Review No. 70: Bonus! Check-In at Wendy’s Dave Ward
3750 Dave Ward Drive
(501) 548-0143
36.1 percent finished reviewing Conway restaurants
Note: We post bonus reviews as we check in to various chain restaurants around Conway for which we have already done an initial review. We reviewed Wendy’s on Oak Street in May, and we’ll check in to the other Conway Wendy’s as we proceed in our quest to dine at every restaurant in our fair city.
She Said: We rolled up on this Wendy’s, which I’d never been to, while out running errands and waiting to pick up our youngest from the vet. I was really in the mood for something healthy and low carb, as I’ve been cultivating a salad fixation lately, so I challenged myself to eat as healthily as I could at a fast-food place. I reviewed the online and posted nutrition information in the store, and settled on the fresh mozzarella salad, half portion. It has 360 calories, which is 110 more than the power Mediterranean salad, but it also had a little more protein. To drink, I had an unsweetened iced tea.
We had to wait in line when we arrived about a quarter to noon, but it moved fast. The restaurant itself is nicely decorated and is pleasant to dine in, as many people were doing on their lunch breaks, some alone, some in duos or groups. The counter attendant actually brought our food out to us, instead of calling “Stacey” throughout the whole restaurant, and two separate staffers checked on us while we ate.
And the food? The salad was very tasty. It had chopped chicken and mozzarella, with a pesto dressing drizzled on it. It also came with a light balsamic dressing packet, so I could apply that to my taste. The lettuce wasn’t all iceberg, but rather included a mix of greens, which is a good sign. I liked that they used cherry tomatoes instead of diced: It made them easy to avoid (I do NOT like tomatoes). I indulged in a few croutons, and they were crunchy, but not stale. It’s nice to know that I can get a reasonably caloric, tasty salad on the run from a drive-through, because often when I’m in a hurry, I end up eating a burger and fries in the car because I can’t think of anything else.
I did experience an allergic reaction, however, within hours; I usually get this in reaction to preservatives on salads, and this was a strong one. I liked the salad, but I’ll have to have Benedryl in my purse if I get it again on the go.
He Said: We had actually tried to pick up breakfast here a couple of weeks ago in order to review it, but it turned out they are not open for breakfast, so the challenge became “What’s the healthiest lunch one can eat at Wendy’s?” Like She Said, I did some homework ahead of time, and found a number of possibilities, including a regular salad which, if I’d had one of the possible “light” salad dressings, would have enabled me to have a zero-fat lunch. Since as regular readers will remember, fat is a health threat to me, this would have been ideal. Of course, it would also have been pretty boring and not all that tasty a lunch, and probably would have left me hungry for more.
But wait, there are more possibilities: my online chat told me that the grilled chicken sandwich here has a mere 360 calories and, more impressive, only 8 grams of fat. Another possibility is a small chili, which has only 210 calories and just 6 grams of fat. I decided, since we were doing a review and it would be good to try a few different things, that I’d order them both. Even together, they only gave me 14 grams of fat, which is well within my diet of 50-60 grams per day and leaving me another 35 grams minimum for my other meals. If I had decided to skip the chili and have natural cut fries with the chicken sandwich, that would have added only 11 more fat grams, and I still would have been under 20 for the meal. This Wendy’s makes it easy to look this stuff up—they have a full nutritional chart hanging on the wall next to the counter.
The grilled chicken was a very tasty sandwich, with some added tomato and lettuce and a little sauce. It did seem a little bit on the dry side, but I suspect I may have been able to ask for some sweet barbecue sauce, which has no fat in it at all, if I wanted to add something moist and tangy to the sandwich. The chili was good—tastes in chili vary considerably, and you may not like what I like. This was relatively thin and mild. Wendy’s does have packages of hot sauce available if you wanted your chili hotter. You can also put ketchup in it if you want it a little more tomato flavored. So even if you don’t like what I like, you could doctor the chili to make it your own!
Ultimately, I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised by the choices of healthy meals at Wendy’s. You might be too!
She Said: Ruud! You used the M word. Gross!
What We Got and What We Paid: One half mozzarella salad, one small iced tea, one grilled chicken sandwich, one cup of chili and one small root beer: $14.70.
Elapsed Time from Entry to Food Arrival: 9 minutes
Rating:
She Said: Tasty, healthy and low-calorie fast-food salads are here! I’ll be back, Wendy, to try some of your others, especially when I’m in a hurry.
He Said: A surprisingly healthy, filling and good-tasting lunch at fast-food prices.
So…He Said and She Said: You can eat at Wendy’s without eater’s remorse over the fat and calories… and it tastes good!