Thursday, April 09, 2009
Tasty salads but atmosphere is lacking
JUSTIN COOK The Roanoke Times
Tom Angleberger knows what he likes. So we've asked him to eat at NRV restaurants and write about them. If you have a restaurant to recommend,
e-mail him. Tom Angleberger
Recent columns
Salad Creations
- What: Salads, soups and wraps
- Prices: Salads range in price from $4.99 to $8.49. Wraps start at $6.59.
- Address: 1540 South Main St., Suite 104, Blacksburg
- Contact: 951-0718
- Hours: 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday
Let me say right from the top, that I had a delicious, plentiful salad at Salad Creations.
As it says on the restaurant walls -- "Fresh is Fabulous."
So what's the problem? Almost everything else.
When you open the door to this chain restaurant, someone behind the counter yells a greeting at you. In fact, they're going to yell the same greeting at everyone who comes in the door.
And if someone leaves a tip in the tip jar, the cashier is going to say "Can I get a thank you?" And then other employees are going to yell "Thank you."
Pre-programmed politeness may have sounded good at corporate HQ, but it doesn't when you're actually trying to eat lunch and new customers keep coming in and getting yelled at.
So much for the atmosphere.
After being greeted, you will be presented with a brain-numbing number of options. If a salad-maker asks you if you've been there before, just say "yes."
Otherwise, you'll receive a crash course in the six steps behind "Create Your Own Salad." People have been creating their own salads for thousands of years, but somehow it just turned into astro-physics.
It is much easier to choose one of the 11 "Featured Salads" -- such as "Hail to Caesar" -- or seven "Fresh Wraps," such as Wasabi Chicken Salad.
If you choose a salad, you will have your choice of 18 salad dressings and two sizes of metal bowls. You might be tempted to call these sizes "large" and "small."
But Salad Creations calls them "FullCreation" and "Jr. Creation." It's what they call "Sensible Sizing" and, yes, that's a trademarked term.
Now we come to the real trouble. The salad was $7.99. Chips and a drink cost $2. With tax -- including Blacksburg's whopping tariff -- my salad lunch cost $11.08.
Bottom Line: Salad Creations has good lettuce, if you've got the cabbage ... and the patience for chain store shenanigans.
