The pros: Trader Joe's Caesar Style Salad is generous with the salad, croutons and cheese toppings.
The cons: While generous with some elements, the dressing barely coated the lettuce and didn't taste like a traditional Caesar dressing.
The verdict: For $3.49 you are getting a salad that can easily be shared among three people. That salad would be a decent size too. There was plenty of cheese and croutons included. What may not be enough for some is the dressing.
When tossed together with the other ingredients there was barely enough to cover the lettuce. Some people like dressing more than others, but in this product, you aren't getting much. The dressing was relatively thin in consistency as well. Looking at the ingredients it's not hard to see why. The first ingredient in the dressing is water. The taste of the dressing was predominantly vinegar. Some of the traditional ingredients that make a Caesar salad dressing are omitted here: eggs and anchovies. So please keep in mind that this is only "Caesar Style" and not true Caesar Salad.
The parmesan cheese shreds were tasty and added a nice salty element. The croutons were a little plain but absorbed some of the dressing to make them more flavorful. They give you all the elements needed to build a salad that is Caesar like, but not quite.
I'd still recommend keeping some extra dressing on hand. While this product made salad making easy and convenient, it's weakest link is the dressing. So for that reason, I won't be repurchasing. I wasn't expecting a pre-packaged salad to be amazing, but this product was just alright. With a better dressing, this salad had at least the possibility of being good.
The bag of Trader Joe's Caesar Style Salad found in the salad section of the refrigerated aisle:
The nutritional information and ingredients:
How Trader Joe's describes this product:
Out of the package you get:
Would I buy this again? For me, this was a no. While it was very easy to assemble, the dressing just didn't work for me. I'll stick with making my own Caesar salads.
Want to see more items I've reviewed from Trader Joe's? Click on Thoughts & Reviews of Trader Joe’s for a searchable list.
Good deal, Thanks