Patricia Podorsek and Monica Tindall
Only one word can describe Fraser Place’s Simply Green Salad: Fresh. Fresh thinking on their part and fresh thinking on your part. On their end, the head chef and her staff select and prepare menu items every day. Nearly every one of the dozens of menu items is made in their (tiny!) kitchen with ingredients purchased daily, chopped daily, marinated daily, blended daily. How could you get any more fresh than that? On your end, you can live in the moment with your meal. Whatever salad or sandwich you’ve got fresh on your brain, this Do-It-Yourself operation offers combinations in the hundreds of thousands!
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| Fresh Greens in the Salad Bar |
Salads are the centerpiece. Patrons begin with a base, one of three green options, or something heartier like potatoes or rice. They can add as many as six mains, including standards like carrots and tomatoes, or more unusual options like grapefruit segments and roasted pumpkin. They can layer with a “Supplementary” like grilled eggplant, pine nuts, or feta cheese. And they can even top with an optional “Prime” like chicken tikka or a “Signature” like roasted rosemary lamb. Think “Assembly Line of Delicious Fresh Healthy Food” and you know you’ve come to the right place. Smartly, salads come in different sizes for different appetites, beginning at an affordable RM14.90.
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| Make Your Order – With a Little Research if Needed |
Our hosts recommended Blackened Salmon on Baby Spinach. This bold salad brought new meaning to the word texture. Thin slices of crisp radish and celery met crunchy black beans and red cabbage. Meaty walnuts countered flaky salmon. Tender spinach glistened with silky lime herb mayonnaise. The cajun seasoning on the fish gave zip to the undertones of the dressing.
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| Blackened Salmon on Baby Spinach |
If the number of options feels overwhelming, Simply Green Salad offers a few extra-healthy specialty salads like Garden of Eden. Here multigrain rice gets tossed with quinoa, toasted pumpkin seeds, edamame, and other fresh vegetables. This nutritious mix gets served over romaine and under still-warm grilled asparagus. A light herb dressing rounds out the package. I think there were more vitamins in this one salad than my metabolism had seen all week!
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| Garden of Eden |
Nowhere on the menu are there more options than in the dressings. Twenty-eight different dressings are crafted on site. The most popular include the rich and creamy Thai Peanut dressing and the sweet Oriental Sesame. Citrus fans will fawn over the zesty Grapefruit Vinaigrette. (I know I did!) Variations on the standard balsamic include Cranberry and Dijon. The more adventurous might try the tart Apple Cider Vinaigrette or the fusion Green Tea Vinaigrette. Between the toppings and the dressings, the salad selection really does seem endless.
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| Just a Few of an Extensive Number of Dressings |
The sandwich menu is just as extensive. Most of the salad options described above can be layered between slices of Focaccia or wrapped in a Tomato Basil tortilla for a flat RM23.90. Our hosts delivered a spectacular Lemongrass Chicken Wrap: warm grilled marinated chicken hugged by crunchy mixed greens, tri-colored julienned peppers, corn, beets, and feta cheese. The honey balsamic dressing gave a touch of sweetness to enhance the citrus of the chicken and the freshness of the vegetables. Fresh. We are back to that word again. Everything about this sandwich screamed it, including the salad on the side.
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| Lemongrass Chicken Wrap |
There are few things more comforting at lunch than a bowl of soup, especially on a day as rainy as our visit. Our hosts brought us one of their staple soups, Pumpkin, and one of their signature soups, Seafood Chowder. I know it might sound repetitive, but guess how I would describe the Pumpkin Soup? Yep, you’re right: Fresh. The passionate head chef shows great particularity in her choice of pumpkins, only local and only with the right coloring. She sees them slow-roasted for depth of flavor and then blends with caramelized onions before pureeing into a buttery blend. The seafood chowder reflects the chef’s sojourn in Massachusetts. She combines clams, prawn, and two types of fish with slivers of potato, carrot and celery, letting the vegetable starch thicken the base rather than flour. The result is a classy cream soup that is as rich as it is hearty.
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| Pumpkin Soup |
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| Seafood Chowder |
Simply Green Salad is a popular lunch spot in KLCC. The line-up of customers dictates a “symphony of hands” according to the general manager. Five staff members work the assembly line of freshness, taking notes of individual orders from the completed checklists for each customer, and having made-to-order meals ready in just a few minutes. They will take advanced orders; in fact, customers who order before 11:00 am get an additional main topping free. Simply Green also offers free delivery within walking distance with no minimum spend.
Simply Green Salad can be found in the lobby of Fraser Place from 7:30 am – 7:30 pm, Monday through Friday. Until 11:00am, you can also find amazing-sounding breakfast items like homemade granola, pesto eggs with smoked salmon, or banana pancakes. If the breakfast is anything like the lunch, you can expect individually prepared delicious healthy food.
In a word, fresh.
Reasons to visit: Hundred of thousands of variations of fresh healthy salads and sandwiches.
Simply Green Salad
Fraser Place, Lot 163
10 Jalan Perak
50450 Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
+ 6 0182180100
Oh, my, and so very healthy as well. Looks wonderful.
Makes a great lunch during the week as you can return to work feeling energised rather than sleepy.
Ooooo…the greens! We buy that all the time, very nice! Readily available but last weekend, we could not find any all over town for our salad dish – dunno why, will blog on that soon.
Wonderful colours at the salad bar.
Wouldn't the 1950's Mums have a field day here with their kids – "Eat your greens" ha ha.
The terrible things that were in store for you if you didn't eat your greens – eg: Hair would fall
out!!! etc etc.
Thankfully I enjoyed my vegetables (greens) but NEVER bloody beetroot! That I point blank
refused to eat.
Malcolm of "Fraser Place, KL" ( just joking) with his saying "Life Wasn't Mean't to be Easy",
well that is true but he never said "You must eat your beetroot to grow strong"!!
Looks like this the "Simply Green" salad bar is in an upmarket area – "The Shangri-La" being not
too far away. Also interesting to see the Nambia H.C. – I wonder what trade there is between Nambia
and Malaysia??????
Cheers
Colin
PS: Lovely day here for our get together of the ex-colonials (???) of PNG for lunch
at the Harlequin Club Bistro at the Sofitel. I regret to say that the menu in this bistro
has gone backwards in the choices available.
I recall similar threats as a kid to "eat the crusts" on the bread to make me strong, have curly hair… a multitude of benefits apparently. 🙂 As a kid I didn't like beetroot, but as an adult I've grown to love it – freshly cooked however, none of that canned variety.
Yes, upmarket area – city centre, ground floor of a high-end serviced residence.
Enjoy your get together.
Oh Monica – we sure did. We re-organised the World political scene and more.
Bodies in the UN, Canberra and God forbid the centre of the so-called universe Washington, DC,
would have been dropping like nine-pins. Can't understand why they bothered holding a G7 in
Germany for a couple of days this week – we did it all in 3 hours!!!
Papua-NewGuinea got a real work over.
The food surprisingly was quite good and ample of it.
The "house reds" – a Cab. Merlot was pretty good also. A Barossa,S.A. wine.
We were first in and last to leave.
We may have been over boisterous ??? And the other two both with those heart pacer
thingies attached – I bet they were over worked. Still nobody dropped dead – ha ha.
Cheers
Colin
On Behalf of the EMERITUS Trio of World Diplomats Supremos!
Love salads would be salad heaven for me without any dressings. Dressings take away the taste of the salads to my taste, but that's just me…
I like minimal dressing or none at all as well. Tasty fresh ingredients don't really need too much additional help.
Salad? Healthy? I am up for these!
The salad greens look wonderful, and the seafood chowder looks so good. 🙂 I make my own dressing when I make a salad. I use either extra virgin olive oil or grapeseed oil, garlic, either fresh lemon or lime juice or vinegar, a little salt and pepper. It is quite tasty. 🙂
I actually grow my own salad leaves, chard, beet and coriander on my balcony.
But my balcony is north facing, can't get any sun light so my veggies are kinda lanky, but still edible! Ha.
Love how these salad places are popping up everywhere!
Oh my yumminess I've just come across your blog and everything looks so scrumptious. Thank you for the useful reviews!! Baci,
Coco et La vie en rose fashion blog – Valeria Arizzi
Those are my kind of salads!