Consumer ramblings: fast-food salads, etc.

Lately, I’ve been craving fruits and vegetables, and if I eat out, I order salads. I’m not exactly sure why, though. Either I’m becoming more health-conscious in my old age, or I’m turning into my mom. :) So, in case you’re curious about what it’s like to order fast-food salad, I offer the following observations and opinions. (Disclaimer: I’m not a vegetarian, so the salads I tried had meat in them.)

Boston Market
Their Chicken Caesar Salad was the most expensive fast-food salad I’ve tried so far. (9 or 10 bucks for a salad and a soda is expensive to me.) But it was delicious. It came with a mini loaf of cornbread. My receipt had a coupon for a buy one-get one free meal, which I should have redeemed, but two weeks was kind of a short life for a coupon.

Potbellys
One of the many cool things about this restaurant (I ate there, didn’t take it to go) is that you can turn pretty much any of their sandwiches into a salad. (I think you can do the same at Subway, but I haven’t tried it yet.) Their Wreck Salad (includes various lunchmeats) was delicious, and it went pretty nicely with a milkshake.

Jack in the Box
I’ve tried their Chicken Bacon Club Salad (with crispy chicken) on a few different occasions with a few different results. The first time, I ordered from a location in Dallas that isn’t in a very good neighborhood. I went through the drive-thru, and they asked me to pull up to the front to wait for my order. It was about a 5-minute wait, but the salad was fresh, there was a lot of it, and it came with two beautiful strips of crispy chicken on top. There were a lot of bacon bits, and it was fairly filling.

The second time, I ordered from a location in Irving, at the drive-thru, where they also asked me to pull up elsewhere to wait for my order. (I’m not sure why it takes so long to take a pre-made salad out of the fridge and slap some chicken on top of it, but whatever.) This time, they accidentally gave my order to another customer, but they apologized profusely, and I got a free soda out of it. The salad wasn’t quite as fresh for some reason. I ordered the same salad a third time from the abovementioned Dallas location but didn’t have to wait long for it, and it was fresh and delicious. It had cucumbers in it this time -- very tasty.

Just as a side note, although Jack in the Box isn’t the most efficient at the drive-thru, they are my friend. They have a huge variety on their menu, so you can choose from greasy stuff or healthy stuff, cheap or expensive, and they’ve got locations all over the Metroplex.

McDonald’s
This is the first fast-food chain that I ever heard of that served salads. (I think they introduced them sometime in the 80s.) The first one I tried was at a Dallas location (somewhat near the abovementioned Jack in the Box), a Southwest Salad with crispy chicken strips and tiny tortilla chips. It was in kind of a medium-sized bowl, and it included beans and corn. It was very spicy, almost unnecessarily, but tasty.

Then, from an Irving location, I tried a Chicken Bacon Club salad with grilled chicken strips. The salad wasn’t very fresh this time. I’m not sure what the deal is with these two Irving restaurants and not-so-fresh salads -- maybe the Dallas restaurants have fresher produce markets nearby or something? Anyway, it was overall tasty. McDonald’s is usually efficient at the drive-thru.

This isn’t really related to salads, but I’d also like to say that McDonald’s McCafé serves a hot mocha that, in my opinion, is tastier than Starbucks caffé mocha. A "small" cup from McDonald’s is almost a dollar cheaper than a "tall" cup from Starbucks, too, even though Starbucks’ "tall" seems slightly larger than McDonald’s "small."

Wendy’s
This was probably the fastest, most efficient drive-thru experience I’ve ever had, and this salad was the most filling of any of the ones I’ve listed so far. I ordered the Southwest Taco Salad, which is basically a bowl of their chili that you dump on top of a huge bowl of salad and then add little bits of tortilla chips and dressing. (I’m pretty sure this was modified from their Taco Salad that was on the menu about 10 years ago; it was just a large salad with a bowl of chili and a bag of regular-sized tortilla chips.)

Tom Thumb
Technically, I wouldn’t classify a grocery store as a fast-food restaurant, but if you run to the deli, grab a salad, and then run to the express lane to pay for it, I think that could be considered fast food. Tom Thumb has several salads available, and with their reward card, you pay like between 4 and 5 dollars. I’ve tried their Chef Salad, which is pretty large and has strips of ham and chicken, from what I can remember, and one or two hard-boiled eggs. It comes with a fairly large serving of dressing. It’s yummy and mostly filling.

The only downside would be that their salads don’t come with plasticware or napkins, so you’d have to get those from somewhere else (like if you’re on your way to work and sneak into the breakroom en route to your cubicle).

Mexican taco salads and alternative
The abovementioned salads, unless otherwise indicated, all cost between 5 and 7 dollars, and they didn’t always stick to my ribs. (I’m not one of those petite chicks who gets full after just a few bites.) But if you get a Taco Salad from a Mexican fast-food place, it’ll probably be much cheaper and much more filling.

This is actually how I got the idea for salad meals in the first place. My mom used to order Fajita Salads from Rosa’s Café, which offers beef or chicken. I’m not sure if this chain is in the Metroplex at all. Anyway, their salads come in a huge edible bowl with refried beans on the bottom. Instead of salad dressing, you top it with salsa.

Taco Bueno’s Beef Taco Salad also comes with an edible bowl, but it’s smaller and doesn’t have beans on the bottom. It’s still delicious, though. I’ve seen ads for $3 salad bowls from Taco Cabana that I haven’t tried yet, but I’d imagine this salad is something between Rosa’s and Taco Bueno’s.

If money is tight for you but you’d like to try a salad meal at home, here’s my mom’s recipe for tuna salad. Drain a can of tuna and mix it with a bowl of lettuce, tomato, Miracle Whip, and Bacos. Maybe also add a dash of pepper, and voila, you’ve got about two servings. Enjoy. :)