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Dog days of summer? Try salad days. This season, many quick-service restaurants have expanded their lettuce-based options, introducing fancier ingredients and more variety in a bid to lure health-conscious customers.

McDonald's Canada, for one, recently launched four new salads – Mighty Caesar, Spicy Thai, Garden Fresh and Mediterranean – with toppings such as feta cheese, whole-wheat “crisps” and parmesan glaze. Even Arby's, the fast-food restaurant that once promoted itself as “America's Roast Beef, Yes Sir!,” is expanding its leafy options, rolling out a chopped salad menu.

The myriad new options prompted Zagat's to include fast-food salads as a new category in its 2009 online guide. (Panera Bread, a U.S. chain with three locations in Ontario, won the best salad title with Wendy's and McDonald's coming in second and third.)

But while these more interesting salads are clearly good for business, are they any good – health-wise – for consumers? The Globe and Mail surveyed a selection of fast-food salads to find out how healthy and tasty they were. Once you add the dressing and the condiments, you can usually expect to be in serious calorie-counting country.

A tablespoon of oil has almost as many calories as two slices of brown bread, explains Toronto-based nutritionist Barbie Casselman. People automatically think a salad is healthy, she says. “[But] because it's mainly lettuce, they keep adding the extras, until they have a really high-calorie meal.”

Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Swiss Chalet Greek Salad with Greek dressing

This uninspired twist on the classic is dominated by browning shards of wilted iceberg lettuce buried under a drift of dry, springy feta flakes. The cheese is unbelievably bad. Kalamata olives have a briny tang and sweet grape tomatoes pop in the mouth with bright, hothouse flavour. But it's all marooned in a sludgy pool of bottled-tasting Italian-style dressing that tastes sharply vinegary.

Serving size: 194 grams. Calories: 150. Sodium: 565 milligrams/24 per cent of daily value. Protein: 4 grams. Total fat: 12 grams/19 per cent. Cholesterol: 10 milligrams/3 per cent.

Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Starbucks Mediterranean Salad

Tender orzo is tossed with garbanzo beans and freshly diced vegetables in this colourful, cold salad. The black olive has a rubbery, canned texture and the spinach is bitter, but the zucchini, red onion, yellow and red pepper are all crisp and crunchy. Sun-dried tomato vinaigrette has a slight viscosity and perfect balance of acid and fat. A subtle finish of cracked black pepper is unfortunately overwhelmed by the lingering acrid flavour and barnyard aroma of dried oregano. Passable in a pinch.

Serving size: 186 grams. Calories: 450. Sodium: 2,260 milligrams/94 per cent. Protein: 13 grams. Total fat: 20 grams/31 per cent. Cholesterol: 15 milligrams/5 per cent.

Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Wendy's Southwest Taco Salad with Ancho Chipotle Ranch Dressing

A steaming heap of chili is ladled over iceberg lettuce and tasteless tomatoes, quickly disintegrating into a soggy mess. The chili has been stewing so long the celery is grey, and the chunks of pressed ground meat are chewy. A sprinkling of grated processed cheese is the same neon orange as the slightly spicy dressing. The full-fat sour cream is the only thing in this salad that tastes real.

Serving size: 520 grams. Calories: 640. Sodium: 1,570 milligrams/65 per cent. Protein: 30 grams. Total fat: 38 grams/58 per cent. Cholesterol: 110 milligrams/37 per cent.

Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

McDonald's Spicy Thai Salad

The promised spring green mix consists primarily of iceberg lettuce. Red peppers and cucumbers are fresh and crunchy, but the white-tinged carrots are dry and dehydrated. Although the “grilled” chicken breast appears to have been steamed and barely browned on the flat grill, the meat is surprisingly moist and tender. A sweet and spicy Thai glaze splashed over the chicken makes the goopy, soy-heavy Asian sesame vinaigrette in a side packet somewhat redundant. So sweet it needs a salty side of fries to cut the sugar.

Serving size: 319 grams. Calories: 230. Sodium: 860 milligrams/36 per cent. Protein: 23 grams. Total fat: 4 grams/6 per cent. Cholesterol: 55 milligrams/18 per cent.

Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail

Pizza Hut Chicken Caesar Salad

Crisp romaine lettuce is topped with hot slices of charred chicken breast, straight off the grill. The crunchy croutons, although with flecked curious green bits, are garlicky, buttery and freshly baked. Grated cheese tastes more like mozzarella than Parmesan, but Renee's Gourmet Mighty Caesar dressing, thick with egg yolk, has a wonderful anchovy kick and bright lemony tang. By far, the best of the bunch.

Serving size: 229 grams. Calories: 490. Sodium: 1,400 milligrams/58 per cent. Protein: 19 grams. Total fat: 37 grams/57 per cent. Cholesterol: 50 milligrams/17 per cent.

Percentages based on an average 2,000-calorie-a-day diet.

Special to The Globe and Mail