Dressed  

Gwailoguru Rating: 7/10 (Salads)

*In One Simple Sentence:*
Expensive Salad for the IFC crowd, but lotsa toppings

*Insider Tip:*
get there before 12 or after 2PM, and if you are health conscience, go for the "light sauce"

Visiting Details:
Cuisine: Western
Food rating: 7/10
Service: 6/10
Ambiance: 5/10
Price: HK$75 pax
Serving Tab Water: No

What we really liked:
The amount of topping on our salad and the fresh greens and ingredients
And what not:
Prices were raised 2x already in the last 1.5 years, and paying up to 80HK$ for a simple salad, well..Summary:
Dressed is one of the many salad take-out places in Hong Kong with their main focus on expats and bankers in the financial district, central, in and around IFC. Lineups will be horrible long during lunch hours, but the salads are good and reasonable priced. One normal salad will fill you up during lunch and there is a lot of toppings on them.

Dressed Salad it is always one of the hot spot for Salad, where else can you get fresh ingredient and mix and match it according to your preference. The décor its simple, with an open kitchen with clean area. It is not something that you can complain for a quick turnover restaurant.

Cuisine: Western
Food rating: 3/10*
Service: 3/10
Ambiance: 3/10
Price: HK$110 pax

* Food Rating: 6/10 is equivalent to 1 Michelin star, 8/10 to two Michelin stars, and 9/10 or 10/10 to three Michelin stars

Butternut Squash Soup (2/10)
The butternut squash was rather bland; butternut squash was not cooked with great broth. The butternut squash was fresh; you can still taste the sweetness.

Chicken Panini (3/10)
The Panini was greatly grilled and mixed with its fresh salad and chicken. It was greatly seasoned too. Seared tuna and chicken with blue cheese sauce (4/10)
All the ingredient was fresh, I mean, just adjust according to your choice, you will never be disappointed. Great place to have a salad, especially after gym!

Give me a thumbs up if you like it!

Green salad is still being my favorite food which allow me to meet the fiber need everyday. Came here to have a late-lunch and wait Mr.K coming from TM. Ordered a detox antioxidant salad, the one leaving me a positive impression last time. The salad consists of broccoli, sundried tomato, roasted garlic and beets, red pepper, carrot, baby spinach, sunflower seed and blueberry pomegranate vinaigrette. All the ingredients here have been chosen due to its high antioxidant properties, lower the free radical activities thus prevent the cellular damage.

J wanted a light lunch in central. Dressed was one of the suggested options. I'd never been there before so decided to give it a shot.

Environment:
Although the restaurant itself was packed with people picking up quick fixes, there actually aren't many sitting down for lunch inside the restaurant itself, so J and I managed to find seats pretty quickly. People are stressed. You see them waiting impatiently, looking around, checking their evil portable devices once every 4 seconds...punching the keys fervently to reply an email..sigh. Good thing J wasn't doing that.
There was one such mini-sunflower placed on each table. Sweet

Your food choices:

This shop is in the relatively quiet area of IFC - so there're not many people.

The ingredients are very fresh - esp. the vegetables. The bean soup was good too.

The portion was quite big - the salads are pretty yum~!

The price is a bit expensive: about $100 for soup + salad. But it's a fresh and healthy diet and i enjoyed that.

Positives:
Huge portion - definitely fill you up
fresh and crunchy vegetables

Negatives:
Have had salad here 3 times, 2 out of the 3 times there weren't enough sauces.
The ingredients aren't thoroughly mixed, e.g. the blue cheese in cobb salad is still in one big chunk.

Worse

half sandwiches with a bowl of soup(not good)

I tried it around 3 months ago, and its sandwiches and salad are both delicious and rich.
But, when I tried it again today, it's not good. I won't try it again within months, maybe later.

The staff there are either Filos or Singaporeans. They only speak English. Snoobish service. No smile at all. The salad here is more expensive than Just Salad and less choices of salad dressing. No fat dressing is only Lemon Juice? 58 dollars already with no add on.

I prefer Just Salad.

Having heard about this place for quite some time, finally decided to try it out. I ordered a customized salad with broccoli, pepper, grilled shrimp, egg white, mushroom, falafel, etc. While the combination wasn't foul, the quality of some of them wasn't good. For example, the grilled shrimp was overcooked and wasn't tender enough. The falafel was soggy and tasted less. Given the price, I'd much prefer going to the Met Cafe at PP, which not only serves better quality food but also in more generous portion!

first time buying a takeout salad at this place, which I specifically stated that I need this to-go when placing my order. My coworker received hers, then comes mine, which a gwai lo hands over my salad in a plate. then I said I've asked for takeout, the gwai-lo then pulls out the order paper, points at it and says it wrote eat-in here. Then I tell him that I told the girl at the order counter that I wanted this to-go. Not only did he not apologize for his staff's mistake, but he gave me a roll eye, and said 'fine'. then brought the salad back behind the counter. when it was ready, I saw him threw the plastic bowl into the bag, when I walk over, he literally shuffed the bag into my hands and turn around in less than a second before I can even react!
when I open the bag, the salad box was sideways, sauce spilled all over already. I mean, not only did he not respect that I'm the customer, but even gave me attitude? How hard is it to pack a plate of salad back into a to-go box? when he obviously sees that I have a fd with take out standing right beside me, is he expecting me to leave my coworker and eat-in because his staff made a mistake?

Honestly, when I got back to office and eat the salad, it was not good...doesn't have any taste (and highly likely cuz all the sauce was spilled out already). So I'm definitely not going back

Tried another salad specialist in Central and so came for trying this one with a friend. This shop is brightly decorated, giving us a sense of freshness and cleaniness. Right, that's the right decor for a salad shop, which is supposed to be healthy and fresh.

The custom salad is $58, i tried this in another shop, having the experience that the ingredients and most importantly, the dressing may not fit each other. So this time i tried the Chef's specialty. I had Chicken Gordon Bleu and my friend had a Steak ceaser. The queue was quite long and the servers seemed too busy to serve us quickly. After waiting for several minutes, then i was served.

We managed to secure two seats during peak lunch hour. Lucky enough as there were lots of peoples there. Seems that it's a favourite place for expats to have lunch together.

Our salad finally arrived. The plate was hugh. But i guess it's no harm in having more veggies than our normal consumption. The ingredients for my Chicken gordon bleu were chicken cubes, swiss cheese, portobello mushroom, ham and romaine lettuce in a buttermilk ranch. They all went well together. The romaine was very crispy and nice. It would be better if the portobello and chicken cubes be a little bit larger, then it'd be better. In fact, it's already up to my satisfaction. Despite that it's $68 for just a salad, i think it's still worthwhile to come for further visit.

there was much anticipation for this restaurant given the lack of salad choices in the central area. my friend and i were really excited and went to check it out the 2nd day it opened. unfortunately we were really disappointed to say the least. the place was super-packed but the staff was clueless and half asleep. we first spoke in english but it felt like they didn't understand a single word so i switched to cantonese but that only made it worse. i wonder how they expect to cater to the local crowd if there are no trained cantonese staff on the premises.

although we were amazed by the decor and lighting of this place, the place was not well run. everyone just assumed they could approach the counter and place the order and there was no line. not to mention that the first time we came, there was no order sheet prepared for people waiting in line to think about what they wanted to order. there are about 30 toppings for you to choose from but if you go over 4 your salad will be over $100 which is way too overpriced, even for ifc. the serving size of the toppings is tiny too. my friend caught one of the servers putting the toppings in someone else's salad WITH HIS HAND. now that is really gross, and that also means there is no set amount for the toppings. but the server told him they use these tiny cups to measure each topping when my friend asked for more turkey. the amount of greens they give you is way too much versus the toppings. the owner should think about more money-making ideas like offering 2 sizes for the salads, and giving people an option for less greens so that you can put in more toppings instead. also the 2 pieces of pita that are given (for free?) with the salad are bland and disgusting. i would much rather get a small roll or a slice of a baguette instead with my overpriced salad. if smolev went to french cooking school and had stints at daniel and french laundry he surely should know what an acceptable piece of bread tastes like! you would also think that if you didn't order a made-to-order salad it would be a faster experience but my colleague fell into this trap and it took him over 40 minutes to order, pay for the salad, and leave the place!

if you are bored while waiting for the servers to chop up your greens and toss the salad you could surf on the 2 mac terminals that are near the cashier. i would recommend you to take away rather than eat at the premises as the seating is high school cafeteria-style (quite uncomfortable).

i wouldn't recommend this place unless you want to overpay for a salad that doesn't really taste as great as what the place looks. don't get fooled by the decor and the location of this place!

The Michelin was out, while foodies in town cooed and raved over the starred and recommended, new joints have secretly launched under the radar, and despite at IFC and has been crowded for over a week before mainstream media stopped by, DRESSED remained rather unknown. Located on the upper level of the IFC Mall, the brand new salad bar is an open space with picket-fence white walls against green counters and a green menu. The decor is modern and simple to the core, with clean edges throughout. Justin Smolev, the owner of DRESSED, launched this shop in Asia first in Hong Kong, as his previous outlets in Atlanta, USA have garnered ample attention over the years and have been ever so popular there. Smolev and Chris Rork, his HK partner decided to open one in the IFC as their first Asia experiment. Smolev, having graduated from the French Culinary Institute, worked in several celebrity hot spots like Le Bernardin and Daniel in NYC and the French Laundry in Napa. He decided to take something from the basics and building it up. DRESSED was a success in the US, and now it's HK's turn.

The salad menu, you'll realize, is a simple yet complicated one, in a sense. Ironic may it seem. All you need to do is to choose between salad ($58) and a salad sandwich ($48), which is your chosen salad in a wrap. The complicated part comes in the ingredients...First you choose the Greens (5 types from Romaine to Mesclun Mix), then go through a list of 40 toppings. Yes, forty. Some with extra charges like homemade falafel, roasted beets, grilled portobello mushrooms. If you like you can add cheeses (choose from 7 options). Additional toppings like meats and egg whites are available at extra costs. There are also nuts and fruits to choose from (9 choices). Upon the entire list of toppings, you are free to choose a total of 4 toppings for your salad. Then please move on to the dressings. There are plenty of choices here as well. I suggest trying a few different ones before you decide your favorite, which afterall there are 20 different dressings from the simple aged Balsamic Vinegar to homemade Metropolitan Blue Cheese for cheese lovers and Blueberry Pomegranate Vinaigrette.

For the ones who can't make decisions...there are chef designed salads ($58 - $88) ready to be assembled to you as you say the words...The Asian salad composing of carrots, mandarin oranges and Romaine lettuce seems to be the most popular one so far, with California and Cobb salad coming close. After you order, you'll see your ordered toppings and greens being chopped up with a massive Mezzaluna, a half-moon shaped metal blade, and helping from a pastry scraper the salad is further tossed in the salad bowl before presented to you an asymmetrical bowl, decorated with pieces of house-grilled flatbread. Pictured here is my choice --Mesclun Mix with button mushrooms, roasted beets, chickpeas and grilled red peppers, with Chipotle aioli Dijon Vinaigrette.

When it comes to salads sourcing really does matter. You must have a high turnover to get constantly crisp lettuce that's are never limp or always fresh. Thanks to a team of kitchen staff (dressed in orange) they manage to keep everything under control. My salad was good, with a delightful crunch for the greens, and a vinaigrette not overpowering the delicate sweetness of grilled peppers and roasted beets. The flatbread is of whole wheat kind and is a good mop for the remaining dressing too.

Dessert lovers can pick up a cookie($16) or a brownie ($20) made by La Baguette in LKF, while DRESSED is serving an "Arnold Palmer", a half tea half lemonade concoction most resembling tea with lemon in HK. Daily Soups come in two sizes (Medium $28, Large $38) and 2 choices are rotating every day. The staff are attentive and service is wonderful. Those who have trouble deciding need not worry, there are plenty of staff here to guide you along and no one will rush you through your order. The menu is still being developed and new additions like the Peking Duck salad and Thai Beef salad will be added later on. There is also unlimited wifi-s for those who cannot bear one second away from the Internet.

At the time of writing there are a few more salad bars like DRESSED ready to roar. It'll soon hit our attention to go GREENS with our lunches as well as well as everything else in the world. Maybe it's about time to eat more vegetables like our mothers told us to do since we're little. I consider DRESSED as one of those outlets that try to make them more delish for those who really detest the greens...simply because they're green...