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Simplicity Plated: Tender Greens

By Any Lyons
Beverly Press

It isn’t always easy to find time for a healthy lunch or a home-cooked dinner. Fast food restaurants often seem like the only option when you’re on the go. But there’s a little spot in West Hollywood where fast food doesn’t mean low quality food: Tender Greens.

The name is as appealing as the no-nonsense atmosphere, a diner-like haunt minus the greasy smells and sloppy wait-staff. The decor is modern, sleek and simple, the food hearty and to the point.

The menu is a minimalists dream, with a small smattering of high quality main dishes, all of which are sided with Yukon gold mashed potatoes and one of five “simple” salads. The customer decides how to mix and march proteins and salads. My favorite plate is the Angus flank steak with those aforementioned delightfully creamy mashed potatoes and the baby spinach salad topped with goat, hazelnuts and cabarnet cinaigrette. The steak is neatly sliced into a row of beautifully arranged cuts and the salad is as fresh as you can imagine it springing straight from the earth and heading directly for your dinner plate. Free range chicken and herb-braised albacore tuna and the two additional entree options, and, though I have yet to taste the chicken, I can easily vouch for the quality of the tuna, pink, tender cuts of delectable fish.

If you’re not up for a full meal, try a big salad or sandwich. The tuna nicoise has the perfect balance of savory capers, hearty potato pieces and egg to complement the fresh fish that comes splayed on top in a juicy fan. Staples like the Cobb, Chinese chicken and Caesar will surely please fans of leafy main meals. Soups and sweets also dot the menu, but don’t search for too much variation. What Tender Greens does they do very well, and they keep things very simple to assure each dish is excellent. The prices can’t be beat either, with a steak dinner running you about $11.

The majority of produce served at Tender Greens is picked daily at Scarborough Farms in Ocnard, where natural growing methods are employed. Other small local farms supply the remainder of the restaurant’s produce. The beef comes from grain-fed, hormone-free cows, the chicken from Petaluma Poultry, where cages aren’t used, and the tuna is line-caught from the Pacific. Fresh baked breads and desserts made on-site round out the freshness factor and high standards.

Crisp lemonade and a variety of additional healthy fruit drinks abound on the menu. You can also get a bottle of organic beer or a glass of wine, an extreme rarity at a place that moves food orders so quickly.

Crowds have been flocking to the Culver City location of Tender Greens for more than a year, and the trend has certainly caught on in West Hollywood, where they opened in March. A third Tender Greens exists in San Diego, and the fourth outpost will open on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood in the near future. The lines tend to be long, but the meals at Tender Greens are well worth the small amount of green you’ll pluck from your wallet.