Critic's Review
There used to be a Salad Creations on Las Olas that I went to a few times before this site existed; it was always packed at lunch time but the greedy owner of 350 Las Olas tried to raise their rent so much that they couldn't operate at a profit. The space was empty for more than 2 years after that; I personally hoped that nobody ever took the space just to spite the owners.
I hadn't been to this location. Most of the other locations in South Florida have closed; it's a franchise operation and you can only make so much selling salads. This one is in an industrial area and I was surprised to see that they're open until 8pm. The franchisor doesn't even give them a web page with their hours, which is probably why so many of them went under.
When I walked in I was surprised at how small it is; the one on las olas was nicer that this; this one only has a handful of tables.
They have some fixed salads, but it's largely a build your own. For $8.99 you get as much regular salad stuff as you want; meats are extra but cheese is included. There's only 2 people making salads, so it can be slow going.
You can get iceberg, romaine or a spring mix; I went for half iceberg, half romaine. Tomatoes, red onions, blue cheese, cucumbers, a hard boiled egg and some banana peppers. Shoot it up with blue cheese dressing. Everything goes into a big stainless steel bowl and they have these rollers that they chop it all up with. The plop into into a big bowl and send you down the line to pay.
They have a beverage area, but they only have a fork dispensing machine, which seems like a waste of money since I can still take as many as I want if I want to pocket a few. No knives, but I didn't think I'd need one.
I got a seat in the back at one of the small tables. All tables are for 2 hear; don't come in a big group.
I realized that I was going to need a knife as the chopping left some leaves too large to eat otherwise. I went back to the beverage area looking for a knife, hoping that I'd just missed something. I asked a girl behind the counter and she came out and looked underneath; she came to the conclusion "No, Im Sorry, but we're out of knives".
Great. So I sent back to my seat and started eating around the big leave when the girl shouted something and she seemed to have found a knife for me. Problem solved.
The place seemed like it should have a few more tables. I'd think at lunch it would be hard to get a table. Most people were doing take out so I guess they'd been here before.
It wasn't the best dressing I've ever had, nor the best tomatoes or freshest lettuce, but it was good enough. A good sized lunch for $11.
Conclusion
With Sweet Tomatoes and Saladworks just down the block, it seems like there may be way too many places to get a Salad in this part of town. Saladworks is a nicer place, while I get more salad with a better pricing system here. At Saladworks you're a fool if you don't put protein on your salad, even if you don't want it.