Califorks Will Satisfy Your CBD Salad Cravings at a Reasonable Price

Beijing is not short of healthy dining options nowadays (as my our round-up of nine healthy restaurants attests) but when you’re trying to eat healthy every day, as many of us will be doing in January, it pays to have plenty of options.

Enter Califorks, a salad bar in the basement of The Place. The concept is pretty simple: you pick your ingredients from a wide selection of grains, vegetables, garnishes, and dressings, then decide if you want to add a protein like chicken or beef. A basic salad, which includes a base of grains, two types of lettuce, five cold vegetables, two hot vegetables (such as roasted pumpkin), one garnish (including seeds, cheese, or tortilla chips), and one dressing, will set you back just RMB 30, a real bargain in our books. Additional proteins cost between RMB 5-15 and include black pepper beef, lemongrass roast chicken, hummus, and tuna. Food can be eaten in, taken away or ordered through platforms such as Meituan and Baidu Waimai.

As you might expect for such a low price, the ingredients are pretty basic. Most of the salad vegetables are simply washed and served cold, which works for things like cherry tomatoes but no so much broccoli and big leaves of kale. Similarly, the hummus is more just mashed chickpeas than actual hummus. That being said, the dressings are all pretty tasty (try the cucumber-yogurt-tahini or the roasted sesame dressing) and the portions of protein are very generous. 

If you are the kind of person who is paralyzed by choice then they also have a selection of pre-set salads, such as shrimp, mango, and avocado (RMB 39), chicken Caesar (RMB 35), and a vegan option with roasted mushrooms and roasted tofu. Alternatively, if the thought of eating a salad in these sub-zero temperatures makes you shiver involuntarily, then they also have a few warm rice options, such as pesto chicken with roasted vegetables over rice (RMB 35). The friendly staff will be more than happy to make recommendations, too. 

Califorks may not tout the same commitment to ingredient sourcing or dietary magic that other restaurants do, but for lunch on the go in the Guomao area, the price and portion size can’t be beaten.

Califorks
B1, South Building, The Place, 9A Guanghua Lu, Chaoyang District (156 5276 0363)
加州叉子：朝阳区光华路甲9号世贸天阶南区B1层

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Photos: Robynne Tindall, Dianping