Time for a restaurant review.

Several new restaurants have opened near us in a new shopping center called the Oaks. The HEB anchor has a cafe in it and the center has a new sushi restaurant, pizza place, Subway, ice cream store and this place; Mad Greens.

Let me outline the concept. It is a salad place where you can order one of their pre-designed creations or create your own by pointing out what additions you want from proteins, veggies, cheeses and dressings. They also have wraps, paninis, soups, juices, etc. What a great idea! Custom, fresh salad made right before your eyes. Yum!

We have been there a couple of times. Our first two visits were pleasant. My wife had a custom salad and I had a panini on our first trip. Both were tasty and fresh.

Our second visit, we both had create-our-own salads. This takes a while as you have to wait for the young attendant to come get the bowl with your choice of lettuce, then add small scoops of your desired ingredients, dressing, toss and serve. Lots of good choices. Simple!

So what could possibly go wrong with this concept? An interminable amount of time standing in line while the salads ahead of you are prepared. That was the kink tonight. I just wanted to cruise in, grab a salad and be on my way. Not to be.

There were only 6 people in line ahead of me so one would think it might go fairly quickly. Nope. 2 young salad ninjas can only crank out about a salad every 3-4 minutes. There are other employees, but making salads isn’t part of their mandate. There is one taking orders who then puts the requisite amount of chosen lettuce into a stainless bowl with tongs. She was efficient and had her job done with bowls backed up on every flat surface.

Then there is the manager at the end of the line taking payment. He does a lot of standing around as there is very little action at his end of the line. I think there are a couple others in the back working on preparing ingredients, but you really don’t see them, and tonight, they let the line down by not having some sort of chicken or piri-piri protein ready for 3 of the 7 salads ordered ahead of me. One of the preparers disappeared in the back in search of the missing ingredient while the other preparer looked puzzled at the other 2 salads also needing the missing ingredient. Apparently, the show cannot go on without the ingredients in the proper order. Why not add the rest of the ingredients while waiting for the missing protein? Good question. Mister manager, at the end of the line, was dutifully manning the cash register. Of course, no one was in front of him ready to pay as we were all backed up at the beginning of the line.

By now, besides the 6 people ahead of me, there were about 8 people behind me. I had been in line for over 10 minutes and they had cranked out 2 salads. The production had ground to a complete stop as the missing ingredient was still MIA. Since I had ordered a wrap, I thought that maybe it would be prepared in the back kitchen. Wrong. It would wait in line with the rest of the salads. I found this out by asking the cash register ninja who seemed surprised anyone would walk down the line without a salad quickly coming right behind. Well, I like a long queue as much as the next guy, but I got tired of standing in a non-moving line so I excused myself, cancelled my order and left.

What is to be made of all this? Two okay experiences with good food and one disaster, I mean, kink. I’ll give it one more shot but if it is anything like tonight, I don’t think they will last long as the novelty wears off. (but hey, does standing in line ever really get old?) Get production up to speed or figure out a way to get the entire order in so you don’t have to stand there forever and maybe it will last. A tasty, fresh, custom salad. Yum!

I just had a thought. What is lunchtime like? Oh my. Scary. Very scary.

The other new restaurants deserve their own reviews and I’ve tried all of them, except Subway, which, mercifully, is fairly predictable. More to come.