Sweetgreen Is Testing a New Menu Item, and I Tried All Three Options
It's available now at select locations.
Image Courtesy of Sweetgreen
Sweetgreen might be most known for its salads, but any regular customer knows the chain also serves up bowls and plates with rice, grains and protein, too. What all of these options have in common are the necessity of sitting down to eat, whether at a table or, more often than we’d like, at our desks. But right now, certain Sweetgreen locations are testing a new way to take your salad or bowl to go: wraps.
Why is Sweetgreen launching wraps?
The brand is offering busy customers another lunch option for busy days.
“A lot of our guests are on the go,” Chef Chad Brauze, Head of Culinary at Sweetgreen, tells Food Network. “That’s where something like wraps started to make a lot of sense. It’s more portable, easier to eat on the move. But we approached it the same way we do everything, using scratch cooking and high-quality, thoughtfully sourced ingredients.”
Brauze said Sweetgreen spent over a year developing a proprietary tortilla that was free of seed oils, and instead using extra virgin olive oil.
What are the new wraps on Sweetgreen’s menu?
As of this writing, there were three wraps on the menu at my local Sweetgreen:
- Classic Chicken Caesar: Roasted chicken, chopped romaine, garlic breadcrumbs, Parmesan crisps, shaved Parmesan, Caesar dressing, and a squeeze of lemon.
- Chicken Salad Bacon Club: Green goddess chicken salad, chopped romaine, crumbled bacon, garlic breadcrumbs, tomatoes, avocado, garlic aioli.
- Chicken Jalapeño Ranch: Blackened chicken, white rice, corn salsa, pickled onion, tortilla chips, white cheddar, jalapeño ranch.
Image Courtesy of Sweetgreen
My honest review of Sweetgreen’s wraps:
Here’s what stood out from my taste tests.
The Classic Chicken Caesar wrap is a slightly pared down version of Sweetgreen’s Kale Caesar salad. It’s lacking tomatoes and kale but offers those familiar Caesar salad flavors along with an extra hit of texture from salty, savory breadcrumbs and Parmesan crisps. Thanks to the tangy dressing and pop of citrus, it was the lightest, brightest-tasting wrap of the bunch.
A more substantial option than the Caesar, the deli-inspired Chicken Salad Bacon Club uses a premixed chicken salad as its main protein. Along with the avocado, you might worry it might taste too dense and creamy, but fear not. The veggies, bacon, and breadcrumbs provide contrasting flavor and crunchy texture. It certainly wasn’t as heavy as a lot of chicken or tuna salad wraps I’ve had from delis and corner stores, which can sometimes pile on the filling too thick.
The heartiest pick on the menu, the Chicken Jalapeño Ranch is definitely not a salad wrap, but it’s not quite a burrito, either. The rice, chicken and tortilla are warmed, but not grilled or otherwise cooked to a hot temperature. It’s more of a rice bowl served up in a different format. That said, there is a nice lingering heat (the spicy kind) from the jalapeño ranch dressing.
All of these options come wrapped in a warmed flour tortilla and with a cup of dressing on the side for dipping or drizzling.
“With wraps, it really comes down to balance and structure,” Chef Brauze says. “You want every bite to deliver on flavor and texture, and we think a lot about making that first bite the best bite. At the same time, it has to actually hold up as a handheld, which is a different challenge than a bowl or salad.”
Are portable salads having a moment?
Panera also started wrapping up its salads, although in a totally different outer layer: A loaf of bread. As for Sweetgreen’s take, the wraps are currently available at locations in certain test markets and, in some cases, can only be ordered via the online app. A brand representative said the wraps are priced under $15 (at my location they ranged from $11.45 to $13.45), making them slightly more affordable than many of the chain’s salads and bowls.
Where can you order Sweetgreen’s wraps?
The brand has yet to announce whether the wraps will roll out nationwide, but Chef Brauze says it’s possible more seasonal options are coming. In the meantime, check your local Sweetgreen’s menu to see if the three flavors we tried are available near you.
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