Just Salad

[Megan Blocker]

Has anyone else tried this?

It's a salad-and-wrap only shop, on 51st between Park and Madison (closer to Park). I'd been passing it every morning on my walk up to the office, and it opened a couple weeks back. I finally got around to trying it this afternoon, and was not impressed.

The line out the door seemed promising indeed, but when I got inside, the noise level was deafening, the process unclear, and the list of available items for your salad nowhere to be found.

You get to choose your lettuce (or an assortment thereof) from a decent selection, including arugula, romaine, mesclun mix and iceberg. I picked all arugula and trotted down the line to order my toppings. Only thing is, I couldn't get anywhere near them, so I couldn't see what there was, and the only listing of them was on a card being passed around the line.

I finally ordered grilled chicken, onion, cherry tomatoes and green beans (which I assumed would be haricots verts but turned out to be normal string beans, which is fine, just different). THEN they move you down the line to have your salad chopped. HOLD UP, people. Chopping my arugula back and forth with a giant mezzaluna? My baby arugula? Recipe for a sodden mess. But before I could stop them, bam. There it went.

I will say that the white balsamic vinaigrette is quite tasty on my arugula soup.

Anyone else been? Is this a chain? I couldn't find anything (albeit via a half-hearted Google attempt).

Edited June 6, 2006 by Megan Blocker (log)

[cakewalk]

I think this place might have reopened with a new name. Several months ago I bought a salad in that area (I work in the neighborhood), but the place was named "Chop't!" or something like that. (Although I never connected the name with what they might do to my salad -- silly me.) And I had the same exact reaction you did, although I was able to stop them before they took that hatchet to my salad! It's like buying a salad that someone has already chewed up for you. Not my cup of tea.

[Megan Blocker]

I think this place might have reopened with a new name. Several months ago I bought a salad in that area (I work in the neighborhood), but the place was named "Chop't!" or something like that. (Although I never connected the name with what they might do to my salad -- silly me.) And I had the same exact reaction you did, although I was able to stop them before they took that hatchet to my salad! It's like buying a salad that someone has already chewed up for you. Not my cup of tea. 

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I think this might be different from Chop't, but maybe not...we had a Chop't down by my old office (Park Avenue South and 22nd, maybe?), and this seemed different...but could be the same people, no doubt.

[Dryden]

There is a Chopt on 56th between Madison & Park. This would be a different place. And chopt is actually really good.

[Megan Blocker]

There is a Chopt on 56th between Madison & Park.  This would be a different place.  And chopt is actually really good.

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And I don't recall a mezzaluna being used at Chop't when I used to go to the one down on Park...or am I thinking of Tossed? So many salad places!

[cakewalk]

Oh, they were definitely chopping up the salads, not just tossing them. Maybe the place on 56th between Park and Madison is the one I went to, it was quite a while ago and I never went back. The salad was good, but I stopped them from chopping it. I'm not sure I would have felt the same way otherwise. Is a mezzaluna those two-bladed roundish thing? Because if so, they were definitely using it!

A tangent: In Israel, they make their salads by cutting the vegetables into tiny little pieces and mixing it all together. It's actually good, but totally unlike a salad as we know it here in the States. I love to eat the individual veggies in a salad -- be it tomato, cucumber, mushroom, or whatever -- and taste each item. (The Israeli's say that when they eat American salads, they feel like a cow!) The Israeli salads are very good, but there's no one taste in particular that is outstanding, it's all combined to make a wonderful whole. Chopped salads, however, fall into another category altogether. I really dislike the whole thing -- taste and texture. Oh well.

[Megan Blocker]

I love chopped salads when things are chopped separately - I often make my own tossed salads like that, chopping all the vegetables into same-size pieces. But this just made the lettuce turn to mush. Ick. Iceberg might have held its own, but not arugula.