The Official List of Best On-Campus Salads

Lindsay Stearns Student Contributor, University of Pennsylvania

U Penn Contributor Student Contributor, University of Pennsylvania

This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at U Penn chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

The Official List of Best Salad places on campus:

Salad is my favorite food and I eat it probably once a day. People often laugh when I say that but it’s really such a dynamic of food because if you get creative with it salads can really never be too boring! Here is my ultimate ranking of the best places to get your fill of leafy greens on Penn’s campus.

Honeygrow

After much debate (this is clearly a very serious topic), I ranked Honeygrow over Sweetgreen for the following reasons:

Proximity to Pottruck and Huntsman: Usually when I’m going to get dinner, I’m coming from one of those two places, so the convenience factor is key.
Diversity of ingredients: Honeygrow offers way more options than Sweetgreen
Excitement factor: Honeygrow offers interesting salad ingredients like wasabi peas and the fun touchscreen to personalize your options and take your time to decide without someone prodding you to figure out what you want to order quickly
Diversity of options: if you get there and decide you don’t actually want a salad, you can also order a stir fry and mix it up.
Treat yo’self: There’s also the honeybar for a sweet treat option: you can choose from several kinds of honey, fruit. You can choose to add yogurt, whipped cream, granola, or chocolate

Must Try: The sriracha tahini dressing

Sweetgreen

There are a lot of up-sides of sweetgreen also.

SG Addicts Cherish: Their specialty salad options and rice bowls which are a constant staple on their menu. Examples include the Spicy Sabzi, or Harvest Bowl.
Variety is the spice of Life: Their constantly changing menu ingredients. Although the consistent diversity of honeygrow is a nice feature, it’s fun to have seasonal ingredients that change periodically as well.
Fast Service: It’s quicker to order at honeygrow with the touchscreen menu, but there’s no telling how long you will stand there waiting. At least at sweetgreen once you get to the front of the line, you can order and have your salad immediately. If you’re choosing to dine-in, there’s no loud screaming out of numbers and clanging noises like there is at honeygrow.
It’s fo free: The bread. Bread comes free with every salad, you don’t pay extra like at honeygrow. This is an extremely underrated yet crucial feature. Not to mention the bread is also delicious.

Must Try: the Harvest Bowl

Kitchen Gia

The salads here are outstanding: You can order on a slip of paper, and specify what you want. Kind of the same benefit as Honeygrow in that you can take however long deliberating as you need (especially a bonus for indecisive people)
Location is key: right near Hubbub and Wawa on Walnut.
They have a plethora of ingredients: probably more than either Honeygrow or Sweetgreen. And the salads are bigger than both
They also have TONS of other options there: soups, salads, snacks. Much more than just salad
One major downside: it’s expensive. The last time I ordered here, I just checked off everything on the piece of paper that looked good, without thinking about how much it would add up
Another major downside: it’s never open. Literally. Only once in a blue moon do I walk buy and it’s open.

Houston

Bang for your Buck: The salads are huge, and there’s tons of options. Unlike other restaurants, it’s the same priced regardless of how many toppings you put. Only protein is extra.
Bad ‘tude: The workers are usually really grumpy and it’s totally hit or miss on who you get. If someone’s in a particularly awful mood, they will really skimp on all of the ingredients.
Major Key: You can charge on dining dollars—huge bonus for people with meal plans.