Review: Choose your own adventure at Plum Good

Plum Good, a new soup, salad and yogurt spot on Plumb Lane, offers daily soups (like pinto bean and sausage), "Plum bites" like boereg (Armenian cheese-filled pastries) and stuffed grape leaves, and salads built from a choice of greens, protein, toppings and dressings. (Credit: Tim Dunn / RGJ)

If you don't like your salad at Plum Good, it's partly your fault. After all, you decide what to put on it!

The premise of this cheery restaurant at the corner of Plumb Lane and Arlington Avenue is that diners choose their own greens, toppings and dressing. Plum Good staffers make the salads, then toss them with dressing. Think sub sandwich assembly line, but for salads.

Add a soup? No problem. Top your own frozen yogurt? Go for it.

Plum Good is run by Steve and Margret Suda and family, and it opened in December. Steve Suda wanted a place for hearty soups, son Chris wished for healthy salads and daughter Nicole wanted self-serve frozen yogurt.

The menu is straightforward and simple, offering soups of the day, salads, yogurt, children's dishes and "Plum bites" like a cheese boereg (an Armenian filled pastry), stuffed grape leaves and baklava.

Nothing at Plum Good costs more than $7.99 — barring salad additions, that is — and the large salads are gigantic, often enough for two.

Salad building

There are three choices for greens on a recent lunch visit: romaine leaves, spring mix and spinach. Toppings encompass beets, chopped hard-boiled egg, grape tomatoes, cucumber slices, peas, corn, black olives, croutons, bacon, beans, assorted nuts and various cheeses.

Proteins are tofu, ham, tuna, shrimp and two versions of chicken.

Dressings range from Caesar, blue cheese and ranch to balsamic vinaigrette, Asian sesame and a plum vinaigrette made from plums and white balsamic vinegar. Finally, a choice of bread awaits.

A large salad comes with six toppings and a protein, a small with three toppings and a protein. I try for the healthier route with romaine lettuce, corn, peas, Cajun-spiced chicken breast, tomatoes, egg, croutons and balsamic vinegar.

The toppings are generously portioned, and the salad is so big, I leave half the lettuce in the bowl. But it is adequately dressed, and the accompanying multigrain bread is hearty and delicious.

My companion, less inclined to health this lunch, tops his romaine lettuce with ham, bacon, egg and blue cheese, all tossed with Caesar dressing. The Caesar isn't tangy enough, and the accompanying roll is dry, almost stale.

Bites and soups

Plum bites are mixed.

The boereg offers cheese layered between sheets of phyllo dough. It's tasty, but that's to be expected. I've yet to meet a person who dislikes the combination of cheese and pastry.

But the baklava is disappointing. Traditional versions feature numerous layers of phyllo filled with spiced nuts and sweetened with honey. Plum Good's baklava only has three layers — nuts that are too large between two thick pieces of pastry. And where's the goo?

I'm left yearning for the real thing.

Soups are heartily constructed, with one this lunch featuring big chicken shreds, rice, and diced carrots and celery. Another, a chowder, brims with corn, bacon and diced potato; there's also a vegetarian chowder option sans piggie.

The soups are both bland, but salt improves matters.

Yogurt offerings are consistently rotated, and toppings include cereal, syrups and candy — chocolate rocks, anyone? Children must have a great time swirling yogurt in their bowls and blanketing it with a toothache-inducing heap of toppings.

Plum Good is an affordable, family-oriented place to grab lunch or dinner, and diners can make their meals as healthy or unhealthy —hello, bacon! — as they choose.

Children will enjoy the fanciful purple walls and yogurt bar, and adults will appreciate the good-for-you options and laid-back atmosphere.