Restaurants – Page 12 – Fervent Foodie

More expensive don’t mean more tasty.

September 20, 2011 18 Comments

A couple weekends ago, the BF was feeling fancy coupled with an apparent hole burning away in his pocket so he offered to take me to ANY restaurant I wanted. Usually when I’m trying to pick a restaurant price is one of my top considerations (whether or not I’m paying). I admit to being a major cheapo, but besides that charming trait I just don’t think it’s necessary to pay an arm and a leg for a good meal! Plus, the more I’m paying, the higher my expectations and I DO NOT like to be disappointed when it comes to my food.

Since Jarrod was adamant that he wanted something over the top, we decided to go to Firebirds in South Park. Firebirds seemed like a safe bet because it’s one of the most frequent restaurant recommendations I get when I ask people their top picks in Charlotte. Even with all the positive reviews, I hadn’t ventured over to Firebirds due to their prices which average about $20 a plate for dinner.

It was a beautiful night, so we decided to take advantage of their patio seating. Walking through the restaurant and onto the patio, I started to fall in love with the place. I loved the wood-fired smell that poured out from the open kitchen, and I loved the posh yet modern decor.

Outside they had about 10 tables on the patio and a cute little sitting area complete with a large fireplace.

After perusing the menu, the BF decided on the Cilantro Grilled Chicken Breast (i.e., the only pasta-less chicken dish on the menu):

I went with the Chile Rubbed Delmonico steak:

It was nearly 10pm by the time we got our food, and I always get a little bummed when it’s too dark for good pics 🙁

Sensing my frustration, Jarrod realized our table was in a prime location right next to a spotlight. In an act of pure chivalry, he shielded me from view while I snagged a few shots:

See now? Chicken!

Steak and potatoes!

Talk about teamwork 🙂

The BF really liked his chicken dish, but my steak was bleghhhhhhhh. So fatty, and unflavorful. It was like they nixed the “chile” and swapped in gristly bits of meat. I ate about a third of it. A THIRD.

Unheard of.

Luckily, the southwest au gratin potatoes were quite yummy. So cheesy with a slight bite to them. But were they worth the $20 price tag of the dish?

I think not.

Whenever I have a subpar meal at a restaurant, there’s a little part of me that wants to complain to the waiter or manager. I don’t think I’ve ever actually followed through on this desire… well except for those few times a hair has made its way into my food. THAT is just not ok. Instant appetite squelcher… yuck just the thought of it makes me queasy!

What about you? Do you let your waiter know if your meal is crappy?

Restaurants

Just Fresh!

August 30, 2011 9 Comments

There are handful of things I’d consider myself pretty amazing at. For example, parallel parking, closing drawers three-quarters of the way, and crunching numbers in excel… I am a self-proclaimed excel visionary, after all. I am also pretty darn good at finding an excuse to treat myself to a tasty lunch every Saturday… ok… and every Sunday too. Last Sunday, after my insane 8 mile run I had a totally valid no-justification-needed excuse for wanting to grab a bite out. I was craving something light and fresh but oober tasty. Working with just those three criteria I knew exactly where to head. Just Fresh in Dilworth.

Just Fresh is one of the restaurants I visit most in Charlotte, yet I’ve never mentioned it on the blog. I guess that’s life for ya. We tend to focus on what’s shiny and new in our lives and often overlook those tried and true good ole standbys.

What first drew me to Just Fresh, besides the fact that it’s a bakery and a cafe mashed into one, was their mission of providing convenient, fresh, nutritionally balanced options for people on the go.

Soul mates, perhaps?!

One of the things that’s really cool about Just Fresh is the big variety of options on the menu. They’ve got what you’d expect from a cafe–sandwiches, soups, salads, and an absurd amount of baked goodies–but they’ve also got a ton of heartier options like chicken and beef quesadillas, fajitas, and turkey burgers!

Just Fresh has five locations in Charlotte, but the Dilworth location is my favorite due to the ample patio seating.

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Every time I’m at Just Fresh I opt for the 1/2 sandwich 1/2 salad combo. It’s less than $7 and you get a good sized salad, large half of a sandwich, PLUS a side of your choice. And you aren’t stuck with a giant piece of bread or boring potato chips or a red apple either. Who even eats red apples, anyway? Granny Smith, all the way baby. All the way. At Just Fresh you’ve got a big list of sides to choose from ranging from fresh fruit salad to cucumber dill pasta salad and coleslaw.

Another thing I adore about Just Fresh is that they post their nutritional data on their website. For only having 5 locations, that’s pretty awesome. Usually, when I go out to eat I don’t obsess about finding something healthy to eat. To be honest, it’s just too dang hard. And if I’m shelling out a pretty penny to dine at a restaurant the food on my plate had better be pretty darn delicious. Despite this, it’s really nice to have a go-to restaurant with healthy options for those times when I’m on the run or just feeling too lazy to cook.

My two favorite sandwiches at Just Fresh are the turkey franita and the oven roasted turkey breast. I’m a turkey gal, what can I say?

Seriously, tell me you wouldn’t love to have this for lunch today:

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If you’re wondering what the heck a franita is, trust me you are not alone. I was skeptical at first thinking it might have something to do with eggs given that “Franita” sounds like she’d be Frittata’s prude older sister. Just me??

On my fourth visit to Just Fresh I decided to give Franita a shot, and thank I thank the heavens I did. The turkey franita comes with turkey, a creamy artichoke parmesan spread, tomato, and cucumber on a toasty french roll. This sandwich is ALL ABOUT the artichoke spread. It’s slightly tangy, oh so creamy, and full of flavor.

The WHOLE franita sandwich is only 370 calories, which scores it extra brownie points. Now I recommend you change those brownie points in for one of the delicious looking brownies in the dessert case. Stat.

The sandwich/salad combo comes with your choice of a half ceaser salad or half garden salad. I always opt for the garden salad with balsamic dressing:

For those days when I’m feeling CRAZY and craving something totally off the wall, I get the EXACT same combo but sub in the oven roasted turkey breast sandwich instead:

I’m a creature of habit. What else can I say?

This sandwich is served cold and has the most delicious creamy dill spread slathered on the honey wheat bread:

As an aspiring bread connoisseur, this wheat bread holds a very special place in my heart. It has a hint of sweetness and is incredibly fluffy and soft but still has a slight chew to it. So good! I’m always surprised at how big this half sandwich is. What’s even more surprising is that a whole one of these guys only comes in at 410 calories.

Since I kicked major booty on my Sunday run, I decided it was time to finally try out one of the MANY goodies Just Fresh has in the dessert case.

A little toffee and chocolate chip cookie for the lady please 🙂

And by little, I mean ginormous, of course. The nutritionals for their baked goods are not provided on the website…. I’m guessing they aren’t as nutritionally well rounded as the rest of their menu.

But let’s not think about that right now….. Let’s think about the ooey bits of melty toffee and delicious hunks of milk chocolateeeeeeee…..

Restaurants, What I ate

So simple, so tasty.

August 17, 2011 5 Comments

For as much as I like to go out to eat, and boy do I like to go out to eat, I too enjoy having a simple tasty meal at home. Tonight’s dinner was just that. So simple, so tasty. Since I talked myself out of running this morning (I guess I learned nothing from yesterday’s post), I wanted a quick and light dinner so that I could spend some quality time with my tenner shoes this evening.

After a quick fridge inventory, I decided a turkey wrap was the feature entre of the evening. 1 whole wheat Flat-out wrap, 4 ounces of Boars Head Turkey Breast, 2 tbsp Trader Joes creamy original hummus (MY FAV!!!!), some tomatoes, onions, and cucumber:

P.S. cucumbers are my new favorite vehicles for loading up with hummus. So friggin good… why did I not discover this combo sooner?!

I also had some lazy-gal’s cucumber salad on the side:

Since I go out to eat quite a bit on the weekends, during the week I shoot to eat as healthy as I can. The key for me is that “healthy” still has to equal tasty. If it ain’t tasty, I ain’t eatin!

It’s a wrap: 324 calories, 30g carbs, 9g fat, 39g protein, 13g fiber

As I sat on my balcony devouring this delicious dinner, I started thinking about how varied my meals are throughout any given week. Tonight I was feasting on a simple wrap—and Saturday night I feasted on French cuisine. Is it just me, or is it kind of crazy how much food there is to taste and experience in the world? It just kind of astounds me! I have problems. I know.

Speaking of that French Cuisine, Saturday night after Jamie, Vanessa, and I saw Harry Potter, we took a stroll over to Café Monte to get our grub on. I wonder how you say “grub” in French…? Grubeaux?

We had a bit of time to spare before our reservation, so we used a bit of it to oogle over the dessert case.

And then their expansive breakfast menu (must come back for breakfast soon).

Then headed to the bar for some cocktails because that’s what any self respecting lady does on Ladies Night Out.

Hello orange dress Smile

The restaurant was really cute inside and reminded me of some of the places I visited during the week I spent in Paris in college.

Speaking of that week, the one main thing I remember about Paris was how rude the people were and how much I hated the food. The only French word I’d learned was “poulet” (translates to chicken). So at every restaurant I visited I‘d scan the menu for poulet, then use the point and repeat technique to order my meals. Poulet. Poooooolettttttttt (insert rapid menu tapping here). No wonder the people hated me Winking smile

Luckily, the folks at Café Monte were very hospitable and also very knowledgeable about the menu items. Plus the menu was in English, so I didn’t have to search too hard to find the chicken dishes

Since I had a Living Social deal for the restaurant (Boo.Ya.), we decided to get crazy and order the cheese fondue for our appetizer:

Give me a loaf of bread, and I’m a very happy lady. Give me a loaf of bread AND a tub full of melty cheese and I may kiss you and beg to be your sugar mama. Do not be alarmed.

For our dinners, I went with the Chicken (poulet! pouuuletttttttt!) and Wild Mushroom crepes, Vanessa got some crazy looking fish dish (the Trout Amandine), and Jamie got the Lobster and Crab risotto:

I think we were all pretty happy with our meals. My crepes were really tasty, and I especially enjoyed the juiciness of the pulled chicken breast against the creamy madeira sauce. If the dish would of included sundried tomatoes it would have been a show stopper. That’s probably not very “french” though, huh?

After dinner, we decided it would only be proper to cap our night off with coffee and dessert. After nixing the desserts each of us weren’t feeling, we were left with the winner.

Carrot cake:

I’m not sure what carrot cake has to do with French Cuisine, but it was pretty darn delicious. Especially with the coffee!

On a side note, I really enjoyed the Harry Potter movie! There were some parts that were a bit cheesy and child like–but I had to keep reminding myself that these were SUPPOSED to be kids. Even though Harry had a 5 o’clock shadow and six pack abs and Ron and Hermione we making out every time they had five seconds to get a quick grope in these were the KIDS I’d been following for the past 10+ years… they’d just grown up a bit. *Sigh* … haven’t we all?

Restaurants

Don’t eat poop. Eat a Bagel.

August 15, 2011 13 Comments

At some point in the last few weeks, I unofficially declared a new weekend goal: to try AT LEAST one new (to me) lunch spots in the city each week. It’s good to have goals in life, guys. You need to give yourself realistically obtainable milestones to strive for. Goals give your life purpose and destination, and, in my case, a full belly.

About 30 minutes into what should have been a 5 minute drive to Owen’s Bagels including FOUR (potentially) illegal u-turns, I finally (wo)manned up and called Owen’s to find out where the heck they were located.

With their direction, I quickly made it Owen’s, which is smashed at the end of the Pavilion Plaza on South Boulevard:

If you don’t know what you’re looking for, you might drive by it (four times) blissfully (or not so blissfully, as the case may be) unaware.

Now normally I’d question the pedigree of a restaurant whose letters are peeling off the awning, but I haven’t had a good bagel in god knows how long and I swear if I see another bagel thin flaunting itself as a delicious bagel alternative I may go batshit.

So I made an exception. I do have goals to keep in mind after all.

Owen’s is locally owned and operated and they are all about fresh steamed bagels, which they purchase straight from an NYC bagel shop. The bagel sandwiches are made to order and come piping hot off the steamer. If you’ve never sunk your teeth into the chewy bliss that is a hot steamed bagel, I beg you to get your butt to Owen’s. Stat.

There was a whole lot going on inside of Owen’s. I spotted a couple dozen people laughing and happily enjoying lunch against a backdrop of crazy signs and oddball décor.

The quirkiness of Charlotte never ceases to surprise me. You just never know what you’re going to get, unless you take the time to look inside. I think that’s what this city is really about. Slowing down, and taking the time. Stopping to smell the bagels, if you will.

At the front of the store, you’ll see the ordering section complete with construction paper visual aids depicting their menu items.

I giggled over a few of them including the Muenster Mash, Tonya Harding Club, Ned’s Gandy Dancer, and the Booty Bagel.

After ordering, I popped a squat in a back corner and admired the writing on the wall (no pun intended).

It was EVERYWHERE. Kinda made me wonder why they don’t just stick a ladder out front and let some customer put a good sharpie to work on their awning lettering. There isn’t much I wouldn’t do for a couple free steamed bagels Winking smile

After a short wait, my grub was ready!

I went with the Jake Delihome Bagel, which was loaded up with turkey, colby cheese, AVOCADO, onion, and tomato on a Bialy bagel:

I’m not sure what a Bialy Bagel is exactly, but the sandwich was awesome. The turkey and cheese and veggies were tasty, but it coulda been bologna sandwiched between that steamy bagel and I think I still would have been in heaven.

I was so so so happy to see that they had Cheddar & Sour Cream Baked Ruffles!! Cheddar & Sour Cream chips are pure nostalgia for me. They were the chip of my youth, whereas funyuns were the chip of my teenage years… mmmmmm funyunnssss…. Oh how I miss those stanky snacks.

And with this, I bid you ado:

Restaurants

The (not so) Common Market

August 9, 2011 9 Comments

During my blissful day of unplanned meandering, I wandered over to The Common Market in South End for lunch:

How adorable is that little sandwich guy? The Common Market is one of those places you’d probably just drive by if you hadn’t heard through the twitter grapevine that they had delicious sandwiches. It looks, at least from the outside, like a standard convenience store, and it wasn’t until I walked along the side of the building that I realized they have this great secluded courtyard to sit in and enjoy your lunch!

Once inside the Market you can spot newbies <aka ME> who are unsure where to go to order… where to pay… and frankly what the heck is going on inside this quirky store. There’s STUFF everywhere in the store. Not just stuff to fill space, but stuff that is interesting and unique and fun to look at and drool over.

If your heart is set on getting a sandwich (as it should be), you can head straight to the back of the store where the deli counter is located. You order your grub there and then pay at the register at the front of the store.

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While waiting for my sandwich, I snooped around the store a bit and noted that you can even dine-in at one of the handful of tables perched right in the middle of the store.

You can crab a bottle of wine (or five) from their extensive wine selection to enjoy with your grub. Or if beer is your thing, they’ve got quite the selection of high-end bottled beers as well.

The sandwiches don’t come with chips or drinks or any sides, but that is A-O-Kay because the market is chock full of yummies. The shelves are packed with snacks and chips and TONS of homemade baked goods:

I somehow exercised superb self control and did not snag any of the baked goodies. Though they had these brownie logs that looked to die for, and that I’ve been dreaming about since!

The Market also has a random hodgepodge of fun gadgets and gizmos and cards and signs for sale and some random gluten-free products on the shelves. I’ll have to bring my friend Tracy here when she comes to visit!

$6.25 for a sandwich ain’t bad in Charlotte. Especially when it comes with a compliment stamp:

I went with the Turkey Capri sandwich, which had sundried tomato spread, a slathering of goat cheese, a big handful of baby spinach, and red onion between two hearty slices of 9 grain bread:

The sandwich was FABULOUS. I think i could eat one of these every day and not get tired of them. Though they also had a pepperjack turkey panini on the menu that looked quite tasty…

The the funkyness of the market carried out to the courtyard area which was full of random odds and ends, crazy signs, and patrons enjoying the nice weather and even nicer food.

The South End location does wine tastings on Wednesday nights and beer tastings on Thursday nights. They also have live music on the patio on the weekends.

Sadly, my sandwich came to an end. Too soon. But isn’t that always the case with a tasty lunch?

Ohhh! Lest we not forget the scratch off giveaway winner!

Yay Nicole! Email your mailing address to: ferventfoodie@gmail.com.

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