Sweet Tomatoes

The selection is limited, and is over priced. The staff is less cutomer oriented than most fast food restaurants.

My husband, 8 month old daughter (who eats solids) and I went here recently. We are healthy eaters, so we were looking forward to a fast & healthy option for dinner. While we appreciated the service, and the food tasted okay, we thought there could have been some improvements. Mostly, for a «salad bar,» I had to search hard for healthy options that were not raw vegetables; and for the high price of each adult, I hoped for at least a few organic options, and saw none. However, my husband really enjoyed the clam chowder. And I liked that the dressings were housemade. We also liked that our daughter ate free. This place is not a fancy dining establishment, but it met our simple needs for the night.

I have been here many times and I plan on coming again, but I want to make a note on one particular person. A waitress or bus girl, I don’t know what they go by here but she was extremely rude. My family of three, myself, husband and daughter were enjoying the great food and she was gossiping about how she hates small children making a mess on the floor and she thought it was rude for the parents to just leave it there. We were a table away and could hear her talking to these couple of ladies. Oh but she didn’t blame us for our child’s mess. My husband told her we usually clean up the mess our children make. I was still heated by the whole situation. She was rude.

A 40′ salad bar, 6 choices of soup, a couple pasta side dishes, baked potato and desert bar. All for about $ 11. Can’t beat it. My wife and I go 5 or six times a year and the food is fresh, the restaurant is clean and nice, the attendants are friendly and helpful. One of our favorite places.

Walked in was craving the salad bar, and the lettuce that was out was rotten, not coming here again.

A tad pricy for what it is. $ 11ish for soup and salad buffet. You can make your own salad or try one of their premades that change every time you go. Their soup choices are also constantly changing.
To me, you reach a point with salad where you don’t want any more. You’re not exactly full but done with salad. Similarly I’m not really a soup guy so I’ll try a bowl or two that looks good but who wants to fill up on soup either? Maybe during the cold winter that could be nice.
Then they have some breads and one to three little pasta options that are usually pretty boring. One time it was some cilantro or lime flavored thing that was great!
This time we actually got drinks other than water but were just handed cups. It was pretty weird that we had to decide then between coffee and tea or fountain drinks plus real lemonades. The girl at the register just decided for us?
Then for dessert… They always have chocolate muffins and usually some other deliciously baked item with chocolate. Then a section with fruit and tapioca (for the healthy). And finally the soft serve ice cream. Yum i always put some chocolate baked goods into a big soup bowl and cover it in chocolate ice cream, chocolate syrup, chocolate sprinkles, and some Oreo. Love the dessert.
Anyway a pretty good place with plenty of choices for vegetarians. Not quite as exciting for me as some other buffets, but not too bad. Dessert always seems to undo any healthy choices you’ve made here.

If you’ve never been to Sweet Tomatoes, here’s what you need to know:
1. Sweet Tomatoes is a self-​serve, all-​you-​can-​eat buffet. When you enter the restaurant, grab a tray located to the right or left of the salad bar. It doesn’t matter which side of the salad bar you choose because both sides are the same. Grab a plate, and proceed down the salad bar by serving yourself whatever you want. Pay the cashier at the end of the line. Grab a table, and then check out the other self-​serve stations.
2. The menu changes at least once per month. For example, they currently (August 2014) are featuring a «Flavors of the Mediterranean» menu with Greek– and Italian-​inspired dishes. Some items are available all month, while others are available only on certain dates. You can view the current menu on their website, but be aware that the menu is subject to change. If you are interested, nutritional information also is available on their website.
3. The core menu consists of salad, soup, tiny baked potatoes, baked goods, pasta, and dessert.
The salad bar offers prepared tossed salads (e.g., Caesar salad), prepared deli salads (e.g., pasta salad, slaw), and a variety of veggies for you to create your own salad. The salad bar does not offer any meat apart from what might be in one of the prepared salads. However, if you like bacon on your salad, that can be found at the tiny baked potato bar located to the right of the soups.
From left to right at the back of the restaurant, you will find several soup options, a small baked potato bar with teensy foil-​wrapped potatoes, a variety of baked goods (e.g., muffins, cornbread, focaccia), and three pasta options. I do not recommend the pasta here because, for whatever reason, it never seems to be hot. I’ve had that problem at every Sweet Tomatoes I’ve visited, so maybe it’s just me!
Several dessert options are available along the wall to the right of the pasta. This typically includes a couple of fruit options as well as pudding, mousse, and/​or gelatin. None of that ever excites me very much. However, they also have a soft-​serve machine. In the evening hours and very, very occasionally at lunch, they sometimes offer a warm dessert (e.g., lava cake, cobbler) that is located in the baked goods section.
It’s always fun to be creative here. Top cornbread or a baked potato with chili. Or, try one of my favorites: a blueberry muffin with vanilla ice cream!
4. You don’t really have a waiter here, but a friendly person typically will introduce himself/​herself to you shortly after you sit down. This person will very kindly take away your plates or bowls as you are finished with them. (Always get a fresh dish when you go back for seconds, thirds, or fourths! :)) If you are dining alone, you should find a card on your table that says «be ripe back» on one side and «see you next thyme» on the other. You can use this card to indicate that you are either getting more food or that you have left.
5. Sweet Tomatoes can be expensive, especially if you are a light eater. So, plan to go here when you are hungry! I know it’s not very helpful, but I do not know the current going rate for the buffet. What I do know is that you can save money by signing up for Club Veg on their website. They will send you emails with coupons as well as well as notifications about their upcoming menu items. As with most coupons, the savings have become more disappointing over the years. For example, I used to get a BOGO buffet coupon for my birthday. Last year, I got 20% off of a buffet. However, the current $ 8.99 lunch buffet coupon (beverage included) is a pretty good deal. Through Club Veg, you get these coupons on a fairly regular basis!
Sweet Tomatoes is a great choice for soup-​and-​salad lovers, a decent choice for vegetarians, a so-​so choice for vegans, and a horrible choice for those with carnivorous tendencies. The food here isn’t gourmet, but it’s good. It’s a fun place to go where you can choose to eat a lot of healthy foods without worrying too much about your waistline. With a frequently changing menu, Sweet Tomatoes offers a variety of foods that will keep you going back for more. If you’re into that kind of thing.

If you are a meat and potatoes person, this place probably isn’t for you. This isn’t Golden Corral. If you like plenty of fruits and veggies in addition to some pasta, I do recommend at least one visit.
I used to come here when this place opened way back when. This was when I was a teenager. Yeah, its been a while.
Now, there are a few changes, but not that much. The place still has an expansive salad bar with plenty of healthy options. The pasta is not bad, but I recommend the fettuccine alfredo. Their mac and cheese needs an upgrade and the recipe has a pretty bland taste. Their bread options are expansive.
I happen to love the strawberry lemonade addition and the red velvet bread pudding it is to die for!
Their free pink lemonade cookies were not so appealing at my visit. They were so tiny and lacked the sugar sprinkles as previously pictured in another review.
I do like their customer service and the waitresses are very attentive.
If I get into a salad bar mood, its an option, however, please, please change the mac & cheese recipe!

Let me first say that I’m not a huge buffet fan. Copious amounts of mediocre food is just unappealing to me. That said, after a nightmarish trip to Golden Corral a couple months back, we decided to give Sweet Tomatoes a go — an attempt to find a place that my kid will eat at.
The good first: lots of healthy options! It’s a big salad bar. My little one is sort healthy-​picky, so I was grateful to be able to choose a variety of veggies and beans that he would eat. Mr. Beth is the opposite, so I was grateful for the pizza & pasta sections. They have multiple soups to choose from & I thought the cauliflower cheese soup was quite good.
The bad? Everything is really bland. Also the salad bar didn’t have any ‘interesting’ toppings like artichokes, banana peppers, hearts of Palm, etc. Mr Beth had the potato leek soup & it tasted like… Potato. Unseasoned potato. I found it very annoying that the only fresh fruit they had were grapes & apples. Even Golden Corral had a better fruit selection. Oh, and it was not a cheap buffet by any means.
Anyway, we’ll be back because my kiddo actually ATE here, but next time will come with a coupon in hand and expectations in check.

Not impressed with this place. First of all, it is over-​priced. There are deals online and they did honor a $ 3 off lunch price by showing the offer on my phone. Salad buffet was in need of refreshing at 12pm. There is no excuse for that at lunch time.
I had a difficult time finding a clean soup spoon and the plates looked and felt greasy, dishwasher issue? I’m not a buffet fan and this place reinforced all of my concerns.

I think Stephanie S was right on target with her review of this place. I’ve been coming here for years and I kind of always get anxiety thinking about the cleanliness of the buffet. There is nothing worse than seeing kids in the buffet line and how they are unaware of buffet etiquette.
Most recently I have been coming here regularly because my six year old loves their bread, mac n cheese and ice cream of course. If I can get in the right mind set, I can really enjoy the salad bar and usually their soups are really good. I usually don’t have any of their pasta, it is just too bland. They do have good muffins and garlic bread. That is about all I eat though. Well, I do have their ice cream, I mean if it’s there, I have to eat it.
The last time we went, I was really paying attention to the dining room and it seems to be getting run down pretty bad. The pad of our seat that we sat on had become dislodged and was moving around as we’d scoot off the seat. I didn’t try it, but I’m sure if would just pull right up. I was also a little grossed out as I sat up against the wall and how dirty it was.
I’ll be back here more in the future I’m sure, but if it falls out of my six year old’s favor, it may be the end of Sweet Tomatoes for me.

I midsized buffet selection of average tasting salads and soups. If you are looking for volume and not quality you can probably eat $ 13 worth of food. For an added treat the smell of urine and poorly cleaned bathrooms remind you what a cattle call this place really is.

Several years ago, we discovered Sweet Tomatoes and found it was the answer to our kitchen renovation dining dilemma. With a microwave and a minifridge the only kitchen items available (sink was upstairs in the bathroom!), eating out became more frequent as the months dragged on.
Sweet Tomatoes made everyone happy with an assortment of fresh vegetables, prepared salads, soups and sweets. Life was good.
However, after awhile, Sweet Tomatoes reminds you of the school cafeteria – everything tastes the same. And, now that our kids are teens, we pay for four adult meals. The bill tops $ 40, with only water to drink. So, while the restaurant remains basically the same as it has for years, tidy and well-​run, we have lost interest.

I have wanted to go to Sweet Tomatoes for years. Friday night I really wanted soup.
We must have turned into food snobs along the line because I found this place GROSS! Everything tasted the same.
$ 27.50 for two people? Crazy pricing for such low quality food.

I just love this place, I love the atmosphere! I think its a great lunch place, I love good salad bars and they are just awesome! Staff is really nice and friendly, the selections are great. The freshly made lemonade is the best around town!

Upping one star for a couple reasons:
1. The cinnamon rolls they have out for Sunday brunch are ahhhhhsome. Their coffee isn’t too bad so the two together are a match made in cinnamon roll/​coffee heaven. (My kind of heaven.)
2. We went recently and my SO went to pay and the lady working asked if we had a coupon. We had meant to bring one but forgot it. She said some lady left her coupons so she used those. I expected that would knock a dollar or two off and I thanked her sincerely for doing that. When I looked at the bill after sitting down, she had given us a buy one get one free which saved us $ 9!!! Thanks!!!
3 Honorable mention: I am not usually a big fan of ranch dressing but their ranch dressing is pretty delicious. It’s thin, which I prefer, and has a lot of flavor.

7÷25÷2011
The service was slow in picking up empty plates and trays, rather unusual for the experience I’ve had previously at this location. Homemade chicken soup was amazing, as usual, but the mac & cheese (which is typically rich & creamy) was watery and dried out in spots — maybe someone wasn’t exactly following the recipe? Other than that, standard excellent healthy fare I’ve come to expect from Sweet Tomatoes. I’m going to the other location (on Olive) tomorrow, so hopefully better luck with service and mac & cheese.
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Go to
(Sweet Tomatoes website) and sign up for «Club Veg». They’re good about regularly sending you coupons, and most of the coupons are good for up to four people each.
I like Sweet Tomatoes for when I’m wanting to eat a lot of food, but don’t want the unhealthy options on most all-​you-​can-​eat buffets (case in point — look at the average size of an Old Country buffet customer as compared to the size of a Sweet Tomatoes customer). Sweet Tomatoes averages at least 8 different soups at one time, 3 different hot pastas, 4+ cold pastas, various breads and focaccias, a baked potato bar, a diverse salad bar with some items you never even see on salad bars, fresh fruit, cottage cheese, ice cream bar, cookies, and fresh baked dessert items (available after 4pm).
Many «customer favorites» ride as staples on the menu, but every two weeks the menu also switches out thematic seasonal items. Currently (July 17 – 29, 2011) those are:
~Crunchy Island Pineapple Tossed Salad
~Penne Chicken Salad in a Citrus Vinaigrette
~Curried Rice with Mango Chutney
~Island Coconut Chicken & Lime Soup
~Wowie Maui Focaccia with Ham
~Sugar-​Free Mango Coconut Mousse
~House-​Made Chipotle Mango Vinaigrette
~Creamy Cilantro Lime Pesto Hot Pasta
~Pineapple Upside Down Cake

I admit it. I love Sweet Tomatoes! This location is much better than the other one, in my opinion. Cleaner, they bus tables quicker, staff is friendlier, and the food is always restocked.
There are always 3 prepared salads (usually 1 is vegetarian) and then you can make your own. They have 5 cold prepared side type dishes on the salad bar too, like potato salad, cole slaw, broccoli salad, and various cold salads.
The soups are pretty decent and there are always lots of choices, including vegetarian soups. I love the baked potato bar and the pizza bread is drool worthy. I like the variety here, and it’s cheap! Sign up and get coupons pretty much weekly and save a bundle. The pastas are good too.
They have desserts after 4pm but always have fruit, jello and a soft serve ice cream bar with sundae fixins.
I love how they are specific as to what is vegetarian. Leaves less for guessing or having to ask!
The Sunday brunch is also a cheap and easy one to go to. They have lots of goodies, like cinnamon rolls, waffles, potatoes, eggs, oatmeal and cereal. I like going around 11:30 on Sundays because you can get breakfast and at noon they bring out the fresh salads (you can still use the salad bar, soups, etc before noon, but they add more lunch stuff afterwards).
The people working here are friendly and recognize my sister & me because we’re regulars. We only ever agree on eating here and one other place because we are picky and opposites!

I have a love/​hate relationship with buffets. I LOVE the idea of unlimited food (I’m your typical American overeater, I suppose), but I HATE the dirtiness that usually comes with the territory.
With that said, I have mixed feelings about Sweet Tomatoes. I appreciate the variety of fresh healthy food. I love the soups, salads, and bread. When I went today, everything was tasty and fresh.
But I hate the overall ickyness I feel when I dine here. It’s not unusual to see a dirty plate, bowl, glass, or fork in the ‘clean dishes’ pile. The floors can sometimes be sticky. It’s hard to find a table without a spot or stain on it. Basically, this place (and any other buffet, for that matter) kicks my germaphobe tendencies into high gear. They do have purell antibacterial gel stations around, which makes me feel a teeny bit better.
Anyway, I like to come here when I’m feeling like eating healthy, so I suppose Sweet Tomatoes does its job in that regard.
But I’m never dying to come back.

Not as nice as other locations I’ve visited in other states. Is the building an old Shoney’s or something? I didn’t like the décor or set up at all.
Some of the raw veggies as well as the corn bread were dry. Also, it was totally dead inside. Granted, it was 9 pm on a Friday, but still. Maybe if more people came they could turn the food over more quickly instead of it just sitting there.
I was disappointed that their special ingredients and features of the month were «tropical» items such as mango, coconut, lime, and pineapple. What about *tomatoes*, berries, cucumber, squash, etc. It’s July in the continental U.S.A., people. Not the franchises’ fault — these things are decided by the chain’s head office I’m sure. But I’m starting to think that Sweet Tomatoes is not as fresh or healthy as they make themselves out to be. Bummer, dude.