Place: Wendy's
Items: Spinach Chicken Salad
Prices: $4.29
Spinach?! When we Lunch Guys got wind of Wendy's newest item, the Spinach Chicken Salad, we thought, “That's it -- they've gone too far.” Having this iron-rich wonder leaf at a fast-food burger joint is like having Pavarotti sing backup for Justin Timberlake. These two worlds should not collide.
On the other hand, Wendy's helped lead the way in lunchdom's healthy revolution with its Garden Sensations menu, the line of premium salads that other restaurants have imitated. If this chain could pull off a Mandarin Chicken Salad, how hard could a spinach one be?
Tom: Chris, I have to be honest with you. After I ordered my Spinach Chicken Salad, the voice through the speaker innocently asked, “Will that be all?” Somehow, my voice replied, “And a Single with Cheese!” I didn't like the thought of driving off with just the salad.
But trust me, next time I'd be just fine with it. This salad quenches an appetite like a Biggie-sized combo and certainly can go head-to-head against any hearty Cobb on the market and shine. My salad was super fresh, had an abundance of the substantial toppings like flavorful chicken chunks, big pieces of egg and moist, smoky bacon. But what really made this bowl work for
actuallywanted more spinach. With all my favorite ingredients marinating in the decent Sweet and Sour Bacon Dressing, I was digging on the heartier, flavorful spinach as a full-bodied accompaniment. I may never go back to iceberg again, with its “all texture, no taste or nutrition” masquerading as a legit salad base.
Tom: You're right. This salad takes it to the next level. It's probably not going to put health-food stores out of business, but it's good enough for this dieting Lunch Guy. I tossed the pack of garlic croutons after eating just one; they weren't worth the extra 70 calories and 9 grams of carbos. Plus, that left me some room for my Single with Cheese as an afternoon snack.
Chris: Hey, nice diet technique. You know, Wendy's succeeds here by incorporating the spinach into an otherwise by-the-book salad rather than thinking that spinach only belongs alongside tofu and sprouts. So why not start slapping spinach leaves on those Singles? Seriously, Wendy's, we'd eat it up.
Rating: 5 sporks (out of 5)
Food Facts (with dressing and croutons): 500 calories, 34 percent calories from fat, 19g fat, 5g saturated fat, 43g carbohydrates, 1580mg sodium, 35g protein.
E-mail The Lunch Guys:
tomandchris@thelunchguys.com
me were the tart grape tomatoes and the sparse but crisp leaves of baby spinach sprinkled over the top. With this salad, I'm starting to realize that fast food places can do salads better than they do anything else. Even a 16-year-old worker can toss a few leaves in a bowl. The hard thing is getting people (such as yourself) to see how good these salads can be — especially with the dreaded “spinach” word involved.
Chris: I know, just hearing “spinach” shivers me timbers. Then again, I've had my share of the creamed spinach at Boston Market, the spinach dip at Friday's, and the Papa John's spinach alfredo pizza. But to see spinach in its unlarded form -- raw and naked with the stems still on the leaves -- is to see lunch through the eyes of an herbivorous woodland creature.
Lucky for me, Wendy's goes lighter on the spinach than I expected. There are enough leaves to cover just a thin coat between the romaine below and all the goodies above that you and I both love, Tom. In fact, I ran out of spinach before I ran out of chicken. That was the first shock. The second shock was that I
