Thousand Oaks Smokehouse

Well kept clean store produce and meat staff very helpful bread counter staff non existant had to wait for 10 mn even though lady saw me but chose to ignore , left behind counter very unprofessional maybe under staffed ??

Pros: Although high priced, your body & hence dreams will Thank you for it. Great service and will even put oyster shots on bed of ice for you. Cons: Discontinued orange mango drink mix with Boabab powder from Madcascar/Africa. (Vita "C/Calcium"!

The vegan pizza is super good at a reasonable price (about $13 for each when you buy two, about $14 or $15 when you buy one). Call ahead, as the pizzas take about 20min to make.

Staying in the LA area I returned to this store several times. Their pizza was surprisingly soft, tasty and always warm. Their vegan ice cream selection is heavenly! I found many now favorite items from vegan cheese to vegan soft drinks.

This is becoming my second home away from home, comforts of vegan treats, familiar aisles, and friendly staff-make if a great place to go to refuel after my run. Ample seating areas inside/outdoors. Plenty of snacks for all your vegan desires. They also have little muffins in a 12 pack; highly recommend just the bakery section! I don’t do the hot foods, but they do have salads- also I saw they had vegan cheese pizza ready for the taking! I usually head to the sushi bar for the avocado roll- and it hits the spot.

First off, the vegan options are one or two per day. Although I believe there are maybe 1 to 2 more options that are vegan but the ingredients say they have butter or cheese which I think is incorrect. But when you ask an employee the ingredients they read you the sign as if you were unable to read it yourself. The thing is the food is put out at the hot food bar without the ingredient cards. Then someone goes through the hundred or more ingredient cards they have and picks the one they think matches the dish. Several times I looked at a dish and was all but sure there was no Parmesan cheese in it, even though cheese was listed as an ingredient. But being the vegan I am I ask someone jut to make sure. One employee will ask another and then one who claims to know will look at the card and then tell me what the ingredients are. This is after I ask the simple question, 'did you use Parmesan in this?'. They have to read the card to know??? I am simply trying to point out to them that the wrong card is there and asking them to verify with the chef. At other Whole Foods they will. Meanwhile one time when I challenged someone and said, they must be wrong because, 'just look, there is clearly no cheese' they then went to the back to check. And keep in mind I explained that I am a vegan so I am glad it doesn't have the cheese but I just need to make sure. The person then angrily goes back to find the answer. She then comes out with a bunch of cheese and before I know it she is spreading it on the dish. I exclaim 'what are you doing?'. She then says she is putting cheese on the dish so I won't have anything to complain about. I never complained, I just politely asked a question. So to punish me, knowing I can't eat the dish with cheese she throws it on before I can stop her. In general I love Whole Foods markets but due to the many experiences I have had at the hot food bar I almost never go to this location. Updated from previous review on Tuesday November 08, 2011 Updated from previous review on Friday November 11, 2011 Updated from previous review on Monday January 07, 2013

I stopped in to grab lunch, but took a look around since I was there. It seemed to be a fairly basic Whole Foods with the usual vegan items. The deli section had several different counters with a salad bar, a hot bar, an Asian bistro, and a pizza and sandwich area as well as the usual cold deli section with pre-made salads, etc. Vegan items were labeled as such. I went with a sandwich, the Meatless Loaf Sandwich, one of several vegan ones available. It came with Field Roast meatloaf, but the preparer didn't heat it up beforehand and the grilling at the end once the sandwich was made didn't help much, but I love Field Roast regardless. The worst part was waiting for the sandwich as they have a rotisserie behind the counter that was cooking about 2 dozen whole chickens. :-(

I'm vegan and I also eat only organic so although I only shop at Whole Foods, I still need to read the labels. Not everything is organic (especially in the self-serve restaurant area) so I really have to ask questions. Thankfully the staff is super-friendly so I can navigate but it takes a little bit of time. By far, Whole Foods is the best place for vegan and organic grocery shopping.