O'Charley's

Monroe, LA

This is one of those chains that I generally try to avoid, but my mom said they had some good salads.  I ordered the Southern Fried Chicken Salad that comes with honey mustard, and mom had the 1/2 Club with a side of Chicken Tortilla Soup.

I don't know if the picture shows how truly massive this salad was.  We were there a little after 2 pm, after the lunch rush, and I think someone in the kitchen decided to just dump all the salad leftovers into my bowl.  My salad was part Southern Fried Chicken, part Pecan Chicken Tender salad, and part California Chicken, and came with the latter's balsamic vinaigrette.  Don't get me wrong, it was pretty good!  Just not what I expected.  It had fried chicken tender pieces, romaine lettuce, cranberries, mandarin oranges, pecans, and bacon pieces.

My favorite part of places like this has to be the bread though!  I love those yeasty bread rolls.

The ambiance is fairly generic for these types of chain restaurants, but I did appreciate the mural on the back wall, depicting local history and schools.  (Bet you didn't know Delta Airlines started in Monroe!)

Overall, it was okay.  Like a said, it is a chain in the eastern US (except for the Northeast).  The salad was pretty good, but mom's soup was only okay.  The tea was slightly bitter too.  Say 3.5 stars.