don’t miss out on wild oats
mattAfter watching USF thump Pitt at RayJay on Saturday, we stopped at Wild Oats on N. Dale Mabry for a late lunch. If you’ve never been to a Wild Oats before, it’s similiar to a Whole Foods. If you’ve never been to either before, you’re missing out. I’m not a greenie or granola-type and I dig ‘em.
One of my favorite things about Wild Oats and Whole Foods is that they both have big selections of freshly prepared grab-&-go foods. All different kinds of stuff. The new Wild Oats on Dale Mabry has a cafe section, which makes various coffees and smoothies. There’s also a big salad bar, and a deli that makes sandwiches and salads. Other cafe sections includes a soup area, sushi area, pizza area and an area that features more traditional meat-and-potatoes dinner items with a twist.
On this visit, instead of hitting the big salad bar, I decided to try some sushi and a bowl of soup, while Traci stuck with her favorite from the deli, a chicken meatball sub. Their deli sandwiches may not be Wright’s or Castellano & Pizzo quality, but they’re good. There were four of five soups to choose from. I picked a Hungarian mushroom soup. For sushi, I picked up some spicy shrimp rolls.
One big problem we’ve had in the past at Wild Oats is clueless service from the checkout people in the cafe section at Wild Oats, which ruins the experience. On our first visit one evening after the store had first opened, the cafe checkout was closed and we had to wait with our food in hand at one of the main checkout lines. Then we had to re-enter the store so we could sit in the cafe section. On another visit, we stood holding our food at the checkout register and were ignored for several minutes before we were asked if we needed help. No, we’re standing here with food for fun.
Thankfully, on our visit this past Saturday, the service in ordering our lunch and checking out was pleasant and prompt. The cafe seating area was also clean and didn’t look disheveled as it has on a previous visit. Traci enjoyed her sub and I liked my soup. Unfortunately, the sushi tasted mediocre, which was probably because Wild Oats uses brown rice - not what I expect for my sushi. While we have a love-hate relationship with the service at Wild Oats, more times than not, we’ve been pleased with the food, the prices are fairly reasonable, and the place is convenient for us.
On a related note, we also recently checked out the new Fresh Market store at the corner of Henderson and Dale Mabry. It’s a smaller version of Whole Foods and Wild Oats with an emphasis on fresh products (big produce section, meat and seafood department, and a cool looking rotisserie chicken area, if you can use cool to describe rotisserie) as the name implies. Fresh Market is worth checking out next time you’re in the area. Now why is the closest Whole Foods still in Sarasota?
Bottom-line: If you’ve never checked out a Whole Foods, Wild Oats or Fresh Market store before, you’re missing out. The deli and grab-&-go meals are pretty good, just be prepared for unpredictable service.
Tags: restaurant, review, tampa
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November 8th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
My dining experience at Wild Oats was the worst I have EVER had. After being treated like a moron by all of their service people behind the deli counter, I ordered and paid for my chicken breast. After I bit into it I realized that it had been sitting out entirely too long and was as hard as a hockey puck. I took it back to complain and after talking to three diferent people they agreed to let me order another item off of the menu. They then took my chicken with my bite mark still in it and put it back under the heating lamp to be served to the next customer that ordered the chicken. I took my new meal directly to the trash can threw it out and went without eating dinner that night. For some reason, I was no longer hungry.
November 8th, 2006 at 3:37 pm
Geoff, Wow. Sorry to hear about your chicken experience with Wild Oats.
I’ve certainly had problems with their deli service before, the check-out turns into an ordeal, but nothing like that.
November 8th, 2006 at 5:58 pm
Dude it’s a grocery store! Of course service is spotty because that’s not their primary function. Same reason I won’t eat sandwiches from a gas station. Maybe I’m skeptical but your story sounds bogus.
November 8th, 2006 at 6:09 pm
C.W. Are you responding to my comments or Geoff and the chicken caper?
Not their primary function, but they have a much bigger prepared foods emphasis than typical grocery stores and they should be good at it. Again, I haven’t had real probs with the food, just the level of service. Which I complain about in lots of places
November 8th, 2006 at 6:16 pm
My answer is that it’s corporate - and Tampa. There are a handful of locally owned organic grocery stores and cafes in Tampa, St. Pete and Clearwater and their employees are either interested in health or have training in the alt health field (and know the difference between vegetarian and vegan, unlike the Wild Oats employees I’ve encountered). But WO is the only place in South Tampa that I know of where I can get a rice latte so it’s a trade off.
November 8th, 2006 at 10:05 pm
well, you are right that the whole oats cafe staff are clueless. im not sure why. i would blame management. a change is needed. every time ive eaten there (4), i could have simply walked my food over to the tables and eaten it without paying. no one would have noticed or cared. i didnt. but still. i love the chicken meatball sub, too. wild oats is nowhere near as good as whole foods. i actually make trips to saarasota to eat there and shop some. evidently, the whole oats in tamp cant get half intelligent people to work for min wage. i cant imagine why. duh…still, im not surprised that others have noticed the poor service. the hot foods are really very decent anyway. you can half fill up on the freebies before you pay the inflated prices…btw, the whole oats in south beach in miami does not have remotely the same issues. so its a management problem, specific to tampa, i conclude.
November 9th, 2006 at 8:54 am
I can’t find it, but hasn’t there been a discussion of poor service in Tampa generally here at Sticks? Recently visited DC and ate, no grazed, for several meals at the Whole Foods on Duke St. in Alexandria. Service was impeccable. The husband was not as impressed with the service but he says my expectations have been lowered by our time in Tampa.
November 9th, 2006 at 12:05 pm
I’ve been to two Whole Foods and did find the level of service better than the Wild Oats here in Tampa. Agree that comes down to the quality of the people or lack of…
I’ve eaten once a quick bite at the Sarasota Whole Foods and thought it was pretty good.
November 9th, 2006 at 4:31 pm
maybe instead of going to these corporate giants, you should patronize natures harvest and whaleys market
November 9th, 2006 at 4:33 pm
I was waiting for this comment. If you’ve followed any of my previous reviews, you know that I focus on supporting independent/local restaurants. I think I’m allowed to go to a Wild Oats or Whole Foods ocassionally as well
November 9th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
Dear CW, while my story may sound unbelievable, I assure you that it was not bogus. That’s kind of what made it noteworthy. I had thought that a SOF comment page would be a good forum to air my greivance and share a little. Besides, when I make up stories they usually incorporate midgets and Jello pudding pops.
January 6th, 2007 at 4:58 am
I work at Wild Oats unfortunately. I work in the Holistic Health Department and yes I do know my field pretty well or have the resources that would help unless it requires the internet. We have some stupid program they give us that never gives you the answers you are looking for. I will atest that the problem within Wild Oats is management. UNLIKE Whole Foods(who I also worked with for 4 years). It goes all the way to the root of the company. The micromanaging corporate office is where it all starts. This company is about surplus buying to save money and they could care less about the employees. They don’t pay very well outside of the Holistic Health Department and even that is slim. Just before Thanksgiving they laid off alot of people. The main reason I believe was to be able to make a certain bracket for a certain bonus for the Store Director. So please don’t blame it on the employees. We are treated like shit and have the work of 2 to 3 people to keep up with. It started out to be awesome and alot like my experience at Whole Foods but over time I have seen horrible business decisions with mass bulk buying. And the moral has gotten worse and worse because they cut our hours for months and then laid a bunch of people off. If you were in our shoes you would realize that we are people too and if you could see behind the scenes you would understand. I worked for Whole Foods for 4 years and it was the best company I ever worked for. And I have worked for Aetna, Bellsouth, AOL, The Marine Corps to name a few.I had to leave Whole Foods for personal reasons but now I am praying they come to Tampa. They were voted # 15 in the Top Fortune 100 companies to work for which means they care about their people and what they have to say. And they do!
However right now I work at Wild Oats and I have to make the best of it until another option comes up. I have a passion for helping people better their lives and health and it is why I am in the industry. Most small markets don’t offer benefits or vacation or room for advancement. Which means stagnant pay. So always remember there is always another side to things