Salad and Go: A welcome addition to Owasso’s fast-food market

By Josh Foreman

Photo of Salad and Go salads taken by Joshua Foreman

By now, everyone is getting tired of the cookie-cutter fast food places popping up all around town. Chicken, sandwiches, burgers, it’s all one and the same. Luckily for us, someone finally broke the mold with burritos, wraps and salads at the all-new Salad and Go.

Salad and Go is a drive-through-only restaurant, boasting a decent selection and unbelievably low prices. Low maintenance costs and bulk ordering provide more money for fresh ingredients and low customer costs. Of the nine signature salads, I tried the Caesar, BBQ Ranch, Roasted Autumn and Buffalo Chicken salads, along with the Fiesta breakfast burrito.

Photo of Caesar salad by Joshua Foreman

Caesar

Caesar Cardini’s signature Caesar salad is one of my personal favorites, keeping things simple with parmesan cheese, croutons, romaine lettuce, chicken and plenty of Caesar dressing. Simple flavors, crunchy textures and a strong, acidic dressing make this salad what it is: an instant classic. As far as Caesar salads go, this one is a 7/10.

Photo of BBQ Ranch salad taken by Josh Foreman

BBQ Ranch

This one is self-explanatory; an instant hit with my barbecue-loving palette, this salad has corn, black beans, Pico de Gallo, avocado, tortilla strips, shredded pepper jack cheese, romaine lettuce, mixed greens and chicken. While I don’t like avocado, I can see that it definitely holds a place on this salad, providing a heterogeneous texture with crisp, chewy corn and black beans as well as crunchy tortilla strips. The dressing is more on the mild side as a result of mixing ranch and barbecue sauce, but that works pretty well with so many other ingredients already in the salad. Overall, it’s slightly below the Caesar salad at a 6/10.

Photo of Roasted Autumn salad by Joshua Foreman

Roasted Autumn

The Roasted Autumn salad was by far my favorite, introducing me to the beauty of sweet potatoes in salad. Much like the BBQ Ranch, this salad has many ingredients, including diced sweet potato, roasted brussels sprouts, candied pecans, dried cranberries, grated parmesan, romaine lettuce and chicken. Much like avocado, I don’t like brussels sprouts. Unlike the avocado on the BBQ Ranch salad, the brussels sprouts just don’t seem to have a place on this salad. They’re way too large for a single bite, much less alongside the rest of the ingredients, too undercooked to cut into smaller pieces and don’t contribute any flavor or texture to the bowl. Putting the brussels sprouts aside, this salad had a great balance of sweet, salty and bitter. Between the sweet potatoes and dried cranberries, the crunchy candied pecans and the strong balsamic vinaigrette, this salad had a little of everything in every bite, which is exactly what I look for in a good salad. Had it not been for the brussels sprouts, this salad could have been perfect, and for that, it’s an 8/10.

Picture of Buffalo Chicken salad taken by Joshua Foreman

Buffalo Chicken

This was the most surprising thing to spot on the menu, so of course, I had to try it. The Buffalo Chicken salad was a taste of home for me, with carrots, celery, banana peppers, tomatoes, croutons, romaine lettuce, buffalo chicken and blue cheese dressing. Sure, there’s a stigma around blue cheese dressings, and I certainly have never enjoyed them, but it worked really well with this salad. It definitely would have worked with ranch, too, but there’s something special about the buffalo paired with that blue cheese specifically. As far as the toppings go, it’s pretty standard. This salad could have been great, but the banana peppers were everywhere. Normally, I don’t mind a banana pepper thrown in as a spicy little treat at the end of a plate, but these banana peppers were the strongest, most unwelcome flavor of anything else I had tasted. The rest of the salad worked, but the banana peppers overpowered everything else by a mile, and for that, I’ll have to give this salad a 5/10.

Fiesta Burrito

There isn’t much to say about this burrito. It had eggs, breakfast potatoes, turkey sausage, pepper jack, Pico de Gallo and tortilla strips, wrapped in a flour tortilla with a side of salsa. It was pretty bland overall, but that’s not too terrible for an early-morning meal. The Pico de Gallo was almost unnoticeable, which was disappointing, but the rest was pretty standard and just needed a little more salt. 6/10.

Salad and Go is a great option for salad lovers and early birds in need of a solid breakfast. For the unique idea, decent execution and amount of options, I give it a 7/10 overall.