Dining Guide

Chicken Salad Shoppe

Operating out of the kitchen of the Vanilla Orchid Catering company, this to-go spot has taken the classic lunchtime favorite and made it the star of the show. Order this to go: Mouthwatering photos enhance the online menu, making it hard to choose. We settled on Paw-Paw’s fried chicken salad sandwich—crunchy golden nuggets of meat in a creamy, herby dressing—and the BLAT (bacon, lettuce, avocado, and tomato) salad: a scoop of pesto-bathed grilled chicken salad atop romaine with grape tomatoes and Parmesan. The green chile–chicken soup is good but a little heavy on unadvertised beans; we preferred the impossibly creamy potato soup crowned with a dollop of pesto and bits of salty bacon for mixing in. Be sure to add one of the half-pound cookies; we ate off the Grasshopper (mint chocolate chip) for days. Pro tip: If you get a salad, you’ll likely want an extra dressing.

Note: Review reflects COVID-19 protocols in place at the time of visit.