Critic's Review
I hadn't been this little armpit in quite a while; mainly because there's nothing here worth trying. My last visit to the Salad Bowl was in 2010.
The big problem here is that across the street is a park which has become a gathering spot for the homeless. It's not a bad little space otherwise; there just aren't any people after 2pm.
They're open until 3pm, but it's mostly employees grabbing some food after 2. It reminds me of a place you find have found in Times Square back in the 80s.
Retro tables like an old time diner. Eat-in food is served on plastic plates with plastic silverware, so I'd rather take the food out and eat it at home. I order hot pastrami on rye. The side choices were rice, pasta salad or potato salad, none of which really interested me. I opted for the potato salad, a dish I almost never like at a place like this.
When I got home I opened up the container. The twisted ends on the wax paper was something I hadn't seem before. Lunch comes with a bag of chips.
I'd watched the cook make the sandwich; they grill the pastrami which isn't really the right way to warm it up. Good delis use moist heat to keep the pastrami warm. You don't want to grill out the fat. The bread was toasted as well; this place isn't the Carnagie Deli.
I took a bite of the sandwich. Not bad. Not great pastrami but it was better than the stuff I got at Top Hat for twice the price. One thing that was surprising was that the potato salad was VERY good. Almost no-one knows how to make good potato salad.
The trick is to heavily salt the water and just use good mayo; no vinegar. This had some peppers for crunch.
The pickle was clearly supermarket jar quality. I put some of my own spicy brown mustard on the second half and it was better. Lots of good mustard makes a difference on pastrami.
$8.11 for this. Certainly a good deal.
Conclusion
Decent grub if you work nearby, but the place has a low-end feel that would keep me from wanting to dine in. Only open M-F until 3pm, so it's really only an option for those who work nearby.
Review 10/15/10
The salad bowl is one of those places that you're lucky to have near where you work. Not because its so good; but because they have so many different dishes. How many places are there were you can get an Italian Sub, a cheeseburger, a Cuban Sandwich or chicken milanese?
Its also a place that if you work near it, you know about it, and if you don't, you don't care. So why does it need a review? Thats a good question, but I had to pick up something quick today, and this is where I landed.
Inside, place looks like an overstuffed fast food place. On the far side they have a steam table with the "a la carte" items. Today they had chicken teriyaki which looked pretty good with red and green bell peppers. For $6.95 you get one side or you can get 2 sides for $7.75. Rice and beans count as one side.
As you can see they give you plenty of food for $6.95. You'd have to be a fatty fatso to eat all of this (or an offensive lineman); I ate about 1/3 of the rice and beans and half the chicken and it was plenty. It was actually pretty good. Would I travel to eat at this place? No. But if I worked nearby I'm sure I'd be a frequent visitor.