Wedge, Cobb & Caprese Salads in Arlington, TX

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The Wedge

A steakhouse wedge is judged on three things: cold, crisp iceberg, enough bacon, and a dressing that is actually bleu cheese rather than ranch with crumbles. The Wedge at Mercury Chophouse – Arlington, $18 on the dinner menu, is built that way: a wedge of iceberg, applewood-smoked bacon, chopped egg, tomato, Gorgonzola crumbles and red onion under a bleu cheese dressing. Gorgonzola on top and bleu cheese in the dressing means two hits of blue, which is the point. It is also why the Wedge stands up to the biggest cuts: the Bone-In Ribeye at $90 and the Dry-Aged 36 oz Porterhouse at $175 are rich enough to need something sharp beside them.

It is the salad most often ordered before a ribeye, because the cold lettuce and sharp dressing reset the palate before a marbled cut. Guests who avoid pork can ask for it without the bacon; the kitchen also asks that any allergy be mentioned before ordering.

Cobb in a Mold, a lunch salad

The Cobb in a Mold is $16 and appears on the weekday lunch menu, served Monday through Friday from 11:00 AM. Romaine, applewood-smoked bacon, avocado, tomato and Gorgonzola are pressed into shape with a bleu cheese dressing and finished with crispy onion strings, so the plate arrives composed rather than tossed. It is the lunch salad that eats like a meal on its own, and it is the one to order if you are at a business lunch and want something you can eat neatly while talking.

Add grilled chicken for $10, grilled shrimp or grilled salmon for $15, or marinated skirt steak for $16. Lunch guests who want the same idea with less on the plate can order the MCA Dinner Salad at $15, the house salad, and add a protein to it. The business lunch page covers the timing of a working meal on the ninth floor.

Caprese, Caesar, spinach and the house salads

The Caprese is the vegetarian anchor of the list, with fresh burrata rather than sliced mozzarella, and it appears at both services at the same price. The Traditional Spinach is the warm salad on the list, dressed with a bacon vinaigrette over egg, red onion and mushrooms, and it is the one to order in January when the sun is down by 5:40 PM and the room has turned to city lights. The soup du jour, $8 a cup or $12 a bowl, is the other light opener; the vegetarian options page lists what else a meat-free guest can build from.

Making a salad the whole meal at lunch

Lunch is where the salads do the most work. Every lunch salad takes a protein: grilled chicken $10, grilled shrimp $15, grilled salmon $15, marinated skirt steak $16. A Caesar with skirt steak is $32; a Traditional Spinach with salmon is $30. The Crab & Shrimp Louie, $24, comes with its seafood already on it. The Soup & Salad Combo, $16, pairs a cup of the day’s soup with a small salad for guests who want less.

Six dressings are made in house: Caesar, Champagne vinaigrette, Thousand Island, ranch, bleu cheese and balsamic. Any of them can be swapped onto any salad, so a wedge with Champagne vinaigrette or a spinach salad with ranch is a normal request. Sandwiches on the same menu, the Club at $14, the Chicken Sandwich at $15 and the Chophouse Burger at $17, offer a small salad as one of their side options, which is how many guests get their greens at midday.

Salad before a steak at dinner

At dinner the salads sit between the starters and the steaks, and most tables order one per person rather than sharing. The Wedge before a Hand-Cut Ribeye at $75, the Caesar before a Center-Cut Filet Mignon at $62, and the Caprese before the Seared Sea Bass at $57 are the pairings that come up most. The steak dinner page walks through a full evening’s order.

Salads are served at every seat in the ninth-floor room, from the tufted booths to the curved window wall that faces Globe Life Field about 1 mile away. Parties of six or more carry a 20% gratuity, and the restaurant is closed on Sundays. Parking at the tower is free, and reservations go through OpenTable or 817-381-1157.