Crisp & Green is one of several fast-casual restaurants focused on healthy eating that have been sprouting up all over town. Its only Madison location is near West Towne Mall.
Obviously, you’re going to find salads on the menu. The chicken bacon ranch ($12.95) was a nice, normal salad, full of blackened chicken thigh, pickled onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, bacon and an entire half of an avocado. The ranch dressing tasted like a yogurt dressing, making it lighter. Amazingly, this salad had only 380 calories.
Signature grain bowls also make up a large part of the menu. The Golden Hour Curry bowl ($13.95) was excellent, although I think it could have gone without the layer of spinach and let the roasted cauliflower, peppers, onion, grilled chicken and carrots sit directly atop the warm, fluffy black rice (my bowl was missing the golden raisins). The curry sauce was tasty, though it reminded me of a honey mustard because of its sweetness.
Other salads include the Watermelon Feta Zest ($12.95) and the Wild Wild Southwest ($13.95), featuring chicken, black beans and corn. Other bowls include the Ahh… Greek Out! ($13.95) and The Bold & The Buffalo ($13.95).
Among the wraps, I tried the Japanese BBQ ($11.95), which was so well crafted. It was a savory mix of chicken, avocado, romaine, carrots, napa cabbage, crispy wontons, sesame seeds, Japanese BBQ sauce and teriyaki sauce. Everything meshed together well, with no one ingredient too dominant.
I mostly liked the Protein Power Play acai bowl ($12). The sorbet by itself was very good with the perfect amount of sweetness and further brightened by the cocoa nibs and sliced strawberries and bananas. I thought the cashew butter was unnecessary, as it was bland, and its texture didn’t work well with the sorbet. I also wasn’t a fan of the overly crunchy protein puffs. Next time, I would hold those toppings.
You can tell no sugar was added to the Strawberry Sunrise smoothie ($8.45), as it had relatively no sweetness to it despite being made from banana, strawberries and mango, plus plain pea protein. As a result, the smoothie “only” has 240 calories to it, which is nice. Next time, I’ll try the Big Island, made of coconut milk, banana, pineapple and vanilla pea protein.
Crisp & Green is open for lunch and dinner every day.
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See more photos in our Crisp & Green Flickr album.
