Review of Build Your Own Bowl at CoreLife Eatery by lunachic

***EDIT (2/17/23): A year later, I read the review I wrote and I feel that I was too harsh and that things have improved at CoreLife. The last few times I visited, they seemed to be keeping the counter pretty clean and doing a better job at keeping foods in their proper containers. Also, they have brought back the edamame, flax seeds, and chopped walnuts. CL is still my favorite place to go for a salad in Fayetteville.

I have such mixed feelings about CoreLife!

On the one hand, it’s not a vegan or a vegetarian restaurant. It’s also not cheap.
With time, they’re getting sloppier and sloppier.

I usually order online and pick up at the restaurant. I always order the ‘Build Your Own’ salad.

A few times, they’ve accidentally put bits of foods that I didn’t order in the bowl. If it’s a veggie, I don’t mind. But two times, they put tiny bits of meat in the bowl! I complained the first time, via their website, and never got a reply.

Since then, I decided that I would only order if I could see them preparing the meal. If you ever watch them behind the counter, you’ll see why they make a mess of the salads. It’s very messy and there are bits of food on the counter and between the food containers. It wasn’t like that when I first started going to this restaurant. They kept it clean in the beginning.

They’ve also stopped providing some foods as options. They got rid of the edamame, the flax seeds, and the chopped walnuts recently, and I don’t know if they’ll ever offer them again.

But moving on to the positives:
When I wrote to them to ask about their ingredients, they wrote back with a very helpful list of all their vegan menu items.

They have a good selection of veggies, clearly marked vegan dressings, two vegan “protein” options (tofu and falafel), and some extra toppings (sliced almonds, cilantro, basil).

I like the fact that the veggies are finely chopped or cut into small pieces.

You can get a better salad here than you can at most restaurants. Most days, I prefer a really good salad (with lots of veggies) over a veggie burger, nuggets, or any other vegan “junk food.”

In the photo, you’ll see a salad that contains kale, quinoa, chickpeas, black beans, tomatoes, carrots, pickled red cabbage, sliced almonds, cilantro, falafel, and a side of their Thai cashew dressing. It tasted fresh and delicious.

I usually get the tofu instead of the falafel, but I found that if you order at night, odds are good that they’ll give you shriveled up, dry, hardened tofu cubes that have been sitting around for hours.

Also, FYI, you can tip when you place the order if you want to, but it will definitely not improve your odds of getting good service.