Super salads: Eat your veggies at these Calgary restaurants
There’s no need to settle for a plate of iceberg lettuce topped with bottled Italian or French dressing when you’re out for lunch or dinner. Here are some Calgary restaurants that put care and creativity into preparing spectacular salad selections.
Sidewalk Citizen Bakery
618 Confluence Way SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0G1Sidewalk Citizen is best known as an artisanal bakery, but both the Sunnyside and East Village locations carry a rotating selection of complexly flavoured salads. Owners Aviv Fried and Michal Lavi are originally from Israel, and so they incorporate Middle Eastern ingredients such as eggplant, cucumber, tomato and couscous in their vegetable and grain-based salads.
Una Pizza & Wine
618 17 Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2S 0B4Crowds line up out the door for Una’s gourmet pizza, but the chicly casual pizzeria and wine bar also cranks out a fine salad. The restaurant’s bestselling dish of greens is its deceptively simple kale Caesar, but it also puts together a mean Caprese incorporating fresh heirloom tomatoes.
Bite Groceteria & Cafe
1023 9 St SE, Calgary, AB T2G 3B1You can get a Bite Groceteria salad to go or enjoy one for lunch in the Atlantic Art Block gourmet grocer’s in-store café – either way, you’re in for a whole lot of flavour. For the sit-down option, build your own at the jam-packed salad bar, where you can top your greens with chicken, blackened salmon or shrimp. Also take home prepared salads such as kale-Caesar and various pasta salads from the deli counter.
The Nash Restaurant & Off Cut Bar
925 11 St SE, Calgary, AB T2G 0R4The greens menu at Calgary chef Michael Noble’s newest Canadian contemporary restaurant (sister to NOtaBLE) changes with the seasons, but the rotisserie chicken salad is a staple. The casually elegant Inglewood restaurant’s signature rotisserie chicken tops seasonal produce for a salad dish that is equal parts hearty and refreshing.
Cibo Urbano Cucina
1012 17 Ave SW, Calgary, AB T2T 0A5Italian salads rule at Cibo, a two-level brick eatery on 17th Avenue Southwest. With an insalata selection that nicely compliments the restaurant’s pizzas, these dishes also stand strong as light meals. The chopped salad with spicy salami and toasted farrow is a winner, as is the very Italian panzanella (bread salad) with focaccia, sundried tomatoes and white anchovies.
Earls
2401 4 St SW, Calgary, AB T2S 1X5Earls Tin Palace is the restaurant chain’s flagship Calgary location, and its menu changes more often than other locations. But you can always count on finding a handful of substantial meal-sized salads on deck. You can’t go wrong with Earls’ rock-solid Caesar or one of its seasonal salads such as the generously portioned prawn, melon and quinoa salad, which incorporates mint, cucumber and seasonal berries.
Aida's Mediterranean Bistro
2208 4 St SW, Calgary, AB T2S 1W9Mediterranean cuisine features fantastic salads, which is why there are two Lebanese restaurants on this list. Aida’s tabbouleh salad is a particular knockout, with loads of lemony zing and fresh parsley and the incorporation of onion, tomato, mint and a bit of cracked wheat.
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