Deli & ...

As I mentioned a few weeks ago, GoPago gave out a special $5 credit for Valentine's day.  While I squandered my credits on treats for myself like donuts and sweet drinks, Ojan used his to get real food.  We've been enjoying a lot of prepared salads lately, like potato salads, macaroni salads, and coleslaws, so I was excited when I saw the slew of salads offered at Deli & ... and told him we should order some for an easy dinner.  He agreed to share with me, and let me pick the salads.  I win!

Let me take a moment to pause here.  Yes, the name of the establishment is "Deli & ...".  Totally impossible to search for if you want to do some research to pick which salads to order ....

Anyway, they had a slew of great sounding salads, including "Bombay curried chicken" and "tarragon chicken".  But the ones that caught my eye were the country potato and macaroni as I've had a thing for these types of salads lately.  I couldn't decide between them, and had no idea how big a "small" or "large" were, so I didn't want to order both.  When I saw that they were the same price, I decided to order the potato salad, but put in the special comments that I'd like "half potato salad, half macaroni salad".  I figured that if they wouldn't do a mixed container, or didn't see the note, I'd still be pretty happy.

We quickly got the confirmation notification, but then the GoPago app notifier popped up again.  Uh-oh.  It was Deli & ..., telling us that they were out of potato salad, and asking if all macaroni was ok instead.  I loved that they checked with me before proceeding.  I hesitated, bummed about the potato salad, and decided to push my luck and ask for half coleslaw.  I'm really so bad at settling on just one thing!

They quickly replied again, saying sure.  The entire back and forth was so easy, and it was my first time I had this sort of interaction via GoPago.  Both the special instructions area and the back and forth messaging with the business are great features.  GoPago is doing a great job here.

The order was ready the moment I walked in, waiting at the register.  Have I mentioned how easy and convenient GoPago is?  Seriously, I love it.

1/2 macaroni salad and 1/2 coleslaw. Small.  $2.95.

I opened the container and found the coleslaw on top.  It was an interesting slaw, with crispy cabbage chunks of assorted sizes, all much larger than you find in standard slaw.  I really liked that, and appreciated how fresh and crunchy the cabbage was.  The surprising thing was the dressing, it seemed to be poppyseed based.  There were also some raisins in the mix.  It was decent slaw, but it didn't have as much flavor as I expected.  I actually think it was the addition of the poppyseeds that set my expectations that it would have more going on.  If it instead looked like standard coleslaw, I wouldn't necessarily expect it to be that flavorful.

Macaroni Salad.

Under the slaw was the macaroni salad.  It was made up of small tubes, rather than traditional elbows.  There was also chunks of crispy green peppers, carrots, and sliced green onions.  The pasta was decently cooked, but like the slaw, it just didn't really have much going on in the flavor department.  I again noted and appreciated the fresh crispy vegetables.  This stuff hadn't been sitting around for ages.  It was creamy, mayo based, but not overdressed like the version I had from A.G. Ferrari.  I ended up mixing in some of my mom's homemade zucchini relish, and it was exactly what it needed.  It added a bit of kick, and I really really enjoyed it that way.

I feel a bit like one of the people on those cooking shows who hammers on about knife cuts, but, well, the veggies in here were a bit ridiculous.  Some huge chunks of peppers, some large carrots, some tiny.  Just all different sizes, no consistent shape, totally all over the place.

Overall, both were fine, but not memorable.  The container was large, and $2.95 was a very fair price.  I'm curious how large the "large" size is!  I'd still like to try their potato salad, and I'd consider getting the macaroni salad again, but I'd plan to mix in my own relish :)