A common New Year’s resolution is to eat healthier, so what better place to eat than Saladworks?
Saladworks, a small restaurant with locations spreading across the nation, is home to the country’s freshest and most manageable salad bar. When my family heard of this upcoming eatery, we had to try it – although it’s close to our own home, a 25-minute drive from Seal Beach or Los Alamitos to the Saladworks in the Village at Orange is well worth it if you’re planning on doing some Village Mall shopping anyway.
The inside of the restaurant is clean with modern decor and giant carrots made out of balloons to emphasize Saladworks’ nutritious menu. With over forty toppings and seventeen dressing choices, it’s impossible to create a salad that you aren’t satisfied with. Choose a baby spring, fresh spinach, wheat pasta, radiatorre pasta, or romaine/iceberg base to start, then add flavor with five free toppings and a house-made dressing. Dressings are served in plastic cups so that you can control how much goes on your salad. For those who find the process overwhelming (there are so many possible combinations!) Saladworks is prepared with thirteen pre-chosen salads with an array of flavors.
If a salad alone doesn’t fill you up, you also have the option to make your meal a combo. One half of Saladworks’ divided dishes can be filled with salad, while the other half can be for soup or half a sandwich. Each combo comes with your choice of a miniature loaf of bread or a bag of chips. Even if a salad alone is enough to hold you over, the leftover soup or sandwich would be very nice for tomorrow’s lunch.
My first Saladworks meal consisted of a salad-panini combo. I chose romaine and iceberg lettuce as my “salad base” and ham, cheddar cheese, avocado, tomato, and ranch dressing as my toppings. The panini was a turkey melt: sliced turkey, bacon, cheese, and thousand island dressing served between two slices of seasoned and toasted sourdough bread.
The crisp, fresh salad and the warm half-panini definitely proved to balance out each other. I loved knowing that while I was getting a delicious meal, I was eating relatively healthy at the same time. I regret not choosing more unique salad toppings, which would have made for a more interesting and flavorful dinner experience, but the ones I’d chosen were tasty enough. The panini was crispy on the outside but rich and buttery on the inside. And although the complimentary loaf of bread is meant to be a side, I thought of it more like a dessert – the bread was soft and sweet, and it worked as a nice way to end the meal.
The employees on duty during my experience were very friendly and willing to share how the salad bar process worked; however, one took a while to make the panini (it was as if a panini and its corresponding press was completely alien to him; maybe it was his first day on the job). Aside from that, my only wish is for there to be a Saladworks restaurant closer to Los Alamitos – although the drive there is definitely worth it if you’re looking for a healthy and tasty meal.
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