The Caesar is an iconic restaurant salad. Thick, crunchy leaves of romaine are coated in a rich dressing bound together with egg yolk, oil, garlic, mustard, lemon juice, Worcestershire sauce, and anchovies. Built on an expertly balanced foundation of salt, fat, acid, and umami, the salad has played a starring role on dining tables for generations.
Despite being associated with American and Italian cuisines, the Caesar salad can be traced back to Tijuana, Mexico. It was created in 1924 by restaurateur César Cardini at his eponymous restaurant, Caesar’s, which still exists today. There, servers mix each salad tableside with flair, whisking together the dressing, folding in romaine leaves the size of your forearm, and finishing each plate off with a spoonful of grated Parmesan cheese.
While the classic Caesar remains a recurring character at all types of restaurants, from neighborhood bistros to legendary steakhouses, many chefs are riffing on the original formula, creating Caesar salads that are entirely their own. Over the past year, we’ve spotted well-executed Caesar variations with papaya, chickpeas, celery, and smoked herring. Here are six that stopped us in our tracks.
Wood Fire Caesar at Amá (Philadelphia)
Chef Frankie Ramirez balances nostalgia with unexpected ingredients in the Wood Fire Caesar at Amá, a modern Mexican restaurant in Philadelphia. Ramirez chars little gem lettuce over a wood-burning fire, then showers it with Parmesan, a bright Mexican herb pipicha, and a crispy masa crunch — ground nixtamalized corn that has been pressed, frozen, and then fried — that takes the place of croutons. “I’ve always loved a really classic Caesar, so this was never about reinventing it — it was about making one that felt true to the way we cook,” says Ramirez.
Castelfranco Salad at Hellbender (Queens, New York)
Credit: Courtesy of Hellbender
In the Ridgewood neighborhood of Queens in New York City, chef Yara Herrera of Hellbender pays homage to Caesar’s Mexican origin. “When we decided to expand the menu at Hellbender, it was the first salad we thought about,” she says. Her Mexican-American-inspired version has castelfranco (a bitter, purple-flecked chicory) Cotija cheese, and, instead of black pepper in the dressing, earthy cascabel chile powder.
Babbo Celery Salad at Babbo (New York City)
At the recently revived Italian restaurant Babbo in New York City, former executive chef Mark Ladner devised a celery Caesar that draws inspiration from the bustling morning market at Campo de’ Fiori, the historic Roman square. Pink celery is cut into thin strips — just as it’s cut in a Roman puntarelle salad — then tossed in a punchy Caesar dressing featuring elephant garlic and Sicilian brown anchovies. It’s finished off with a handful of crunchy, 4-inch-long breadsticks made from baguette crusts.
Green Papaya Salad at Recoveco (Miami)
Credit: Courtesy of Recoveco
At Recoveco, the Thai-inspired Caesar salad was put on the menu primarily to make use of the heaps of local green papayas. Chefs Maria Teresa Gallina and Nicolas Martinez combine candied, nixtamalized, semiripe papaya with fresh green papaya and anchovies. “The addition of the candied papaya among the raw adds an unexpected sweet edge to something that’s highly acidic, herbal, and spicy,” says Gallina. It’s topped with soft shavings of Parmesan, sourdough croutons, and a pepper salt made from extra-hot datil peppers grown in St. Augustine, Florida.
Chickpea Salad at Cafe Olli (Portland, Oregon)
Credit: Courtesy of Cafe Olli
Made with a vegan tahini Caesar dressing, Cafe Olli’s chickpea salad pulls out all the stops. The base of charred kalettes — a kale and brussels sprouts hybrid — is tossed with scoops of chickpeas, pickled red onions, fried shallots, puffed rice, sprigs of parsley, fistfuls of sesame, and nutritional yeast in place of Parmesan. Cafe Olli also occasionally serves a Caesar pizza, complete with a drizzle of the tahini dressing.
Black Caesar at Honeysuckle (Philadelphia)
The rich storytelling at Honeysuckle, a Philadelphia restaurant dedicated to showcasing the ingredients of the African diaspora, is fundamental to every inch of the menu — including the salads. 2026 F&W Best New Chefs Cybille Aude-Tate and Omar Tate named their Caesar riff the Black Caesar after the 1973 blaxploitation film. It features a mix of romaine, radicchio, and little gem lettuces; pickled shallots; and Parmesan and swaps out anchovies and garlic for smoked herring and a nutty, house-fermented black garlic. Each bowl is finished with cured egg yolk shavings and breadcrumbs made from Honeysuckle’s own shokupan (Japanese milk bread).
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