Place: McDonald's
Item: California Cobb Salad
Price: $3.99
We picture eating the perfect
Cobb — with its rows of chicken, bacon, eggs, bleu cheese, tomatoes and carrots fanned out like a freshly shuffled deck of cards — while poolside in Vegas. But can you picture it on your lunch hour amid the Quarter Pounders and fellow key-board pounders at McDonald's? We couldn't either, until we tried McD's California Cobb Salad from the new Premium Salads line.
Tom: A great salad still seems out of place at McDonald's—like ordering a hamburger at Pizza Hut. But after trying it, I'd have the Cobb for lunch all week long. Surprisingly, this is a legitimate, albeit subdued version of the opulent spread served at L.A.'s Brown Derby since the late '30s. All the parts are here, including your choice of grilled or fried chicken, and a packet of Newman's Own California Cobb dressing, a tasty, creamy vinaigrette.
McDonald's translation gives you something you can't get anywhere else — a lid. I pour the dressing over my grilled chicken version,
received this McDonald's one served on fine china, I'd be happy. For a salad, it's surprisingly meaty — no supplementary cheeseburger needed. And just like those old Raisin Bran commercials, I still found a chunk of bleu cheese and a non-Bac-O bacon bit with my last iceberg lettuce piece.
Tom: You do pay a price for all that meatiness. This Cobb doesn't compete with options like Subway's 6-grams-of-fat turkey sandwich. My Cobb with dressing cost me 400 calories and 23 grams of fat, which is closing in on the Quarter Pounder with Cheese's 530 calories and 30 grams. But you don't say “with fries” when you order a Cobb salad.
Chris: I know. The Cobb dressing alone is like pouring on a liquid Big Mac. But I never will go to any fast-food place trying to eat healthy. The Cobb is on my lunch-hour list of favorites because it's a welcome burger break for carnivorous rabbits and hungry Lunch Guys alike.
Rating: 5 sporks (out of 5).
E-mail The Lunch Guys:
tomandchris@thelunchguys.com
snap on the lid, then shake the salad up. It took McDonald's to eliminate the Cobb's traditional downfall: When you eat all the good stuff off the top, you realize 90 percent of your meal is just lettuce. With my “shake and partake” method, every bite is gratifying. The McVersion could use some avocado, but otherwise I'd say it's perfect.
Chris: Thank the burger gods for this Cobb. I thought I was forever scared off after making the first generation of McSalads as a McWorker back in the summer of 1990. I never did understand why the ham and turkey on that old-school chef salad looked (and tasted) like mushy, fleshy carrot sticks. And I never figured out how to eat the Salad Shaker.
This 21st century line of salads is a brave new world. If I had ordered a Cobb at the Bellagio and
Try Cobb: McDonald's new salad hit
