Salad Express

I will first start off by saying this place has a great selection of items on their buffet and the price is inexpensive considering the numerous options (salad bar, tacos, baked potatoes, soups, and fresh baked breads) but it lacks in the flavor taste department. Soups are bland, salad dressings are very thin and not rich flavor. Some days I prefer light vinagerettes and other days I will endulge a tad with a creamy ranch or blue cheese dressing. If you like your blue cheese or ranch dressing rich and creamy this is not the place for you. In closing, the buffet area is well kept and the employess are friendly but as the saying goes «you get what you pay for.»

Salad bar always stocked. Baked potatoes are huge. Always good, but dont order sandwich off of menu… chicken sakad sandwich is nasty.

Been coming here for 15 years. Love this place. Great food, great price. Always love getting my root beer in the mason jar glasses!

Salad bar is fresh and full of standard options. If you just want salad, then this place is hard to beat for only $ 7.29 each.
Four daily soups are available, but they are generally bad. Today the option were a mediocre beef vegetable, a bad potato green chili, reasonable beef rotini and a horrible Thai noodle.
The potato bar looked old, and bread in the steamer was wet.
Frankly I find both Jason’s deli and salad express to be better, though more expensive options.

I came here because I wanted a good salad with avocado, they no longer carry avocado. Not the freshest salad.

There needs to be a Salad Express in Santa Fe Texas! We need a salad bar and less donut shops! ************************************************************************************************************************************************************

Have come multiple times and the salad bar is always fresh! You can take it to go or all you can eat salad bar, desserts, fruit, and vanilla ice cream. Always friendly service.

I’d like to review the whole restaurant however ¹⁄₅^th of it was unsanitary and unsampled. The reason it was unsanitary was because a small child was coughing on his hands and putting them directly in the salad toppings.
The first thing you’re greeted with when you walk into salad express is a buffet stand that has been repurposed for storage of dirty packages of water bottles and to go containers. Off to the right starts the beginning of the buffet. Here you are presented with a stack of still wet trays, some that still had soap on them. The three selections of lettuce contained a majority of acceptable lettuce however some was wilted and had a slimy consistency.
Going down the buffet like you’ll see about 16 different toppings. All of the toppings were decent however the quality is what I would expect to get out of a can and/​or frozen. The vegetables appeared to have been passed over a mandolin on the thinnest setting. Next there are premade salads. Most of these had a funky off taste. The only almost desirable salads were the potato salad, couscous and parmesan pasta salad.
On the next counter there is pasta that is sitting in a dish full of water. The problem with the pasta is it is being over cooked while in the buffet line making it have the consistency of glue. The baked potatoes were burnt on the outside but undercooked on the inside. They had little to no flavor. The utensil to pick up the potatoes was hot and I burned myself on it. There was no caution sign stating that it would be burning hot.
Next were the make it yourself tacos with turkey meat, which the wait staff went out of their way to make that known. Expecting high quality meat, I was wrong. This was the first time I have ever experienced turkey greasier than bacon. The consistency of the meat is almost identical to the taco meat of Jack In The Box. Despite its grossness, the tacos were the best items on the buffet.
Next on the buffet were a variety of soups. I can’t comment on the soups quality as none of them looked appealing after seeing the staff fill one of the reservoirs from a bucket similar to the one my maid uses.
There were three containers full of baked muffins. These had an odd moisture to them but not horrible.
On the fruit/​dessert bar I tried the pudding, cottage cheese, and fresh fruit. The fruit tasted old. The pudding had saturated wafers inside it that were similar in texture to the overcooked pasta.
Overall, I would never recommend this establishment to anyone and would look forward to it going out of business and being replaced with a new restaurant. Have you given up, Salad Express? It sure looked that way.

I’ve been here twice now in the last 4 months and both times were about the same. The waitresses are wonderful! but… the food is very bland, it looks fresh and appetizing but it’s just kinda bland and the place needs a good scrubbing, the buffet area looked clean but when you sit in the booths… just don’t peek over at the corners by the wall. A whole mouse family could live for years on the crumbs you will find. This place is edible but could use Robert Irvine’s help!!!
oh…and chew the croutons gently to avoid breaking a TOOTH! =)

Nothing at all new or exciting about this place. Bland, Canned food on the hot bar. Watery lettuce and your basic toppings. Baked potato was a tad undercooked. First and only time coming.

Great place to cleanse your soul guilt free. Lots of fresh ingredients from regular salad options to vegetable melodies. They have four different types of soups each time I come in here. There is also a desert bar with my favorite dessert here carrot salad. I also recommend the brocoli salad because it has a bacon dressing on it. If your not feeling like a salad they also have a taco bar. Or get the best of both worlds and make yourself a taco salad. The baked goods seem dry and the Ice cream is icy I would avoid those. But overall the best part about this place is the price. Super affordable and it’s all you can eat.

Stephen, the waiter is very nice! The hostess is also very pretty.
The buffet was clean and different varieties of toppings. They even had soups, and potatoes. I might come and eat here as often because eating light is a better choice.

I had a hard time deciding between one and two stars.
Get prepared, this isn’t going to be a happy review.
We went here three or four times about 15 years ago and decided it wasn’t a good place to eat. But, we thought, it’s been so long maybe things have changed. Nope! Still run by teenagers. Still have untasty dressings and little brick croutons. And on and on. They do have a wide selection with caused me to overeat in an attempt to find something satisfying. They have a taco station, a potato bar and soup. The Bleu Cheese dressing was mostly cream dressing stock with so little bleu cheese (if any) added I couldn’t taste it. The only two things I was satisfied with were the taco (only because it was being compared to the salad) and the strawberry syrup, smothered in whipped cream on a sweet muffin at the «fruit» station.
The taco/​potato plates looked dirty. I picked up one after another and they all had a dull haze of something on them. I expect they’d been passed through a dish washer and were probably sterile, but there’s something unappetizing about looking at a glass plate with a dull film on it.
The «fruit» bar should be called the «dessert bar.» There’s precious little fruit on it. It’s mostly puddings and such. This doesn’t bother me, I’m not much of a fruit person, but my wife is. This isn’t just them, but is there a special source where buffets get their tasteless watermelons?
Once again I was reminded of my question — why do so many portly folks go to salad bars?
It’s very hard to understand how this place stays in business when probably the best salad bar in the Clear Lake area is almost next door at Jason’s Deli.
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We’ve Eaten Out Every Meal for 25 years

I came in for lunch with my girlfriend and am pretty sure I’ve found my new salad spot. This is the first time I’ve been to a buffet where you pay AFTER you eat and we were greeted by no less than three people when we walked in. They asked if it was our first visit and explained how everything is fresh, the soups are made daily and the staff is incredibly attentive. It was $ 6.99/person for the buffet that included the salad bar, soup, breads, baked potatoes, fruit, dessert and so much more. They even have jicama and serve the beverages in mason jars! The only downside was at the soup station because it’s not clear if you serve yourself or if someone is supposed to do it for you. The lentil vegetable soup was fantastic and more than made up for the confusion. I’m sure I’ll be back at least once a week.

Good value.
It seems, from reading reviews, people expect this place to have a fresh garden out back. If that is what you’re looking for, you’ll be disappointed.
The food was fresh and the place was clean.
It is the typical salad bar you find in most buffet restaurants, but with a better selection.
This is Salad Express, not Gourmet Salad Express.
Salad, fruit, soup, baked potato, and tasty corn bread muffins — and ice cream! All for $ 6.99.
Oh, the service was good to! The waitress was friendly and attentive.

How have I lived in Clear Lake for 15 years and not even stepped into this place? :O! I’m a fan of veggies, and being vegetable-​deprived for three days, I decided to come here for lunch with a friend.
The manager greeted us when we walked in after we looked confused at the doorway and pointed us to the salad bar. Grab a tray, a plate, utensils, and get your tong-​snapping skills ready! There’s a bunch of options but no meat (unless you count eggs and chopped salami/​ham bits, but you can add that for extra money. And of course, there are the other «salads,» like the pasta and potato salads~
Near the salad bar is the fruit section. They had watermelon and… pudding, plus some other goodies. I’m sure there were other fruits, but I guess the selection was so limited that I only remember the watermelon! ^_​^”
Continue on, and you’ll face the potato «bar!» Potatoes are wrapped in foil and ready to rumble, and there’s a selection of toppings to put on those too. But I’m there to «healthify,» so adding a spud wasn’t happening… maybe on another visit :)
And then the soups: D! In case you are oblivious to your surroundings (like me!), the four daily soups are labelled on the wall. Some of these soups had meat (chicken noodle, beef & vegetable, and gumbo), so in case you were looking for some protein, drink yourself silly over here. Actually, that’s just what we did. One plate of salad, done. Four bowls of soup, yum! Pretty sure I walked out of there listening to the soup in my tummy go *swish, swish*. @__@” I thought the chicken noodle and beef & vegetable soups were my favorite things at Salad Express!
Finally, a small selection of baked goods; I spied a chocolate muffin, some other type of muffin, and cornbread. Oh, oh! And soft served ice cream. Unilocalers say this tiny variety is sad, but if you’re here to be healthy, you should be thanking Salad Express for limiting your options :P
Although previous reviews said that the salad bar was pretty messy, I don’t think that’s fair to Salad Express. I pulled the tongs out of the carrots (maybe a little too energetically– VEGETABLESSS), and the perfectly tidy bar became a beach made of carrot strips ^^”
Service was lovely~ If you’re looking for drinks, don’t be a dork like me and walk around the restaurant five times! Sit down and wait for a server; they’ll ask for your drink order, and the drinks come in little jars. Yay!
When you’re done, pay at the front. It’s $ 6.99 per person for a buffet (more if you want to add soft drinks, meat, or sandwiches), not including tip. For the freedom to choose (Yay, Amer’ca! XD), the bounty of salad options, and the soup, I’ll definitely come back when I’m looking for a lighter lunch ^^b

I’ve been here 3 times and the last time was the deal breaker. I just want a nice clean salad bar. This place has you seat yourself then a waitress brings you drinks.
As my party and I went to get our salads the woman in charge of keeping the bar stocked was visibly annoyed that the party ahead of us were trying to get salads. I was a little taken back. I didn’t understand why she wouldn’t just move to filling another area. So when we got to the area she had been cleaning we realized that she was so pisses that she shoved the tongs so far into the toppings that all of the onions, cucumbers, mushrooms, cheese, and I’m sure others items were skewered over half way up the tongs. When I pulled the tongs out it made a huge mess that I felt bad about but there was just no way to do it cleanly.
So to the cleanliness of the place. The restaurant as a whole was decent but the bars where the food was had been neglected. At every area it needed to be wiped and cleaned, not a deal breaker for busy times but as a whole there were maybe 15 people in the whole place and there were 5 workers. It absolutely could have been taken care of but one of the employees was sitting down eating and bossing others around and checking people out at her inconvenience. Meanwhile I sat with my drink unfilled the entire time I was there. It was hot yesterday and drank my water pretty quickly after getting there. It was NEVER refilled.
I will go next door to Jason’s Deli next time I want a salad and am in the area.

A $ 6 per person for an all you can eat salad buffet I wasn’t that disappointed but after frequenting places like Sweet Tomatoes, Salad Express is really lacking. Everything in the salad bar looked like it came prepackaged or from a can. The soup/​pasta bar was even worse the pasta looked like it had been sitting there all day and was mushy. The soup was completely under seasoned and had no flavor. The muffins tasted like they were made from a pre-​done mix.
I really wanted to like Salad Express but even for the $ 6 I don’t think I will be coming back anytime soon.
EDIT: I wanted to add that this is as far as I know the only salad buffet in the area so I could be enticed to come back in the future if they changed their offerings.

I really wanted to like this restaurant after reading all the good reviews.
We went on a Wednesday night around 7pm. They do have a large selection of food however nothing is fresh or appetizing. Several toppings for your salad from hard boiled eggs, to mushrooms, olives, Jimica, etc. Everything is pretty much from a can. The pasta and cous-​cous had a sour taste like it had been sitting out on the buffet all day and had gone bad. Of the 4 soups being offered only 1 (vegetables & beef) was the only edible one. The desserts also did not look very fresh (fruit & ricotta cheese & pudding).
This restaurant needs to make an effort to make their salad bar more exciting (avocado, perhaps). Also, they do not include any meat (grilled chicken, etc) on the buffet. The price is reasonable, but I guess you get what you pay for.

On the days you want to actually make a coherent effort to make good on your New Years Resolution to eat more vegetables or be more healthy or lose weight or whatever your NYE haze led you to believe you needed to change about your habits, Salad Express is a legit option for your lunch buffet concerns.
Salad Express, just the name by itself, pretty much gives it away. Salad being the healthy stuff, Express being the short amount of time it takes to walk in, make your selections of food, find a table, and start eating said food. You will spend more time out in the zoo of a parking lot trying to find a parking spot. The same parking lot where every driver in the shopping centre considers themselves to be a NASCAR driver hell-​bent on driving as fast as they can while they choose not to look at anything besides their iPhone.
You walk in and peel off to the right if you want a salad type option or you keep walking straight and head over to the potato and «other» options. I go with the salad because … it is called Salad Express. You start off with a chilled plate — yes! There is the typical spinach and lettuce options and you run the gauntlet down the buffet row and add your choices, things from onions and olives to carrots and celery, and then you get to the fun stuff near the end like the Tuna Mac and Cheese (awesome today!) and the potato salad type options. Then you hit the dressing at the end and little toppings like bacon bits if you are so inclined.
At this point swivel around and there is a small island behind you for cottage cheese, mandarin oranges, and dessert puddings. The cottage cheese is the best part so don’t miss it!
If you are still filling up your tray then you should head over to the left-​most edge of the «potato and other stuff» area where you will find some awesome cornbread and other types of bread. I recommend the cornbread to round out the salad.
Pick your own place to sit whether you want a table or a booth. Also there is an HDTV on the wall at the back (the old smoking section back in ‘ye olden golden glory days.) And your super-​friendly waitress comes and takes your drink order once you are seated — and do you want a lime with that? I do!
And there is your healthy, fast, and cheap lunch buffet alternative that makes you feel like you took your Resolution seriously.