When I heard about Bread Zeppelin, I was excited because I always love trying a new foodie gimmick. Often, it's a brilliant success! That was certainly the case with Tom & Chee. So when I heard about a place that stuffs salads into hollowed out "zeppelins" made of fresh bread, that sounded like just the sort of upgrade this carb-lover needs for my salad.
I planned to check it out for lunch one day with a friend of mine, and since the location is near my sister's work, I invited her to come along. She was unavailable, but "you might want to get it to-go and take it somewhere else to eat," she warned, "the chairs there are super uncomfortable." Since I try to review restaurants for the total experience, I noted her comment but planned to eat in the dining area.
My first impression of the decor and branding was masculine, certainly attractive but not necessarily screaming "yummy food". Still, it was effective and I was excited to try my zeppelin.
The menu took a little study at first...
But I quickly established that I was to select one of several lettuce options...
...Then select 4 toppings if I wanted to stay within the given price for the salad (6 toppings if you did the salad without the bread bowl, but the base price for the salad was higher). Now 4 toppings sound like a lot, but that doesn't include proteins. Any proteins- meat, or egg- and avocado, those cost extra. And not just a dollar more, the chicken costs $2.75 on top of the price of the salad. So the bill adds up pretty quickly if you want a salad with any substantial ability to satiate. The toppings offered were a decent variety:
I ended up getting sunflower seeds, shredded white cheddar cheese, apple, asparagus, shredded carrots, and shrimp, because I had intended for this meal to be a substantial lunch, and I wanted to experience an ideal sandwich for my review.
Perhaps most noteworthy, at least as far as the menu is concerned, is the huge selection of salad dressings offered at Bread Zeppelin:
I want to say this in favor of Bread Zeppelin, the bread is clearly super fresh and super well made. Even before I tasted it, the little loaves looked amazing.
Bread Zeppelin also offers cookies, in-house made bread pudding (an excellent idea to use the centers they hollow out of the bread bowls, and if it's half as good as the bread, it's amazing), and a huge variety of chips- I only got a photo of one of the two displays.
My friend sat down before me, and as I approached the table, she said "you should mention these chairs in the review- they're super uncomfortable." I hadn't told her what my sister had said, but that was 2 strikes against the chairs and I hadn't even sat down yet!
As soon as I did, I knew what they both meant.
Now I'll never pretend that the Lord didn't bless me with abundant curves- in fact I'm pretty proud of the fact. But neither my sister, nor my friend, nor I would ever be categorized as obese, and this is Dallas, TX for heaven's sake- there are a whole lot of people bigger than us in this city. These chairs were like sitting in a children's swing. I seriously wonder if I were even a few inches wider if I would have been able to get out of the chair without an embarrassing call to the fire department. I'm certain even if I escaped I would have been bruised.
What does this say to people who are selecting a place advertising "Salads Elevated" if they feel that they have to be below a size 10 to literally feel comfortable eating there? If they're encouraging people to eat healthier by making salads appealing in a bread bowl, they should welcome the dieting crowd. If they're only interested in attracting a thin and healthy clientele, they may as well do away with the bread altogether.
Anyway, the food itself- that's why you're really here:
My friend got a salad, and she repeatedly compared it to another place I'll actually review tomorrow, because she was unimpressed with the cap on the number of toppings and the amount of protein she got for the price of it. Overall it was a good salad, but the fact is, you can get a good salad in a lot of places, especially for that price, and most of the time if you're paying extra for protein they give you more than an ounce of meat. She also pointed out that she had to go through and pick a lot of the red onion out because the pieces had been cut pretty large, and they had put so much in that it overpowered everything else in her salad.
My Bread Zeppelin looked amazing when I unwrapped it, and I was totally impressed with the quality of the bread, which it turns out is dairy and egg free (most french bread recipes are, but it's a handy thing to know for certain if you happen to have allergies).
It was clear where the inspiration came from, and the idea of stuffing a salad into a small bread loaf did indeed elevate the salad, but it mostly reminded me throughout the consumption experience that it was essentially a sandwich with a lot of veggies and not enough meat. I had paid $3 extra for about an ounce of shrimp. I found that the asparagus was raw, which surprised me. I know asparagus can be and often is consumed raw, but usually, especially on salad bars, and particularly if the asparagus have just been quartered and are in large pieces, they're cooked. Ultimately I will say that I wasn't weighed down at all by the meal, I felt virtuous eating so much green and the crisp freshness of the vegetables was utmost.
Still, for the ultimate tab of ~$12 for just a drink and sandwich, I felt kinda ripped off. When it comes down to it, I could have gotten the same size sandwich or larger as fresh with as many ingredients and much more protein for $6.50 at Central Market.
I like the overall concept of Bread Zeppelin. I get their idea, I like their gimmick, and I think they have the makings of a really successful chain- but they need to immediately reassess their chairs in future locations, if not take on the expense to exchange the chairs at all of their locations, and they need to look at their menu. It would feel like less of a rip off if the Zeppelins started out priced at $6.50 or $7 and at least one protein was included automatically. Nobody likes a $3 add-on, especially when the alternative is a lunch that is 100% carbs and fiber.
I think this place isn't bad, but there are better places with similar menus out there. I have high hopes for Bread Zeppelin if they can pay attention to reviews and tweak their model, though, and their bread recipe is a flat-out winner.
**EDIT** After posting this review, my sister pointed out the following: "One thing I figured out is that it's a LOT more cost-effective there to pick one of their pre-planned options - most of them include a protein for only $1 over the base price, and I like that they've already thought out some of the ingredients that go best together. The NOLA is really good, and since I'm not a red onion fan they let me sub it out for something else no charge."
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