Organic to Go

This place is fabulous. The sandwhiches are delish and the salads are fresh. My only complaint is it’s a bit too pricey, but I suppose that’s what you get in fancy Bethesda.

OTG reduced their hours a few months back. Such a shame — — it’s the only café in Bethesda that offers mostly organic fare at a really reasonable price. I hope busy improves and they increase their hours. The food is so fresh and bursting with flavor. I can’t say that I’ve ever had «fast food» that tasted so great!
They really need to do a better job with the curb appeal. The sign is really hard to see from the street and the lighting is so dim that it always looks closed. I’m sure this hasn’t helped with the sales.

try the pizzas here! the wheat thin crust is so crispy, and sauce and toppings are delish! reasonably priced too (2 ppl sharing a 12″ pizza is perfect)
staff is very friendly. will definitely be back again!

Organic to go finds itself right across from Sweetgreen, and the two are very similar as far as fresh ingredients and custom salad offerings. They only have four sandwiches on their menu, and I am a fan of all of them– a great mix of flavors with great bread. Everything is made fresh in front of you, and the service is quick, but it can get pretty busy. Its not the cheapest either, but is a great lunch option. The also offer a selection of fresh ice teas– I’m a fan of the coconut green tea.

A good lunch spot for those working in the area; I’d recommend trying to call ahead for your order as things get pretty busy. I wish they’d lightly stir fry or do SOMETHING to their tofu — it’s a disappointing bite when you’re crunching down on lettuce and nuts. The people working there are always really nice and let me substitute two veggies for the meat I was nixing from the salad.
The pizzas looked amazing. When this Lent is over, I’m all about that.

Fantastic food, great staff, moderate prices! I expected organic to cost more than they were charging. Definitely will return!
Everything tasted super fresh. Can’t wait to go back.

Amazing. Walking in there you know that everything is completely fresh and organic. A million and a half thumbs up. I recommend the queens or the 12inch rustica pizza.

I love this place! The food is stellar and their outlook on how to improve the word is right up my alley. I like the selection, fresh ingredients, biodegradable utensils and overall upbeat and healthy attitudes. These are super friendly people that care about doing things right for a healthy body and a healthy planet. Please check them out.

Another potentially good lunch spot in Bethesda. Salads, sandwiches and oven baked pizza, all created to order. My critique on their salads: they are simply too big and heavy on cheeses and dressing. Salads are served in contemporary bowls that look nice as serving dishes, but are turn-​offs as an individual bowl.
Otherwise, fresh ingredients, nice selection, very minimalistic décor. I’ll be back (with a buddy!) to share another salad.

They have the best butternut squash soup and raisin bread. Their salads are also excellent and huge. It does feel a little expensive, but I think that is due to the quality of ingredients and commitment to being environmentally sustainable.
I am a little worried about them being able to stay open, the Sweet Green across the street opened a couple months before them and always seems to be much busier. Hopefully some of those people will take a chance and cross the street.

I really love this place. It is my favorite quick place to eat in Bethesda — and it’s healthy, too.
They have excellent vegetarian sandwiches and my boyfriend says the carcass sandwiches are good too. I usually get the Bronx which has portabella mushrooms, roasted red peppers, and a bunch of other veggies and some delicious sauce to top it off.
Last time I was there we got the Yountville pizza which was amazing. Portabellas, onions, truffle oil and cheesy goodness on a wheat crust. And even their water is good — they make their own cucumber water!

Came here one day after work in search of dinner to bring home for me and my boyfriend. The menu offers a variety of fresh sandwiches, salads and pizzas! Which include meat and vegetarian options. I ordered «the Bronx» on fresh focaccia. Lots of fresh veggies (roasted red peppers, avocado, spinach, onions, tomato) on fresh made focaccia bread. I think you can add cheese if you want. Next time I go back I will have to try the pizza! While I was waiting for my food I got a glimpse of a couple pies that looked AMAZING. Great service and Great location!

Very solid, well-​priced food and a nice change up from the usually downtown Bethesda fare. I ordered an ogo (a calzone, more or less), served on a wooden pizza oven board. It was very delicious and filling despite its small size. Good salads with some of the freshest ingredients you’ll find in a restaurant. Great service and a nice atmosphere.

Great food. Iffy service. Simply put the food here is top notch. But, my two experiences at this new premium quick serve have been marred by inept service. Of the four orders placed, three were completely wrong.
First visit yielded two wrong orders. One incorrectly prepared sandwich and a forgotten ogo. I need to also note I really wanted to try the spare rib sandwich (Brooklyn), but they were out of spare ribs. After my wife finally got her correct sandwich (Bronx), she immediately professed it was one of the best she has had in a long time. I finally got my ogo after I had to remind them and waited over 15 mins.
Second visit. Decided to give them a second chance b/​c we realized we visited on their opening weekend and they might have been working out the kinks. No better result. This time they got half our order correct. Wife got the same sandwich and loved it. I decided to go for the same spare rib sandwich. This time they were actually using tickets to submit the orders. So, I thought that might alleviate my first forgotten order and the incorrect sandwich from our first visit. Alas, not so lucky. My order: Brooklyn sandwich. My ticket: Berkley Ogo. Went and paid; for a Brooklyn sandwich, and notice the error on the ticket. Went back to the staffer to confirm: «I ordered the Brooklyn, you got that, right?» Staffer, «Oh yeah, I changed it»
Sat outside to wait. Wife got here meal in a reasonable amount of time. But, as time started to draw on, I realized there had to be a problem… again. Went back in to check. Of course, incorrect order… again. They had made an Ogo and asked if I wanted that. «No, I wanted what I ordered». But, I was so hungry I went with the Ogo and sucked up the nominal additional amount (only $ 0.50) I had already paid for the sandwich… which btw, they were STILL out of. Admittedly, it was really good.
So here’s the deal. I really want to like this place, but I feel like they are cutting their teeth specifically on me. It just feels like they didn’t have a plan before they opened. The staff seem really unsure of themselves and seem to spend too much time making the «perfect» sandwich or salad. I can’t see how this place would survive during a busy lunch rush.
The positives about this place are the quality ingredients; great tasting food; and well meaning/​enthusiastic staff. And to their credit, every time they messed up they made some sort of offer for a comp drink or another comp sandwich. And I truly appreciated that, but honestly just want what I ordered done correctly.
So, I’m willing to chalk all this up to opening glitches and kinks. But, for a national chain opening in the highly competitive Bethesda market, I’d expect that not to be the case. I will go again and report back, so stay tuned.

Just to clear up some confusion– this place has the same owners as all of the «Organic To Go» places elsewhere in the city, although it’s the first of a «new concept» the owners are trying out. Instead of focusing on ready-​made sandwiches a la Marvelous Market, Ogo makes the pizzas, sandwiches and salads as you order. The other concept works well in super busy areas for the work crowd, but this is a much better concept if you have a few extra minutes for a real meal.
The place just opened and you can tell they are still working out a few kinks. We didn’t know where to order or which person to tell our choices. Once we got it together, the people were friendly and the food came really quickly.
The pizza with portabella mushrooms was the highlight, which had lots of fresh mozz and a nice crispy crust. It was also only $ 9 and was really more than enough for at least two people. The salad with goat cheese and balsamic was well received. The only food that was disappointing was the tuna salad sandwich that I ordered. It was too salty and boring, and had way too much foccacia bread.
My favorite part of the meal was the coconut iced tea. It didn’t even need any sugar, and I love sweet tea. Sitting outside was also very pleasant. I would definitely come back, especially for the pizza.

The salad looks good. The «Ogo» (a calzone) is marginally OK.
They asked if I wanted it for there or to go when I ordered and when I paid and both times I answered «here» because there’s a nice sidewalk café area in front and it was the nicest day of the year… but they handed me a neatly sealed to go box. Not a huge deal, but then I had to go back inside to get a fork and stuff, leaving my food outside (with one eye peeled, ready to bolt into a run if needed).
Eating outside was not the best idea. I like «organic» for sure, but bugs and birds galore are not my idea of keepin’ it real or healthy. If I go back, I’ll stay inside.
One potentially sketchy thing that happened when I was ordering was the young woman who I believe was the salad maker/​chef actually dropped her pen in the spring mix before writing my order. I might have thrown away the little bit of greens that came into contact with the pen (especially with a customer right there), but she just grabbed the pen from the prepped greens and started to note my order.
I was very happy with the free self serve lemon water. I didn’t like the way everything was laid out. It seems like it’s not very well planned out and the employees all seem very awkward. I believe this has been open for about a week as of this writing, so I can give some benefit of doubt. I might go back for a salad even after seeing that pen drop move today.

I was excited when I first heard that Organic To Go was opening in Bethesda, until I Unilocaled what I thought were its other DC locations and read some pretty awful reviews. I decided to give it a shot today, and was relieved to find it’s definitely NOT the same crappy chain as the one I looked up.
Where to begin… the interior is decorated in really pretty apple green tiles and glass marblework, with wood floors. There’s ample inside seating, as well as outdoor tables. Much like SweetGreen, the materials O2G uses are all compostable or recyclable (a sign by the menu said their utensils and sandwich containers are made of corn).
They had a few already-​made sandwiches and salads available, with a great selection of juices, kettle and yummy looking edamame chips if you’re in a rush. Not sure why William P. was complaining about no dessert — they definitely had a nice selection of $ 2 cupcakes (lemon and marble are the flavors I remember seeing).
As for the in-​house food — I saw SO many things I am dying to try. The tuna sandwich was the only unappealing item on the menu for me; their pizzas and salads all sounded amazing. I settled on the Queens sandwich (roast turkey, melted brie, granny smith apples, red onions, dijon aoli) on toasted wheat. It was delicious. Anne ordered a St. Helena «ogo» (basically a small calzone). We were told ahead of time that it would take longer because it required an oven, but the five minute wait was no big deal.
The staff were super friendly and informative. I love SweetGreen, but they’re so busy that every transaction I’ve had there has been strictly business. The girl who took my order even spelled my name right. As we were waiting for Anne’s ogo, she noticed a list of premium iced teas you could pick from — I chose an oolong with coconut milk, and she picked a sencha with strawberry. We swapped tastes and I loved both.
I have to admit that when I first found out O2G was opening opposite SweetGreen, I envisioned an epic food fight between the staffs of both stores, but now I can go to one for delicious sandwiches and the other for froyo with fresh fruit, and feel good about having not mucked up the planet in the process.

I work in downtown bethesda, so I kind of have tried pretty much every place for lunch… including Sweet Green. I love sweet green, esp because it was founded by my fellow HOYAS, but only going there for a healthy (yet still not crazy expensive) lunch on a daily basis can get kind of mehhhh. So I stopped by organic to go, and it was empty, but I’m an optimist, so I decided to give them a try. I’m kind of pretending to try to become a vegetarian lately, so I ordered the portabello mushroom+caramelized onions sandwich (I can’t remember what it’s called… something like Bronx or something?) and was very impressed. I asked for it on foccaccia, toasted… and it had spinache, avocado, the aforementioned portabello mushrooms and caramelized onions, roasted red peppers and roasted red pepper spread. they asked me if i wanted goat cheese, because the sandwich is originally offered as a vegan thing but i decided to add the goat cheese… I was very impressed! I ate it like 15 minutes later and it was still toasty, yet fresh… the ingredients were fabulous! Also, the place is pretty nice on the inside, too… a little bit dark, but the seating is nice and I can’t wait for this place to pick up in business somewhat.
Hopefully the quality won’t go down once their business gets better.
and YES, this place is WAY better than the organictogo in DC (which my brother says was pretty miserable. the one on F street or whatever).

Ok, so to my confusion this is NOT the chain «Organic to Go» that has stores in downtown DC.
The restaurant is really nicely laid out and the decour is tastefully done. The menu is displayed on a few brightly lit TV screens, one for each pizza, salads and sandwiches. A guy came up while we were in line to write down our order and the staff seem really friendly. The woman who worked the registered was very knowledgable about the organic movement as well as the sources of the ingredients when I asked her about local and seasonal produce.
I ordered the Bronx sandwich (mushroom, onions, red peppers, spinach, avocado and tomato hazelnut spread on ciabatta) while my dad got a Lyon salad. They forgot the cheese on his salad but one of the cashiers ran outside to where we were sitting and brought him some extra on the side.
Overall it was a great experience and it’s nice to go to a place where the employees actually understand the food they’re serving.
website is

Just across the street from SWEET GREEN it is another healthy alternative in Bethesda Row… open for one week, first offering $ 9 for large Shanghai chicken bowl (only three pieces I counted) and Honest Tea… everybody uses flat bread now a days+ so the sandwiches didn’t look like anything special that I saw. They need dessert options like SWEET GREEN. We’ll see how they do and Georgetown Cupcake coming next door…