Fast food salad Buying Guide

Getting started

You might feel virtuous when ordering salad as a main course at a chain restaurant, but if you use all the toppings and dressing provided, you could have been better off ordering a bacon cheeseburger.

That's what we found when we looked at the nutrition of 20 meal-size salads, with and without toppings, from eight major fast-food and casual restaurant chains, including Burger King, McDonald's, Olive Garden, On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina, Panera Bread, Sonic, and Wendy's. (For more information on and Ratings of fast-food eateries, read Four big names lose.)

Nutrition scores are based on calories, fat, sodium, and fiber. Some restaurants dole out as much as 4 tablespoons of dressing with a salad. For ranch, that could mean almost 300 calories, 30 grams of fat, and 500 milligrams of sodium (about 22 percent of the daily recommended limit).

The chart (available to subscribers) shows the nutrition of all the Very Good choices plus one Good alternative at each of several other chains. Five salads score Very Good for nutrition, but most do so only if undressed. Just one has Very Good nutrition with the dressing. It has about 300 calories and 3 grams of fat. But choose Chili's Quesadilla Explosion Salad and you'll consume 1,400 calories and 88 grams of fat.

Two tasters also tried some higher-scoring salads. The results:

Panera Bread

This BBQ salad is well blended, moist, and flavorful even without the dressing; highlights are sweet roasted corn, tasty tortilla strips, and black beans. The Asian Sesame salad has crispy fried wonton strips, but the chicken has little flavor, so you really need some dressing. The Fuji Apple salad has crispy dried apple slices, flavorful pecans, and gorgonzola cheese.

On the Border Mexican Grill & Cantina

The Citrus Chipotle salad, which has some heat, consists of fresh, flavorful pulled chicken with fresh greens, vegetables, and orange pieces. The dressing is the weakest link.

Cut calories, fat, and sodium in any salad by limiting extras such as croutons, asking for dressing on the side so you can add a small amount, or using a lower-fat one.