I’ve heard positive things about Tender Greens for a long time, but I was too lazy to visit the Point Loma location. So when they recently opened one in the newly redesigned UTC mall, I finally went to check out what the hype was about.
Tender Greens is a popular chain that specializes in salads. This normally wouldn’t appeal to me, but I have to confess, I enjoyed my experience here.
When you enter, you place your order. There’s quite a few salads to choose from, along with grilled items like Marinated Steak grilled (medium rare), Herb Brushed Albacore (grilled rare), etc. After you place your order, your food is prepared.
You then pick up your food and sit wherever you want. There are servers around to refill your water, take away your plates, etc.
Grilled Marinated Salad with Small Tender Greens Salad
The steak was grilled a perfect medium rare and was accompanied by a ton of leafy greens. I felt quite healthy eating it. One great thing is that you can calculate the nutritional value of all the menu items online. The fresh baked hunk of bread accompanying the salad was pretty good too. It has a chewy crust and that artisan bread feel to it.
Chipotle Barbecue Chicken
(romaine hearts, avocado, queso fresco, crispy tortilla strips, green onion, cilantro lime dressing)
This was DH’s choice. This was quite an enjoyable salad, especially with the mix of the creamy avocado and the cilantro dressing. DH was grumbling about eating salad for dinner, but once he dug in, he really enjoyed it.
I can understand the appeal of this place. They use high quality ingredients, offer tasty salad options, and is a good choice when you’re trying to eat healthy. Of course they also offer a dessert section if you want to reward yourself.
We ate here after a weekend of beer and fast food, so it was a nice way to start the detox process. The restaurant has quite a large space in UTC, with plenty of seating inside and out.
You can view the full menu here.
Tender Greens
4545 La Jolla Village Drive
San Diego CA 92122
858 455-9395
I LOVEEEE THIS PLACEEE. I frequent Tender Greens and Bluefin since I live so close for school. I usually get the flank steak “hot plate” with the mashed potato which are ridiculously creamy and buttery and delicious. I also like to finish off the meal with the cowboy cookie with coconut and chocolate chips 😀
That sounds delicious..though not very healthy. Haha.
I keep meaning to go to UTC and Tender Greens, too. I think they had *just* opened the last time I was at the mall. I believe Tender Greens was where a clothing store was (Sun Diego maybe?), and it’s right next door to the food court.
Yup, right next door to the food court. There’s a couple of other restaurants opening soon inside UTC I plan on checking out too.
That Tender Greens looks quite stylish! What was there before? We haven’t been to the UTC mall in a while (not since they redesigned their food court)….
I’ve only been to the Point Loma location and liked their salad with beef.
The UTC mall has changed even more, including the food court. They added even more places to the food court including a sushi bar and a wood oven pizza place. They are also adding several restaurants to the UTC mall that will be opening shortly.