Gourmet diner salads fail to make students salivate

In an attempt to provide students with more healthy dining options, Dining Services premiered gourmet-style entree salads at the New Yorker station of the Diner last week. But students aren't buying into it — literally.

The station, which serves up cheesy hot subs and saucy buffalo chicken sandwiches during Late Night but features salads with less than 325 calories during the day, drew fewer customers than Dining Services anticipated.

Students who have sampled the salads said they miss the mark by being too complicated with sauces and salsas which mask the flavor of the vegetables. The station serves one type of salad a day that features greens, a hot meat or fish, dressing and a gourmet relish, although they can be assembled to order.

Students who ate Monday's citrus chicken salad with raspberry vinaigrette and strawberry mango salsa thought the dressing was too sweet and the fruit was too sour.

"It tasted like I was licking someone's foot," said freshman mechanical engineering major James Galatola. "The sauce was miserable and the fruit made me gag."

By introducing the salads, Dining Services is working toward one of their five main goals of the year — providing students with a variety of healthy dining options at each meal.

"Saladsational has been such a successful station at the South Campus Dining Hall for years," Dining Services spokesman Bart Hipple said. "We wanted to give students a similar option in North Campus — big salad with a lot of flavor."

The salads are among the healthiest options in the Diner, Hipple said. At a cost of $6 to $7 per salad, a gourmet-style salad costs just as much as the average Cluckers meal or Blue Plate special and is slightly cheaper than one of the same size from the salad bar. 

"I get the salad because it's good for you, and it doesn't taste that bad," said freshman kinesiology major Emily Wyse, who tried three of the five salads last week. "I just wish they cut up the iceberg wedge."

In their first week on the menu, a total of 353 salads were sold, averaging about 70 per day.

"The numbers are a little lower than we anticipate in future weeks as students see the station and understand what we're offering. We are asking students to change their eating patterns," Hipple said.

Freshman letters and sciences major Rachel Schonfeld said she tries to eat healthy on a regular basis and considered ordering the salad for dinner.

"I've never seen this before and the fact that it's new and not fried makes me want to try it," Schonfeld said as she peered behind the station at an iceberg wedge on a plate smothered in berries, mangoes and a hot vinaigrette.

But she ultimately opted against it.

"It just doesn't look like it would taste good," she said.

ahemmati@umdbk.com