First Course Salad Kitchen — Restaurant in San Antonio

A truly phenomenal selection of HEALTHY food, where one can easily create fresh SNAP or Mediterranean style meals. The staff was polite and knowledgeable. The portions, which were taken out by me, were more than sufficient for two or more delicious meals - each.

There are "Signature" grains, salads and wraps, which are pre-designed meals and delicious homemade soups, including a tasty daily Grilled Tomato, Pumpkin, Asparagus-Leek, Caramelized Onion, Carrot Ginger with Goat Cheese... .

For me it is the "Build it Yourself" salads and wraps that are the major draw: Grains, Greens, Protein (Steak, Grilled Salmon - WOW, Poached & Grilled Chicken, Hard-Boiled Egg), 17 different homemade dressings, and the greatest selection of vegetables, nuts and cheeses - nearly 50 in total! And, any and all can be added to one's meal.

Prices are extremely reasonable. The small salad is just $8, the large $10 and the huge wraps only $9.

The dining area is large, bright and clean. FC has only been open for three weeks. Their website is not posted yet. The location is somewhat oblique in a new strip mall (not far from a CVS) in the San Antonio's upscale Dominion area, along Interstate Highway 10's eastbound access road.

I reside nearly an hour round trip from FC yet I plan on making the journey regularly,...

Plenty of seating, good location, great food, and friendly staff – what else do you want?

It’s walk up counter style ordering. They have a dozen or so salads or wraps you can choose from, or you can elect to “build your own.”

If you build your own, the protein options are steak, grilled salmon (each $5), chicken, and tofu ($3 each).

The small salad is $8 and is quite bountiful and filling. Large salad is $10, or you can go with a wrap for $9.

I had the small build your own salad (again, it’s a decent size although it’s a small) with the pine nut vinaigrette. The salad was good, but for some strange reason, they start making the salad by putting the dressing in the bottom of the bowl and then adding all of the fixin’s before finally mixing it all up. This is ok for most dressings, but the pine nut vinaigrette dressing is pretty thick (almost like pesto consistency) and it didn’t mix in very well like the typical ranch, vinaigrette, etc. dressings do.

On the plus side, quinoa is not an extra charge or counted as a protein as I have seen at...

Updated Review (2025): Still love this place but a few notes. I have had inconsistent experiences with protein… too often I’ve ended up with burnt thin meat that’s dry (salmon and chicken both) especially when taking my to go orders. :/

Favs: mediterranean salad with a protein added. dressings: lemon tahini and cucumber lemon.

Not favs: bacon (hard), croutons (soggy), ranch isn’t my fav here.

Original Review (2019): This place has great salads and wraps! Everything is customizable and you can sample any salad dressing too. The grilled chicken was freshly cooked (still hot) when served (which I prefer rather than cold chicken). The salmon was cooked when ordered. So we did have to wait a few extra minutes but that didn’t bother us.

Asian Salad: Great salad however the bibb lettuce wasn’t my favorite... seemed old and it wasn’t cold. I would swap that for the house mix on the asian salad. Also, wasabi is a distinct flavor and one I don’t like, the miso vinaigrette was a great asian...