Move over Salad Farm, Downtown has a new restaurant that capitalizes on LA residents’ fanatical obsession with healthy, low-calorie dining. At Tossed franchise President Jason Chodash hopes supplying downtown with fresh and zesty salads, crepe wraps and sandwiches will inspire fast food America to eat healthier. 

The nourishing menu offers quick, chef-designed entrees like the Chicken, Blue Cheese and Apple Panini with smoked bacon and honey Dijon dressing and the Chicken and Goat Cheese Crepe Wrap with bacon, baby arugula and kalamata olive vinaigrette.

Customers enjoy the sleek modern environment while their order pops out in 10 minutes or less, creating the ideal hub for busy Californians on a budget. 

As a dedicated Salad Farm regular, Tossed needed to really stand out in order to persuade me to alter my weekend eating habits and venture further down Figureroa for a healthy meal. It succeeded. Salad Farm entrees seem slightly dull now compared to the creative and wholesome fare I sampled on Wilshire. 

I tried the Cayenne Shrimp Salad with romaine hearts, avocado, grape tomatoes, onions, black bean corn salsa, tortilla strips and citrus chipotle dressing. At Salad Farm the dressing sometimes overshadows the salad. However at Tossed the dressing complimented the salad giving it just the right amount of kick, yet remaining light enough so the romaine was not drowned in dressing. The cayenne shrimp was the key element and made the salad satiating. 

The new salad and wrap chain also has more add-in options compared to Salad Farm, such as pesto chicken, shiitake mushrooms or goat cheese, as well as a separate gluten-free menu for customers with special diets. Even though Tossed is considerably further than USC’s popular Salad Farm, the quality is worth finding a friend with a car. 

FitGirl is a weekly health and fitness column that comes out every Thursday. If you have any questions you want to see answered feel free to email me.