Restaurant of the Week: Lettuce Toss It

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Lettuce Toss It, 15934 Los Serranos Country Club Drive (at Torrey Pines), Chino Hills; closed Sundays

The above is, by the way, the most high-falutin’ street location of any of the hundreds of Restaurant of the Week posts here, but pay that no heed. This is simply a restaurant, one where you order at the counter, in a fairly ordinary neighborhood, even though there must be golf nearby. It’s not in the shopping center on the corner of Soquel Canyon Parkway but in a small complex north of there.

With that out of the way: Lettuce Toss It, a pun business name of which I approve, is one of the few places in these parts that specializes in salads. I had lunch there recently with two friends.

There are 16 pre-designed salads, some of which sounded good to me; I almost opted for the Strawberry Sweetness before deciding to go for the Toss It Your Way, in which you pick the lettuce, six toppings and a dressing ($8.50).

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My choices, for the record, were spinach, with walnuts, raspberries, oranges, pineapple, strawberries and sun-dried tomatoes, topped with raspberry vinaigrette. (This was my attempt to recreate the Panera summer salad I like.) Very good, and very colorful, although the sun-dried tomatoes, as I suspected at the time, didn’t really go with the salad as composed.

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A friend also built her own salad: spinach, green and black olives, tomatoes and green peppers, adding grilled tofu ($1.50) and avocado ($1.25). “I really outdid myself,” she bragged. The vegetarian had been here twice previously and liked her salad.

The third got a salad-sandwich combo: half a JJ’s Ham and Swiss (plus sourdough, mustard and romaine) and the half Cobbler Gobbler Salad (turkey, bacon bits, cheese, tomato, romaine, egg and avocado). I don’t know why there’s not a scoop of peach cobbler in the Cobbler Gobbler. Price was not noted.

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“Soooo good,” he reported. “I walked in full and thought I would eat only half, but I ate the whole thing.” He’d been here once before and, unaccountably, had a cheese quesadilla, which he said he liked.

The menu has sandwiches (which include my baseline sandwich, the tuna melt, and yes, I almost ordered one), which come with a side of chili, fruit or a salad, as well as wraps and baked potatoes. And quesadillas. And cookies (3 for $1.50): We had the chocolate chip, three of them, and enjoyed them.

We all liked the place, which opened a couple of years ago and is popular enough to have expanded into the vacant storefront next door, vastly increasing the seating capacity. The menu is well thought out and the name catchy, which made me think Lettuce Toss It is a chain, but it’s not. Maybe it will become one. Until then, check them out in Chino Hills, and bring a copy of a Lettuce Now Praise Famous Men.

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