1065 Wisconsin Ave. NW (202) 338-7760 Hours of Operation and Prices Open: M-Th 5-11, F 5-midnight, Sat 12-midnight, Sun 12-11 Entrees: $7-$25 Other Information • All major credit cards • No Reservations • Dress: casual • Street parking • Handicapped Accessible • For the two other branches of Houston's: 7715 Woodmont Ave., Bethesda, Md., (301) 656-9755, and 12256 Rockville Pike, Rockville, Md., (301) 468-3535

Salads are big sellers here. And Houston's serves big salads, the kind that without a doubt make a meal. There's a Chef Salad - called the Sunbelt - with bacon, chicken and croutons added to the usual ham and cheese. There's the Club Salad, with fried chicken, bacon, egg and avocado instead of the usual turkey, bacon and ham. And there's a Caesar salad made with no egg. The most popular salad is said to be the grilled chicken salad. I can understand why. It's a big bowl piled with a mountain of ice-cold shredded greens - iceberg, romaine, red cabbage and spinach - and plentiful strips of chicken, with julienned carrots and tortilla strips for crunch. It's no doubt one of the most user-friendly salads you'll encounter: Everything is bite-sized and well tossed, so with a single stab of the fork you can get a cross section of tastes and textures.

And this being Houston's, the salads and other dishes are presented by cheerful and thoughtful servers, in a clubby wood-and-leather dining room. Houston's is easy to like. Of course, that's its problem. It gets too crowded and noisy, and no chicken salad, bowl of chili or even a top-notch burger is worth a long wait. That's why I like Houston's in the middle of the afternoon for a late lunch, when this high-quality chain restaurant is nearly mine alone to enjoy.