A visit to Citrine, Safeway’s new organic international restaurant

So I finally made it to Citrine last weekend. Located in Redwood City, it’s Safeway’s venture into a new, fast, healthy friendly restaurant. Once I walked in, it felt like a cross between IKEA and Whole Foods. Even though you order at the counter, and it’s self service, the wait staff was very accommodating and asked us if we needed anything. The decor was bright, clean, modern and inviting.
Food is clearly international, with a focus on Safeway’s O Organics private food line, along with its beef and Italian private labels. What was confusing for me is that there is no mention of Safeway in the restaurant, but customers aren’t going to understand what the brand O Organics means unless they’ve shopped in Safeway. It might be better for Citrine to label things like “certified organic” or made with organic ingredients instead, because the branding is confusing.

The food came out quickly; my group tried the margherita pizza, the garlic lover’s pizza, the California date blue cheese salad, the Mediterranean hummus salad, Santa Fe chicken breast panini and the thai lemongrass. I think pricing is usually around $12/entree, with salads a little less expensive. My only gripe is that the vegetarian hot entrees are not worth it–stir fried veggies for $11 seemed unreasonably high. The veggie entrees lack a protein like tofu. Other than that, we really enjoyed the surprisingly fresh and tasty blue cheese salad, and the pizzas were well cooked. The wait staff came back to refill our drinks and offer us water. I would come back here again, but I really wish they could improve the hot entree selection of vegetarian food with more substantial options (like pad thai with tofu for example instead of just stir fried veggies).