In the post-pandemic world, Panda Chef still delivers an affordable family meal.
Restaurant food has become crazy expensive, and we’ve been eating out a lot, so I wanted someplace cheap to go for Mother’s Day. Well, not as much go – because Mother’s Day is too crazy a day to actually dine out – but get take out from. Enter Panda Express. They have a family meal that consists of 3 family size (26 oz) entrees and 2 family size sides for $35 (some entrees were an extra $5) And they had a $5 off coupon for mother’s day. And let me tell you, 78 oz of food is a lot of food, more than enough for four people. I don’t know that you can get a cheaper meal anywhere anymore.
And, as if that wasn’t enough, they also had a deal that gave you a free bowl of your choice ($9) if you bought $30 in gift cards. You can’t use more than one coupon at the time, so I had to order the bowl separately. That required a $10 minimum purchase, so I added a $2 egg roll. All in all, for under $40 tax included, we had a pretty good meal.
Now, Panda Express food is not extraordinary – but it’s consistent and fine. This is what we got:
Orange chicken has been one of Panda Express’ most popular dishes forever. It’s highly breaded, with a thick sticky sweet-spicy orange sauce, and it’s pretty tasty. Of course, you’re eating mostly breading.
Beijing beef is actually pretty similar to orange chicken, but has a slightly less orangey taste and the pieces are smaller. it also comes with slices of onion and red pepper. It consists of breaded beef in a tangy, sticky, sweet and spicy sauce. Also pretty good, though both of them were too much.
The Honey Walnut Shrimp is, once again, sickingly sweet, but Mike liked it. It’s an additional $5 if you order this.
As my first side I got the chow mein. It consists of very thin wheat noodles, with a nice chewiness, a lot of shredded cabbage and some onion slices. In all, the chow mein isn’t very flavorful and it’s in need of something else – soy sauce? They forgot to add some to my order, unfortunately. There is also way too much cabbage. It’s a cheap filler, I guess.
The second side was the “super greens“. On the website it looked like it would be steamed broccoli. Instead, it was a combo of cabbage leaves and broccoli, heavy on the former. Yes, I know, cabbage is cheap. But it’s definitely not a super green. The veggies are steamed and made up for the very sweet entrees.
I also ordered a chicken eggroll ($2) and it was pretty good. It’s rather large, so well priced, and while the flavor is mild, it’s pretty good for an egg roll.
Panda Express 1271 Marina Blvd San Leandro, CA (510) 667-9585 M-Su 9 AM - 10:30 PM
Our dear friend Charlotte was back in town for a holiday after moving abroad last summer, and she suggested we have brunch at Cafe Bliss, a little breakfast and lunch place in Belmont. It was a nice, relaxing place to have a bite in a quiet Sunday.
I had the creamy chicken crepe ($18), which comes with a choice of home potatoes or salad. I liked the salad, but I really loved the crepe. It comes with chicken, mushrooms, onions and jack cheese and is served with a wine creamy sauce. The sauce, of course, is what makes it. The only problem was that I was still a bit hungry afterwards, though I probably wouldn’t have been if I’d chosen potatoes instead of a salad. Still, given the price, I think the portion should have been larger.
Mike had the Pacific scramble ($18) which comes with smoked salmon, capers, cream cheese, dill and lemon zest. It came with home potatoes and toast. He was happy with it, but not more than one would expect.
Charlotte had the Bliss omelette ($18) which comes with bacon, avocado, jack cheese, bell peppers and caramelized onions and she was also happy with it.
Service was professional and it was overall a pleasant experience.
Cafe Bliss 2039 Ralston Ave Belmont, CA (650) 595-1520 W-M 8 AM - 2 PM
Located near Casa Peralta, Rocky’s Charcoal Grill has long been a favorite among burger aficionados in San Leandro. I reviewed it many years ago and I’d visited a handful of times over the years, mostly when I was in the neighborhood. I’ve never been a huge fan of it, but thought I’d give it another try in my quest for finding the best burger in San Leandro. So far, I’m sad to say, this isn’t it.
Rocky’s is a cute, tiny place. It has a handful of tables inside and outdoors and a small kitchen. They serve a large variety of burgers, some grilled sandwiches as well as a steak and ribs. They also have well regarded shakes. Burgers come without condiments, which you add yourself. They are all 1/3 lb.
I had the Guacaburger ($8.75), which came with guacamole. It was OK. The patty was thin, so on the dry side. I prefer juicy burgers, and this was not that. It did have a nice, not too strong, charcoal flavor but I felt the meat was under-seasoned. In all, this felt like a home made burger, which is not what I’m looking when I order one.
Mike had the Oaklandburger ($10.25) which includes Cheddar and Jack cheeses and bacon and comes in a sourdough bun. Mike liked his burger more than I did, though not as much as Nation’s.
I ordered a peanut butter milkshake ($6.25) to take home and wow, was it good. I’d definitely go back for those.
The people who work at Rocky’s are very friendly and the food was prompt.
Rocky’s Charcoal Grill 300 W. Estudillo Ave San Leandro, California 94577 (510) 351-6228 rockyscharcoalgrill@comcast.net
This chain sandwich store seems to have downgraded the quality of its sandwiches.
I discovered Panera during the pandemic, when I was looking for restaurants that offered family meals. I had heard, of course, of Panera before, but never felt compelled to try it. We had it several times during the pandemic, and I became a fan of their tomato soup and their steak and horseradish sandwiches. Still, after a while I forgot about it altogether until last week, when I got an e-mail with a free birthday pastry offer from them, and then saw them in the news for their literally killer drinks. So I got a craving and, after three years, I decided to order another family deal.
Panera has changed a bit since I last ordered. It still serves sandwiches, pastries, salads and soups, but the sandwiches themselves have changed. The prices have sort of increased as well, but it’s the quality going down that is the real problem.
Like in the past, I ordered a family deal. It’s now $36, up 24% from what it cost in 2021. It comes with 4 half-sandwiches, a salad, a quart of soup and a baguette. Pannera no longer has my favorite steak with horseradish sandwich, and instead they now sell a ciabatta cheesesteak ($15) that comes in a ciabatta roll and is served with Provolone cheese, caramelized onions, peppadew peppers and garlic aioli. Ciabatta is a very substantial roll which calls for a lot of filling for balance. This sandwich lacked it, which meant that the overall result was just too bready. Both the onions and the peppadews are served chopped and there were so many of the latter that they overwhelmed the sandwich, I could barely taste anything else. In all, I don’t think I’d order this sandwich again.
I liked the bacon avocado melt ($11) more, and it was probably my favorite of the four sandwiches I tried. It was also the one with the thinnest bread. The sandwich was very simple, but very tasty. It had bacon bits, melted cheddar and sliced avocado. It comes in sliced sourdough bread with chipotle aioli. It needed more avocado, but it was actually quite tasty.
The smokehouse BBQ chicken ($12) was just OK. The chicken itself had no flavor, so the sandwich tasted only of red onions and BBQ sauce. I liked the sauce well enough, but not enough to order it again. this sandwich also came in a ciabatta roll, and there wasn’t enough filling to balance all that bread.
Finally, we had the chicken bacon rancher ($14), which comes with pulled chicken, bacon bits, white cheddar and ranch sauce in a black pepper focaccia roll. The focaccia was good, but it really overwhelmed the filling. The chicken, again, was under-seasoned and while the bacon was able to carry the sandwich through, it wasn’t that exciting. I also wouldn’t order it again.
The tomato soup ($9.50 bowl/$26 quart) was just as good as I remember – but really not significantly better than the packaged Panera soup that you can get at the supermarket. Given that it’s just $10-12 for the 32-oz package at Safeway, it doesn’t seem worth it to get it at the restaurant (unless it’s part of a family deal as in this case). The baguette ($2.20) with a crunchy, hard exterior and a very chewy middle, is quite good.
Finally, both my husband and daughter really liked the Caesar Salad ($10.40). The vegetables are fresh and crisp and there is enough dressing to cover them all. In the past, the family meal included the more expensive chicken Caesar salad, but as my daughter prefers it without chicken, we are actually happy that they’ve removed it.
I might try the family deal again, but I’d probably try other sandwiches to see if any are substantially better.
I also got a cinnamon roll ($4.60) as dessert, given that I had a free pastry coupon. It was the end of the day, so it was hard, but after microwaving it, it loosened. It was quite tasty.
*Update*
A couple of days after this meal, Panera got me again by sending me a couple of big “rewards”. One gave me 50% off a single entree and the other gave me a free drink, treat or cup of soup with a $10 purchase. Of course, the two could not be combined – only one reward per purchase. But Panera still had its “get 15% off gift cards” promo, so I got that as an additional discount. In all, I spent $21 to get 2 sandwiches and a cup of food, which isn’t bad but not super great either.
For my sandwich, I started with the bacon avocado melt ($11) but I got it in focaccia bread, and added tomatoes and caramelized onions. The results were great. I liked it better than the original.
For my freebie, I got a cup of the French onion soup ($7.60), which comes with a piece of bread, a bag of chips or an apple – though they gave me both the bread and the chips. The soup was actually pretty good, it had a nice caramelized onion flavor which was deep but not too bitter. It did need more cheese. I would have added more, but I then would have had to warm the soup – which was barely warm by the time it got home. Still, it was quite satisfactory. In all, half a sandwich plus the soup was a satisfactory meal and left me stuffed, and considering that I have the other half of the sandwich for later, it was a great deal – but only because of the promo. I did read that promos become much more stingy the more you go to Panera, so this will probably be my last time.
I also use the 50% off promo (in a separate purchase) to get a ciabatta cheesesteak for my daughter and her boyfriend. I doubled the meat (and should have doubled the extra lettuce) and half a sandwich was sufficient for each one of them for a mid-afternoon snack. The discount didn’t apply to the extra meat, only to the original price of the sandwich.
While you can make up to five customizations on sandwiches you order by themselves, you can’t customize them in the family meal. So I think I will order Panera again if I get good coupons, but not otherwise.
Panera 24133 Southland Dr Hayward, CA (510) 732-0279 M-SU 7 AM - 8 PM
Colombian cuisine seems to be having a moment in the Bay Area. Parche in Oakland has been getting great reviews as has Macondo in Alameda and MaMo in San Francisco. My experiences with Colombian food, however, are extremely limited. I remember visiting a Colombian restaurant in San Jose over 20 years ago, with my then infant daughter. I don’t remember the food, but I do remember the waitress was wonderful and held my daughter for part of the meal. I did recently try a Colombian empanada in New York City, and I cooked a couple of Colombian dishes years ago as part of my international food project. I thus went to Mägo with few expectations at to what Colombian cuisine would be liked – though I did imagine it might resemble that of Venezuela and Ecuador (so my expectations were limited, but not necessarily high).
Mägo serves a “Colombian inspired” seven-course tasting menu for $98. I love tasting menus, and was eager to introduce my teen daughter to one. As it was my birthday, she had to put aside her reticence about trying new food, and go along. She was a trooper. In all, we liked some dishes, thought less of others, but had a wonderful time. Service was good, the setting was pleasant, and the company great.
Mägo has a pretty elegant dining room, and an informal patio on the back. My daughter said that it felt like we were in someone’s backyard, and it does have that atmosphere. They have some tables set for four, and a very long family table. A family with children was eating at that table, and later a couple was seated at one end. I felt that was weird. It wasn’t as if the two parties were interacting, and there other tables available in the patio. To me, having to share a table with a family would have taken away from the experience, particularly if it was a date night. Our table for three, however, was perfectly pleasant. Tables are distant enough from one another that you don’t hear other people’s conversations (though kids can be loud).
The patio has pretty strong heaters – you can have them turned down or off, but my daughter was cold – and Colombian music was played through a small blue-tooth speaker. The music wasn’t very loud, so we could speak comfortably. Mägo recommends smart casual clothing, though in the patio that’s probably not needed (at least, that’s how other guests seemed to feel).
The menu, as I mentioned, is fixed and there seem to be at last some changes daily. While the courses are small, we were full by the end of the evening. The whole meal takes about 2 1/2 hours – as there is considerable wait between courses – better for digestion and to enjoy the experience to the full.
The meal started with an arepa topped with salsa maró (a Lingurian fava bean pesto) and huacatay, an herb from the Andes. We all enjoyed it. The arepa was served pretty warm, which definitely was a plus as it made it softer and more comforting. The fava bean pesto had a subtle flavor, I think it might have needed a drop of lemon juice, but it was a pleasant start to the meal.
The next course was actually a trio – though as there were three of us, I guess you could say we got a trio of trios of oca and spring potatoes. Oca is a South American tuber that tastes like a somewhat sour potato. The first preparation was, if I remember correctly, boiled and then seared oca served on a bed of sal, chocolate and other spices. It was OK. The oca was too firm, like a raw potato, though I did like the spice mixture it came with. The second, consisted of small balls of pickled oca, served in hollowed raw potatoes. You only ate the inside. I appreciated the novelty of the dish and the presentation, but wasn’t impressed by the dish. The oca, once again, was too firm and it just tasted sour. The final dish was a potato and roasted garlic soup that basically just tasted of over-roasted garlic. It wasn’t bad, but it needed acid. The whole dish improved when I dunked the little oca balls into the soup, though it still wasn’t something I’d order.
Our next course was asparagus with fermented pineapple. This was my daughter’s favorite dish. She loved the subtly charred asparagus and appreciated how large they were – it turns out she doesn’t like the baby asparagus I often buy and overcook. The pineapple sauce added some great, salty acidity to the asparagus. Overall, a winning dish.
The next dish consisted of shrimp, avocado, green grapes and burn jalapeños. This was a dish that as a composite did not work for any of us – so we all ate what we liked from it. Mike doesn’t like avocado, so he gave it to me instead. He liked the shrimp – and had mine as well – but particularly enjoyed the mixture of textures in the dish. I appreciated the fresh, tarty flavor of the mashed avocado, with the bright sauce and sweet grapes. They were yummy. My daughter doesn’t eat either seafood nor guacamole, and while she got a vegetarian alternative to this dish, there wasn’t much in it for her. But hey, I loved having her leftover avocado and a couple of grapes she left behind and we all enjoyed eating the flowers.
Our fifth course was a real winner. It consisted of swordfish, artichokes and pumpkin seeds in an incredible peanut sauce. The pumpkin seeds were also made into a sauce, and the two sauces together were dynamite. I could eat them all the time. The swordfish was also great. So much so that my daughter tried a bite and claimed she didn’t hate it (which is quite astounding for her). It was perfectly cooked, flavorful by itself and great with the sauce. I’m not a fan of artichokes, but I liked the sauce so much that I ate them.
Instead of the swordfish, my daughter got a tostón (fried green plantain pancake) with more green grapes and a green sauce. She also liked it quite a bit. I tried the tostón and I liked it better than other versions, it was less dry, somewhat sweeter and more flavorful.
The sixth, main and final savory course was lamb posta negra, black beans and collards. This dish has its origin in Cartagena de las Indias, where it’s usually made with eye of round (posta), though lamb worked very well here. The lamb was braised in a blackened, caramelized sweetish sauce. Mägo served the sauce under mashed black beans, which seemed to mostly have nullified its sweetness. The dish was overall very tasty, and quite substantial – at least it felt so after the previous five courses. We all enjoyed it – though my daughter only had a couple of bites (more than expected, given her aberration to lamb).
Along with the beef, we got pan de coco and whipped plantain butter. This was the second favorite dish for my daughter, and we all enjoyed the fresh buns. I didn’t realize the butter was made of plantains until re-reading the menu to write this review. I looked up plantain butter since, and found that there is a commercial version of it from Jamaica made from plantains and cream, while UCLA serves its own vegan version based on palm oil. There are many recipes online with a variety of ingredients, but if I still had a vegan daughter I might try to experiment and make my own.
Dessert was corn cake with a meyer lemon ice cream and panela bits. It was delicious and my favorite dish of the evening. I just love corn cake, in particular its grittiness and this one was perfect. The flavor combination and the crunchiness of the panela bits was superb. It was also a perfectly sized dessert. Of course I wanted more, I had no room for it.
The final dish of the evening were dulces, served in a dish that said Happy Birthday (it was my 55th!). These consisted of some candy I didn’t even try, as I’m not a fan of candy, but which apparently were good, and tiny alfajores with a tiny portion of dulce de leche. They did need maybe half a spoon more dulce de leche, but they were very tasty and super cute.
Mägo offers a wine pairing for $70 and a non-alcoholic drink pairing for $55, but we no longer drink that much wine nor consume so many sugary drinks. They do offer complimentary tap or sparkling water, and of course, I ordered the latter. That must have been the worst sparkling water I’d ever tasted. I’m not someone that is generally picky about sparkling water. I will drink any of them. I pretty much always order it with my dinner, and have had different brands in different states, countries and continents. This is the first time I find one that I dislike. If they make it themselves, it’s time to change the filter.
I had a glass of the Altos las Hormigas, Valle de Uco, ‘21 Malbec ($20) with dinner, and it was very pleasant though extremely overprice. Mago sells a full bottle of this wine for $80, while it retails for about $16. Usually restaurants mark up their wines to about twice of retail price, five times seems rather excessive. It occurs to me that it’s how Mägo is able to keep their food prices relatively low. In any case, Argentine wine is usually an amazing value, so I’m not complaining about ordering it. My daughter had the passion fruit agua freca ($8), she hadn’t had passion fruit before and really liked it. It’s pretty sweet, however, as you’d expect, so one was enough.
Service was efficient but somewhat distant – there weren’t any tones of friendliness. They didn’t seem to be any more convivial with other tables, so I don’t think it was personal. Different servers bring different courses, and they always explain what they are. Silverware is replaced between courses. We never lacked for water, and they turned up the heat when we asked – but there just wasn’t a friendly vibe. Not that one is necessary.
In all, we had a great time. I’d recommend trying it, for flavors that while not necessarily super successful (to me) are somewhat novel and interesting. Food wise, I feel it’s a very good value for the experience you get.
Mägo 3762 Piedmont Ave Oakland, CA (510) 344-7214 W - Sa 5 - 9 PM
Habit Burger, like sister companies Taco Bell, KFC and Pizza Hut are on the boycott list, as their parent company, Yum brands, invests in Israel. Please help stop apartheid and genocide by Israel by not doing business with companies that financial benefit from the killing, torture, maiming and oppression of Palestinians and who de facto support crimes against humanity.
Magnificent oak trees. Melancholic cypresses dressed in Spanish moss. Alligators peeking out from swampy waters. Magnificent, decaying plantations. Quaint accents. Humidity. Iced tea.
Those are just some of the images that dotted my brain about the South, a region of America I only know from books and movies – and culinary adventures. I’d never specially wanted to go to the South, with the exception of New Orleans and Savannah, which were inscribed on my imaginary bucket list decades ago, and left to grow cobwebs there.
Now, when I think about our so-very-brief trip to Louisiana, I actually thirst for more. Sights. Experiences. I want to drink a sweet lemonade (I don’t like iced tea) while sitting on a rocking chair, on the front porch of some achingly quaint Southern home, in a close-to-scorching summer. I want to succumb to the romance of all those books and movies brought together. I just want to go back to those swamps.
This trip to Louisiana came out of nowhere. Well, it came out of the Eclipse and our friends Eddie and Arthur, who suddenly reached out to Mike a few weeks before the sun was scheduled to be covered by the moon for all of four minutes and asked us to join them in watching the spectacle. Mike wanted to go. He had wanted to go for years. I had looked at the hotel prices a year before and written it off. Witnessing a total eclipse is a one-in-a-lifetime experience – we’d had ours a few years before in Oregon (sitting on the rocks in a quiet stream, commuting with nature, perfection). I didn’t need another one. But Mike insisted. We could stay with Eddie and Arthur in Dallas. He’d go by himself if I refused.
Air tickets to Dallas – and any surrounding airports – were ridiculously expensive. Surge pricing. What you’d expect. I’m cheap. Thrifty. I’d seen an eclipse. He insisted. So I looked further in the map, looking for airports where we could drive for a reasonable amount. New Orleans popped out. An eight hour drive from Dallas, but New Orleans was in my bucket list. From that perspective, it’d be shooting two birds with one stone. And Mike was insisting.
So we went. We spent two glorious days in New Orleans, another driving to Texas, a day and a play in Dallas, another seeing the eclipse, and then got a glimpse of a portion of Southern Louisiana. It felt like enough, even if now I want more.
The trip, of course, was a culinary experience. I already wrote about our culinary adventures in New Orleans. There isn’t much to tell about the Texas part of our trip – I wrote about a chicken restaurant, Eddie and Arthur took us to, but I was too busy enjoying seeing our old friends to take enough mental notes of our other meals there. What’s left is the rest of the food we enjoyed (or not) in Louisiana. Here it is:
If you had asked me before we went to Louisiana where the Tabasco sauce company was located, I might have made a couple of wild guesses but never, in a million years, would I have guessed in a beautiful “island” in southern Louisiana. Not that I ever paid much attention to Tabasco sauce myself, not being a fan of spicy food.
Still, I’d read that 1868! was actually a pretty good Cajun food restaurant, so after touring the amazingly beautiful Avery island, seeing nesting egrets by the hundreds, and even trying some Tabasco flavored ice cream at the gift shop, we headed to 1868! for some lunch.
The restaurant’s menu is very seafood heavy and reflects the Cajun and Creole influences of the area. There are also a couple of specialties of the day. You order and pay at the counter and then find a table. The room is pretty informal, but I liked the old fashioned look with wooden tables and chairs. It’s quite popular with visitors, as the food is solid and not overly expensive for being a tourist attraction.
I had the fish po’boy ($17), which was a breaded fish filet with lettuce on a bun. The fish was really good, it was lightly breaded and nicely spiced. Alas, I didn’t see the point of eating this as a sandwich, so I mostly just ate the fish. It was large enough that the bun or even the accompanied fries weren’t needed.
Mike had me order for him while he went to park or something, and I decided on one of the specials of the day which was crawfish etouffee topped with friend crawfish. Mike liked the fried crawfish, but once again he was disappointed on the rice-heavy etouffee. He really much preferred it at Prejean’s, where the etouffee was served with the rice on the side. Still, he enjoyed it well enough.
For dessert I had an unremarkable bread pudding ($6.25).
In all, 1868! is a convenient restaurant to stop at if you’re visiting Avery island around lunch time, though I wouldn’t make a special trip to eat there.
1868! Avery Island, LA 337-369-4227 M-Su: 10:30 AM-2:30 PM
If only the food could have matched the service at this Lafayette restaurant.
Lafayette is supposed to be the capital of Cajun country, and yet there are surprisingly few Cajun restaurants in town. Bon Temps Grill is one of them. It offers a menu of sandwiches, pastas, seafood and grilled meats at relatively moderate prices.
The restaurant is pretty casual, and has a homey atmosphere. It’s clearly patronized by regulars. They have live music at some times. Service was great, our waiter went over the dishes and was very attentive.
I wanted an entree that wasn’t steak or seafood, so I went with the Paneed Chicken Meuniere ($18). It came with servings of mashed sweet potatoes and mashed hot red potatoes. The breaded chicken was fine, the breading could have used some spicing of its own, though I understand not doing so when it’s served with a sauce. However, the sauce was a disappointment. A Meuniere sauce is basically made with brown butter, lemon and parsley, though it can be modified with other ingredients. Here it felt like the butter had burnt too much and they had added too much lemon juice to compensate. Though, of course, it may have been other ingredients which made it both a tad bitter and way too acidic. It had whatever the opposite of an umami flavor is. The sides were as good as mashed sweet potatoes could be, though I should say I have been drifting away from linking potatoes in all of their manifestations.
Mike had the Crawfish Etouffee Pot Pie ($20) at my suggestion, and it was a mistake. Mike usually loves pot pie, and he absolutely adored the crawfish etouffee that he’d had at Prejean’s the day before, but the one here came mixed with rice. That meant that there was more rice than etouffee, and that the rice absorbed most of what might have been a delicious etouffee, so that what was left didn’t have enough flavor. It also meant that there was no sauce to soak the pastry in. I still love the idea of a crawfish etouffee pot pie, and I might make my own version (albeit with shrimp, as we don’t get crawfish in California) when I go back to cooking.
For dessert, I wanted to get the Banana Fosters Bread Pudding ($9) to go – as I was too full to eat dessert right then – but they were out of it. Instead, the waiter brought me a Creme Brulee Cheesecake ($9) to take home with me, and did not charge me. That was very nice of him, but the cheesecake ended up being a disappointment. It basically tasted of “fridge”. Oh well.
I don’t know that I’d go back to Bon Temps Grill if I returned to Lafayette. Given how much we liked Prejeans, I’d probably head there instead.
Bon Temps Grill 1211 W. Pinhook Rd. Lafayette, LA (337) 706-8850 Monday-Friday: 11am-10pm Saturday-Sunday: 10:30am-10pm
Olde Tyme Grocery was said to have the best po’boy sandwiches in Lafayette, so we headed there for lunch after a morning of exploring the city. Despite its name, Olde Tyme Grocery is actually a sandwich shop with a small grocery area – mostly consisting of drinks and snacks – in it. They have a good variety of po’boys available, which you can get by the half or full.
You make your selection and order at the counter, and you can see the sandwich makers doing their magic behind.
There are several areas to sit, both indoor and outdoors. The area around the garden was quainter, but in full sun, so we sat in this covered patio area. The place is quite informal, as you’d expect for a sandwich joint, and it was a pleasant place to have lunch that April week day.
I ordered a full size meatball po’boy ($12) and I enjoyed it very much. The meatballs were very tasty, had a good proportion of meat to breading and a soft consistency. The sandwich wasn’t overwhelmed by sauce. Half a sandwich was enough for lunch, but our hotel had a fridge and microwave, so I took the other half home for later. All in all, I was very happy with my lunch.
Eating the sandwich was a little bit hard when served, as the heat from the meatballs made the bread pretty soggy and soft, but it actually did better when reheated, as the bread had hardened and I only heated the meatballs until they were warm and not hot.
Mike had half a shrimp po’boy ($9.25) and he was very disappointed. Indeed, this was the first disappointing meal he had in our trip. He thought the shrimp had too much breading, and the breading itself lacked flavor. I don’t think he even finished it.
In all, if we were back in town we might return, but just avoid the breaded seafood sandwiches.
Olde Tyme Grocery 218 West Saint Mary Boulevard Lafayette, LA (337)235-8165 Monday-Friday 8am-10pm Saturday 9am-7pm
