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| - The California food snob in me is gobsmacked that this chain started in Arizona when it seems like such a cliched Californian concept. Salad served up in a drive-thru window sounds like a joke Woody Allen would have made up in "Annie Hall". There are at least a dozen of these places in the Phoenix area, and when I passed by the first one I had ever seen, I became puzzled as to how good and fresh the salad could be in a fast food operation like that. The answer turned out to be 'Pretty good and darn fresh'. I didn't actually drive through but walked up, so I could study the ten salad bowls and four additional wraps they offered.
No surprise that I went with the reasonably priced $5.74 Asian Salad. It consisted of organic spinach, romaine lettuce, organic carrots, red cabbage, edamame, pineapple chunks, crushed peanuts, and green onions. I went for adding teriyaki chicken pieces for an extra $1.44. With a generous container of Asian vinaigrette on the side, it amounted to just 370 calories (photo: http://bit.ly/2DObyPo). It was all quite fresh, nothing like those plastic packaged salads McDonalds used to carry from days of yore for yo mama. Here's hoping Salad and Go makes it to Northern California next year.
FOOD - 4 stars...big fresh salads that are vegan & gluten-free
AMBIANCE - 3 stars...looks like a cleaned-up Jack in the Box with open tables at a premium
SERVICE - 4 stars...pretty darn fast
TOTAL - 4 stars...great concept, much needed
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