Welcome To Portland Salad Week!

Welcome to Portland Salad Week 2025! We’re glad you’re here. 

The last time we did Salad Week was back in 2022, and we are really happy to bring it back again this year. I’m also thrilled that Judith Rich is back and helping immensely in preparing this week of salad. We have another person joining us, too: Bryan Vance from Stumptown Savings. This is a fantastic newsletter that helps you save money at the grocery store. He inspired us to do a tasting of supermarket and grocery store deli salads, which you’ll see later in the week. 

But as we start this week that’s all about salad, we thought we’d ask the question, What’s a salad, anyway?

Salad 101: What’s a Salad, Anyway?

Here’s how the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a salad:

1. Any of various usually cold dishes, such as:
   • Raw greens (such as lettuce) often combined with other vegetables and toppings and served especially with dressing.
   • Small pieces of food (such as pasta, meat, fruit, or vegetables) usually mixed with a dressing (such as mayonnaise) or set in gelatin.
2. A green vegetable or herb grown for salad especially lettuce.
3. A usually incongruous mixture; hodgepodge.

I think for most of us, salad is synonymous with lettuce, as well as other hardier greens like kale. In Portland, there are many types of salads that both incorporate greens and go beyond them. Here are some salad types you’ll find in Portland.

Salad Types in Portland

Here are some prime examples of the different kinds of salads you can find in Portland. Some are more traditional versions of a particular salad, and some take it to a new level.

Salad With Greens: Chicken Cobb Salad at Peter’s Bar & Grill

This is a pretty standard Cobb salad, though at Peter’s the quality is elevated beyond your typical pub grub. It starts with a base of mixed greens, bacon, hard egg, gorgonzola, avocado, tomato, and red onion, all topped with grilled chicken. It comes with a blue cheese dressing. Fun fact: The Cobb salad was named after Robert H. Cobb, who owned the famous Brown Derby restaurant in Los Angeles in the 1930s.

I spotted a variant of the Cobb Salad at the newly-opened Dos Hermanos: A Chipotle Cobb Salad. It’s made with turkey, bacon, tomato, avocado, hard boiled egg, cheddar, and a chipotle Ranch dressing. 

5701 NE Fremont Street, Portland. Peter’s Bar & Grill website

Caesar Salad: Apizza Scholls

Many Portlanders speak highly of the Caesar salad at Apizza Scholls. It’s made with whole leaf romaine, Parmigiano-Reggiano, housemade croutons, and topped with their house Caesar dressing. You can get anchovies for an additional price. 

4741 SE Hawthorne Blvd, Portland. Apizza Scholls website

Fish Salad: Smoked Trout Salad at The Observatory

A typical fish salad in the U.S. is a mayo-based tuna salad, and that is good in its own right. This Smoked Trout Salad is much lauded by its fans. It’s made with house smoked trout, greens, green beans, egg, potatoes, olives, fennel, and bell pepper in a creamy kalamata olive dressing.

8115 SE Stark Street, Portland. The Observatory website

Chicken Salad: Arrosto Salad at Arrosto/Providore

This chicken salad deviates from a more traditional mayo-based chicken salad (a great one to recommend to make at home is this Cranberry Walnut Chicken Salad from Smitten Kitchen). The Arrosto Salad is made with rotisserie chicken served on baby arugula, escarole, radicchio, with pickled red onion, Pecorino Romano, herbed breadcrumbs, and comes with their creamy Arrosto dressing, which is a kind of creamy Caesar dressing that is one of my very favorites (which, you can buy separately in a squeeze bottle). 

2340 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland. Arrosto website

Meat Salad: Spicy Beef Salad at Sa Bai Thai

There is a Midwestern beef salad that uses mayonnaise to keep chopped cooked beef together (I have not found a version in Portland), but this Thai beef salad is another great meat salad. It’s made with grilled beef flavored with lime juice and chili paste, with red and green onions, mint, and cilantro. Sa Bai Thai is a favorite in East Portland and many consider it a bit of a hidden gem.

4440 NE 131st Place, Portland. Sa Bai Thai website

Chopped Salad: Butcher Chop Salad at Laurelhurst Market

Only available on their lunch menu, this is such a great chopped salad—perhaps not as chopped to the extreme that a place like Chop’t does, but that is not a worry. This salad is made with arugula, iceberg lettuce, deli-sliced smoked turkey, salami, red onions, giardiniera, Provolone, toasted sunflower seeds, and their housemade creamy vinaigrette. 

3155 E Burnside Street, Portland. Laurelhurst Market website

Cheese Salad: Burrata Caprese at Cibo 

Caprese salad gets really good when tomato season is going, and that’s when you’ll start to see it throughout the city. Cibo does a burrata caprese that’s made with burrata over arugula with cherry tomatoes, basil, and Arbequina olive oil. 

3539 SE Division Street, Portland. Cibo website

Jello/Jellied Salad: Buko Pandan at Kubo 

The Buko Pandan salad is made with pandan-flavored jelly with shredded young coconut and coconut cream. Kubo also offers a Buko Salad made with canned fruit with cream. If you want to see an example of mid-century Jello Salad, check this out (warning: It includes one cup of mayonnaise). 

4708 NW Bethany Blvd E-8, Portland. Kubo website

Fruit Salad: Citrus at Fantino

We had this salad earlier this year and it was wonderful. It’s made with Cara Cara oranges, blood orange, “fennel 3 ways,” pistachios, an a citrus vinaigrette. Light, fresh, and lovely.

2314 SE Division Street, Portland. Fantino website

Dessert Salad: Halo Halo at Fork & Spoon

If a salad is a hodgepodge of things, I think Halo Halo qualifies. At Fork & Spoon, it incorporates sweet beans, coconut strips, nata de coco, and colorful jellies, topped with shaved ice and leche flan. Buko Pandan mentioned above can also qualify for a dessert salad. 

10634 NE Sandy Blvd, Portland. Fork & Spoon website

Noodle Salad: La Pi (Northeastern Vegetarian Noodle Salad) at Chin’s Kitchen

I remember this to be a surprisingly large salad, and it’s very fresh tasting, what with all the raw veg. It’s made with cucumber, carrot, purple cabbage, mung bean noodles, red chiles, and fresh cilantro, and comes with an oil and vinegar dressing. 

4126 NE Broadway, Portland. Chin’s Kitchen website

Pasta Salad: Caprese Pasta Salad at Elephants Deli

This first both the pasta salad and the cheese salad categories. It is made with Ditalini pasta, mozzarella, tomatoes, basil, and garlic oil. I am also a fan of Reser’s macaroni salad at Safeway, which reminds me of the macaroni salad I loved that we sold at The Swiss Colony deli in Oxnard CA, where I worked when I was 16. 

Multiple locations. Elephants Deli website

Greek Salad: Horiatiki at Tréla

This is different from what many Americans think of as Greek salad, which is usually made with romaine. There is none in the Horiatiki. It’s made with fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, onions, peppers, Kalamata olives, and feta cheese. 

6000 NE Glisan Street, Portland. Tréla website

Potato Salad: Taylor Street Kitchen

This is a bit of a deviation from a traditional American potato salad, which has mayo and celery, but is a huge hit at the restaurant. This one is made with potatoes, sheep’s milk feta, dill, lemon, and a creamy yogurt dressing. 

1125 SW Taylor Street, Portland. Taylor Street Kitchen website

Papaya Salad: ZabPinto and Gin Thai Brasserie

I’ve had a couple of great papaya salads lately, and you can find this classic pounded salad at most any Thai restaurant. The one from ZabPinto is made with green papaya, dry shrimp, tomatoes, peanut, green beans, fresh chili, and garlic in dressing using their Isan-style fish sauce. Gin Thai makes theirs with shredded green papaya, carrots, and roasted peanut, tossed with their chili lime dressing; shrimp can be added to this.

10127 NE Cascades Pkwy, Portland. ZabPinto Thai PDX website; 3176 NW 185th Avenue, Portland. Gin Thai Brasserie website

Niçoise Salad: Bergerac

This classic French salad isn’t that common in Portland, but if you’re looking for it, Bergerac has it, at least during Salad Week. It’s made with marinated ahi tuna, green beans, romaine lettuce, olives, tomatoes, hard boiled egg, pickled scapes, croutons, and tarragon oil. Cheryl’s on 12th also does a Niçoise Salad.

5520 SE Woodstock Blvd, Portland. Bergerac website

Bread Salad: Fattoush at Queen Mama’s Kitchen

Fattoush is made with pita bread and is a traditional dish eaten throughout the Middle East. It’s made with greens, cucumber, tomato, onion, peppers, with toasted pita bread, garlic, olive oil and lemon juice. 

406 SW Oak Street and 917 SW Alder Street, Portland. Queen Mama’s Kitchen website

Grain Salad: Tabbouleh at DarSalam

While this is considered a grain salad in the U.S., it’s really a parsley salad with a grain, usually bulghur wheat or millet. Dar Salam’s is more the latter: parsley mixed with onion, tomato, millet, fresh lemon juice and olive oil. 

Cibo, which we’ve mentioned earlier, also makes a salad with farro. They take farro, an ancient grain, and toss it with cucumbers, peppers, red onions, Arbequina olive oil, and assorted herbs and spices.

2921 NE Alberta Street and 320 SW Alder Street, Portland. DarSalam website

Layered Salad: Herring Under a Fur Coat at Kachka. 

One of Kachka’s favorites, this layered salad (Selyodka Pod Shuboy—Селедка под шубой), is an egg salad, and a fish salad all in one. Herring, onion, potatoes, carrots, beets, lots of mayonnaise, and grated egg. 

960 SE 11th Avenue, Portland. Kachka website

Salad Alignment Chart

As someone who lives with a D&D player, we talk about alignment charts semi-regularly. Here’s our suggested version for salad week. If you disagree with or have a better version, send it our way! We’d love to include it here at the end of the week.

Lawful Good model citizen Cobb Salad	Neutral Good do gooder Kale Salad	Chaotic Good well intentioned Salade Niçoise
Lawful Neutral  plays by the rules Caprese Salad	Neutral Garden Side Salad	Chaotic Neutral impulse driven Waldorf Salad
Lawful Evil legally selfish Roast Beef Salad	Neutral Evil  immorally indifferent Ambrosia Salad	Chaotic Evil  true lovin’ criminal Bloomin’ Onion

What Else to Look Forward To During Salad Week

We’ll be bringing you some destination salads, salad specials and a few salad recipes from local restaurants, how kids enjoy salad, salad taste test results, salads from the wine country and more! So stick around and see the awesomeness of the salad scene in the greater Portland area for Salad Week 2025!