Select Salads for a Healthy 2025

The party’s over, people. Evidence is everywhere.

Christmas trees linger curbside. Menorahs have gone dark. School’s back in session. For some, the teetotaling month of “Dry-uary” has begun. And for those who make them, bothersome New Year’s resolutions press upon us. 

According to a 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center, 79 percent of New Year’s resolutions are health related, including making healthier food choices. 

I’m here to help.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no saint when it comes to healthy eating. I’ve been known to eat cake for dinner. Or popcorn. Or a big hunk of fat-streaked beef.

But almost every day, I eat a salad. Not because I should, but because salads are one of the world’s most versatile and satisfying culinary creations. The best ones have it all: fresh ingredients, assorted textures and tastes, varied ethnic constructs, and with just a little effort, a gorgeous presentation. Plus, they’re good and good for you, and when does that ever happen?

So. To help those of you who share that nagging resolution, here are four great restaurant salads to keep you on course, sated, and not too deprived. 

Isle of Capri

Slide into a half-moon banquette at this circa 1952 restaurant, gaze at panoramic views of the Atlantic Ocean, and prepare for culinary performance art. Order the Caesar salad (for two or more, $12 per person), and a waiter glides tableside with a cart and begins swirling in the essentials of a true Caesar: anchovies, garlic, raw egg, parmesan reggiano, crunchy croutons, and fresh, crisp romaine. If it’s your birthday or anniversary, one of the elderly Italian gentlemen on staff may just stop by to serenade you. It’s just lovely. Note: It’s a date night sort of place, complete with dress code.

Papa’s Greek 

This unassuming eatery tucked into a strip shopping center sports a brightly-lit dining room ringed with Greek flags and matching checkered tablecloths. Grab one of the Constitution-sized menus tucked behind the salt and pepper shakers and go straight for the Mediterranean chicken salad ($12.99 and $16.99). It’s got all the essentials of a Greek salad: fresh romaine lettuce cut into bite-sized pieces, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives, red bell pepper, pepperoncini, and plenty of feta. The generous portion of chicken strips—grilled to golden brown—make it a satisfying meal. But it’s the house-made Greek dressing that makes Papa’s my favorite. It’s at once tangy and umami, and I wish they sold it by the bottle. 

Y-Not Italian 

nCr = n!r! × (n -r)! Got that? Over at Y-Not Italian’s five locations, the combinations of their build-your-own chopped salads (starting at $10.49) are endless, thus the above calculation, which I failed to compute. With 59 ingredients to choose from—four fresh lettuces, eight meats, three seafoods, 10 dressings, and scores of other ingredients—you can have it your way … and keep those bothersome resolutions intact.

The Porch on Long Creek 

It’s the main ingredient—a quarter head of iceberg lettuce—that causes many to wrongly shun wedge salads. Long on color, short on nutrition, iceberg lettuce is the crunchy, craggy foundation of a classic wedge. Over at The Porch, where you can perch on the water’s edge and watch boats glide to and fro, they add an interesting twist. Sure, there’s the lettuce, ripe cherry tomatoes, shards of red onion, pork belly, plenty of house-made croutons, ample blue cheese crumbles, and dressing seeping into the crags. But cooks also tuck a tangle of slender fried onions alongside it. It’s not diet fare, but hey, a girl’s gotta live. ($15) 

Food Find: Select Salads

Isle of Capri • isleofcaprivb.com 
Located in Holiday Inn & Suites
3900 Atlantic Ave., Va. Beach
757-428-2411 
Nightly 5 p.m.-9 p.m.

Papa’s Greek • papasgreek.com 
5386 Kemps River Dr., #110
Va. Beach • 757-361-0123 

Mon.-Thurs. & Sat. 11 a.m.-8:30 p.m.
Fri. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Sun. 11 a.m.- 7 p.m. 

The Porch on Long Creek
theporchonlongcreek.com
2109 W. Great Neck Rd., #102
Va. Beach • 757-496-4350 

Mon.-Thurs. 4 p.m.-9 p.m.
Fri. 4 p.m.-10 p.m.; Sat. 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sun. 11 a.m. - 9 p.m.

Y-Not Italian • ynotitalian.com 
Locations in Great Neck, Landstown, Kempsville, and Haygood in Va. Beach and Greenbrier in Chesapeake

Mon.-Thurs. 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
Sat. & Sun., 11 a.m.-10 p.m.

Lorraine Eaton, formerly with the Virginian-Pilot, is co-author of the “Food Lover’s Guide to Virginia,” and author of “Tidewater Table,” a local bestseller. She has won numerous writing awards, and her work has been included in “Best Food Writing.” Lorraine lives in Va. Beach.