to my house. This means we can now sneak in the occasional lunch together.
Last week she swung by my place and picked me and the four year old up, so that
we could head to Wendy’s for a Ladies Lunch. We wanted to try out the new chef
inspired Wendy’s salads.
some year ago they were the first fast food restaurant to offer a salad bar.
The trio of new salads, Asian Cashew Chicken Salad, BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad and
Taco Supremo Salad, aren’t exactly your typical fast food salad offerings.
They’re freshly prepared in store and include gourmet style ingredients like
edamame and roasted cashews.
offer them in both full and half sized portions. I also love the fact that they
slice all of their tomatoes, red peppers and cucumbers by hand on site, and
that they use freshly grilled 100% premium all white chicken breast.
Interesting fact: There is a salad spinner in every Wendy’s
kitchen. They wash and hand-chop heads and romaine and iceberg lettuce every
day and then mix it with a triple washed leafy spring mix that contains nine
different greens.
I want to preface this next part by saying that while I was there to
review the new salads for my blog, the staff didn’t have a clue who I was. I
was shocked by how awesome the staff was at this Wendy’s. We had the most
amazing service. My mom took the four year old and went to sit down, leaving me
to order for the three of us. I ordered a full sized Asian Cashew Chicken
Salad, a full sized Taco Supremo Salad and a half-sized BBQ Ranch Chicken
Salad. The cashier was super friendly and helpful. She asked if
I wanted drinks, I hadn’t even thought about ordering drinks. I hemmed and
hawed for a moment and ended up ordering two bottles of water and an apple
juice. The cashier was patient as I fumbled through my order. And then what
happened next blew me away. As workers in the back started whipping our salads
together, adding the fresh hot toppings, the cashier placed the bottles of
water on the tray. When she noticed me stuffing the bottles of water into my
coat pocket, trying to consolidate things to make it easier to carry, she said,
“There’s no need for that, I’ll help you bring it out.” She called
someone else to come up and take her place at the cash and she walked me to the
table where my mom was waiting. She also put a pile off $1 off salad coupons on
the tray for us to use next time. This definitely ranks as the best service I
have ever experienced at a quick serve restaurant.
 |
| Plenty of $1 off coupons for our next visit. |
total from when we walked in the door to when I sat down to eat. Which is
awesome, because my mom was on the clock and needed to make it back within one
hour. Fast service means more time to visit and chat. Yay. Since there were
three of us having lunch, we played musical salads (I was with my mom and my
kid, so I wasn’t too worried about sharing forks and meals). In the end, after
we had each tried all three salads, I ended up with the Taco Supremo, which had
such an awesome consistency. The crunchy taco chips and the thick meaty chili
paired nicely with the fresh crisp salad.
 |
| Musical salads, we each got to try all three. |
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| 4 year old chows down on tasty Taco Supremo Salad. |
Cashew Chicken Salad. Between the dressing and the spicy cashews this one had a
bit of bite to it. It was just the right level of spicy. That plus the fresh
red peppers and fire roasted edamame made this the favourite salad for both me
and my mom. This is the salad that I will most definitely be getting on our next
Wendy’s visit. However, I’m such a great daughter that I let my mom have this
one.
 |
| Asian Cashew Chicken Salad, my favourite. |
The half order of BBQ Ranch Chicken went to my four year
old. Something amusing and strange happened here because based on this lunch my
salad hating kid decided she LOVED salad and has since been asking to have it
again daily. I had bought the BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad for Baby-G thinking she
would likely just pick out the chicken, but she devoured the entire thing. She
also ate a good portion of the Taco Supremo Salad, I was even able to talk her
out of eating the nacho chips plain. Personally, I didn’t think I would like
the BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad because I’m not big on barbeque sauce, but the
honey BBQ sauce that was drizzled on this salad was darn tasty. The roasted
corn was a nice touch and the applewood smoked bacon was worth fighting over.
 |
| My turn to try the BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad. Man, was that applewood smoked bacon ever good! |
Despite the quick service, Wendy’s salads do not taste like fast food. They
tastes like “real” food and have the calorie count to match. The new
salad line up is lower in fat, sodium and saturated fat than their previous
offerings. The Asian Cashew Chicken salad, my personal favourite of the bunch,
is only 370 calories. Fresh red peppers, spicy roasted cashews and edamame,
plus it’s under 400 calories, um.. what’s not to love?
mom. The four year old was completely occupied with salad devouring, which left
us free to chat. I’ve got a trip to Mexico coming up in June, so I was
asking my mom for tips on what to wear. My mom, who loves the heat and soaks up
the sun like a lizard, enjoyed teasing me about how I’d wilt in the heat. We
talked about summertime clothes and summertime feet. Apparently I need sandals
if I’m going to Mexico.
My mom insists that my favourite hiking boots aren’t going to cut it.
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| My idea of summertime shoes. |
Munching on salad, hanging out at Wendy’s, having time to
sit and chat with my mom about silly things like sandals and toes; it was a
great way to spend the noon hour. I can totally see why Wendy’s has been
promoting “Girlfriends at Wendy’s Eating Salads and Talking about
Stuff”. Wendy’s really is the
perfect place to grab a quick tasty lunch and catch up with gal pal, or your
mom.
“Girlfriends at Wendy’s Eating Salads and Talking about Stuff”.
by Wendy’s, the opinions and language are all my own, and in no way do they
reflect Wendy’s.
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