Sweet Tomatoes and Souplantation permanently closing down

[ford family]

Sad to see the demise of Sweet Tomatoes. We were regular users of one in Sarasota and always took house guests there for the novel experience. Very good food and great value.

ford family

 

[wenrob]

Depends on the location. Part of their problem is attracting customers who don't go crazy. I used to go to their location in San Jose, California. It was always packed for lunch. However, I'm guessing that it was a tech savvy crowd there where most of the people were using coupons.

Years ago my dad was the chef for the seafood buffet at the Showboat. They had this guy who would come in and down lobster tails for two hours straight. Nothing would make this guy go away, not even offering to give him his money back and offering him comps. Every time I hear John Pinot’s “You go NOW” bit I think of this guy.

 

[fly girl]

Very sad for the employees.

 

[bcla]

Years ago my dad was the chef for the seafood buffet at the Showboat. They had this guy who would come in and down lobster tails for two hours straight. Nothing would make this guy go away, not even offering to give him his money back and offering him comps. Every time I hear John Pinot’s “You go NOW” bit I think of this guy.

I remember a story about a customer who sued because a buffet cut him off from oysters. Reports were that he might eat about 75 on a single visit.

 

[wenrob]

I remember a story about a customer who sued because a buffet cut him off from oysters. Reports were that he might eat about 75 on a single visit.

I don’t remember what they did about him. He wasn’t my dad’s problem for long. Shortly after Castaways took over, canned all the bosses and then systematically tanked the place.

 

[DisneyJules]

I’ve never been but it looks like a good restaurant that I wish I had visited. It’s crazy to think of all the places that will close permanently due to covid.

 

[BrianL]

I remember a story about a customer who sued because a buffet cut him off from oysters. Reports were that he might eat about 75 on a single visit.

It's like the old Simpsons episode where they kick Homer out of the all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant.

Mrs. Simpson, in your own words, please tell us what happened after you and your husband were ejected from the restaurant.
We pretty much went straight home.
Remember, Mrs. Simpson, you're still under oath.
We drove around until three in the morning looking for another all-you-can-eat seafood restaurant.
And when you couldn't find any?
We went fishing.
Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, does this sound like the actions of a man who had "all he could eat"?

 

[FlightlessDuck]

A slightly different perspective:

I see you all all upset, and I am sure I would be if one of my favorite restaurant chains closed... but I have absolutely no idea what these restaurants are. We don't have any near us, and even though I've been to WDW several times, I never heard of this place.

 

[BrianL]

A slightly different perspective:

I see you all all upset, and I am sure I would be if one of my favorite restaurant chains closed... but I have absolutely no idea what these restaurants are. We don't have any near us, and even though I've been to WDW several times, I never heard of this place.

We don't have any here either, but I had heard that Sweet Tomatoes was very good (I'm not famillair with Souplantation). Actually, one of the few Sweet Tomatoes I've ever seen was near WDW on this one time a friend needed to get some antibiotics from the clinic near property. I usually don't venture out of the bubble unless going to Universal, but we had to. We didn't eat there though.

 

[becauseimnew]

This makes us sad, we loved those places, always make it a point to eat at one when we travel. So glad we were able to enjoy it twice during our last trip to San Diego. And we always go when we are at Disney World.

 

[robinb]

We don't have any here either, but I had heard that Sweet Tomatoes was very good (I'm not famillair with Souplantation). Actually, one of the few Sweet Tomatoes I've ever seen was near WDW on this one time a friend needed to get some antibiotics from the clinic near property. I usually don't venture out of the bubble unless going to Universal, but we had to. We didn't eat there though.

It was a buffet with a giant 55-foot salad bar with specialty green salads, build your own salads, and prepared salads like potato salad, sweet broccoli salad, cole slaw, etc. You paid at the end of the salad bar and then there was the rest of the food. They also had a soup buffet with 5-6 different soups which were changed seasonally and a pasta buffet with different pastas. They also had baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, french bread, corn bread, focaccia pizza, a fruit salad bar, cookies and other sweets. I always saved room for a brownie topped with soft serve ice cream and hot caramel topping. All for a very reasonable price.

 

[belle032]

DH and I are devastated by this. I woke him up at night to tell him when I saw the news! We used to live in Orlando and loved Sweet Tomatoes and we always jokingly said we should open one up north where there aren't ANY AT ALL. I happened to book a hotel in Ft. Lauderdale for a cruise and found out there was a Sweet Tomatoes about 2 miles away. You can bet we took an Uber there and back.

It's become more of a running joke to us, we'll randomly say "you know what would be amazing for dinner? Sweet Tomatoes." Oh well. RIP Best Salad Bar Ever!

 

[BrianL]

It was a buffet with a giant 55-foot salad bar with specialty green salads, build your own salads, and prepared salads like potato salad, sweet broccoli salad, cole slaw, etc. You paid at the end of the salad bar and then there was the rest of the food. They also had a soup buffet with 5-6 different soups which were changed seasonally and a pasta buffet with different pastas. They also had baked potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, french bread, corn bread, focaccia pizza, a fruit salad bar, cookies and other sweets. I always saved room for a brownie topped with soft serve ice cream and hot caramel topping. All for a very reasonable price.

It sounds pretty good - I love a good salad bar!

 

[DLgal]

It sounds pretty good - I love a good salad bar!

It was around $10/person too. SUCH a bargain and, at least in the CA locations, all the produce was local and SO fresh. I will really miss it.

 

[bcla]

We don't have any here either, but I had heard that Sweet Tomatoes was very good (I'm not famillair with Souplantation). Actually, one of the few Sweet Tomatoes I've ever seen was near WDW on this one time a friend needed to get some antibiotics from the clinic near property. I usually don't venture out of the bubble unless going to Universal, but we had to. We didn't eat there though.

It wasn't like Buffets Inc (Old Country) where it was a lot of acquisitions of different names. Sweet Tomatoes was just a renaming with a different name to give it a different identity as a salad bar more than a soup bar. It was always the same company and same concept.

I liked it every once in a while. What I remember was a coworker who liked going there often.

 

[robinb]

It was around $10/person too. SUCH a bargain and, at least in the CA locations, all the produce was local and SO fresh. I will really miss it.

Food didn't sit for long either. They were always replenishing and swapping out items so it stayed fresh.

 

[tarheelmjfan]

I agree with the poster who thought they were already struggling to stay open. The Sweet Tomatoes here has been on a steady decline. When we first started vacationing here, we would eat there every trip. After moving here five years ago, we ate there several times a year. Two years ago the quality declined to the point that we decided to give up. The salad bar was still pretty good, but there was less variety. The other food became extremely low quality. I'm not sure they can blame Covid-19 for their demise. I think it was bad management. They should have charged a few dollars more instead of sacrificing variety on the salad bar & quality in their other food. The last few times we ate there we saw more food wasted than what was eaten.