The leaf is always greener... (lunch)

A new "you must think we're healthy"-themed restaurant has opened in My Hills called GREENLEAF. Two words that immediately make me think of spas, golfing and zero-calorie living, or in short, the good life. Had to try.

Now, poor little GREENLEAF has some stiff competition at its post on the edge of BH, sandwiched between a Subway and what seems to be an antique store at a little-to-no parking spot on Wilshire B, but I want to give her the benefit of the doubt. Only open two weeks, and already the line at the door is long and hungry and long and...waiting.

My friends and I (one, yes, Connecticut, and the other we'll call Sparks) ventured to eat cheaply at our newfound eatery, one, because we were in a rush and two, because we're only feigning to be living on that side of the fence (the good life side). But lucky for us, though the joint is slow, pricey, it isn't. With under ten bucks spent, I ate and was content, if not for a few shortcomings that the newbie restau has yet to iron out.

FIVE TIPS TO KEEP GREENLEAF FROM WITHERING AWAY
1. Carbon Copies. Invest in them. The man at the door who (unnecessarily) took our orders wrote everything down--count it--one, two, TWICE; one copy for us, one for the salad preparers to begin making our meal. And he wrote SLOWLY. I enjoyed the so-called "personal touch" of having him take jabs at the lettuce wraps I chose to construct, but honestly, would have been better if that time spent on banter had been put towards efficiently preparing my meal.

2. Shorthand. This is another speed issue. Silly me (so silly!), I ordered pomegranate vinaigrette for my first tofu cilantro mushroom lettuce wrap (weird huh?). And slowish, bantering manager man wrote it out, letter by letter, on each of his non-carbon-copy-producing receipt pages. Um...pom vin, anyone? Or even PV. Learn shorthand, and you will save at least 30seconds per customer.

3. Amenities. I would have liked a place to get more napkins, a place to get some spices to flavor my meal, if desired, some cups next to the water machine...these things make a restaurant go round. As opposed to "go down."

4. Staff. The man at the register was very nice, even after he handed me someone else's order (and I didn't notice until I sat down and opened it, about to bite in). But there were about seven others behind him running about and to what end, I couldn't tell. For all their bustle, the line was still long, and their overall confusion was pungent. But then again, maybe we should blame manager man.

5. Desserts. I think they mentioned cookies. I saw a few, packed into a bowl behind the register, stacked like so many forgotten Pillsbury break-and-bakes waiting to find love at the lips of an unpicky child. I was not that child. Give me REAL cookies, Greenleaf. 'Cause I know your salads aren't that healthy. You don't have to hide your cookies in shame.

OVERALL: 3/5, with hope of improvement

WHAT I GOT: two orders of lettuce wraps: (1)grilled tofu, cilantro and mushroom with pom vin - $3; (2)bbq shrimp, candied ginger and almonds - $4, total = $7.58 w/tax (though really, they should round off their prices to multiples of five...tip #6).

THE SPOT: http://gourmetchopshop.com/

After lunch, we saw PRINCE CASPIAN, and today (dimanche) I saw MADE OF HONOR. More on that to come.