Wendy’s: It’s Time To Look Beyond The Bowl

Thank you Wendy’s® for a gift card to try one of the salads.

‘Lettuce’ be real, fresh ingredients just taste better.

This salads season, Wendy’s is challenging the “aura of freshness” that surrounds café-style fast casual restaurants. Many of these restaurants pass off fancy bowls as fresh, but there’s a big difference between fresh made and freshly assembled.

Wendy’s doesn’t cut corners and proves quality ingredients can be convenient. In every Wendy’s restaurant, employees hand chop the vegetables fresh every morning, starting with full heads of iceberg and romaine lettuces and other veggies like cucumbers, red peppers and tomatoes.  Every salad entrée, like the BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad, uses premium white meat chicken breasts that are grilled and placed warm on your salad.

In its new ad campaign and web video series, Wendy’s asks consumers to “Look Beyond The Bowl” and rethink what fresh means.  The first web series video, “Wendy’s Romaine Lettuce Journey,” follows a head of romaine lettuce from harvest to the drive-thru through the lens of a point-of-view camera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOMdupl6wCY

Chief among Wendy’s fresh approach to salads are these every day commitments:

· Fresh from the Farm – Wendy’s delivers fresh shipments of produce to each restaurant throughout the week to ensure that we are serving our customers fresh ingredients.
· Prepared Today – In each Wendy’s restaurant, crew members chop fresh iceberg and romaine lettuce, cucumbers, red peppers and tomatoes every day.
· Only the Best – The commitment to quality extends to other Wendy’s salad ingredients, including premium, white-meat, freshly grilled chicken breasts and thick-cut Applewood Smoked Bacon that are cooked in-house and placed warm on every salad ordered.

All of Wendy’s salads feature delicious ingredients that unite to create flavorful dishes, offering customers new tastes and food experiences. Three of the featured salads from Wendy’s current premium salad lineup are:

· Wendy’s BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad harkens to the days of a smoky, backyard grill, with its fire-roasted corn, freshly-diced tomatoes, light and lively spring mix combined with Applewood Smoked Bacon and grilled chicken drizzled with savory BBQ sauce, and topped with creamy Marzetti® Simply Dressed® BBQ Ranch Dressing

· Wendy’s Apple Pecan Chicken Salad marries the crisp, refreshing snap of ripe red and green apples with the delectable crunch of roasted pecans. This springtime splendor harmonizes sweet and savory throughout, with delicious cranberries and creamy blue cheese crumbles topped with warm grilled chicken and Marzetti^® Simply Dressed^® Pomegranate Vinaigrette.

· Wendy’s Asian Cashew Chicken Salad is a twist on the typical Asian salad, with on-trend, flavorful ingredients like fire-roasted edamame, fresh red peppers and cucumbers, spicy roasted cashews, warm grilled chicken breast, and Marzetti^® Simply Dressed^® Light Spicy Asian Chili Vinaigrette.

I chose to try the Asian Cashew Chicken Salad.  I like that you can have a lunch or dinner that’s got protein in it, and still feels light to eat.

I appreciate that the chicken breast is placed cut and warmed on your salad, only as you order, not beforehand.  They aren’t chintzy on the chicken either.  You also get your toppings and dressing in prepackaged amounts.  Ensuring both perfect serving sizes and that your salad won’t be ‘soggy’ because they’ve been sitting on it all day.

I ordered a full sized salad, but they also come in half sizes.  The full size is definitely an entire meal sized portion.

Wendy’s is offering fans a fresh perspective on its salad ingredients in a new video series available at youtube.com/wendys. The first video takes you beyond the bowl and behind the scenes when it follows a head of romaine lettuce from the field to preparation in restaurant.

Follow Wendy’s on Facebook and Twitter for more info!

Which of the Wendy’s salads do you think you’d like best?