Romaine lettuce

[JoyM]

Is there anyplace that offers a salad made with romaine lettuce that is NOT a Caesar salad? I love Romaine lettuce -- it has the crunchiness of iceberg, but unlike iceberg it also has flavor and nutritional value. Red and green leaf and Boston are ok, but those ubiquitous "salad greens" taste are boring and crunchless. I love to start a meal w/ a good salad, but even the fanciest restaurants seem to offer Romaine only as a Caesar salad, which I am sick of. Am I the only one who craves a crunchy, non-Caesar Romaine salad to start her meal? And, more importantly, are there any restaurants that share my concern, preferably restaurants where the rest of the meal is also something yummy.

[kellylee]

Rivoli on Solano Avenue in Berkeley has a wonderful salad with mint, lemon, tomatoes, feta, toasted pita bread and romaine. I don't know if its on the menu right now but it is delicious.

[drewskiSF]

in Oakland, Rumbo al Sur & Barlata have Romaine salads on the menu
http://www.barlata.com/dinner.html
http://www.rumboalsurrestaurant.com/

i've seen one at Wood Tavern, but doesn't appear on their current online menu.

i'm sure there are others.

i also agree with rworange's suggestion. ask to sub out the Caesar dressing for something else. many places Caesar dressings are pretty meh anyway.

[Ruth Lafler]

Or, since there's more to a salad than the dressing, if they have Caesar on the menu, ask them to sub the romaine into another salad.

[rworange]

What city/area? Why not just ask for a different salad dressing?

[Robert Lauriston]

A lot of restaurants make salads with Little Gems, which are sort of like miniature Romaines. I"m not sure if they're in season right now.

[rabaja]

They are in season. I had a salad with little gems at Dosa last night that was pretty good - the best part of the meal really, but we were forced to order from the prix fixe menu as we were 8 adults with 2 lids (wtf?).
Anyway, you can find little gems around now, and they offer that great crunch.