Best of Tucson 1996: Best Garden Variety

Best Garden Variety

Souper Salad
6121 E. Broadway 4490 N. First Ave.

READERS' PICK: If you can pardon the pun and the mall-area locations, Souper Salad offers the best value in right-to-choose roughage. The selection of fixins is wide and well stocked, and the All-You-Can-Graze price includes dessert and your choice of freshly baked breads. Go full tilt and do a little bar hopping, as in salad to baked potato. The First Avenue location has a really nice view of the Rillito (river and racetrack), if you can tear yourself away from the table. This is definitely the place for those who prefer to eat only once every three days.

READERS' POLL RUNNER-UP: When this place was being built, we thought, "Yeah sure, an all-you-can-eat salad place. That oughta go over big." We figured it would have the lifespan of a Pachinko palace. We were somewhat surprised when it drew crowds its opening week, then we were stunned when the crowds grew bigger long after the novelty should have worn off. We finally went over to 4420 N. Stone Ave. to check out Sweet Tomatoes and were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the food. Actually, the chili is excellent, but we're touting this as a salad place. There's a wide variety of fresh salad items, every dressing under the sun, plus soups and other dishes that make for a most satisfying chow-down-lite experience.

STAFF PICK: For the past year or so, Sprouts, 621 N. Fourth Ave., has achieved far more than your standard veggie-fare establishment in enlightening those stodgy carnivorous friends who believe vegetarians live on "rabbit food." Tofu has never been so tastily versatile. The Spicy Tofu Pita with peppers, tomatoes, onions and rice beat out any veggie special in town. The Tofu Teriyaki, with its creamy, custard-like consistency and sweet, tangy, teriyaki sauce, could convert even the most adamantly tofu-phobic. But healthy innovation didn't end with the solid food groups: Sprouts was rife with fresh juice combinations--wheatgrass, organic apple and nectars galore. Sadly, just before press time its doors closed and its future remains uncertain; and so, in turn, does that of the vegan diner.