Wendy's wild berry stuff - berry-licious

[rworange]

IMO, these are some of the best fast food choices currently in terms of taste, calories, ingredients and even price.

Wendy's is using sugar and corn syrup in the shake and parfait, so they don't have that disgusting HFCS taste and sickening sweetness.

I lived through the 90's. One of the WORST trends, IMO, was raspberry salad dressing. So when I saw Wendy's wild berry salad with raspberry dressing ... all I could think was yuck ... will this curse never end? Add to that I don't like fruit in salads with meat and lettuce.

However, I liked the shake and parfait so much, I gave it a try ... especially since there was a half portion available for the salad. I actually liked the whole thing.

The chicken tasted like chicken. There were whole fresh blueberries and good-tasting sliced fresh strawberries. The raspberry salad dressing wasn't overly obnoxcious and brought the whole thing together. I saved the small packed of almonds with sea salt for a snack later in the day.

A small shake and half salad is only 484 calories. The salad alone is 242.

Again, this is good in a fast food way. There are still preservatives and stuff in the ingredient list, but not as much as some. So, IMO, not a bad choice if fast food is the only option.

[roxlet]

It's actually not pointless since I got a needed heads up. Based on your OP, I might have tried it; based on the subsequent posts as well as the listing of ingredients by you, I definitely won't. Thanks for listing them though, which gave me an informed decision.

[NicoleFriedman]

We must have eaten different salads. The dressing was way too sickingly sweet for my taste and gloppy to boot. I get that many people like sweet dressings, but is it too much to ask for a salad dressing at a fast food place that doesn't have corn syrup as an ingredient? Thankfully the almonds in this salad have no sugar, but if you get the apple pecan salad, the pecans are coated in sugary slime. I wrote to Wendy's with my view of their "salads" but no reply yet. I'll stick to the chili when I have to eat here (edible but absolutely no zip- the packet of "spice" is also full of corn syrup).

[rworange]

Yep, different tastes. I like the chicken pecan salad with dried cranberries, cranberries and pomegranate dressing as much as the berry.

I'm happy with anything that doesn't have HFCS. Sugar IS the first ingredient, so that might really be the culprit

"Fat Free Raspberry Vinaigrette

Sugar, Water, Red Raspberries (including dehydrated), Corn Syrup, Red Wine Vinegar, Acai Juice, Balsamic Vinegar, Shallots, Salt, Xanthan Gum, Spice, Natural Flavors."

I thought the vinegar balanced the sweetness. As mentioned, I've never been a fan of the raspberry vinagrette trend a decade or so ago, but for me, I liked this enough to order it again yesterday.

It's not berry, but the only recent thing I didn't like was the caramel sunday and shake which I did find unpleasanty sweet.

[roxlet]

I'm with you, NicoleFriedman. Any salad dressing that has sugar as the first ingredient and corn syrup as the fourth sounds pretty nauseatingly sweet. Thanks for the heads up -- I'll be sure to avoid this.

[rworange]

While I appreciate the post by NF, IMO, people who don't try something and post don't add much but noise. I like people to disagree with my tastes because it gives people a balanced perspective.

If NF keeps you from trying it fine but I don't see the point of labeling something 'nauseating' when you personally have not tried it. I found the whole concept of Wendy's berry salad 'nauseating'. However, I was so impressed by the parfait and shake, I gave the half salad a try. In terms of salad greens, ingredients, chicken ...etc .. it beats any fast food salad out there ... and lots of regular restaurant salads.

NF tried it and didn't like it.Cool. Loved her post. I tried it and did like it. I find cheerleading by someone who hasn't tried it pointless.

[ediblover]

I had it when it first came out (I also found out that they only offer side salads early on and only full sized later on in the day) and didn't think much of it. I've had better berries (like, every day during summer) and the green mix isn't as good/varied as McDonald's.

I think the comments on corn syrup is overreacting. It's a neutral liquid sweetener and a sensible ingredient here. Also, I couldn't help but noticed how sugar was skipped over, which is senseless since excess empty calories are all bad. Most importantly, it comes in a packet so the user controls the amount.

Overall, I thought the salad was another example of how Wendy's is a step behind McDonald's (Cept the burgers which are better than McD's), but making positive progress. They made their fries better and now it's the salad. More offering is always good.

[rworange]

Yeah, I was really hesitant about the dressing the first time only putting a bit on corner of the salad. Except for the burgers and fries, my take is Wendy's is a step above McDonald's. To me the salads only just became edible when they fixed the chicken. Other than that theres the boring Newman's dressings, and pretty standard cuke, tomato, carrot toppings. Yeah, theres the beans, corn, canned mandarins or crispy things on the chicken salad, but those aren't to my taste and McDonald's did nothing to win me over to those tastes.

Yeah, the chicken is better these days, but at McDonald's my thought is ... well, I guess the salad is healtier ... and then I order a filet o fish.

I was wondering about the strawberries at different locations. Heck, I was wondering about the berries perod. They are not easy for a fast food place to keep and I'm guessing they have to be more or less local. I was glad not to get mushy blueberries and fresh-tasting berries. Probably not much better thn what is in a supermarket but still nice they were super fresh. As summer wears on and these berries go out of season, I'd be more nervous about about them.

Just a note about Wendy's new fries. They are abysmal ... soft, greasy and lacking any potato flavor. What were they thinking?

[monpetitescargot]

you rock. glad to hear this. they advertised on television in virginia that they were using local berries in that salad....

[rworange]

I recently had the wild berry tea which is also wonderful ... my fast food beverage of choice now. It is not overly sweet they only sweetening is the berry puree. The tea has a fresh brewed taste.

The wildberry lemonade is good too, though it also has sugar. It is very tart and tangy.