TOD -
I'm very picky about most "salad" type things. I do not care for 90% of grocery store macaroni salads and potato salads. They are inevitably too mayo-y and lack any real flavor.
As for other salads, I once had a salmon-salad sandwich at a restaurant up on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands. I can't remember the name of the place at all, but it was simply divine. It was obviously fresh made, with a bit of dill in it...soooo good.
DH Jed and I have "our" pasta salad that we make often during the summer to have in the fridge. It's a hybrid of the two pasta salads we grew up with as children. Using salad macaroni as a base, we add cubes of cheddar cheese, thawed peas, chopped green onion, crumbled bacon (NOT bacon bits) and chopped hard boiled egg. The dressing is a mayo-vinegar mix that Jed is much better at creating than I am. The dressing is only there enough to coat the ingredients, but it's not creamy and overpowering. The result is simply delicious. We've brought it to potlucks and parties, always with positive results.