Tender Greens is a Winner

I'd been dying to try Tender Greens in Liberty Station since I first heard about it six months ago. I just haven't had the opportunity to get there, but last week I was in Los Angeles and ate at one of the three locations there.

I was in LA to celebrate my mom's 87th birthday. I don't think she'd mind my telling her age. If I were that age and doing what she's doing I'd be bragging about it.

Anyway, we met my sister and neice at the West Hollywood location, at 5752 Santa Monica Blvd. It's a bright, contemporary restaurant with booths and tables and plenty of space. No crowding here. From the moment I walked in, saw the open kitchen with everything being prepared right in fron of you, I knew this was my kind of place.

The menu is posted on the wall. You select your food items, put your order in, then walk along the line, watching them make your food, finally paying at the end of the line. There's a grill that is always loaded with fresh vegetables, chicken, ahi tuna, flat iron steak an shrimp. Even after I ordered I was second guessing myself. "I should have had the Mediterranean salad, no, the chicken with mashed potatoes and grilled veggies looked awesome, I should have had that." What I did have was absolutely delicious. The tuna nicoise salad, with two huge pieces of seared ahi tuna on top of fresh greens, green beans, olives, potatoes and a quail egg. It was delicious. My mom had the Mediterranean salad with feta, peppers, olives onions and greens. Madeleine had a chicken sandwith on ciabatta with a side salad, and Alison had the barbequed chicken salad. We all loved our entrees. For dessert we all shared a red velvet cupcake, piled high with frosting. I refrained. I did have a diet cola called Virgil's diet cola, at 5 calories, the most refreshing soda I've ever had and I will have to go online to see where it was sold. Wonderful.

The grilled veggies, including fresh corn on the cob, zucchini, onions and eggplant were so tempting. You can pair the veggies with any grilled protein, like chicken or steak, add mashed potatoes, for a great comfort food meal.

I just loved everything about it. The fact that they buy all their produce locally is an added bonus. The fact that they are involved in the community and try to raise awareness about healthy eating is another plus. Finally, the fact that they have a great website listing the nutritional information and calories of every item is very important to me.

I have written in the past about the calorie content of salads in so many of our favorite restaturants. You will be happy to know that the salads at this restaurant are actually healthy and relatively low in calories. My large tuna nicoise salad was 540 calories.

I can't wait to go back and try something else at Tender Greens. You could go a dozen times and get something healthy and delicious every time. They're located in Liberty Station in San Diego. The website is www.tendergreensfood.com. Let me know if you like as much as I did.