We compared salads from McDonald's, Burger King, Chick-fil-A, and Wendy's - and the results were shocking

• Fast-food salads are often looked down upon as menu afterthoughts best avoided, but many chains have seriously improved their salad offerings lately.
• We tried salads from several major national fast-food chains - Burger King, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, and Wendy's.
• McDonald's and Chick-fil-A's salads are shockingly good, while others miss the mark.

The fast-food salad: an oxymoron? A pointless exercise in trying to be healthy? A grave mistake to be avoided? Fast-food salads have a bad reputation - the afterthoughts of the chain menus, half-heartedly made and forgotten amidst the glistening burgers and fries.

But somehow, these grab-and-go containers of lettuce have improved vastly over the years.

While they started off as a weak olive branch in the 2000s, aimed at placating health nuts who complained about chains' glut of fats and dearth of healthy choices, many chains have seriously stepped up their salad game.

Gone are the days of iceberg lettuce and goopy ranch - think fruits, beans, mesclun, cabbage, and pomegranate vinaigrettes.

We decided to try salads from several major national fast-food chains - Burger King, Chick-fil-A, McDonald's, and Wendy's - to see how far they've come, and to find out who makes the best salads around: