Hollis Johnson/Business Insider
All of the major fast-food chains have added salads to their menus, but who does it best?
- Fast-food salads are often looked down upon as menu afterthoughts best avoided, but many chains have seriously improved their salad offerings lately.
- We tried salads from several major national fast-food chains - Burger King , Chick-fil-A , McDonald's , and Wendy's .
- McDonald's and Chick-fil-A's salads are shockingly good, while others miss the mark.
The fast-food salad: an oxymoron? A pointless exercise in trying to be healthy? A grave mistake to be avoided? Fast-food salads have a bad reputation - the afterthoughts of the chain menus, half-heartedly made and forgotten amidst the glistening burgers and fries.
But somehow, these grab-and-go containers of lettuce have improved vastly over the years.
While they started off as a weak olive branch in the 2000s, aimed at placating health nuts who complained about chains' glut of fats and dearth of healthy choices, many chains have seriously stepped up their salad game.Gone are the days of iceberg lettuce and goopy ranch - think fruits, beans, mesclun, cabbage, and pomegranate vinaigrettes.
We decided to try salads from several major national fast-food chains - Burger King , Chick-fil-A, McDonald's , and Wendy's - to see how far they've come, and to find out who makes the best salads around:
EXCLUSIVE FREE SLIDE DECK:
The Future of
Get the Slide Deck Now »
View As: One Page Slides
Interestingly, all of the salads offered from these chains are centered around chicken. Some chains, like McDonald's and Burger King, allow you to choose which kind of chicken to add — be it grilled or fried — while others don't ask.
Burger King's Chicken Club Salad
Burger King used to be my favorite chain as a kid, but in my aged wisdom I have come to find that the quality is severely lacking on the whole. This sentiment extends to its salads.
The grilled chicken is bland, stringy, and boring. The quality isn't awful otherwise — there's romaine lettuce, the Ken’s Steakhouse ranch dressing is solid, and the tomatoes seem … decent. But it's lackluster. If "decent" is the best thing to be said, there may be an issue.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
There's nothing exciting about this salad. And sure, I realize salads aren't expected to be the Carnivale of meals, but a little pizzazz would be appreciated. The extremely salty bacon is a footnote at best, and the chicken is simply ... there. It's boring. The fact that I paid $7.49 for this feels a little insulting.
Burger King's Chicken Garden Salad
The "garden salad" is perhaps the most boring salad I've ever encountered. If the chicken club salad was exciting — and I use the term "exciting" lightly here — only for the presence of bacon, then this salad is somehow even less interesting, while still costing the same.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
It's lettuce, tomatoes, and chicken. That's it. It's the Ben-Stein's-voice of salads. Does it meet the criteria for a salad? Yes, absolutely. Perhaps I shouldn't expect so much of it. But isn’t there something sad about that, too?
McDonald's Bacon Ranch Salad
McDonald's offers a choice of crispy or grilled chicken for its salads, and considering this one has bacon in it, I decided to opt for the fried chicken — clearly health isn't too much of a concern here. Yet it actually feels... healthy. The quality seems remarkably high.
This is not your grandfather's McDonald’s salad. The lowest-quality item might be the chicken — which isn't even that bad anymore, after the chain reintroduced the buttermilk crispy chicken.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
Romaine lettuce, baby spinach, baby kale, and red-leaf lettuce all mingle in the bowl with plump and firm grape tomatoes.
Honestly this salad is good — suspiciously good. The lettuce is fresh, the tomatoes vibrant, the bacon crunchy, the chicken tender and well-seasoned — it’s all there. Plus, the price point is spectacular at $5.99. A McDonald's salad this good? I'm genuinely confused.
McDonald's Southwest Salad
I went for grilled chicken for the vaguely Tex-Mex-themed salad; it just felt right. In fact, this whole salad feels right. I never would have expected a McDonald's salad to be so satisfying. It's the same greens mix as the other salad, plus tortilla strips, beans, corn, chicken, Newman's Own "Southwest" dressing, even a lime wedge — this is impressive.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
It even makes for a fantastic vegetarian option sans chicken thanks to the addition of beans as a non-meat protein, as dutifully reported by Business Insider's Kate Taylor during her vegetarian fast-food adventure.
And still, for only $5.99? If anything, I'm increasingly suspicious as to:
- How can McDonald's make such a good salad?
- How can McDonald's charge so little for such a good salad?
Wendy's Taco Salad
Delicious in theory, but lackluster in execution.
It's essentially a normal, plain, iceberg-heavy salad with Wendy's chili, nacho cheese sauce, and salsa dumped on top. It's supposed to come with tortilla chips, but they weren't in the bag this time — which is a shame, because this salad needs some tortilla crunch to add some interesting texture as well as to tie it together thematically.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
There's no dressing, which I guess I don't mind considering the huge amount of chili provided. But overall, this salad just feels kind of lazy. For $7.29, you're basically getting a bowl of iceberg and romaine lettuce, some shredded cheese, and a bowl of chili and nacho cheese. Meh.
It's a pity, as taco salads done right are one of my favorite meals — see Qdoba's.
Wendy's Power Mediterranean Salad
This is clearly Wendy's stab in the dark at the rise of trendy salads. Quinoa, hummus, feta, chickpeas, balsamic vinaigrette — there's nearly everything off the cool-salad checklist. The problem is, it's all a bit much. It's a cacophony of flavors; an extremely talented but inexperienced orchestra that's decided to forgo rehearsing before playing Carnegie Hall. I suppose in this overly-complicated analogy, your taste buds are Carnegie Hall and they paid $7.79 for a ticket.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
There's just a lot happening in this salad, so the rather good ingredients are all shouting over one another, leaving us unable to fully enjoy it. But to Wendy's credit, it's miles beyond what the chain used to serve for salads. I remember my mom ordering salads at Wendy's (I always went for the Baconator, bless my 10-year-old metabolism) and them being woefully inadequate and gross heaps of iceberg lettuce and weird, vaguely Asian dressings.
Wendy's Apple Pecan Chicken Salad
This one, on the other hand, has just the right amount of flavors and textures coming together. Wendy's grilled chicken is fairly good — in fact, the chain's grilled chicken sandwich came in a strong third place in our grilled chicken sandwich showdown. And for $7.69, this salad has a lot of fairly good-quality ingredients in it that would cost nearly double that at a comparable salad chain.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
Add apples for crispness and sweetness, cranberries for a hint of acid, roasted pecans for a nutty, earthy warmth, and crumbled blue cheese for a touch of funk, and you've got a surprisingly tasty salad. The pomegranate vinaigrette is a tad too sweet, but it's not overbearingly so. All in all, this is a impressively balanced salad that's satisfying and fresh.
Wendy's Spicy Chicken Caesar Salad
I've always loved Caesar salads. They're perhaps the ultimate combination of the best tastes and textures in existence: salty cheeses, crisp and juicy tomatoes, crunchy croutons, and the massive and rich umami-bomb that is Caesar dressing. Throw some good chicken in the mix? Even better.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
Wendy's does a pretty good job with this one — I don't entirely understand the choice of using spicy chicken, but it's not all that spicy anyway, so at worst it tastes enthusiastically seasoned. Could it use more flakes of parmesan? Definitely. But as far as chain Caesar salads go, this is pretty fantastic.
Chick-fil-A Spicy Southwest Salad
Okay, so we already know Chick-fil-A makes great chicken, grilled or fried. Everyone knows this. So, one can order a salad there with chicken and be confident that at the very least, the chicken will be excellent. And it is! But the salads are also weirdly good.
This Tex-Mex salad has vibrant green lettuce, bright red tomatoes, carrots, chiles, bell peppers, corn, beans, chili lime pepitas, and tortilla strips — it's remarkably similar to McDonald's Southwest Salad.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
And frankly, it's just as good. You have your choice of dressing. I went with the chili lime vinaigrette, which is suggested, and it brought an earthy heat that brightened every flavor without weighing down the rest of the salad. Some salads are just lettuce and vegetables thrown into the mix, and they don't satisfy hunger — if anything, they pique it. But this is a wholly filling meal for $8.99.
Chick-fil-A Cobb Salad
A little less on frills than the Spicy Southwest salad, this one is a fairly straightforward salad. It's a fairly typical Cobb construction of crumbled bacon, diced egg, and shredded cheese dotting a bed of romaine lettuce, carrots, red cabbage, with some sliced-up chicken nuggets thrown into the mix. One thing is missing: some sort of funky cheese, usually Roquefort or Gorgonzola.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
The toppings are scarce, and there's not that much bacon or egg, which is a little disappointing. But it's not a bad salad. The quality is pretty high for a fast-food salad — higher than some salad-focused chains, even. The suggested avocado ranch dressing is a good pairing, and the chicken is (of course) up to snuff, but I do wish it had a tangy note of some blue cheese.
Chick-fil-A Market Salad
A very fresh, very vibrant salad. Fruits — strawberries, apple, and blueberries — add sweetness that isn't the typical sugary vinaigrette sweetness. You can choose your own dressing for all of Chick-fil-A's salads; I chose ranch for this one, but the balsamic vinaigrette would probably be an amazing match.
We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking
The grilled chicken is a good savory counterpoint to the sweet fruit — plus it’s healthier than fried chicken. And it's Chick-fil-A, so it's just plain delicious chicken with excellent marinade and seasoning. This salad feels incredibly healthy, if not a tad on the safe side of things.
So what's the verdict?
Honestly, I was most surprised by McDonald's salads. The quality is far above and beyond what I expected — not that McDonald's is bad, but it's ... well, McDonald's.
Chick-fil-A's salads are delicious on the whole, but that's less of a shock considering the chain's fairly high standards for quality.
Wendy's is fairly middle-of-the-road with some hits and misses, and Burger King ... no one goes to Burger King for a salad anyway, right?
Next Story
Comments ()
SIGN IN WITH
FacebookGoogleEmail