a choice of 5 types of greens, then your choice of 4 mix-​ins such as roasted cauliflower, roasted corn, roasted portabella mushrooms, nuts/​seeds, or cheeses like goat cheese. You can then pick a grain such as organic quinoa or rice or farro. You then pick your protein from a variety of herbed or spicy chicken, shio marinated pork, roasted fish, sirloin, shrimp, vegetarian chili or meatballs. You then choose from several dressings (for cold salads) to sauces (for hot bowls).
I selected the build your own hot bowl option with the house blend greens, farro, pork, roasted corn, portabello mushrooms, cauliflower and goat cheese, served with red curry sauce. This was a very inspired salad and was very filling.
They also have complimentary cucumber water and mint water. I also like that you can preorder your food to go, and they put it in an alphabetized cubby filing system once they complete your order.
Alas I’m from out of the country and likely won’t be back soon :(. Wish Roast kitchen would open a franchise in Toronto!

I had a really great experience here. First timer and visiting from out of town. Just like chipotle, but way healthier and more flavor varieties.
I like to eat healthy meals consisting of tons of veggies, and I like to have a bit of control to what’s going into the meal. So, I built my own bowl! I selected a combination of kale and spinach as the base, then picked the toppings, carrots, zucchini. grilled corn, and broccoli. They steamed that down in the sauté pan, added the ginger soy sauce. Then you pick a grain. I selected a mix of quinoa and aramath, and a protein (extra cost) — went with the spicy grilled chicken. I asked for a small container of extra sauce, I had a feeling it would need more flavor.
Since this is very comparative to how I eat at home, I was thrilled to find late night, healthy options for dinner after 9:30 pm. There was not a huge crowd so they were all very helpful and made suggestions, chatted and welcomed me from out of town.
I will definitely return.

My friend and I dropped by for lunch this past Saturday and given what it was and the price point, were mildly disappointed.
Chipotle in style but without the bang, the portions were disproportionately small and the prices were disproportionately high. So while the food itself was (relatively) nutritious and tasty at that, it wasn’t worth it.
Needless to say, we won’t be back.

Nasty stench assaulted me when I entered on 02÷16÷16 yet for some reason I stuck around, and for the worst. Really amazed how this place does ANY repeat business given how little sense the layout or operation makes, but I guess everyone just chases healthfulness. This original USq location still can’t handle rushes and still deems tiny-​printed paper menus at the bottleneck of the line a good way to run the joint, and the chorizo hot bowl didn’t make up for that frustration.
Months later, they still don’t know how to build an Android app, but I guess the iOS demographic is what these prices cater to anyway.

The food here is great (and that deserves 4 stars), but I can’t give this place more than 2 stars due to the extremely poor customer service I experienced tonight. To preface my dining experience, I have to say that I’m an NYU student who gets a 2-​for-​1 deal by showing my NYU ID. From the beginning of the line to the end, my friend and I kept asking for the 2-​for-​1 deal to get confirmation. At the register, my friend was paying for both bowls and the receipt was only -$ 1.00 (the other NYU deal) instead of the deal we asked for. When I told the cashier that, she actually had the nerve to reprimand me for «not telling her about the deal we wanted» and actually raised her voice at me.
We showed our NYU IDs are were purchasing 2 bowls on one card, any rational person would assume that we were getting the 2-​for-​1 deal. Why would we be asking for the -$ 1.00 off of one bowl deal while paying together??? Using some common sense here would have made the entire issue nonexistent. When I asked to see the manager, she LITERALLY rolled her eyes at me. The manager did end up resolving our issue, covering for her by saying «she didn’t understand what we were saying,» which I call BS on, she knew perfectly well. This employee needs to be taught basic manners!!!

This feels like a mix between Vapiano (across the street) and Chipoltle… but not as good as either!
I was confused even walking in… I didn’t know where to go to start my order, so the layout is not great. I ordered the MOROCCAN hot bowl with herb chicken and it tasted healthy and nice. However, I found it a little over priced… and at the end of the day, I prefer the first two restaurants I mentioned!

One of my favorite lunch spots in the Union Square area, because there are very few fast casual places that actually give you a reasonable amount of cooked vegetables. There’s not much seating and it’s weirdly configured, but there’s always union square nearby.
My order is always: hot bowl, rice, house mix, brussel sprouts, broccoli, bell peppers, cauliflower + red curry + pork. $ 12

Food wise this place is pretty good. But the experience here was not good. The lady in front of me gave the exact amount in cash but the lady at the register said that she didn’t give enough and gave her a whole bunch of change back. Be careful when completing transactions in cash. They don’t know how to count correctly.
Secondly, I don’t recommend this place for families with kids. They blast multiple tracks of music with the F word in it. As I write this review its at least the last 5 tracks. There was one that was so bad the guy next to me just walked out.
Third, the bathroom says out of order but I saw one of the staff walk into it. Opened it with a key and used it. So it’s obviously working.

This Union Square lunch spot has been around for a little under a year, and is still full of people every time I walk by.
I just can’t understand why.
I have been here 3 times, each time giving them another chance to wow me, to show me something the others are seeing that I am not, to show me why I should be coming back.
I’ll start with the plusses here… you get to make your own salad the way you want, with total customization and total control. You tell the server a limited number of ingredients, then they assemble them and whip it up for you.
And now the bad… It’s like a salad bar where somebody else is holding the spoon, and you only get to choose a certain number of ingredients. What if you went to a salad bar and somebody stopped you from adding a 5^th ingredient, claiming it would cost extra for an onion or two? Screw that.
The prices are also pretty horrible. Sure, if you get a basic salad with the basic 4 ingredients and dressing, you can walk out of here under $ 10. But as soon as you stat asking for some protein, some extra ingredients, some croutons… you are in trouble.
I have had a basic salad bowl each time I have come here, with grilled chicken added in (and a small amount at that) — left each time with a bill of $ 11 or more. For that price, I could walk to Whole Foods and spend less at their salad bar, and not be limited to 4 ingredients!
Staff members are annoyed with customers, impatient and clearly not happy about working there.
Maybe it’s the BK wood-​and-​iron style branding here, maybe it’s that there are limited options on this block aside from cupcakes and pizza, but Roast Kitchen really is nothing special at all.
I won’t be back.

Good juice. They were out of about half of the things on the menu. Service was ok.
They have a salad section which is like to try one day.

Tasty, healthy, and quick. Portions are pretty big, so I usually prefer this for dinner rather than lunch.
I got a hot bowl — the Moroccan, which has lots of grilled veggies. Also added avocado (LOVE that stuff but in hindsight, I wouldn’t add it to a hot dish…) as well as steak, after I saw that they had JUST made a new batch. The steak was amazing — cooked to a perfect medium, slightly charred.
But all this came down to around $ 15, which isn’t worth it in my opinion… Still a good, relatively healthy option though.

Love the concept but it’s just a tad too complicated. I just wanted to get sides but was told there was a huge price discrepancy just doing that as opposed to getting a bowl and choosing a side (i guess they really want to discourage that behavior)
So, I ordered a moroccan salad with salmon and a side of roasted vegetables. They are really stingy with the food portions for what they are charging — my boyfriend paid approximately $ 30 for our two salads with one protein and a side each.
For example, my server added a small fistful of spinach to the pan which wilted down to almost nothing — filled my bowl with brown rice (which I don’t eat but they wouldn’t let me substitute it for anything), and gave me one spoonful of roasted vegetables before I had to request more.
The salmon was 3 oz (a really small piece) but it was quite tasty. I liked that they cooked it well done on the grill just as I asked for it.
There’s a woman at the end of the line who tries take your order or tries to explain how the process works for newcomers but as I mentioned before it all just felt too convoluted to me if you didn’t want a bowl with grains. Again, since I don’t eat rice I would’ve preferred to get another side or the option of getting even more greens.
Anyway, the space is nice. It kind of reminds me of the atmosphere at mighty quinns but it is clearly trying to compete with digg in. My boyfriend, who eats at digg in a lot, says that it is pricier but was a welcome change since digg in never changes their sides/​options.

I loved the concept of Roast Kitchen — it sounds like a great healthy option for a quick lunch or dinner that doesn’t break the bank. Unfortunately, I just wasn’t impressed by the freshness of the ingredients or the flavor of the bowl I got. And though my ginger bowl looked cheap on the menu at $ 8.75, once I added some chicken the price shot up to $ 11.60. not terribly expensive, I know, but still a big difference. The ingredients in the bowl sounded so tasty: kale, roasted corn, scallions, ginger scallion sauce. But somehow when they were all combined into the bowl it just tasted bland and a bit stale somehow. It was cool that they meat was carved to order, but still my herbed chicken was dry.
I’m definitely not giving up on this place completely. I still like how fast and healthy it is compared to so many other places around there, and I see that the Madison Ave location offers ramen bowls so I’m curious to try that out. As far as a first impression, though, it left me wanting more.

I really, really love this place! I actually really hate salads since they’re all cold and just not tasty. I’ve always said that I like cooked veggies so much more, and this place does exactly that! They take your salad and cook it a little. They have a ton of topping choices and I like that the base I got (kale) was cut very small like Chop’t.
I made my own salad with kale, 4 toppings included (mushrooms, brussel sprouts, chorizo, cauliflower). They also have a wide variety of sauces and you can add garlic and red pepper flakes.
I really enjoyed this meal so much. The only thing is that it’s kind of pricey. It was 9.25 for just this and I didn’t add any meat. If it was cheaper, I’d eat it for lunch everyday!