Pret's Cobb Salad

DAY 11: PRET A MANGER

Since Pret opened a new location that's a stone's throw from my office, I've been a rather frequent patron. Their grab-and-go salads are fresh, convenient and healthy, especially when paired with Pret's Skinny Vinaigrette Dressing. When I'm pressed for time in between meetings, I often run over to Pret. The new location hasn't seemed to have caught on yet, so there's never been a line. You can read more about Pret in my first Pret-centric post about the Chicken & Avocado Salad.

Today was another of those hectic days, with little time available for lunch, so to Pret I went. I decided on Pret's Cobb Salad, which I'd never had before.

Pret's Cobb Salad from Pret A Manger

It's not a typical cobb, that's for sure. The cobb I've come to know and crave includes hardboiled egg, avocado, tomato, chicken, onion, bacon and blue cheese. How can I rattle off those ingredients? I use the mnemonic EAT COBB. Clever, eh?

But you can't use this mnemonic to remember the ingredients in Pret's Cobb Salad. Pret eliminates the egg, avocado, onion and bacon and adds apple, cranberries and walnuts. Fair trade? Not so much, I say.

Like everything else at Pret, all of the ingredients were extremely fresh and beautifully arranged, but the combination just didn't do it for me. I really wanted creamy avocado with crisp, salty bacon. I missed the zing provided by onions and the distinctive taste and texture of cold, hardboiled egg. I couldn't have cared less about the fruit, even though I ordinarily love cranberries in my salad. Not this time.

Maybe if I'd gone with a different dressing, like blue cheese, I would have been more enthusiastic about this selection. Pret's version registers 190 calories and would have boosted my lunch tally beyond my 500 calories maximum to 610 calories. With all the other tasty lunchtime salad options that come in under 500, I wouldn't make an exception.

I still love Pret, just not Pret's Cobb Salad.

ITEM
Pret's Cobb Salad

EATERY:
Pret A Manger, 120 South Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL 60606

MENU DESCRIPTION
Grilled chicken (antibiotic free), blue cheese, apple, mesclun, grape tomatoes, cranberries, walnuts.

CALORIES
420 calories

COST
$8.28 with tax

RECOMMEND
Not so much

Cajun Pollo alla Oregano

DAY 9: VENICE CAFE

So Friday was my off day. I had a lunch meeting and ate what was served to the group, which was a turkey sandwich. Good thing I stuck to salads Monday through Friday.


Venice Cafe's Cajun Pollo alla Oregano

Today I was in the mood for something other than a green salad. I wanted to switch it up a bit. I ended up at Venice Cafe, which is an independent fast-casual lunch spot known for fresh pasta and other traditional Italian dishes. It's the kind of place where the menu lists the pastas and sauce separately. Pick one of each, and you have lunch.

When you walk into Venice Cafe, you get in line at the counter to order. Most dishes are not preassembled, but the line moves fast. My favorite pasta dish is angel hair with bolognese sauce, but there's no way I can talk myself or anyone else into believing that could count as salad. So I chose the Cajun Pollo alla Oregano, which is a fancy way of saying Cajun Chicken Pasta Salad.

Realistically speaking, this probably doesn't count as salad either. It's light on veggies and heavy on carbs. But it's tr-color rotini, which includes spinach rotini. That counts as a green, right? And the menu says that organic and local produce is used when possible, so it's health conscious. Obviously I didn't have too much trouble rationalizing myself into thinking this was ok.

The salads here are premade and displayed behind the counter in giant bowls. You pick the one you want and someone will scoop out a portion for you.

They're available in two sizes, medium and large, and come with a wonderfully big, delicious, homemade herb garlic roll. Especially with the roll, the medium-sized portion is generous enough for me.

As the name suggests, this salad is heavy on pasta. It's cooked al dente, which is what I prefer. Mixed in with the rotini are small cubes of tasty Cajun spiced chicken along with diced red pepper and thinly sliced celery. The vegetables are crunchy and compliment the noodles. A creamy Cajun dressing is premixed into the salad. It's tangy with a hint of spice and doesn't overpower—nor does it drip off the rotini, which is great because it's probably not low-cal. Just enough is used to flavor every bite.

The medium salad along with the roll was more than I needed. I ate a little over half the salad and took the rest home to eat with dinner: grilled pork chops with homemade spicy barbecue sauce and some veggies.

It was a super affordable lunch, totaling under $5.00 with tax.

Calories aren't posted online or in the restaurant, but I could guesstimate my caloric intake. I ate about a cup or less of pasta plus the roll. With the veggies of little significance, I'm fairly confident that I stayed under the 500 calorie limit.

This salad delivered a lot of flavor and satisfaction. At under $5.00 and under 500 calories, I'd say my week is off to a great start.

EATERY
Venice Cafe, 500 West Monroe Street, Chicago, IL 60661

ITEM
Cajun Pollo alla Oregano

MENU DESCRIPTION
Colored pasta Rotini, fresh Cajun-style chicken breast, celery and red peppers in a creamy cajun dressing .

CALORIES
Guessing <500

COST
$4.25 before sales tax

RECOMMEND
Definitely

Chicken & Avocado Salad

DAY 4: PRET A MANGER

Pret A Manger's Chicken & Avocado Salad

I’ve been traveling to London on business for many years. I remember the first time I went into the Pret A Manger sandwich shop that was across the street from my company's London office. I was struck by the amount of mayonnaise on everything. I also remember there being a lot of sandwiches with fish. Not just tuna, but things like crayfish, smoked salmon and prawns. There were a lot of squirrelly combos too. Cheddar and pickles on a baguette, anyone? Not quite my cup of tea.

Hop the pond and jump ahead a decade, and how things have changed.

Pret started expanding into the U.S. several years ago. I was pleasantly surprised to see a wide range of healthy sandwiches sans the mayonnaise and funky fish varieties that seemed to permeate the menu in London. Pret’s American-style sandwiches and soups worked their way into my lunch routine.

Pret recently opened a new café across the street from my office. I’ve started putting some of their salads into my lunch rotation. They’re a little higher in calories than some of my other regular lunch picks, but they’re still within range and very fresh. I also appreciate that calorie counts are clearly listed for every single selection. With plenty of choices under 500 calories, there’s no excuse for going over my target.

On Day 4 (which was actually Friday), I was craving Pret. Possibly due to the unseasonably cool, rainy, London-ish weather that’s settled in Chicago all too frequently this spring.

The salads at Pret are premade, but they're assembled on site and brought out to the coolers all day long. There’s a good chance your food was prepared within the hour—and if you go during the lunch rush, the food will probably be even fresher. At that time of day it typically flies off the shelves so fresh food keeps coming out.

My choice, the Chicken Avocado Salad, is beautifully arranged in a nice-sized cardboard container with a plastic top, much like the to-go containers used at Panera. There’s a thick bed of mesclun with thin strips of seasoned grilled chicken, huge chunks of ripe avocado, sliced tomatoes, dried cranberries and walnuts.

Dressings are served on the side, so you can pick whatever sounds good to you. I chose the Skinny Vinaigrette, which adds only 15 calories to the salad without sacrificing flavor. It's modeled after a traditional champagne vinaigrette, but it's oil-free so has no fat. The overarching taste is acidic, but there's a layer of sweetness that comes from honey. It seems more robust than 15 calories.

My salad was super fresh, with bright green avocado grabbing my attention first. Avocado is one of my favorite salad ingredients, so I love that Pret puts two generous chunks—practically half an avocado—in this dish. It goes really well with the seasoned chicken and sweet cranberries, while the walnuts add crunch plus nuttiness to round out the flavors.

If I had one complaint, it would be that the tomatoes were pretty tasteless. I’m curious to see if the taste improves once we enter peak tomato season.

With only five ingredients plus greens, I wouldn’t call this a complex salad. Nothing overpowers or distinguishes this from salads you might eat elsewhere. But it’s so bright and carefully prepared. That makes it stand out from some of the others that are thrown together in a pretty sloppy fashion. It’s filling, too. I ate at noon and didn’t feel hungry until I boarded my 6:30 train.

The week ended with another salad success.

ITEM
Chicken & Avocado Salad

EATERY
Pret A Manger, 120 South Riverside Plaza, Chicago, IL 60606

MENU DESCRIPTION
Grilled chicken (antibiotic free), avocado, tomatoes, mesclun, cranberries, walnuts, Pret's seasoning.

CALORIES
455

COST
$8.28 with tax

RECOMMEND?
Definitely

Zesty Chicken and Black Bean Salad Bowl

Image courtesy of Starbucks

DAY 1: STARBUCKS

I imagine you think this is a strange place for me to begin. I mean, who thinks of salad when they think of Starbucks? Certainly not me.

But every Starbucks in my area has a small selection of grab-and-go salads in the refrigerator case. And with a coupon for 50% off the item of my choice set to expire this week, I was motivated to make my first blogged-about adventure in lettuce a Starbucks salad.

I chose the Zesty Chicken and Black Bean Salad Bowl, which includes chicken, black beans, corn, jicama, tomatoes, feta, greens and quinoa with a chili vinaigrette.

Like all Starbucks salads, this one is prepackaged, with an ample supply of dressing nestled inside the deep, square container. The lid comes off easily. The directions say to add the dressing, replace the lid and shake. Apparently this is the way to perfectly distribute the dressing. Naturally, I didn't look at the directions until I'd already stirred in my dressing, so you'll have to measure the effectiveness of this method yourself if you're curious.

I must admit that prepackaged salads can be a drag. If you don't like all the ingredients or the dressing, you'll have to pick out the offensive items or supply your own dressing. Luckily, everything in the Zesty Chicken and Black Bean Salad Bowl sounded and looked appetizing to me

My first impression was that this salad could not have been more than a few hours old. It was FRESH, with none of the wilting or mushiness that often invades prepackaged salads.

I think this is due in large part to the way the salad is assembled. The heavier ingredients (chicken, quinoa, grape tomatoes, black beans and corn) are layered under the lettuce, with nothing but thin strips of seasoned jicama atop the greens. The ingredient proportions are balanced and generous, with enough of everything to ensure there will never be a bite with only lettuce.

The dressing is thick, with a rich reddish-orange color courtesy of pureed tomatoes, red papers and chilis. It's definitely not spicy though, so don't get scared off by the presence of chilis if you're heat-averse. It has a unique mix of sweet, smoke and tang that complements the ingredients perfectly.

I really loved the way the flavors of the salad combine. The earthy black beans and sweet corn play off each other with the delicate chicken. The roasted tomatoes add a nice acidity, the feta a punch of creamy saltiness, and the jicama a refreshingly light crunch. The quinoa, which on its own isn't much to dream about, provides substance and knits together all of the ingredients. And of course there is lettuce, a nice spring mix that neither overpowers nor underwhelms.

The salad itself isn’t large, but the ingredients are dense, so I was satisfied and full until dinnertime—roughly six hours after finishing lunch.

Yes, my maiden adventure was a success.

ITEM 
Zesty Chicken and Black Bean Salad Bowl

EATERY
Starbucks at 139 South Clinton Street, Chicago, IL 60661

MENU DESCRIPTION
A blend of grilled chicken, black beans, roasted corn, jicama, tomatoes, feta, spring greens and quinoa with mild chili vinaigrette.

CALORIES
360

COST 
$3.83 after 50 percent off coupon and sales tax

RECOMMEND?
Definitely