When we hear that a new lunch place is calling itself Salad University, so many questions spring to mind. Are the classes worth the tuition? Would we be paying off our salad debt for years to come? Would we be kicking ourselves years later for choosing something as fancy as kale, when we could have gone with the more practical iceberg? We administer the following exam.
What are the… classes like?
This is a salad bar in the classic sense. Choose a base green – or a couple if you’re feeling wild – and then add toppings. The following is a list of healthy-ish things on display: edamame, chickpeas, eggs, dried cranberries, walnuts, grilled chicken, beans. After these come a selection of salad dressings, which feel like the finale when we reach them, but later we spy bowls of raw fish chunks around the corner. Had we known the good stuff would be after the sauces, we wouldn’t have used up our allotted toppings on 10 varietals of the legume genus.
What is the cost of… tuition?
A medium salad, for which you can choose 10 toppings – do not squander them! – will run you RMB38, ultimately a solid deal. A large salad, with 15 toppings, is RMB48. This is a preposterous number of salad toppings.
How long does it take to get to… class?
Salad University is conveniently located in the nexus of expat life, Xingfucun Zhonglu. There are many excellent choices for lunch around here, which has us wondering: Why choose Salad University?
How are the… professors?
The staff are kind, helpful and even able to explain how it all works in English. Servers are also very good at discerning which vegetable you’re pointing to on the other side of the glass. It’s as if they’ve been pulling bits of leaves and quinoa out of plastic containers for years. Maybe they have!
How’s the quality of… the courses?
The produce seems fresh… enough. The bread is unacceptably stale. Like we said, we didn’t get a chance to try the fish – but the fact that it sits out all day doesn’t give us much hope for its freshness.
Does class start… on time?
We are helped promptly, yeah.
What’s it like… on campus?
Purple, with some bird’s nest lamps and a pop soundtrack. Meanwhile, outside the shop, we find the quad-like courtyard beside Xindong Lu’s Shimao Mall.
So, does this place get… top marks?
More like a C – we are hungry half an hour later. In other words: As soon as we leave, the time and money spent become useless. Just like real university.
Images by Holly Li
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