With seventeen locations in Pennsylvania, and plans to grow to over ninety locations nationwide, Wonder, a new tech-based food hall, is growing at an exponential rate. Wonder opened its Ardmore location during April, 2025. Wonder, due to its cool-toned lighting and plentiful TV screen, comes off as cold and corporate. The interior of the restaurant is very plain, as Wonder is primarily focused on takeout. According to Tasting Table, meals are “prepped in a centralized commercial kitchen in New Jersey and sent daily, mostly as kits, to Wonder’s stores.”
Wonder prioritizes efficiency. You place your order on a screen, where you’re immediately greeted with sixteen restaurants to choose from. The in-store experience is reminiscent of scrolling on Netflix with infinite options Some are actual restaurants, physically located elsewhere, but some are Wonder-made “concepts.” Consider Wonder’s kid’s restaurant, named “Bellies,” or their online-only sushi restaurant, “Happy Tuna.” The mix of real restaurants and virtual “concepts” makes the process of picking restaurants feel uncanny.
To experience a mix of dishes, we ordered the Winter Bowl from Royal Greens, the Mac and Greens from Streetbird by Marcus Samuelsson, a Real Veggie Burger from Burger Baby, and mozzarella sticks from Alanza Pizza. The winter bowl was Sweetgreen adjacent, but only came with an unproportionately small amount of dressing for the large portion. All the vegetables (sweet potatoes, beets) seemed fresh and came warm with the bowl. However, the grains at the bottom of the bowl had a funky, almost mushroomy aftertaste. The veggie burger was also relatively standard, with lettuce, tomatoes, onions, pickles and a house sauce. The fake meat patty was slightly rubbery, but the soft potato bun obscured its lacking texture. As for the mac and greens, the mac was creamy and rich with a white sauce similar to Panera, but the greens were soggy and lacking in flavor. The flaky exterior of the mozzarella sticks were crisp, but the cheese in the center tasted plain and plasticky.
Yes, Wonder is convenient. But the manufactured experience of eating at Wonder makes it clear that there’s a cost to this convenience. With its infinite options, but none particularly exciting, Wonder fails to recognize a universal truth: more is not always better.
