Zoopa Organic

Yuck. It’s a Golden Corrale, Royal Fork type place but with a label «organic»
Oooo– the smoothie we got was sooooo gross.

I’ve gone here several times before and the food is always good! Clean and selection is pretty decent considering it’s all organic!
We went here last week with other family for dinner. And although the food was delicious, we just can’t justify paying our bill over $ 50 for 2 adults and 2 kids under seven years old. We would have much rather spent it on Vietnamese food or a sushi place.
Like I said the food is good and the place is clean. We had a big group total so lots of plates and trays piled up. It took awhile for the wait staff to pick up the empty plates, but nonetheless, they were still good.
I’d say that if you are wanting to come here, go here for lunch. Otherwise, if you are on a budget and want more bang for your buck, go elsewhere for dinner :)

I rarely write reviews, but I had to write about this experience. I hadn’t gone to Zoopa’s in a while, and while I’ve always been a fan, I was very pleasantly surprised upon coming back this time. They do seem to change their setup pretty frequently, so at first I was a bit confused as to how things worked. But once I figured it out, I found it was a big improvement — the food was excellent — the addition of steaks and fish was very nice — the people are extremely friendly, courteous, and helpful. They also seem to have added to their selection, with some really good pastas, soups, and cold pastas as well.
My favorite part though was the service from the manager that day. I don’t think he was the actual manager, but perhaps more of a lead. But he was really great — I was amazed by how much he took on — one minute he was serving ice cream, the next minute he was welcoming patrons, and the next he was running the register. In particular, when I was paying for the meal, he told me 1) the meal was free for my 3 year old daughter, and 2) he asked if my 5 year son ate enough — he said he knew a lot of kids don’t eat much, and he didn’t want to charge me if he didn’t eat! Wow, now that’s service and true concern for the well being and satisfaction of your customers!
My wife and I agreed that Zoopa’s in Southcenter is now one of our favorite family locations, and will be coming here often!

My initial excitement at finding an organic restaurant was quickly crushed after my first few bites. Think Old Country Buffet *slightly* healthier. The salad bar was no better than you’d get at a dine in pizza chain and the dressings were full of sugar and canola. The pasta choices were overcooked and tasteless and the soups were truly terrible. Who puts gravy in chicken noodle soup? Zoopa apparently. Definitely not a place I would return to unless the recipes were greatly improved. I eat pretty healthy and am a definite foodie so this was simply disappointing.
If you are a fan of OCB you might like it ok.

I’ve been here a few times. Seems like the buffet set up changes every time.
Lunch on the weekend is better then dinner.
Previous lunch visits have been a lot better experiences. Food was fresh and looked yummy.
Came here tonight for dinner (2÷8÷2015) and there was no one to greet us. The cook came from the back and told us to just sit anywhere. The selection of salad fixings was smaller then previous times. Most of the hot food was over cooked and seemed to be sitting in the warmers for hours.
I would suggest zoopa if you want a quick salad and maybe some bread.

This is as close to Souplantation as I’m going to get in Washington and I’m okay with that. The salad bar alone is worth the price (especially for lunch). If you come after 3pm, the stir fry is actually quite amazing. For dessert their rice krispy treats are pretty awesome too!
Check in on Unilocal and get a free soda!

This place is vegetarian friendly and has an awesome salad bar. They also have ice cream and smoothies you can order inside the buffet. You must try there corn bread it is delicious.

I would come back just for the salad bar alone!!! Everything was super fresh. Great variety of toppings. Lots of veggies and dressing to pick from! I ended up making a huge salad because I loved all the options! I saw a staff member going around and checking to make sure everything was filled and at the right temperature.
I like the idea of the all you can eat. Salad bar, pizza, baked potatoes, pasta, soup, baked goods, ice cream, stir fry and meat. My complaint was that the salad bar was the shinning star while everything else was kinda just ok. Not to say the food wasn’t good, it just wasn’t anything amazing. There was nothing I wanted seconds of. I was not a fan of the stir fry but it could of been maybe I just didn’t like the sauce and should of tried a different one.
The staff was beyond great! Someone kept making sure all the tables were clean. Always asking if any plates needed to be cleared. The manager (I am thinking) kept walking around and asking how everything was and if needed anything. The girl doing the full tilt ice cream was again super friendly and offered samples. Even the cashier was great! Everyone seemed super willing to help!
The ambience like other mentioned is kinda weird seems more like a cafeteria then a restaurant.
So they have changed their pricing, even if the signs don’t reflect the new price. Everything is now included, one protein per person, soda and full tilt ice cream. Only thing still not included is the juice, smoothie bar.
Like I said I would totally come back for the salad bar, full tilt ice cream and the friendly staff!

I love salads. I love salad bars. I love organic. I love buffets.
King County is unfortunately lacking in all of the above. I was so excited to go to Zoopa.
Love:
— Typically fresh selection of greens and veggies
— The staff is really nice
— Creative social media drink special
— Punch card
— Fantastic concept
— The jello
Meh
— The music (I can only handle so much Michael Bubble, but I love the 90s alt-​rock)
— The dressings (very, cheap dressing sitting around in a plastic tub-​ish)
— I wish there was a place where I could put my own dishes. Sometimes you accidentally put the gross raspberry dressing on, when you were intending the creamy Italian.
— Full Tilt ice cream. Not my thing, but more room for yummy jello.
Sadness:
— Staff often doesn’t refill veggies
— Hard to find staff assistance when you need it
— Before the holidays, they squeezed all of the tables and buffets into a small area
— Both of us got food poisoning, twice.
— Limited beverage options.
— Soups are pretty bland
— Christmas music before Thanksgiving
I want to love you, Zoopa. I will give you all the monies!

We moved here from Texas and were really surprised to find that this was the only option in the region for a soup/​salad bar. This place provides lots of organic food options, but other than than that it’s nothing to rave about. The food can be bland, but that’s to be expected if you’re trying to eat healthier. They have a good salad bar for people going healthy, and then they have the soups, pastas, pizzas, breads, and desserts for people who are splurging! I like that it’s self-​serve and that you dont have to tip. Overall, I thought the food was okay, but not worth going back again since I live on the eastside!

I like it.
For under $ 10 for lunch, I got a buffet of fresh salad bar, soups, pasta, baked potato, and baked goods and soft serve.
The salad was fresh and there were lots of different items to choose from. The soups were decent too. I liked the creamy tomato bisque the most. The pastas were a little sad looking because they have been left out but the sauces for them were flavorful. I mixed the meat and alfredo sauces to make my own. Notice the trend I like my tomatoes creamy? I would pass on the baked goods as they were kinda dry but they have soft serve ice cream and some puddings available!
I came after 1PM on a weekday so my plates were cleared each time I left the table. The people were friendly, especially the guy that was running the juice bar. Overall, I enjoyed my visit. I will be back because it’s so close to where I stay in Seattle.
One con: I think having Organic in the name is a bit deceiving. They do label which items were organic and there wasn’t a lot. However, Zoopa does list the ingredients on certain food items which was nice.

I was dismayed just in walking through the front door. We came here for a business lunch. It was my idea, prompted to pick a place in the area and not really having too many favorites near the airport. I opted for Zumbas based on the reopening with «Organic» preceding the name.
Unfortunately, I do have comparisons from where they were a decade ago to where they are now. I believe they were better off in the former.
Fortunately, I had great company during my visit which took away from the cold and desolate atmosphere that I would have had to embrace if I was taking a lunch by myself.
The bagel pizzas did look tempting. I never made it that far. Walking into the salad bar area was confusing. The flow of traffic was chaotic, with very little room to maneuver around people. The bar itself was too wide, for myself as well as the taller diners I ate with. We all agreed that it was impossible to reach for what you need, sometimes having to go to the other side of the bar and stretch in strange yoga like poses to get to what you wanted. The line for the soup was a little ridiculous and when I did get to it, I was unimpressed but starving. I opted for some sort of creamy kale concept that was good but a little too buttery for my taste. The other soups were your standard minestrone, chicken noodle and tomato. All of the soups were on their last leg, with little left in the pot.
Several people as well as myself found that finding things was trying. At one point I said aloud, «where are the utensils» and 2 people spoke up, stating they had trouble finding it as well and pointed me to the end of the middle salad bar. Stationary wise, their salad condiments are located at the beginning when you walk in. As you usually top your salad with dressing, nuts, oils and/​or such I would recommend moving said condiments to the END of the salad bar. That would alleviate some of the congestion of people.
Maybe lunch is not the best time to come? I might try this place again for dinner but was disappointed enough to be leary of bringing anyone else here. There were some regulars whom complimented either the Manager or Owner when he passed by, stating they really liked the changes that have been made. Those comments really took me aback and to this moment, have me wondering what exactly the condition was before? Maybe a second try is not in my future.

Glad to see this place is back open.
Just stopped in for a quick dinner while driving by and it was great. Good selection of fresh salad ingredients, fairly priced and helpful staff.
We will be back. Good option if your looking for a healthy meal

Locally owned by a family in Burien, WA! clean, very fresh. Give it another try! :)
Haven’t been to zoopa for a long time, and I was glad we went. Huge salad bar, when your salad bar offers jicama and alyce feta, you get happy! They have a bakery, that offers choices in muffins, breads, pizzas, and dessert items. A wok grill, fruit bar, potato plethora (mashed, whole, sweet), multiple soup buffet, and create your own pasta choices. Also including icecream with two choices, either additional $ 2.99 for scoop or free soft serve with toppings.
I loved it. Where else can you get an alyce for organic salad? Happy with how nice everyone was and automatic free drink with Unilocal check in. I do miss the buttered rice from the old zoopas. Other than that, we enjoyed our evening of healthy dining.

I was a big patron of the old Zoopa’s.
Fine dining it was not, but the selection was good and we had team dinners there and everything.
The new «organic» Zoopa’s is not so good and too expensive for what you get.
Only half of the salad bar selection, weird combinations, poor soups with no label to tell you what they are. Dried out pasta, miniature muffins, no lemonade, actually they don’t even have beer or wine any more. They should have stuck to the original plan and just glammed the place up a bit. Especially for what they charge. Its a salad bar!

I ate at Zoopas many years ago and had fond memories of it. When I was invited to a media preview this year and couldn’t make it, I was bummed because I remembered the old Zoopas. Months later I finally make it out there and it was a massive disappointment and a very sad place.
It starts at the salad bar where you have old lettuce and empty salad dressings. Is ranch not a salad bar staple? Because it was empty and it was obvious no one checked on the status of the bar regularly. Bacon? None of that either. Then you move on to dessert, which I found oddly placed. There’s then a station with both pasta salads and desserts in one bar… and without labels of what is what.
Then we moved on to the hot pasta and soup station. The noodles were all cold and the sauces that accompanied them barely warm. Then there were 5 or 6 soups and only labels for 3. I had to open and inspect each one to try and figure out what each was. I settled on a tomato bisque and there was barely any left. At this point I start expressing my frustration with this place with my guest. A kid from the kitchen decides to mess with me. He says «are you displeased with something?» I tell him everything I try to go for is practically empty and smart ass says «obviously not if you’re still getting soup». Really? That’s the take away? I tell him I’m not dealing with his crap and move along. At this point I want to drop my tray and walk out because this place is horrendous but I feel guilty that I put food on the plate.
We go and look for a table, most were dirty and food particles had been caked in the table so we settle for the least dirty one. We start eating and realize what a sham this place is. When the manager makes his round checking on guests, all I could do is say fine so I wouldn’t get into all the issues. My problems with Zoopas is probably something he can’t control anyhow, the owners should definitely know though, which is why I’m writing this here.
Zoopas claims they make their food from scratch and use organic ingredients. I’d like to call bullshit on those statements. I had some mashed potatoes with gravy and they clearly came from a box. Homemade mashed potatoes have some lumps and taste fresh. The gravy looked like brown jello is was so shiny and gel like. You call that organic? Perhaps the vegetables were but that’s about it but when then, highly doubtful.
The ambiance is awful. They are roped off areas where seating hasn’t been finished, dirty tables, cafeteria trays that look like crap as if they were older that the restaurant itself, barely any customers inside so it can’t be usage. This really made me wonder what the opening was like, if it was any better or the same old same old.
By the way everything I wanted was empty, labels missing from a lot of their offerings, dirty tables, lack of customers and quality of food, shows me that this place only puts up the minimum amount of effort. It’s a very sad place and I was beyond embarrassed that I took someone there with me. But hey, check in and get a free soda… a free flat soda.
I seriously question the validity of positive reviews this place for recently.

Eh. I was here before it was ‘fancy’ and I will say the quality went WAY up since then.
But, for me, I don’t eat salad so I’m missing what makes up 80% of the offerings. Yeah, I know, you’re making the face and saying ‘Who the F doesn’t eat salad?” well, me. But I like all the other stuff and we were hungry RIGHT NOW so we went.
You go in and are greeted, they explain it (such a nice young man at the front desk) and then make your way down the line, the weirdest thing? If you don’t grab a salad bowl, THERE ARE NO PLATES ANYWHERE, some weird little bowls yes but NO PLATES.
The food I had — pizza, baked potato, pasta with white sauce, brownie, rice krispie treat– was good, the pizza improved over their previous offerings into ‘not just good for a buffet and the rest were all fine but not remarkable.
They cleared the tables super fast, super friendly, the people cooking and the girl who let us try a few flavors at the counter were also great, so the service top to bottom was quite good.
We added a scoop of Full Tilt (YAY!) for $ 2 each and had 2 drinks as well as our meals, one was a kids plate (8 – 11) and our check came to $ 60. YES, that’s what you heard. Waaaay too much for me.
Quality — ⁷⁄₁₀
Service– ⁷⁄₁₀
Price ³⁄₁₀
Average ⁶⁄₁₀

They’ve made some changes & it’s better!
Still have the great organic ingredients to make a salad or pasta along with soups, bread, muffins & desserts all for one price. Other items are still additional. However, they built in a bar to keep the bread and potatoes steamed. They got rid of the empty, second salad bar that wasn’t being used and the place is a lot cleaner. A couple people were vacuuming their hearts out.
One person checked on us which was fine since this buffet style restaurant is 100% do it yourself.
When we went to pay, I noticed they have punch cards. Also, we weren’t asked to give a tip to the imaginary waiter like last time so that was a bonus.
The only complaint I have on this visit was that the roll I got was hard as a rock. It would have made a great hockey puck.
Food: 3
Service: NA
Ambiance: 4
Parking: 4

When I found out Zoopa Organic would have Full Tilt Ice Cream, I was so excited that it was reopening. After reading the disappointing reviews, I decided to wait a while before actually trying it out. At this point, I think they still don’t have an actual sign out front but I stopped in for lunch with my coworkers anyway.
When you walk in, there’s someone at the cash register so you can pay there and then get your plate and tray. The first plate I picked up was dirty so I ended up searching through the stacks to find a plate that didn’t have food residue on it. This would be my biggest complaint. To the managers or owners of this restaurant: PLEASE get new plates or at the very least make sure the plates you have are completely clean before placing them out for guests to use. I assumed that the plates were washed quickly with the spray and dish washer method that can sometimes leave things behind, but it is just so unappetizing to see a bigger number of plates with leftover food on it in comparison to clean plates.
There are a lot of options for vegetables for your salad with little signs indicating their organic status, which I didn’t care too much about. Most of the vegetables looked fresh and it’s easy to create a colorful, healthy plate. The dressing bottles aren’t as inconvenient as I thought they would be considering the other reviews. But maybe that’s because the dressing I chose came in a regular squeeze bottle. I actually prefer that the dressings are bottled instead of in tubs with ladles, it just seems more cleanly. Other salad toppings that I saw included proteins (contrary to other reviews), there was cubed ham, chicken, hard boiled eggs, and tofu if I recall correctly. There were also various beans, seeds, and nuts along with croutons.
Getting closer to the dining area, the smell of bleach became overwhelming. I guess it’s better to smell bleach than to smell… uhh…other things and I guess it could be attributed to their recent reopening so hopefully the scent dies down because it doesn’t create the best ambiance. There is a noodle station after the salad bar where you can choose from the sauces of the day or stir fry. They have cooked pasta out in refrigerated containers along with vegetables and noodles. I decided to try the alfredo sauce with the bowtie pasta. There’s a cook that takes your choices, heats the pasta/​noodles in water, then tosses it in the sauce in a pan as you wait. The cook was nice and helpful and it was kind of cool to watch part of the preparation.
Next to the pasta area, there’s a soup bar where you can serve yourself. I think there were four options to choose from. Next to that is the bread area where they had pretty sparse options considering it was lunch time and they should have been prepared to be at least semi-​fully stocked. I noticed two bagel pizzas that looked sad and unappealing. The bread options that were available was also very limited and the bread that I chose was too hard for me to even consider eating. There is also a very small baked potato bar that you could easily miss if you weren’t paying attention.
It was hard to find forks because they were missing from one silverware area, which again shouldn’t happen during a peak hour like lunchtime. Once we got our forks, we sat down and ate. I enjoyed my salad, it felt healthy and tasted fresh. The alfredo pasta was also pretty good, it reminded me of the original Zoopa because that was my favorite thing to get. Finally, the tomato soup wasn’t that special so I decided to just give up on it and save room for dessert. The bus person that was working during lunch deserves a mention as he was very friendly and helpful.
I eventually headed back out on my dessert quest and someone was reloading the cookies, which was nice. Unfortunately, the soft serve machine was still broken but there was a sign on it that said you could get scooped Full Tilt ice cream instead. So I asked the lady in the cookie area where to get ice cream and she kindly explained that I would need to go to the juice bar to get it. I went over there and someone told me which flavors were available (vanilla, Mexican chocolate, and Almond Joy) and scooped it out for me. Aside from ice cream, I opted to try the berry crumble bar and lemon bars.
I wasn’t that impressed with the berry crumble bar but the lemon bars were worth trying even though they seemed to be frozen and thawed. The ice cream is really what drew me to Zoopa Organic and probably will be what draws me back. The Mexican chocolate ice cream was so good — all the spices and the chocolatey creaminess, I would’ve gone back for at least two more cups if I hadn’t been on a time crunch.
This whole novel is to say that I think Zoopa Organic is a decent place to go for a quick and healthy lunch. They just need to work on some minor tweaks:
1. Provide thoroughly clean plates;
2. Be prepared for the lunchtime rush; and
3. Air out the bleach aroma.

Sorry, the other reviewers here just plain have it wrong. This place is pretty good.
1) Some (many?) of the vegetables are organic. It is noted as such. That’s great.
2) The stir fry grill guy has a grill. He’s my favorite dude in the entire place. He’s also cool and will stir fry whatever you give him. You should hang around the grill so that he can hand you your plate when you’re done but if you happen to go back to your table, he’ll bring it out to you.
3) The juice bar is open. It looks closed but it’s not. If you order it, they will man it for you. Just grab a plate full of vegetables and fruit and they’ll juice it all up for you. It’s a little expensive but it’s worth it.
4) The baked potato area is nice.
5) The pizzas are good but way too filling since it’s on a bagel.
6) The cookies are really good.
7) The soft serve ice cream is really good.
8) You can get pasta at the grill too. The grill guy will let you choose from elbow pasta or something else and you can get marinara sauce or alfredo sauce. My son asked the grill guy if he could make mac and cheese and the guy said sure… like I said, grill guy is cool.
If you’ve been to Souplantation or Sweet Tomatoes, you know the drill. Pay, get your food, eat, go back for 2nds/​3rds/​etc.
Winner…

Zoopas deserves a 5-​star review because of their fresh organic juice option. You pay $ 7.99 for a bucket that you fill as full as you can get it with organic produce, and then they juice it in front of you. We got four 16oz. Travel cups worth of organic juice, which equates to organic juice for $ 2 each, something that even Jamba charges $ 5 each for and their fruit isn’t organic. This deal CAN’T BE BEAT! I’m starting a juice detox and you can bet that I will be stopping by Zoopas daily.

This place should have stayed closed. Right when you come in, you pay for your meal. They then give you the option to tip (10%, 15%, 20%) which I think is ridiculous. Most people tip based on the quality of service; why tip when you haven’t even sat down yet?
The salad bar looked nice BUT a lot of the stuff tasted really weird. The cucumbers tasted like they were going bad and the chicken was disgusting. I then had a bowl of chili and tomato bail soup. Wow… the tomato soup looked like it came out of a can and the chili tasted like it came out of bag (It did, I saw them pouring it out of a bag…). Extremely disappointing. I didn’t finish either.
Back to the tipping part, my friend tipped prior to we sat down but we had NO service. No one checked in on us, no one took our plates/​trays and we got everything ourselves (food, drinks). SO what are supposed to be tipping for?
The only highlight for me were the cookies. I will never come back here and based on the reviews, I don’t see it lasting much longer.

Just had lunch today, it wasn’t all that great. They had a great fresh variety of salad option toppings and ingredients as well as dressings. They also have a fresh juicer area too, and stir fry section. They had a pasta station as well as some fried rice, pizza bagels, soups, baked goods.
If you want protein you have to order it separately, I got the steak and it was small :-/​probably because its organic meat. But it was delicious. The soups were at a really hot temperature burning my mouth, but they were good. The vegetable soup and chili were yummy. I liked the cookies too, they had chocolate chip, peanut butter, oatmeal raisin, etc, some bread and jams and such. Full tilt soft serve ice cream with yummy toppings like coconut shavings, nuts, caramel, chocolate, chocolate chips, sprinkles…
It didn’t wow me, I liked the marinara sauce, but it was too runny, the alfredo was curdled and was not prepared correctly but I still got full. I can tell most items were organic because of how smaller the oranges looked as well as the pears and such.
They still need more work here though, it was dead with barely anyone there and the temperature of the restaurant was so hot my face and my sons face turned red. I think they need a bettee set up of items and how to do things, like I didnt know they could stir fry veggies for us or that there were condiments for us to grab like ketchup or steak sauce, didnt see them til the end because I walked to the restroom. Basically the set up of the restaurant needs to be improved. And increase the price and serve a particular protein. Tofu would be a nice addition to their menu too.
The ups would be the staff, everyone was so friendly and helpful.

I used to frequent Zoopas when I lived in the area. I have wished for something like this in Vegas. That is, until I came back to find them reopened into a suckfest. Wow. Back when I lived here, the place was usually packed. Now it’s dead. And, for good reason. The owners must have felt that, if you’re gonna do something bad, do it gloriously bad.
Here’s what you find now:
It’s rebranded as Zoopa Organic. Which doesn’t necessarily mean that anything is actually organic, but it does mean that there’s no meat and little selection.
The salad bar is cut in half — possibly even a third — of the size it was before. Lettuce. Chick peas. Shredded carrots. Broccoli. Not much else. The dressings are in these stupid dispensers that make it nearly impossible to pour, like they’re punishing you for choosing Ranch as you keep smacking it and hoping it will belch out another blop somewhere near your plate.
Big bowls of tortilla chips with absolutely nothing to put on them.
An abandoned «juice bar» with no juice, no instructions, or even any fruit in sight.
Pastas with choice of sauce — runny meatless red or watery meatless white.
Soups. None with protein.
Bread.
Baked potatoes that you can add butter, sour cream, green onions, & fake bacon bits to.
Bagel pizzas (one actually had what looked like it could be Canadian bacon, but it tasted terrible).
Cakes, jello, ice cream.
They get two stars for being clean and only costing $ 10. What they don’t get is either of us returning.