Red Rooster and SumoSaladย recently announced a rather intriguing partnership, which brings together two well-established food brands in an attempt to bring fancy salads to the masses. Last year, Red Rooster started to move in a healthier direction by removing all artificial colours, flavours and added MSG from its menu so this isn’t a completely surprising step.
It’s certainlyย a different strategy to the likes ofย Macca’s “Create Your Taste”ย andย KFC’s uninspired re-arrangement of its Zinger varieties.
https://vimeo.com/122922084
Although Iย tend toย preferย salad to most other kinds of vegetable dishes – coleslaw is one of my very favourite things – I’m not a bigย fan of having itย as the main partย of a meal, and I must confess that I’d never tried any ofย SumoSalad’s products until today.
SumoSalad have custom-designedย two special salads that apparently match the flavours ofย Red Rooster’s chicken, “Zesty Pumpkin Couscous” and “Red Pesto Penne“. I approached these two with a little trepidation, as I’m always wary of cold pasta (although I usually like it when I try it) and I can’t pretend to haveย eaten much couscousย in my life. I’m starting to feel ratherย ashamed.
The salads are available in regular and large sizes, and can be purchased on their own or as part of combos with regularย menu items – check out the full rangeย here. These are both regular sizes, and I received one as part of a “Sumo Classic Quarter Meal” ($11.99), and purchased the other one on its own ($4.99 – does anyone still fall for the “99 cent” thing?)
The couscous salad featuresย pumpkin pieces, strips of roasted capsicum, shallots, pumpkin seeds and a “twist of lemon”.
The red pesto penne saladย includesย sundried tomato, roasted capsicum, parsley, garlic and paprika.
Wow. I was blown away by how delicious both of these salads wereย – they seemedย so fresh that I found it hard to believeย they were pre-prepared.
Taste-wise, I found the capsicum quite prominent in both salads and came away thinkingย that they’reย similar in flavour, however I liked them both so this isn’t necessarilyย a problem. The pasta was definitelyย “saucier”, however the couscous was by no means dry.
They also went well with my chicken & chips, although I felt they outclassed whatย was intended toย be the main event – they’re probably better suited to being pairedย with a wrap or similar.
These salads are a fantastic addition to the Red Rooster menu, and it makes a changeย not to be disappointed by the latest “fast food” creation – I’d go as far as to say that these areย probably the tastiest thing you can get from any franchise right now.
I really hope this partnership is successful and brings new items to try (plus a Rooster Roll combo *hint hint*). In the meantime, I’ll be paying SumoSalad a visit for lunch.
I tried the Pasta one and my friend tried the cous cous and we both enjoyed our meals and I will be buying it again. The family meal with a Chicken, 2 large chips and large sumo is pretty good value at $20 I reckon. Red Rooster (at the least the ones near me) are really improving it seems!
Havent had red rooster in years due to the poor quality. but you have convinced me to try again. think i will try the couscous salad first.