The Dressing Room in Sherman Oaks is a fresh and clever upgrade to the dreadful old-school salad bars. Instead of leaving everything out in the open for everyone and their mothers to cough and sneeze on, the plethora of salad options here are kept behind glass and are assembled right in front of you instead. Think of it as a salad bar meets Subway, only a lot less gross.

The Dressing Room uses “locally grown & harvested produce from Southern California, purchased from environmentally sensitive farmers who believe in cultivating the finest organic produce.” They get their produce delivered daily.

The way it works is you fill out a little sheet which lists all the options that can go into your salad. You can pick from any of their “classic” or “specialty” salad suggestions or totally make one up just the way you want it. As their website explains, “we provide 6 types of greens, 64 amazing toppings, 32 delicious dressings and 16 quality protein sytles to choose from”.

Their “salad specialists” will then put the salad together for you and then chop it all up with these wickedly cool chopping blades that I am quite envious of. I opted to pick my own ingredients, and after much deliberation finally settled on: romaine, beets, carrots, green beans, hearts of palm, red & yellow peppers, jicama, cranberries, roasted butternut squash (a special they had for the day), and blackened tofu. I worry when I order anything tofu at a place that’s not catering exclusively to vegetarians, because it’s really easy to mess it up and make it taste blah… but the blackened tofu here was very tasty, I liked the seasonings (nice kick without being too salty) and the tofu had a nice, chewy bite to it.

Now that’s a salad! As they promised, everything was fresh and crisp and flavorful. By all means, it’s a perfect lunch, and big enough to share between two people. Be careful when chosing a dressing though. I wrongly assumed the roasted red pepper dressing would be vegan but it was quite creamy. They’ve got many others to pick from though including the good old stand-by of oil & vinegar. With so many options to choose from here, you could have a different salad every day of the month and never have to repeat yourself.

1. Say You Love Seitan.
2. Anthony Bourdain, Vegans and Man-on-Man Love.
3. Create a (vegan) Plate
4. Vegan Soul Food @ Hollywood Farmers Market
5. Dairy-free deliciousness at Menchie’s Yogurt