6 Wegmans Packaged Salads You Should Try And 5 You Can Skip

Whether you're running out from the office between calls to grab something quick or packing yourself a lunch for the beach or park, there's something oddly satisfying about a good packaged salad. When done right, these convenient bowls can be deeply satisfying and can be a good way to avoid less healthy options like a loaded sandwich or fast food. But as with salads of any kind, quality and execution are absolutely key to avoiding a disaster — which is why Wegmans provides such a promising option in this category.

The regional grocery chain has indeed become beloved for many of its prepared food items that range from sushi offerings to steak that rolls out fresh each day. However, the store also offers an even easier option in the form of prepackaged greens with a variety of toppings and dressings. To help people avoid the midday disaster of a disappointing packed lunch, I decided to pull the entire lineup from the shelf — numbering 11 in total — and put them through a rigorous tasting test. As a weekly Wegmans shopper, I wasn't at all surprised to find some truly outstanding options in the bunch, including a few I never would've seen coming. However, the same can't be said for everything in the cooler aisle. Here's how everything shook out.

While I was in the store, the incredibly friendly Wegmans employee who was helping me pull together my cart full of salads told me off the bat that this was by far her favorite of the entire lineup. This kind of expert input placed a lot of pressure on this original blend, which has a romaine base, chili‑lime chicken pieces, fire‑roasted corn, and a four‑cheese blend. It's also topped with crunchy tortilla strips and a packet of salsa ranch dressing.

When I assembled the ingredients, I noticed right away that it had a bright appearance (largely because of the dressing), which made it even more appetizing. I loved the supremely crunchy bits of tortilla chip that seem to pop into every bite, and the chicken is beautifully seasoned. On any menu in middle America, I'm pretty sure this would be marketed as a taco salad! This was the first salad where Wegmans' commendably good packaging kept the tortillas super crispy, which was truly vital to the overall experience. I also found myself relishing every little piece of corn.

My only slight knock might have to be the salsa ranch dressing, which came off more as a sweeter Thousand Island instead of the rich, savory kick I had been hoping for. I soon wished I had held back on it, maybe using just a half or a third of the packet, as the corn was already doing a great job at adding a sweeter kick. Still, this wasn't enough to push it into the "skip" category.

As a top-tier, ubiquitous option, this is always going to be the hardest salad to rate. In Wegmans' case, there's nothing out of the ordinary happening: It comes with romaine lettuce that's topped with chicken and Parmesan, all topped with a "classic" Caesar dressing.

While prepackaged versions of this dish can quickly become a catastrophe, this dish remains a solid 6 out of 10 for me: Not bad, but certainly not great. The dressing — which is undeniably the lifeblood of a Caesar — is perfectly fine (and arguably even above average for a version that comes in a packet), with a hard hit of pepper that plays along nicely with the included Parmesan. The iceberg here is where the store-bought element does come into the harsh light of day, feeling slightly limper than I would like, but still nowhere near inedible or off-putting. The chicken bites themselves do come across with a strange industrial brine flavor and a slightly dusty texture, but when worked in with the right ingredients, it's less of an issue. I did find myself missing a true crunch here: Where are the hearty croutons that help make a true Caesar sing?

This is one example where the style's notoriety worked against it, forcing me to land this as a "skip" pick. If you're walking into a Wegmans, I would argue picking up one of its prepared Caesars would likely be a better option instead.

Another tried-and-true classic, I initially geared myself up to be slightly let down by this bowl. This version is made with an iceberg and romaine blend, uncured ham, Swiss cheese, and ranch dressing, making it a more demure take on one of my favorites. I chalked up the lack of chopped egg, diced cucumber, and cherry tomatoes to a lack of space (or, at the very least, shelf life and packaging issues in some cases), but wasn't exactly expecting to be blown away.

In this case, I'll admit that I was wrong. This tastes a lot like what I would want from a chef's salad, which I mainly attribute to the rich and creamy dressing that brings a true umami bomb. It's the exact type of ranch I crave. The ham is also not too salty, and the Swiss comes in nicely with a textural change up and added layer of its own creaminess.

If I'm being honest, I wish the iceberg held up just a little better in this context, but so far as a packaged salad goes, it's still relatively crisp. I would maybe add some sunflower seeds or croutons for crunch in the future, or if I were really planning ahead, bring a side of some extra vegetables to really flesh it out. But this is still one option worth considering.

Cobb is the kind of salad I tend to gravitate towards when I'm on the go, since it's already such a messy, mixed-up execution. This one stays on the demure side of classic Cobb salad, too, with an iceberg and romaine combo lettuce base, chopped hard-boiled egg, grilled chicken cubes, uncured bacon, and a blue cheese dressing.

Unfortunately, I was left a little disappointed by what would typically be one of my picks in this case. Again, maybe it's because I've had this classic salad so many times before (and it does seem like Cobb is having something of a renaissance moment in the dining world right now), but this version was underwhelming. It felt very hard to properly mix in the blue cheese dressing to get even coverage, and even when I had, it was gloopy and fairly lifeless, coming across more as mayo with barely even a hint of that tangy funk I was hoping for. The entire flavor of this salad rested solely on the bacon, which did manage to punch through the sea of iceberg and chopped egg, but left it all feeling incredibly one-note. I think this might be the only salad in the lineup that I would put down and not finish, even in a pinch.

While packing up my cart, this salad immediately appealed to me as a Waldorf salad-adjacent option. It comes with spring greens, apples, cubed white‑meat chicken, blue cheese crumbles, candied walnuts, and dried cranberries, along with a light Sweet Onion Dijon Vinaigrette.

Most importantly, I couldn't help but immediately notice that this bowl was a little short on one of its star components: I counted a single half of an apple slice, even after digging through the greens. Fortunately, the vinaigrette is very well balanced for a dressing, and the candied walnuts work just as well, adding a crunchy, subtle sweetness to the mix. The blue cheese also mixed in particularly well, providing even more flavor to each bite.

Sure, it feels a little strange still marking this as a "try" option despite the lack of its namesake fruit. But I have to say that I wasn't disappointed with the overall finished product. Just be sure to BYOA (bring your own apple) if you really want that element!

Despite the redundant name, I initially had high hopes for this bowl. After all, corn in a salad can be an easy way to make things super summery and fulfilling! The full ingredient list also looked promising to me, with a romaine-based, seasoned grilled chicken, fire‑roasted corn (the namesake), cotija cheese, smoked paprika cornbread crumbles, red cabbage, and carrots. This one gets covered in a creamy "elote‑style dressing."

Despite the classics that didn't live up to my high hopes, this Mexican street corn salad was the first original on the Wegmans list to quickly fall short of my expectations. The dressing itself was too bland, coming across more as thinned-out mayo with a couple of spices that didn't meld with the rest of the ingredients. This is the sort of thing that works in a cup of street corn (which is different from esquites), but when you add lettuce to the mix, it ends up as a gloppy mess. 

At one point, I realized that I honestly couldn't tell what this salad was trying to be: It certainly didn't remind me of one of my favorite authentic Mexican dishes, and the ingredients all felt like they were at odds with one another instead of working together. My co-tasters agreed that this was more of a skip than anything else.

When I look for a prepackaged salad, this is the kind of mixture I'm looking for. This original bowl comes with a romaine base, grape tomatoes, cubed white‑meat chicken, shredded mild cheddar, uncured bacon, red cabbage, carrots, and a creamy homestyle ranch dressing.

All said, everything came together beautifully once I worked in the dressing, with a ranch that perfectly coated the lettuce and chicken. Also, compared to the other ranches in the lineup, this one hit most of what I was hoping for, with creaminess and plenty of umami. Each bite presented a perfect meld of ingredients, where everything worked in unison instead of there being a standout item. This didn't make it boring: In fact, I appreciated how consistent each bite was, with enough dressing, cheese, and bacon sticking to each one so as to never end up with a dry or bland pocket among the greens.

In the best way possible, the most accurate descriptor I can come up with for this bowl is "salad bar," to the point where if I were eating this blindfolded, I might believe I was in a Pizza Hut circa 1998. This is a high compliment! I will absolutely be adding this one to my rotation, and my co-tasters agreed that while this didn't exactly taste like a "healthy salad," it was truly one of the more enjoyable of the lineup.

As an original mixture, I went fairly blind into this bowl. As the name suggests, it has a spinach base, along with chopped hard‑boiled egg, shredded Colby Jack cheese, almonds, dried sweetened cranberries, and a packet of crispy noodles. This gets topped with a packet of Sweet Onion Dijon Vinaigrette.

I liked the spinach base, which was still nice and crisp by the time I bit in (and surprisingly was holding up in the packaging much better than its romaine and iceberg counterparts). I was also pleased by how light this salad was with my first bite, with plenty of crunch of the almonds and crispy noodles on top of the greens. 

But by my third or fourth bite, I was left feeling like this salad was still missing something. I began to notice what came across as a strange smokiness in the dressing, while the Colby Jack felt waxy and relatively flavorless. The blandness made it easier for me to step away from my sample, and I decided that while this wasn't an offensively bad bowl, it was all a little too boring for me to seek out ever again.

I'll be the first to admit that I fully assumed this would be a middle-of-the-pack offering at best when reading over the ingredients on the packaging. This lighter salad gets spring mix with crumbly feta, sweet dried cranberries, candied walnuts, and flatbread crisps (essentially long croutons), all topped with a raspberry vinaigrette.

This came together nicely, with the right amount of feta to dust most of the salad and a nice crunch from the flatbread crisps that accentuated the crispness of the lettuce. But the place where this was most likely to fail was always the dressing: I've long loathed store-bought fruit-based dressings for being cloyingly sweet and irredeemably one-note. However, in what was nothing short of an epiphany for me, it did not even slightly disappoint in this case. This was the light, bright, and refreshing raspberry vinaigrette I've long been looking for, with a perfect balance of sweetness and acidity. And with the walnuts not being too candied or sweet, I found myself enjoying this much, much more than I had initially expected!

My co-tasters unanimously agreed, saying that this bowl was very refreshing and a true dark horse of a lunch option. It's the kind of thing I might pack for the beach or the park, or maybe tuck aside to snack on after the gym. Well done, Wegmans!

On paper, this is the kind of salad I might reach for: After all, as a millennial, I love kale-based salad! In this case, it also gets mixed in with a little romaine, along with grilled white meat chicken, dried cranberries, roasted pepitas, feta cheese, and red cabbage, topped with creamy poppyseed dressing.

Despite my generational leanings (and despite what looked like a great combination of salad toppings), things don't exactly balance out in practice. The pumpkin seeds — which are personally one of my favorite salad add-ons — provide a nice soft crunch alongside the crisp kale, but the creamy poppyseed dressing is somewhat off balance, finishing more sweet and lacking the hint of acid this bowl needs. I also only counted three cranberries in my package!

Unfortunately, the chicken is where things really went south. I can't describe this flavor as anything other than "sweaty" with a clammy texture that feels the most processed of any ingredient I encountered in this entire lineup. I would pass on buying this bowl again in the future.

I have to say that I was most intrigued by this selection while I was in the store. I've never had a Nashville hot chicken salad before! On top of a bed of romaine, it has red cabbage, carrots, grilled white meat chicken, Pepper Jack cheese, seasoned crouton crumbles, and a "creamy Nashville hot ranch dressing." A true first for me!

With all of the bright colors, this bowl is visually appealing — and still tastes great. Sure, it's nowhere near the diabolically spicy levels you'll get from an authentic version of Nashville hot chicken (which isn't at all what I was expecting, to be fair), but there is still a subtle, pleasant kick from the dressing. Most importantly, it's not overly sweet, with herbaceous and cheesy notes coming through with each bite. If anything, it tastes a bit like Buffalo chicken salad (even though there is a difference between Buffalo and Nashville hot chicken), and I mean that in the very best way.

A couple of bites in, even though I was totally happy with it in its current format, I realized this exact mixture would also make for a killer wrap! This would be an excellent pack-along salad for a day out, as I feel like the savoriness really helped satiate my hunger. My co-tasters all agreed, calling this easily one of the top options among the dozen different salads. Consider this a part of my new lunch rotation.

When it comes to taste testing, this was a relatively straightforward setup and procedure. Selection was easy: I simply included all 11 of the prepackaged salads (which I was told are available across all of its stores) listed on Wegmans website. In a stroke of true luck, I was able to get my hands on the entire lineup in a single trip to the chain's location in Manhattan's East Village — impressive considering I only made it in after a lunch rush!

Testing each salad involved assembling all of the ingredients, adding the dressing packet, and mixing thoroughly to create an even mixture. Since we're comparing wildly different styles, the first question I tried to answer was: "Would I ever go out of my way to buy this salad again?" In cases where it was a classic or traditional style, I allowed for some comparison to other versions, but still gave it some leeway for being a prepackaged format. With original offerings, I gave bonus points for unique and exciting takes. In all cases, I considered how well the ingredients worked together, their quality, and overall flavor based on what was described on the label.

Speaking of packaging, it is worth noting that Wegmans has done a fantastic job redesigning its bowls across the board! I initially expected wet or soggy ingredients, but instead found neat, orderly compartments and packets that kept ingredients separate, really helping to boost the freshness. Even in cases where a salad earned a "skip," I didn't come across a single instance where quality was an issue. The fact that they all include a compostable fork and use much less plastic than their predecessors is a huge bonus.