Local Kid Food Critic Reviews “Tender Greens”

Many people dislike the unhealthy aspects of fast food, but also hate the idea of emptying their wallets only to receive tiny portions at a fine restaurant. As a pioneer in the restaurant industry, Tender Greens is smashing down the barriers of two distinctions in dining once thought to only operate in mutually exclusive niches. With the cheap costs and efficiency of made-to-order food, and a quality and presentation to match upscale cuisine, this locally-sourced Californian restaurant chain combines the best of both worlds. Tender Greens specializes in serving soups and salads with seasonal organic ingredients (vegetables, fruits, grilled meat & fish) and sweets, offering a healthy alternative to traditional fast food in the bustling lifestyle of this day and age. The restaurant makes seasonal desserts daily, and serves up new, avant-garde specials for both lunch and dinner.

For this review, mom and I visited Tender Greens in the UTC mall in La Jolla, the one that we go to every week.  Before the food critique, I sat down with Jeff Hubbard, the sous chef at the UTC store who has been in the culinary arts for more than eleven years. Hubbard is a friendly, burly, bearded guy with a no-nonsense demeanor in the kitchen. He is one of the three chefs at Tender Greens who determines the specials of the day. “One good thing about Tender Greens is, in its concept, it’s not fixed to Italian, or Mexican, or Asian,” Hubbard states. “With our specials we’ll experiment and go a little out there. I usually start as ‘what am I in the mood to eat?’ and I kinda go from there.”

The first big salad that I dug into was the Grilled Thai Octopus salad. “Our Thai Octopus is actually very popular, surprisingly enough. It’s kinda unusual and you don’t see it very often,” says Hubbard. “I like that menu option personally because it is very indicative of what sets us apart from other fast, casual restaurants.”

The octopus itself was neither chewy and under cooked nor cooked to a pulp. The fact that Tender Greens knows how to properly cook octopus shows a classically-trained skill that no other fast food restaurants have that I am aware of. The green papaya was very interesting in both taste and texture. It had very little flavor and a texture almost like a soft carrot, and was cooling and refreshing. The salad was paired with Thai basil, juicy oranges, crunchy peanuts, coriander, and a chili lime vinaigrette. A very unique salad, it’s a bargain at only $11.50, where octopus of this quality would probably sell for double at most gourmet restaurants.

I moved onto the daily special: the slow-roasted duck confit salad. The flavorful duck leg was cooked to a soft, velvety, melt-in-your mouth texture. Juicy and savory, the duck was seasoned and cooked to absolute perfection; just the meat itself made the whole meal. The crunchy, deep-fried brussel sprouts on the side were absolutely incredible. I never knew that brussel sprouts could be deep fried, but I sure was glad to find out! The warm lentils on the side had just the right amount of salt, and were thankfully not mushy. The only thing I felt the salad could have done without was the knotted red chard stem that the chef used for garnish; it was a bit of overkill. Personally, I thought the salad looked just fine without it.

Crossing into full-blown fine dining territory, I sampled the restaurant’s seasonal meat and cheese board. First up was the blue cheese, boasting a strong flavor throughout with a powerful stimulating finish. This cheese in particular really erases your palate and leaves you tasting nothing but stifling blue. With an intense, peppery aroma, it had a smell to match this taste. The next cheese was the soft, crumbly Drake’s goat. With a relaxing, soft, and velvety texture, this buttery goat cheese ends with a powdery finish and a subtly sweet aftertaste.

Moving onto the meats, the first salami was rich, meaty, and succulent, while the fennel and chili flake salami had mild undertones of licorice and a spicy kick. Both of the salami were made in small batches by Peter Balistreri, the head chef who specializes in handmade charcuterie.

Lastly there were some fruits on the board to compliment the meats and cheeses. I tried the bittersweet, fulvous orange marmalade, which offered a strong contrast. Made exclusively with only oranges and sugar, the peels are left in for a strong, pleasantly bitter taste. A stack of thinly cut green apple slices was tart, cooling, and refreshing; a nice balance to the strong flavors of the other foods. The last items on the table were a few crimson pickled radishes, with an overwhelming and unpleasantly acidic taste. I did not like those radishes, and felt they were completely unnecessary. The board could have used an extra cooling fruit or vegetable like the crisp apple instead.

The first dessert I tried was the apple turnover.  A stereotypical sugar-coated turnover in appearance, the ratio of tart to sweet was perfect; neither flavor dominating the other. The crust could have used a little more “crunch” to it, but it was not bad overall.

Next up was the lemon-frosted cupcake. A creamy, light yellow hue, the cupcake itself was only lightly sweet, with most of the sweetness coming from the moist, saccharine frosting. Starkly different from this cupcake was another cupcake, the flourless chocolate cupcake. Crunchy and not too sweet, the flourless chocolate cupcake was dark and rich. Overall, the desserts that night weren’t the best, but I won’t place judgment on Tender Greens for just the desserts from that day. Their panna cotta and strawberry cheesecakes are some of the best I’ve ever had.

When asked about why he decided to become a chef, Chef Hubbard replied, “I always loved cooking, and I did a lot at home. I decided to go to culinary school, and decided to roll the dice on that before working at any restaurant.”

Many kids dread hearing the words “eat your greens” at the dinner table. Hubbard has his own opinion on why so many children hate eating their vegetables “Salads or vegetables that they’ve tasted at home or at other places are not cared for as well as the proteins,” Hubbard explains, “I think children, if they develop a taste for […] food that contains a lot of fat or sugar or salt at an early age, it’s hard to lose that.”

When I asked the chef how the restaurant sources its ingredients, he replied, “We try to use local as much as possible.” Tender Greens gets its choice, farm-to-fork ingredients delivered daily from Point Loma Farms, Shoemaker Farms, Scarborough Farms, and Suzie’s Farm, most of which are local and near the San Diego area. “Beyond great food, one of the biggest things of sourcing locally is to keep that economy, to keep the jobs and everything cycling.” Unfortunately, a challenge that the restaurant faces is the fact that local produce is quite pricey. Since I first ate at Tender Greens in 2009 at its Point Loma store (Liberty Station), the price per salad has gone up by $1, not bad after seven years in business (Point Loma store opened in 2008).

Fresh produce is great, but it’s the dressing that truly makes a salad extraordinary. The chef knows this fact well. “It’s up to us to add a vinaigrette, or add a certain combination of flavors that makes it tasty as well as nutritious,” says Hubbard, “we add a nice balance of flavors, which, a lot of times food lacks; […] and just enough dressing to enhance the natural flavors of the great produce that we use.” The dressings they use at Tender Greens are a lot simpler than one might think; “Most of them are as simple as shallots, mustard, vinegar, oil.”

Tender Greens can whisk salads out of the open kitchen at breakneck speed; assembling a salad within minutes. The process is reminiscent of an assembly line, with an open area where the cooks quickly throw the salads together. Behind the salad area, an open grill where the meats are roasted, and a compact, ergonomic kitchen where everyone knows what he or she is supposed to do with minimum talking.

Operating under a fast food system, it’s tough to estimate and prepare fresh ingredients for a variable daily traffic. “Here we basically go off past experience,” explains Hubbard. “We can judge our numbers by our sales, so the amount that we get per day, […], we use that. It’s an educated guess.” Tender Greens doesn’t take reservations or parties. But, even if they can’t always plan ahead with 100% accuracy, it’s no big deal for the chef. “Meat is…you know, one day to the next is still going to be fine if it’s uncooked,” he stated, “With our specials, we order (ingredients) to that day. […] If we think we’re going to sell thirty of them, we make for thirty, and once it’s out, we erase from the board.”

As for his advice to aspiring chefs, Hubbard says, “Make sure you love it. It’s a very, very tough job.”

I give Tender Greens 4.5 out of 5 starfish, it’s “Perrific!” This is the only San Diego restaurant that mom and I visit every single week.

For fans of Tender Greens, a new store will open in the Westfield Mall in Mission Valley soon, to be helmed by Chef Hubbard. I can’t wait to try it!

More photos from my Tender Greens Review on my Facebook

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Perry Chen is the youngest award-winning film/ entertainment critic & animator, artist, speaker, and entertainment personality. He started writing movie reviews at 8 using a kid-friendly starfish rating system, under the guidance of his mom Dr. Zhu Shen and his 3rd grade teacher Ms. Harris. Perry’s debut on the CBS Evening News in 2009 made him a national sensation. He has been featured extensively on local, national, and international media, including NPR, Fox, CNN, NBC, The Guardian, The China Press, and many more. He has interviewed prominent filmmakers at film festivals, red carpet premieres, and press junkets. He won a prestigious “Excellence in Journalism Award” at the San Diego Press Club in 2010 as its youngest member. Perry currently writes movie reviews for the Animation World Network, San Diego Union Tribune, Amazing Kids! Magazine, and his own Perry’s Previews website with a combined readership of over 2 million worldwide.  Perry and his family live in the community of Carmel Valley San Diego.

Dr. Zhu Shen’s love for the movies started when she was a young girl, growing up in China during the Cultural Revolution where watching movies was the only entertainment available to the masses. Her journey to become a filmmaker took a convoluted path. She studied medicine at Peking Union Medical College before coming to the US and earning a Ph.D. in biochemistry from University of Colorado, and then an MBA from Cornell University’s Johnson School. She is a producer of the upcoming documentary feature “Average Joe on the Raw,” about journey into raw food and health. Dr. Shen is also an award-winning biotech executive, author, speaker, China business expert featured on national and trade media including CBS, Fox, Business Week, Pharmaceutical Executive, and more. She has worked at IBM, Bayer, Chiron, Immusol, and is the CEO of BioForesight, consulting on cross-Pacific life science business.