Note: This post is part of an ongoing blog series called #costamesa365 where the author is striving to shop only* in her city of Costa Mesa, for a year.

Day 16 of #costamesa365 and I’m still on the search for the perfect, Costa Mesa salad to replace my beloved Stonfire Grill. Sigh.

I’m calling the mission “Roughage Reconnaissance” and it’s DEFCON 1 – or DEFCON 5 – whichever is the most serious DEFCON.

So far, my first foray resulted in a very delicious banh-mi sandwich, which – being a sandwich – is also not a salad.

So let’s try this, again.

I took to our I Heart Costa Mesa Facebook Group where readers have recommended the most lovely, local options to try. Greenleaf Chop Shop, in Eastside Costa Mesa, came up a few times in the thread and messages. I’d eaten there before, usually opting for breakfast burritos or veggie burgers.

Let’s go for a chop-shop salad!

I went on their website and, lo and behold, you can place your order online and set a pick-up time – yay! This was perfect for my situation. I was coming from a morning work thing and heading straight to pick up the kids. So I definitely needed to grab-and-go.

Signing up for an online account was simple. I clicked the “Salads & Bowls” tab and lots of yummy options popped up. One cool thing about Greenleaf is that they have a HUGE menu of salad ingredients and you can go crazy in Build-Your-Own land.

But on busy days, I get decision fatigue and the BYO level of choice freaks me out. These are the times I want to just go for a tried-and-true, turnkey lunch and not stress about customizing.

As I was scrolling through the menu, this one immediately caught my eye:

Antioxidant Orchard Salad: Scarborough farms baby mixed greens, grapes, celery, walnuts, dried berries, apples, blue cheese, mint, red onion, cucumbers, fresh berries with a pomegranate whole grain mustard vinaigrette.

Sold!

I made one customization and added some garbanzo beans – but otherwise placed my order “as-is” and scheduled an 11:30 pick-up time.

When I arrived, I found street parking and ran in from the rain. I wasn’t sure where to go, so I entered the “bar @ Greenleaf” side of the restaurant. The lady at the register was more than happy to help me.

As I waited for her to fetch my salad, I took a look around. I’ve always loved the airy, woodsy, natural feeling of Greenleaf’s dining area. I made a mental note to dine in next time around.

Greenleaf Chop Shop on 17th Street in Costa Mesa, California.

The salad turned out to be as delicious as the decor. Every single ingredient – from the sweet berries to the crisp, earthy greens, the creamy blue cheese to the pungent red onions – tasted fresh, fresh, fresh.

I highly recommend giving this salad a try if you’re new to Greenleaf and don’t know where to start. They are pretty much known as being the freshest game in town, and this salad was a produce-palooza!

To-Go Antioxidant Salad for one at Greenleaf Chop Shop in Costa Mesa, California.

Unfortunately, this particular salad proved a bit too rich – both in calories and price – to make it my regular, everyday, functional, grab-and-go lunch. So not a true Stonefire sub.

But as a special treat? A girls’ lunch out? A lunch date? I’d definitely dine-in and order this in a heartbeat.

I plan to “shop the Chop” again, and play around with my order to see if I can find a more everyday, Costa Mesa meal.

Stay tuned, salad-lovers! ♥

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*We will always start by shopping / looking in Costa Mesa, first. But if we really need something and an alternative is nowhere to be found in Costa Mesa, we’ll stray. Also, as parents, we’ve decided that certain kid-related things (mainly educational) will need to remain baked in.