The Trader Joe's Salad So Disappointing We Couldn't Even Finish It

Walking down the prepared salad aisle, especially in Trader Joe's, can feel like being a kid in a candy store. An adult kid ... in a candy store ... filled with vegetables ... okay, maybe not exactly a candy store. But there's something thrilling about the choices at your fingertips with Trader Joe's salads: The different cuisines from around the world, the tiny baggies of special ingredients you definitely don't have at home, the perfectly drizzle-able packets of dressing. 

We ranked a whopping 19 Trader Joe's salads, and our taster found the Trader Joe's salad you should avoid — the Sesame Miso Salad with Salmon. The salad's label describes it as a "vegetable blend with grilled salmon, crispy onion pieces, and a sesame miso dressing;" "lackluster" is the word our reviewer used to describe the salad. According to the review, the greens were too large to eat easily, which is a hallmark of a disappointing salad. 

Other than the unwieldy leaves, the flavor was lacking in both the salad and the salmon itself. The overall dish was too salty and unbalanced, and the flavor was not helped by the crispy onions — and crispy onions are usually a game changer in a salad. Perhaps the most egregious feature was the tiny portion of the nearly flavorless salmon. There were only four small pieces, again in a size that was too big to be bite-sized but too small to be satisfying. 

We have to say, attempting salmon in a prepackaged grocery store salad is a bold move (the Caesar Salad with Salmon ranked quite high for us, coming in third), but Trader Joe's is known for taking big swings every now and then. When it came to the salmon offerings for us, the Sesame Miso Salad, unfortunately, paled in comparison to the Caesar. It's not that you should avoid all Trader Joe's fish; the Trader Joe's frozen salmon stands out from the rest, and there's other seafood products Tasting Table recommends as well. 

And there are some positive reviews of this salad on Reddit and Instagram, so it could possibly come down to an issue of consistency in the product. But overall, reviews are mixed. No-Understanding4968 said of the salad, "Not crazy about it, won't buy again. Dressing is bland and bitter." Others also lamented the small salmon portions. Reddit user rsjaffe succinctly agreed with our reviewer: "Dressing too salty. Taste is blah." There you have it, folks.