Price: $4.59
Applebee’s house salad is essentially a bed of romaine topped with diced tomatoes and cucumbers, croutons, and your choice of ranch, honey mustard, blue cheese, a Tex-Mex ranch, or oriental vinaigrette.
Balsamic or Italian are usually my go-to toppers for simple salads like these, so I was a little disappointed that there weren’t as many vinaigrette options as there were heavy, creamy dressings.
But since I can’t resist the herbal, tangy flavors of restaurant ranch, I chose that as my dressing.
I personally appreciated that the ingredients were diced rather than sliced since it made the presentation a little nicer. But otherwise, the salad wasn’t anything to write home about.
I think if you’re dining with one other person and looking for a low-calorie starter, this is a great choice — but it ranks low on our list because it’s pretty indistinguishable as an appetizer.
Line it up with a bunch of other house salads, and I probably wouldn’t be able to tell it apart from the next one.
Dining and Cooking