Hale & Hearty

Hale & Hearty

Take-out: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Good for Kids: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes

Price range.

$$ Price range $11-30

8 reviews

  1. This review is not necessarily for this specific location, but for all Hale & Hearty stores in general. Apologies to the Chelsea location for having to take one for the team and get the wrath of the B***#!

    Having lived in NYC since 2005, I've stopped by H&H a time or 10…mainly out of convenience because there seems to have been one near every office I've worked in (un)luckily for me. I just don't like it…at.all. Every time I've left underwhelmed and mad at myself for spending like $10 on a tiny soup that tastes like it came out of a can!  If I wanted that I'd have spent $2 instead and picked up some Campbell's.

    I don't understand how or why a tinyyyyyyy soup costs so much…especially one that's average at best. Truffle mushrooms? Salt from the dead sea? Maybe for every cup a NY'er buys a starving kid in Africa gets a free pot of soup?  I haven't a clue, but….why?!?

    Since I've kicked the H&H habit, I've nearly managed to save enough cash to put a down payment on a penthouse condo.  You can too!

  2. The soups are consistent, fresh with no preservatives (loaded with salt instead), but there are many other better soup places in the immediate area. The soups are kind of pricey as well for what you get ($9 for a large). The richer soups are the way to go. You can sample before you buy and the rotating/seasonal soups are often better choices.

    This specific location is lacking in service. The employees are disinterested and slow. Most recently, it was 1pm and not many people in the store. I got my soup and to my surprise, no cashiers to check out. Then two individuals appeared back at the front but was more interested in talking to each other than to let me pay for my food. I only went to redeem my $2 credit from their app.

    The previous time I was there, I wanted to redeem my loyalty stamp card and fought with the cashier for almost 5 minutes because at one location, they stamped one stamp on the upper corner and not across the correct position on the bottom. (It was slightly smudgy in the row and I guess she wanted to stamp in a clear area.) I felt I shouldn't be penalized for a single stamp that was beyond my control but she was adamant that I had 9 stamps, not 10.

    Unless I have free credit to redeem, the exchange with the employees is not worth the hassle. No thank you. I'll stick to my Soup Spot.

  3. I'm doing something that I never do RIGHT NOW…

    Writing a Yelp review while on the John.  Because I just don't have the energy from oh say sitting down later at my Yelp writing station AKA home after ingesting what must gave been something I should have thrown away.

    Let's start off with the soup of the day : Rhode Island Clam Chowder.

    It was delicious and I upped the size from small to large when you order a combo ($2 extra)

    The chunks of clam was chewy and tender at the same time.

    What docked these guys 2 whole stars was their sandwich making skills or rather lack thereof.

    I ordered half a roast beef w/ arugula, roasted shallot aioli and cheddar cheese.

    The picture I will put up doesn't door justice as when I opened the sandwich it was a Kraft American yellow cheese.  

    Yes, it should have been melted but I'm not a cheese fan so I could care less about that.

    What I did care about was the meat as I'm accustomed to roast beef being brown all around and pinkish in the center.

    What I got was ALL pink like your favorite strawberry ice cream which would have been fine except  now I'm on the John for the last 25 minutes non-stop relieving.

    Nothing relieving about this shyt.

    I've only eaten 2 things all day :

    Two Jamba Juices and that Rhode Island Clam Chowder from here.

    I watched them make my juices so it is most certainly NOT that.  

    The Rhode Island Clam Chowder  tasted fresh so scratch that also.

    By process of elimination : ROAST BEEF SANDWICH.

    I was feeling fine until I ate that shyt.

    I ate it because

    1) I wasn't about to throw 3 bucks away just to spend another 6 to get full

    2) I really hate wasting food and try not to if I can.

    I regret my actions now.

    I should have threw it right back at this place.

    The space is nice though which prevented me from docking yet another pt.

    Upstairs seating comfortable and to have seating in a Hale & Hearty is a miracle.

    They do have very good customer service so there's that.

    But fearing that 35 minutes from now I still might be writing this…

    Post, FLUSH, wash hands….

  4. Soup if okay. Sandwiches are creative (particularly the jam and turkey sandwich) but only okay tasting. Definitely way more than I ever want to pay for soup, especially from a place with no seating, but since it's the only place you can find that many varieties of soup (and oh man, there are like a million) they'll see me again. They also have a loyalty program, where if you buy a million bowls of soup you get one measly bowl for free.

  5. 2.5 stars. Do not be fooled by my picture. This salad was not good. Plain and simple. That said, I think I just ran into some bad luck – I've had plenty of good Hale and Hearty experiences, this just happens to be a sub-par location.

    I go to Hale and Hearty when I don't feel like paying a pretty penny for a salad at Fresh & Co a block away. One thing I will say is that the prices are fantastic. My salad yesterday was only $8…haven't gotten a salad that cheap in midtown since…well, ever. So as far as money is concerned, I'd recommend Hale and Hearty if you want a made-to-order salad that won't depress your wallet. Just not this particular location.

    The other pro here is the staff. I've had nothing but pleasant interactions here with employees. I've run into some employees at Fresh & Co who have given me nothing but attitude, and that's completely absent here. Really nice surprise to have some positive exchange with both the guy who made my salad and the cashier during my visit yesterday.

    Where this particular Hale and Hearty falls short is the actual quality of the food. Now, I can't speak for the soups – I'm one of those weird people that just doesn't like soup. Chili and gazpacho are the two exceptions. So this review is for *salads only*. The short of it is, the ingredients don't taste fresh in the slightest. Not only that, the cucumbers and apples in my salad yesterday had a really funky flavor, leading me to start picking at my entire salad while looking like a weirdo at work. Sorry, don't want to punish my taste buds – even if it means wasting part of my salad. Even the ingredients I've chosen that don't taste off have been "meh" at best. How meh, you ask? I ended up having to buy a pack of gum immediately after finishing my salad yesterday to get the meh-ness out of my mouth and mind.

    I'll end on a positive note – something that goes for all Hale and Hearty locations – which is that you can get a healthy meal here for a very decent price. It's easy to find yourself splurging on salads at healthy lunch spots in midtown. Just a reality of where many of us New Yorkers work. While my mouth may be left unhappy after a trip here, my bank account is left quite the opposite.

  6. Good, not great. Lots and lots to choose from. Want a salad? They got you. Want a sandwich? They got you. Want some soup? They got you.

    The lunch rush was crazy. It looked like they were giving something away…the thing is, the line was moving QUICK….I was in and out in less than 10 minutes.

    I settled for the chicken veggie soup to help cure my cold….it was bland. The salt and pepper packets didn't help.

    Oh well….

  7. I was really impressed with this place. I found it a little hectic in ordering and a bit pricey, but the return was good as the soup was great quality and filling enough to keep my hunger at bay.

    Staff was friendly and the place was clean. I had the Jambalaya and I would most definitely have it again!

  8. Clean restaurant, friendly staff who doesn't skimp on the samples – and they have a whole second floor devoted to SEATING.  Amazeballs.

    And if you try their chicken and dumpling soup and don't flip for it, your tastebuds might be out of whack.

    And there's actually a uniformed chef who roams the place to ask for guest opinions.  I kid you not.

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