Souper Salad is an all-you-can-eat salad buffet established initially in Houston in 1978. At the time, Souper Salad was seen by most as an oddity. The reason is that stand-alone salad bars were uncommon, and salad as an entire meal was even rarer. Generally, you’d find Salad Bars at places like Steak and Ale, where they were considered a part of your meal rather than a full course. Despite this, the “temporary trend” of healthy eating gained traction, especially among college-age customers. Making it no surprise that the first Souper Salad location would open right outside the H.B.U. Grounds. The second location was also on the Southwest side of town at Weslayan and Bissonnet—just West of Rice University. The first two Souper Salad locations were also praised for their wide variety, with over 50 items on their salad bar. In Houston, as a chain, Souper Salad experienced its greatest success in the late 90s and early 2000s, expanding to over 150 locations across the Southwestern U.S., with over 15 in the Houston area alone.
Souper Salad was known as a healthy, family-friendly option. Featuring an all-you-can-eat salad bar and hot items like DIY tacos and baked potatoes. As health food standards have changed, the menu at Souper Salad has become less desirable, ultimately forcing most locations to close. There are no longer any Souper Salad locations in Houston proper. The nearest two are in Humble and Pasadena.
My first job was at the Town & Country Souper Salad. That was 1984. That 60-item salad bar seemed more like 600 items when I had to break it down and clean it every night at closing.
We ate at the Memorial Dr location, not far from I-10 W & Dairy Ashford. Everything was always good including the hot gingerbread!
I worked at the Wesleyan location from 1999 to 2000 as assistant general manager. MAXINE, there were a couple of hundred locations now there are like three? What happened to this company?
There was one by or on NASA rd. 1 we went to when I worked at NASA. Don’t remember where exactly.
I like how they have ceddar cheese on the menu. Never tried ceddar cheese before. I guess this was before spell check?
I have the fettuccine pasta recipe from Souper Salad – one of the many reasons to eat there. I almost preferred it to Sweet Tomatoes, which I really miss.
There was a Souper Salad on Bay Area Blvd back in the ’90’s. I used to be a member of the Space City Cycling Club and on Wednesday night after our group ride a bunch of us would go there to eat healthy.
Do you happen to remember the cross street? I’ll try to add it to the list!
It was very close to the intersection of Bay Area Blvd and Texas Avenue in Webster. A couple of doors down was a Marble Slab creamery! It’s still there. Think the SS was replaced by either a Tiff’s Treats or a spa that’s next door. Not sure the exact address.
595 W Bay Area. It became a Salad Express, but closed about 6 years ago.
There was a “Souper Salad” (singular) at 10985 Northwest Fwy Houston, TX 77092 (quick google search will verify and can still be seen in 2012 google street view). Was t his a different chain other that “Souper Salads”?
Yes, at some point Souper Salad dropped the plural from their name. No clue why though.
I like souper-salad but I never knew how broken of chain this place became. I mean, I noticed something was wrong when the incredibly popular location across the road from Irving mall shut down out of nowhere. According to it’s website there are only 18 locations remaining; which is baffling since I’ve never been to an empty souper-salad before.
Souper Salad’s Wikipedia page would have you believe their downfall was due to the 2000s recession. Honestly it seems that the company has always suffered from mismanagement. Hopefully they don’t close up shop completely.
My office used to go to Souper Salads every Monday. Do you remember a local restaurant called “George’s” on Washington Ave near the Heights? It was owned by an Iranian who cooked the best SOUL FOOD . We would go on “Thanksgiving-Thursdays”. it was a great little place back in early 2000s. Wish I knew what happened and when it closed.
Hmm, I’d never heard of George’s. Although I’ll try to research it!
You might want to check in with some of the Stages (and other local theater) folks from the late ’70s/early ’80s – I know some of them have slung stories about gigs at the restaurant.
Hrm. The only George’s On Washington I can remember was back in the late ’70s/early 80’s, in the space that became Club Hey Hey for a time. (Across Washington and about two doors east from Rockefeller’s.) Eventually, everything in that whole line of shops got swallowed up for new construction, which has since also been razed for newer mixed-use construction.
Now, there’s also Harry’s on Tuam at Bagby that’s done “Thanksgiving” turkey and dressing on Thursdays for decades. I used to walk past them on the way to work all the way back in 1991, and they were advertising that back then, and they’re still going strong with it now.
😮🥺I grew up in that area off of Washington avenue and my mom worked at George’s in the 70s.