Saladworks

The scene: Fast food sandwich shop meets salad bar. For the $ 9.19 I paid (includes tax), I felt like I overpaid greatly. I’d rather go to HEB and spend half the cost for much more and better ingredients.
Good for: People that normally don’t like salad, but want to try it out. Although there’s better options in town for better prices that I’d recommend for anybody that normally doesn’t like salads. The only benefit I had were that the employees were friendly and helpful with preparing my salad.
Bad for: Their meat and cheese are really just sandwich slices, their vegetables are previously frozen or canned. They have romaine, spinach and iceberg lettuce, but no other green options. The balsamic vinaigrette tasted more like italian dressing, and they try to drown your salad in the dressing. The salad came with a white or whole wheat bun, and it reminded me of an Einstein’s bagel.
Veggie review: Not a great selection, they have the staple American ingredients you’d get at a normal sandwich shop. I asked if they had any sprouts or quinoa and they had NO clue what that was.

Salads are great. The staff always seems to be very dis-​organized which makes getting through the line a tedious process. Especially if you get there at the noon hour. Yesterday took 20 minutes to get to the cashier and that was with only about 8 people in front of me.

We always order here for work so I decided to stop by during lunch to get a wrap.
While the food is good, the management/​staff look like they are all stoned out of their minds with blank looks on their face. Wake up people and/​or be drug free :)

Fresh veggies and friendly service! Great place to grab a healthy lunch!

Ugh, again, I go here WAY, WAY too often to leave this a 3 star review. Their veggie chili is just amazing, paired with a greek salad and a wheat roll, I have an amazing lunch or dinner.

I like the concept and my salad wrap was great. Very fresh, excellent friendly service. I want this place to stick around and succeed, and it is a very awkward location where many businesses have not survived. So — go to Saladworks and try it!

I felt the place is pricy and serving portion are very small. They charge $ 7 – 8 for a salad and you only get 5 items with the build-​your-​own choice. Soup quanty is very small for $ 3 – 5 that they charge for it. They don’t let you make your own salad. And the server behind the counter typically fills the bowl with fluffy veggies like lettuce, so they don’t have to put more of other veggies. When I asked them to put more olives, the lady told me that she can’t serve anything more, while there was still a lot of space in the bowl. I would rather go to SouperSalad or Freshchoice then pay $ 7 – 8 at this place.
Ok place if you are in this neighbordhood and in a hurry. Otherwise, I won’t go there with a point to eat at Saladworks! They are very stingy when it comes to the quantity where they charge a lot of the same!

I really liked this place. It was our second time here. The hubby and I were able to make a delicious salad with whatever ingredients we wanted. it was so big that we had to share it. The salad plate includes a wonderful roll as well. You get a choice of white or wheat. The price is reasonable as well. When we want a salad, we will come here.

OMG! I am so sorry to read so many bad reviews! I love to eat at Salad Works. I am addicted to the Mandarin Chicken salad with Oriental Sesame dressing. It is fresh and crispy and great for a hot day. I have had no problem with the chicken.
I admit the soups are not good. They do taste like they come from some kind of mix. Although, I kind of like the lasagna soup. I love the plates they use. They are recyclable, too
I have always been treated nicely. I agree it is pricey but everything else is, too! They did change their closing time from 9:00 pm to 8pm. That makes sense if they aren’t getting customers at that time. The salads are huge! By time I finish one I am stuffed!
I suggest you give it a try!

This is a very good salad place. Clean and trendy. Staff very nice and happy and food is very fresh with a lot of choices. I have eaten her a dozen time and will continue to come back unless something changes. I recommend it.

Lots of bad reviews but I thought it was fine. Nothing great but if you’re looking for a decent salad you could do a lot worse.

After reading the reviews I figured it would be awful but we went anyway. It was really good!!! Only reason I gave 3 instead of 4 is I’m not a soup & salad guy. The mozzerella chicken punani was really good!

Saladworks… works for me.
I’m a big fan of these salad restaurants and I was excited to see a salad place near work but the bad reviews always deterred me from coming here. Enter the Monday after SXSW where I am starving, in dire need of something healthy, and in possession of a shiny coupon from The Chronicle.
Most of the complaints have been around the meat in the salad and inconsistent ingredients so I went meatless and did the combo with a build-​your-​own salad and a soup. The tomato bisque had a strange consistency, thick but not exactly creamy… although I did finish it all so it was definitely edible.
They had a wide selection of toppings (you get 5 with the build-​your-​own) — a few that stood out were the edamame beans and the avocado (other places usually up-​charge for this). I was overwhelmed by the selection of salad dressings but my saladmaker suggested the balsamic vinaigrette and it was a little viscous but overall pretty good.
Basically, it’s nice to have another quick and healthy option in the area. Don’t forget your free beverage with Unilocal check-​in!

I glanced through all of the reviews so far and I’m beginning to think I made the right decision.
When I came here I didn’t order a salad because salads aren’t a meal they are a precursor to a meal, I went with their buffalo blue panini instead. I replaced the blue cheese dressing with ranch because buffalo sauce is way better with ranch, and if you don’t agree you’re a communist! Granted this was my first panini ever because the name panini sounds just about as bad as ordering a salad as a meal. Wimpy light fare is what I think about when someone orders a panini.
All in all I think I would go back and try some of their other sandwiches. Kind of sad that those amazing looking salads are getting such bad reviews but if you’re worried about the reviews come and try a panini or other sandwich.

Salad is in their name, so you’d think they’d be a great place to get salad. Um, no.
I got the Bently salad. The turkey and the ham in it was so gross. So much bristle in the ham, and the turkey tasted off. Blech. The lettuce itself tasted like bad bagged lettuce. I would also have expected a nicer range of lettuce than what they have. I won’t go into much more detail except to say, I had a problem with every ingredient. Even the dressing was odd.
The only reason I am giving them 2 stars is that their Tomato Bisque soup was at least edible.

I feel bad giving this new establishment 2 stars, but the reliability of this place alone is maddening.
I have attempted to eat here 3 times. For the first two, I tried to attend their Grand Opening, as advertised in several Austin publications. Except… they must have fallen behind schedule, because instead of serving up deals to herald their arrival, they served up a locked door and a «Coming Soon» sign.
On my third trip, though I checked on-​line to verify they were open until 9:00pm, I arrived to find the place deserted at 7:58pm. The sign on the door indicates an 8:00pm closing, though the menu just inside the door promises 9:00pm.
For a new restaurant in Austin to be this hard to patronize is a sure sign of trouble. Three times I showed up at the door ready to spend money after reading publicity, and three times I left, money still in pocket. I’m giving up; it shouldn’t be work to eat at a restaurant, and based on the reviews, perhaps I was spared a bad experience anyway.

I’ve been here three times, and I’m currently eating my third, and probably last salad from there. Every time I’ve gone, the staff has been really unreliable and inconsistent. I am not a picky eater by any means, so each time I’ve ordered a salad, I’ve simply selected one of the pre-​created salad options. Each time, they’ve severely bungled the order.
There’s nothing special about my orders, I’ve ordered them exactly as they’re supposed to come and the ingredients are clearly labeled on the menus as well as their cheat sheets that their constantly referring to. There’s no shame in using one of those, but come on — they’ve been open at least a month now, surely by now there should be a bit more consistency.
Right now I am eating a buffalo bleu salad that contains no buffalo sauce nor bleu cheese. How hard is it to screw that one up? It’s not terrible, it’s somewhat decent, but it contains neither of the namesake ingredients. That’s ridiculous.
Skip it.

[I said I was done with Unilocal for their inconsistent policies and doubled-​edged treatment of reviews and businesses, but this place was so awful, I just have to rate it.]
1) They LIE. «locally owned and operated» in big letters on the front door. Um, this is a chain. It’s a franchise, but they still send buckets of money to a corporate office and are still told how to run their business by said office. NOTHING about them is «Austin Weird»
2) pushy. There are a LOT of choices. Give me a minute, okay. I’m nice; if someone else comes in and knows what they want, I’ll let them go in front of me.
3) weak. My salad was meh and I didn’t like the dressing. My (not vegan???) «very veggie vegetable» soup was lukewarm. It tasted like they opened a can of generic vegetable soup and poured it straight into the bowl. Also, what the hell is in it that makes it vegetarian but not vegan? Do they make soup with butter, now?
4) expensive. $ 10 for a half salad and 3oz soup with water to drink. And it came with chips? What? Who eats chips with a salad and soup? I guess that makes sense if you get the sandwich, but isn’t the soup supposed to be the healthy side? I just brought the chips home.
5) pepsi and tea on tap (instead of the real stuff).
6) cool plates and trays. It raises the bar a bit for eating soup/​salad with plastic ware.
I won’t be back. Not even for a second chance.

Salad was not bad, soup was so-​so, I liked the roll that came with it. They let me taste the soup, workers were nice. Overall mediocre.

Saladworks is an all-​inclusive salad shop, and by that, I mean that it boasts sandwiches and soups in order to bolster its main concept: salads. They are making a great effort, despite being a franchise (that word seems to be the worst enemy of Unilocal), at cranking out quality goods… but I cannot justify the pricing, in any sphere.
Salads here topple over $ 8 – 9, making full meals $ 11+. And salad isn’t filling; I don’t care what you tell me. Some pieces of ham, cheese, and egg covering a mountain of lettuce is not going to satiate me. I eat pieces of salad like this for breakfast. Not literally… but this is no more than an appetizer in terms of quality. Additionally, 75% of salad calories are dressing based. Do you really feel comfortable paying for a plate of salad when you are resolving your hunger with a liquid fat?
I found their soups to be equally unappealing. The vegetarian chile was far too tomato-​centric, and its salt factor was over the top. Generally, vegetarian fare should be light on sodium… right? Along with this, the carrots and chickpeas provided the bulk of the body. I just cannot see why it is any better than Campbell’s, to be honest.
Saladworks is a new concept, and maybe they can do some tweaking so as to redeem themselves. From the outset, I did not find my experience to be the best in regards to my rabbit-​like dining experience – primarily because they most unique ingredient was probably the red peppers. I don’t have much reason to direct you here unless you REALLY want to find some salad-​laden eateries.
It is located in the hustle and bustle of Northcross Mall, which is booming. So, if convenience of location tickles your fancy, may you be tickled to your deepest desires, friends.