MAD Greens brings a bit of the crazy to Lehi
The new MAD Greens restaurant in Lehi has many delicious and healthy options.
The Annie Oakley panini sandwich at MAD Greens in Lehi.
The MAD Caesar salad at MAD Greens in Lehi.
The Chicken Tortilla Soup at MAD Greens in Lehi.
If you consider yourself a fan of fresh, healthy fare, you are likely to lose your mind over the new MAD Greens restaurant in Lehi.
It’s not an altogether crazy supposition, after all, as all the signature salads, wraps and sandwiches are named for well-known individuals from history who might, shall we say, have displayed a flair for being a bit unhinged. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
As a franchise, MAD Greens got its start in Colorado back in 2004. It has since expanded to Arizona, Texas and Utah. The Lehi restaurant, which opened its doors last month, is the first Utah location. A second, in Farmington, is due to debut in early October.
We popped into MAD Greens late on a Thursday night. We were a bit worried about cutting our visit a little close to closing, but the staff couldn’t have been more helpful and friendly, with one server even going out of his way to let us know that we could take as long as we needed to finish up.
As previously mentioned, MAD Greens specializes in out-of-this-world salads, wraps and sandwiches. These are not run-of-the-mill ingredient combinations either, but a wide and interesting range of options that left me mentally going back and forth between multiple choices because they all appeared so intriguing. A sign on the wall even boasted that MAD Greens makes use of 21 salad dressings, 25 different ingredients and 11 herbs and spices. Some tough choices indeed.
Orders are placed at a front counter, with your salads prepared in front of you as you make your way down the line. One thing that hung me up in choosing a salad was that each one comes with a pre-chosen signature dressing on the menu. Many salad combinations looked great to me, only to be paired with a dressing that maybe would not have been of my choosing. However, I was informed at the counter that you can indeed select any dressing you want with any salad. Dilemma averted.
Salads can be selected in the medium or large size, with a $1 difference between them — and it should be noted that these are definitely bountiful serving sizes.
I was momentarily thrown for a loop when, as my salad was nearly ready, a server asked me, “Light, medium or heavy?” My first thought was, “That’s a little bit personal of a question, isn’t it?” However, the realization soon hit that I was merely being asked my preference for the amount of dressing to be mixed into my salad.
The restaurant has a variety of seating options available depending on the size of your group, with tables, booths, a bar and also an outdoor pavilion with many tables that are shared by other restaurants in the immediate vicinity.
My selection of the Ty Cobb salad might have been a subconscious ode to my love of baseball, the fact that I was leaving town the next morning for an out-of-state softball tournament or simply because the combination of ingredients most caught my fancy. No matter the reason, it was a home run in my book. The ingredients included Romaine lettuce, grilled Southwestern chicken, avocado, bacon, red onions, eggs and tomatoes. The suggested dressing was blue cheese, but I swapped that out for honey mustard.
Another member of our party opted for the MAD Caesar salad, which came with Romaine lettuce, slow-roasted chicken, Parmesan cheese, tomatoes, house-made croutons and Caesar dressing. It was also delicious.
Other salads were provocatively named and creatively combined with mouth-watering ingredient mixes. Some of our favorite names included the Siam I Am, Edgar Allan Poe, Dionysis, Mad Molly Brown, Butch Cassidy, Don Quixote and the Crazy Ivan. There were several additional options as well. We look forward to sampling some of these others on future visits.
Two of our other favorite samplings included Albert E’s BLT in the MAD Wraps category, and the Annie Oakley panini sandwich. The Albert E wrap featured slow-roasted chicken, bacon, Romaine lettuce, tomatoes and a ranch dressing. The Annie Oakley includes slow-roasted chicken, avocado, bacon, Swiss cheese and ranch dressing. Both were outstanding.
MAD Greens also boasts a series of seven MAD Juice creations. We tried two of them — the Bright Buzz (apple, banana, bee pollen, carrot, pineapple and lime) and the Wake Up (carrot, orange, ginger, apple and lime). They were both interesting and tasty in their own way.
In summary, you don’t have to be mad as a hatter to eat at MAD Greens, but it helps if you can embrace your inner crazy.
MAD GREENS
Where: 50 N. 1200 East, Lehi, Suite 100
Hours: Open daily, 7-8:30 a.m. Mad Juice Bar, 10:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Mad Greens
Prices: $2.75-$11.75
Info: (385) 352-2323, madgreens.com