America's Healthiest Chain Restaurants: Tender Greens

This is part six of a 10-part series highlighting the healthiest chain restaurants in America, along with the efforts they're making to promote healthy eating. Find part one here, part two here, part three here, part four here, and part five here. 

Tender Greens is a Los Angeles-based chain with 18 locations in Los Angeles, San Diego, the Bay Area, and Orange County, with four more in the works. The company was founded on the principle that all of its product would be sourced from local ranchers, farmers, artisans, wineries, breweries, and coffee roasters. Most of its produce is fresh-picked daily at Scarborough Farms in Oxnard (an investor, along with Danny Meyer), and the rest comes from small, sustainable, and local farms. The shops are laid-back and casual, and they're designed using recycled materials.

The menu varies by location according to what's fresh and in-season, but expect to find big plates, sandwiches, big salads, soups, and plant-based sides. Proteins may include chipotle barbecue chicken, marinated grilled steak, herb-brushed tuna, and falafel; and salads include Chinese chicken; grilled chicken cobb; grilled Thai shrimp; and vegan (with farro, cranberry, hazelnuts, quinoa, cucumber, beets, green hummus, tabbouleh, and greens). It's hard to go wrong at Tender Greens.