The Boring Denny's Menu Item That You Should Probably Avoid

Denny's is a standby diner chain serving all the short order hits, like Grand Slams (its name for breakfast platters), burgers, appetizers, and more. We recently went to Denny's to rank 12 of its menu items, trying a little bit of everything to see what holds up, and what's not worth your time or money. One thing we can say is that its breakfasts haven't changed; we continue to be fans of the Grand Slam pancake meal and the Moons Over My Hammy sandwich (which contains scrambled eggs, ham, and both Swiss and American cheeses).

The one item we found boring and bland was Denny's house salad, which combines iceberg lettuce with grape tomatoes, cucumbers, cheddar cheese, and croutons. The one redeeming quality to the salad is its balsamic dressing, which we found flavorful enough to elevate the otherwise fresh but uninteresting vegetables. Salads aren't exactly the draw at most diners, which makes our ranking fairly predictable. Fortunately, not all the restaurant's greens fell to the bottom of the list.

There is one other salad on Denny's menu, and it's the classic Cobb salad, which features bacon, avocado, grape tomatoes, cheddar cheese, hard boiled egg slices, and croutons; all on top of an iceberg lettuce mix. This was a much better combination of ingredients thanks to all the actual flavor in its components, but we did find one major flaw — chicken isn't on there by default. Instead, you have to order it as an add-on if you're looking for more substance (it's only $3 extra, but still). All in all, everything about the Cobb salad is a huge improvement over the unremarkable house salad. (Surprisingly, Wendy's Cobb salad is pretty great too.)

That being said, you can get the house salad as a side rather than an entree, which means you can supplement any sandwich with it if you'd rather get a bit of crisp freshness instead of fries or flattop hash browns. Otherwise, Denny's diner classics are what you really want to get, because you know the old rule: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. After 73 years of being open for business, Denny's definitely knows how to man the griddle better than the salad station.