McGreens

Address: 1314 Douglas St.
Phone: (250) 778-430-5977
Price: ~$5 small salad
Notes: dingy decor, but a healthy option in a sea of general blah and greasy foods. Free wifi!

This is kind of like a low-budget version of the Salad Loop. The choices aren't as wide and not as fresh as the Salad Loop. The decor reminds me of a Chef Omar experience (sparse with lots of signage!). The name confuses me. Is it McGreens like McDonalds? A bit weird. The accents behind the counter were definitely not Scottish.

That all being said, I adore salad bars... it reminds me of dinners at Geordino's restaurant growing up. (My Great Aunt would take us out every few months, and it was a sad day when she passed away and we went to eat there in her memory only to find it had recently closed). That and the other family favourite place, Uncle Willy's. Yup, I'm being very serious when I say I am a recent convert to Good Food!

Service:
June 17, 2011
The man behind the counter was very friendly and helpful. We got lots of info prior to ordering, and he was very entertaining about asking people how much they think their salad weighed because if you guess correctly you get it for free!

That being said, I'm sort of starting to get familiar with the stressed, slightly panicked look of people living on the edge of restaurant survival and he and the other few people behind the counter had that look. I am not hopeful!



Food:
June 17, 2011
I had about fifteen minutes downtown to accomplish three tasks. Eat something quick, bribe someone with something tasty and sit down to look over some papers. Somehow McGreens won - which I'm thankful for since the other option in the block was pizza and I'm starting to think gluten is not my friend (sadface). 

Pluses and minuses to the salad bar:
++ roasted beets! (!!!!)
+ spinach
+ olives
- no black olives
+ chick peas
- low on the cheese choices
-- feta chunks were too big, too salty and not the right texture
- few protein options
+ red onions
+ lots of salad dressing options
- lots of things looked like they recently came from a can

The smoothies are a great option/idea: put your own fruit in the container, you pay by the weight of the fruit. However, fruit is heavy and it's inevitably going to be more expensive than a salad. However, smoothies are expensive no matter where you go and they had a "special smoothie" which was a pretty good deal for $4.50. The person I was bribing with food approved of it, so that's a bonus.