We were out in Woodinville picking up some wine a couple of Saturdays ago and happened in to the Purple Cafe & Wine Bar location there for a late lunch.

We have had inconsistent experiences with the Purple downtown, but decided to see what one of its  Eastside outposts might offer.

We were very happy with two salads we tried.

Purple Roasted Beets Salad, with Grilled Salmon, included multi-colored beets, generous knobs of Laura Chenel chèvre (goat’s-milk cheese), orange segments, toasted pistachios, and a honking-big piece of perfectly cooked (rare in the middle) salmon was my lucky choice. Orange-balsamic vinaigrette was the perfect light dressing, and arrived on the side, as requested.

Spencer did just as well with his Purple Chop Salad with Blackened Salmon astride. It comprised romaine hearts, bacon, avocado, garbanzos, roasted red bell pepper, blue cheese, and red onion tossed in balsamic vinaigrette.

The following Saturday we unabashedly ate lunch at the Purple downtown, where their winning ways with salad continued as SJ ordered another Purple Chop Salad and I tried the Apple, Walnut, Stilton Salad, again topped with a lovely piece of grilled salmon.

At $9 to $10 for half salads (which is plenty for most people), $12 for full sizes, plus $4 if you add pulled chicken, $6 for prawns or marinated flank steak, and $7 for grilled salmon or a crab cake, Purple in its various iterations offers a plethora of toothsome and carefully-cooked main-dish salads to appeal to almost any appetite.

The Cranberry Chicken Salad with grilled chicken, bacon, almonds, scallions, celery, apples, dried cranberries, parmigiano-reggiano, and cranberry-dijon vinaigrette would be particularly festive this time of the year.