2.5/5 stars
Maybe I’m just a picky eater but I usually don’t like brown edges on my leafy greens. It’s terrible that it’s the initial thought I have in my head when I think of Salad Buzz, but I usually enjoy vegetables that are fresh and, well, edible.
Now, it wasn’t completely atrocious, but it isn’t a place I would splurge with my money. I entered Salad Buzz assuming that there would be nothing offered but a large list of various salads to choose from. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Salad Buzz is a little more creative in their salad preparations and menu options.
Not only do they have a variety of leafy options but they also have sandwiches, wraps as well as healthy juices. I chose an option from all three: a turkey pesto panini, a salad wrap, and the beautifier juice (I was very hopeful for the last option).
Salad Buzz can’t really be called a restaurant but more like a small eatery without inside seating. It has a salad bar that displays various fruits, vegetables, sauces and meats to add to your salad. I felt like being a risk-taker, so I chose the “build your own salad” option and used spinach, kale, oranges, black beans, buffalo chicken, blue cheese, Greek dressing and legumes wrapped into a wheat tortilla and pressed in a grill.
I looked at the tub of precut lettuce that was used to make a turkey pesto panini consisting mostly of salad (but the place is called Salad Buzz, I shouldn’t expect anything less) with a spread of pesto and two slices of turkey. It didn’t take much to put together and it made me slightly sad to dish out almost $7 to watch the employee arrange it.
The entire meal came out to be almost $20 along with the drink. I took my food to an outside table and tasted my wrap. It was delicious because I had control over what ingredients went into it. The blue cheese was a creamy compliment to the orange zest in the salad. The Greek dressing was not overbearing but light enough to add flavor while still feeling as though it was a healthy meal. The spinach leaves were fresh, in contrast to the slightly browned lettuce leaves in my turkey pesto panini.
The panini was merely a lettuce salad with turkey in between two slices of bread. For $6, it could have provided a lot more flavor than just the pesto spread. The tomato slices lost their firmness and molded themselves to the salad leaves, even before being pressed in the panini grill. I couldn’t look too long at the turkey slices that had a clear substance that appeared to be a little thicker than water. One nice amenity of the panini was that the bread seemed to come from a crusty loaf rather than from a Wonder Bread bag. I think what was most disappointing is that it took the employee more than five minutes to assemble this simple meal.
The beautifier juice was an unusual mix of spinach, apples and carrots that confused my taste buds and tasted like the residue of liquid that fruit leaves in a bowl. The sweetness of the apples was negated by the bitter flavor of carrots; however, I drank it because I couldn’t bear to know that $5 for a small juice was going to waste. Also, I hoped that its unusual taste would pay off and would provide me the youthful glow I wished to regain.
Altogether this place is a nice stop for a healthier option, but doesn’t provide enough pull for me to come back again. I can actually make these items myself and at a much faster pace, because I spent more time standing in Salad Buzz then I did eating my food. At the time, there was only one employee for the place and it was difficult to watch him handle three customers at once. I almost felt worried for him — if Salad Buzz gained popularity, how would he handle all of those customers? However, if the quality was any indication, that probably won’t be happening anytime soon.
But then, maybe I’m just bitter because I didn’t see any improvement after drinking the beautifier.
