Nature Valley Granola Bars

Update Review, 2015-2020 Tastings

Since I've reviewed Nature Valley before, I'll skip an intro, but, this time I tried all different products.  Spoiler: while I still don't care for crunchy granola bars, the biscuits (aka breakfast cookies) were good!

Sweet & Salty Nut Bars

I've never been a huge fan of granola bars, as you know from my previous reviews.  In fact, I can't think of a single regular granola bar that I have ever liked ... except for Nature Valley's Sweet and Salty Nut Bars, the peanut variety.  I discovered them at Burning Man, when someone in my camp packed the peanut flavored ones, and I became hooked.  The peanut coating got crazy melty in the heat, and they were such decadent treats.

And then I didn't have another for years.  Until now.

The Sweet & Salty Nut Bars come in a number of varieties: peanut, almond, cashew, roasted mixed nut, dark chocolate, peanut & almond, and chocolate pretzel nut.  The peanut ones were the only kind I had had before, but the ones with chocolate do sound even more tempting.

Almond Sweet & Salty Nut Bar.

"Nature Valley® Sweet & Salty Almond Granola Bars are a perfect balance of chewy granola and delicious real almonds, dipped in an almond butter coating."

This time I had the almond flavor. Sure, I don't like almond butter nearly as much as peanut butter, and my fond memories were of the peanut bars, but I was traveling, and American Airlines had these in one of the Flagship lounges.  I couldn't resist, even though I knew the bar wouldn't get all melty like I wanted.

It was ... ok.  Basically a chewy granola bar, with nice crunchy almonds in it.  The almond butter coating only covered one side, and wasn't nearly as tasty as I recalled the peanut butter coating being.

This was fine, but I wouldn't get another.  It made me want a peanut one, but, they didn't ahve them, because, likely, allergies.

Biscuits

Nature Valley makes 3 varieties of biscuits (blueberry, honey, and lemon poppy seed), basically, breakfast cookies, much like Belvita (which I love!).  And then, they also make ... biscuit sandwiches.  You know, stuffed breakfast cookies.  These come with assorted butter fillings: peanut butter, almond butter, cocoa almond butter, and even coconut butter, all paired with a different flavor of biscuit (peanut butter, cinnamon, honey, toasted coconut, respectively).  I thought it was interesting that besides the simple honey flavor, these additional biscuit flavors weren't available just as biscuits.

Almond Butter.

"Biscuit boost! Two crispy biscuits made with 100% natural whole grain oats. In between, rich, creamy almond butter filling for a surge of energy."

I was shocked how much I liked this.  I'll just start there.  I guess, I did love the belVita biscuits, so maybe it isn't that surprising, but, I'm not really an almond butter fan, and the almond butter sandwich didn't sound particularly interesting, with simple cinnamon biscuits.

But it was great.  Each package contains only one biscuit sandwich, but that single biscuit sandwich is quite large, each biscuit about the size of two thin cookies, so, 4 small cookies overall.  Plus filling, of course.

The biscuits, much like the soft bars, were extremely flavorful, strong cinnamon, really strong cinnamon, but in a good way.  They were sweet, spicy, and crunchy.  Perfect breakfast cookies!

The filling too was good, fairly creamy, generous portion, sweetened honey roasted almond butter.

These reminded me a bit of a very amped up Nutter Butter - obviously almond butter and not peanut butter, and mega sized, and loaded with cinnamon, and, I was convincing myself it was a breakfast item to have with my morning coffee, but, the similarities were there.  I'm sure the peanut butter variety would be even more similar.

Overall, this was quite enjoyable, and I immediately abandoned my plans to try a bite for this review and pass off to my partner.  Nope, it was all mine.  It hit all the notes - texture of the crispy cookie and creamy filling, sweetness balanced by spicy cinnamon ... a winner.

Crunchy Granola Bars

No, I haven't suddenly decided I like crunchy granola bars, but, my partner was sent a snack box with these in it, so I gave them a try.

I still find these just not to be a product I have any particular use for.  They are *super* crispy, and I always decide to just crumble them up and use like granola or ice cream toppings.

Oats 'n Dark Chocolate.

"Energy plus indulgence. Dark chocolate pieces join forces with 16g of whole grain oats to tame your cravings and help you power through your day."

The random one included in his box was probably my second choice of flavor (peanut butter dark chocolate would be the one I wanted ...).

It was ... uh, boring?  I expected chunks of dark chocolate, but rather, it was just chocolate throughout I guess.  Honestly didn't taste any real chocolate component to it, although it has both dark chocolate and cocoa in it.

It was also really quite sweet, sweeter than I expected, I guess with sugar as the second ingredient, and honey, and brown sugar syrup both added, this makes sense.

And besides all the sweet and very mild-not-really-there chocolate, the only other things in it are whole grain oats and rice flour.  So, fairly wholesome I guess, but also, just, boring.

Sweet, crispy, I crumbled onto ice cream.  Definitely wouldn't get again.

The package has 2 bars, making up a serving, 190 calories, only 3 g protein, and 12 g sugar.  Not particularly nutritionally interesting. 

Original Review, 2014

Another Friday, another granola bar product line review.  And still, no real winners.  I keep trying!

I had hope for Nature Valley.  Many years ago, I discovered their Sweet & Salty Nut Bars, specifically, the peanut variety.  They are basic granola bars, loaded up with plentiful peanuts, and coated in this amazing salty, peanut buttery dip.  Such intense peanut flavor, perfect mix of sweet and salty, and really, really good if you let them get a bit warm, so they are soft, and the peanut butter topping gets all melty.  Such fond memories of these delicious treats!

This time around, I decided to branch out and explore the rest of Nature Valley's product line.  They make all the styles of granola bars that you would expect: standard crunchy or chewy, protein enhanced, trendy greek yogurt covered, diet style thin crisps, and even breakfast biscuits.  None of the varieties I tried this time around even remotely live up to those magic sweet and salty nut bars of my memories though.

Chewy Trail Mix Bars

The "Trail Mix" line is chewy style, loaded with different fruits and nuts.  The classic is the "fruit & nut", but they also have a more specialized Cranberry & Pomegranate and Dark Chocolate Cherry bars.

Fruit and Nut Chewy Trail Mix Bar.

"Three different kinds of nuts and seeds with dried cranberries and raisins."

 ... or so says the description.  The ingredients label however lists only two types of nuts (peanuts, almonds), not three.  And no seeds.  But yes, there were dried cranberries and raisins, in addition to the oat base.

It was very sweet, with lots of sugar syrup binding together the already sweet raisins and dried cranberries.  The only other filler was the oats.  Not really my thing.

Subsequent tasting notes: [ Meh, generic, sweet granola bar. ] [ Nuts aren’t really good quality either. ] [ It was a chewy bar, but mostly just loaded with sweet binding agent.  Did not like. ]

Protein Bars

The protein bars are classic chewy style, loaded with nuts and rice crips, plus extra protein hidden inside via my "favorite" form, soy protein isolate - yum!  They do all have tasty looking coatings.  Flavors range from coconut almond bars with a coconut flavored coating, salted caramel nut, peanut almond or peanut butter, both with chocolate chips and dark chocolate coating, and mixed berry with Greek yogurt coating.  They boast about 10 grams of protein each.

Peanut Butter Dark Chocolate Protein Bar.

"A tempting combination of roasted peanuts and luscious peanut butter, all flavored with rich dark chocolate".

They need to work on their description ... "flavored with rich dark chocolate"?  Is that supposed to sound appealing?

Anyway.  This did look pretty good, puffed rice, whole roasted peanuts, mini chocolate chips, and, although you can see it in the picture, the bottom was all coated in chocolate too.

Even though there were peanuts, I didn't taste any of the namesake peanut butter, or even just peanuts really.  The overwhelming flavor was that strange funk of soy protein isolate and whey protein, the magic ingredients turning this granola bar into a protein powerhouse with 10 grams of protein.

I didn't like this, and wouldn't get again.  Even the greatness of chocolate and peanut butter couldn't overcome the strange protein bits, unlike the actually really tasty Peanut Butter Whey Protein Fit Crunch Bar I reviewed last week.

Granola Thins

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Dark Chocolate Granola Thin.

"Delicate squares of granola with a unique, delightfully crispy texture.  Each thin is paired with a delicious melt-in-your-mouth dark chocolate flavor."

This was a very thin, very crisp granola bar with good peanut butter flavor flavor.  The chocolate layer on the bottom was decent dark chocolate.  Overall, pretty good, particularly for a crunchy style bar, which I don't normally love.  The chocolate and peanut butter combination was a winner, and the ratio of bar to chocolate was just right.

Crunchy Bars

Crunchy bars are available in a slew of flavors, ranging from the basic Oats 'n Honey to nutty (peanut butter, roasted almond, pecan) to fruity (apple crisp, coconut) to fall inspired (cinnamon, maple brown sugar).

They aren't joking when they call these "crunchy", certainly the crispiest bars I've ever found on the market.

Crunchy Peanut Butter.

"Nature Valley® Peanut Butter Crunchy Granola Bars combine whole grain rolled oats, crisp rice, and peanut butter to produce a sweet and wholesome snack."

This was crazy crisp.  I know they are called "crunchy", but I wasn't quite expecting it to be soooo crispy.

Like the granola thin, it had a really nice peanut butter flavor.  Better than most granola bars I've had lately, which makes me think that perhaps I like the crunchy ones more then chewy ones?

Subsequent tastings: [ Meh, too crunchy ] [ Very very crispy, decent peanut butter flavor ] [ Crispy, kinda honeyed peanut flavor, not bad ] [ Great when you want some serious crunch, fantastic peanut flavor, almost caramelized flavor to it. ]

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Crunchy Oat & Honey.

"Nature Valley® Oats `n Honey Granola Bars combine real honey and rolled oats, to produce a sweet, wholesome snack."

Meh, this was just a hard plain granola bar with a tiny amount of honey flavor.  It was kinda stale tasting because it was so crunchy and there was no other flavor besides the subtle honey. Certainly not for me.

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Mission Pie

Mission Pie May 2019

Another day, another abandoned pie in my office ...

Signature Box.

I went walking through the little microkitchen, just to grab a drink, to spy ... yes, a pie box.  From Mission Pie.  I already had had not one, but two desserts in the past hour (it isn't my fault someone brought in donuts right after I finished my slice of cake!), but how could I resist at least checking it out ...

Strawberry Apple Crumble (Seasonal).

Inside I found the apple strawberry crumble pie, one I last had in the fall.  It turns out to also be a spring seasonal offering, as strawberries come back into season, and apples are still available from cold storage.

I tried a little at room temperature, and ... yup, went to claim a slice for later, immediately.

Even though not new to me this time, I still find the apple and strawberry combination pretty unique, particularly given that both come in huge chunks (basically full berries and very large chunks of apple, not small slices).  Very fruit forward, but, as I always complain, very sweet.  I really wish they'd sweeten their pies less!  Otherwise, I quite like the fruit.

The crumble top was again good, and made it feel *almost* appropriate to save for breakfast, you know, fruit, oats, and all, but, the pie just is too sweet to pretend that is reasonable.

I enjoyed it much more later on, warmed up, a la mode and whipped cream (I needed both to cut the sweet, really!)

Update Review, October 2018

Mission Pie always has three pies: Banana Cream, Walnut, and Chess pie (made with seasonal fruit).  On Fridays and Saturdays they add in Chocolate Cream, and Sundays always have a fun "nostalgic" flavor.  The rest of the lineup is rounded out by seasonal pies, like the incredible Lemon Shaker pie in the winter.

I finally got a chance to try some of these signature pies, along with a end of summer/early fall seasonal offering.

As always, I wasn't into their crusts.  The crust is fine, pretty, fluted, but kinda hard, and just not very flavorful.  It is fine, really, just not really worth talking about or craving.

All pies are $4.85 per slice, or $29 for a full pie.

Walnut (Everyday Signature Pie).

"Like pecan but with California grown walnuts."

Walnut pie is not something I had prior to moving to California, but nearly every bakery here that specializes in pies has a signature walnut pie, like the Salty Honey Walnut one from Three Babes (that I don't care for, review coming soon), or the Black Bottom Walnut from Pietisserie (that I also didn't care for, review also coming soon).  Mission Pie is no different, with a walnut pie on the menu every day.

I adore pecan pie, and I don't dislike walnuts, but for some reason walnut pies often trend very bitter for me.  But Mission Pie actually didn't have this problem, as, well, I think their pies tend to be overly sweet.

I liked the walnut pie.  The custard filling was sweet and perfectly complimented the walnuts, and these nuts weren't as overly bitter as so many other bakers.  There were a good amount of large size walnuts, good ratio with the custard, not runny.

A good pie, no question.  I'd gladly have it again.  I think my third favorite of all their pies.

Best warm, and even better with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

Raspberry Chess (Seasonal Signature Pie).

Mission Pie always has a Chess pie on the menu, but rotates with seasonal fruit.  I tried the raspberry one, a summer offering.

I laughed a bit when I saw it though, the, uh, distribution of raspberries was fairly uneven.  The berries were fine, juicy pops of fruit, but I was glad to get one without much fruit, as I dislike the seeds in the berries.

But the really great part of this pie was the chess pie filling, and that I adored.  Excellent, sweet, thick custard.  Perfectly set.  A little bit of fruit in here was nice to add something interesting to the base, but I adored the base, and honestly would have been fine with just that.

I really liked this, my second favorite Mission Pie overall, still not quite unseating the Lemon Shaker.

Strawberry Apple Crumble (Seasonal).

For the summer to fall transition, Mission Pie offered up a strawberry apple pie, a strange combo that I hadn't seen before, but, makes sense.  Strawberries have a long season in California, and apples were just starting.

The apple helped cut the sweetness of the strawberry in a way that was more successful than the strawberry rhubarb pie, but this was still a very sweet pie.  I love sweet, but I think they really over-sweeten the filling, and I'm not sure why.  

I loved the crumble top, sweet streusel, very flavorful, and generous.   I loved the huge huge chunks of juicy soft strawberry, and the texture change from the chunks of apple, but, it was just too much sweet to have a lot of.  Unless of course you add lots of whipped cream and ice cream, which I did, but still, just, too sweet.

Update Review, March 2017

I don't live in, nor visit, the Mission all that often, so I've only had Mission Pie a few times.  When you ask folks who do live in the Mission about recommendations for pie though, they'll all tell you to go there.  Long before I wrote a blog I did visit in person once or twice, and I recall not really being blown away.  Since then, I've had a couple chances to try Mission Pie when a co-worker has nicely brought it in, like the strawberry-rhubarb pie I had mixed feelings on, or the very delicious Peach Blackberry Crumble Pie.  But still, not somewhere I seek out normally.

I'll skip all the details about Mission Pie since I've covered that in past reviews (all butter crust, 2/3 wheat flour, yadda, yadda), and just focus on the pie I tried this time around.

Mission Pie!

Just like my previous chances to try Mission Pie, this one began with an e-mail: "Pie in the microkitchen!"  The sender didn't say where the pie came from, nor what kind of pie it was.  And I was in the middle of a TRX class when it arrived.  It was about 30 minutes after the e-mail when I was able to seek out pie for myself.

I turned the corner, and saw boxes of pie.  Yes!  The boxes said Mission Pie on them.  Yes!  But ... most were entirely empty, not even a stray crust remained.  There was just one box left with anything in it, with a handwritten sign that said "Shaker Lemon".  Doh.  30 minutes is a long time in the world of exra pie.

I'll be honest - I almost just turned away.  I remembered having mixed feelings on Mission Pie.  But, moreover, I just don't like lemon desserts.  And, I was coming straight from the gym, I shouldn't really dash right for the pie ... right?  Yeah right.

I decided I'd take a small piece, just to try it.  I took my little slice, grabbed a fork, and started walking away.   I took one bite, and then promptly turned back.  And took a "real" slice, you know, a "this pie serves 6 people only" sort of slice.

Shaker Lemon Pie. $27/pie.

"Meyer lemons (rind and all!), sugar, eggs and that's it! Sweet, tart and unaccountably delicious!"

I didn't know what Shaker Lemon Pie was before I tried this pie.  I didn't know that you could make citrus pies that weren't just a curd or custard filling.  I didn't know that I could like a lemon pie.  And then I tried this.

It was strange, I'll start with that.  Shaker lemon pie, if you are also unfamiliar, has thin slices of whole lemons in it.  Peel and all.  It is tart and it is chewy from the rinds, but also sweet, as the fruit is macerated in sugar, and there is a bit of quasi-custard to hold it all together.  The flavor is not mild, so you have to like lemon, which I do ... just not usually in desserts.  I'm starting to think that perhaps I just don't like lemon curd, and that is the common way lemon shows up in dessert?  Anyway, it took a bit of getting used to, such strong flavor, tart and sweet, but really quite delicious.

The crust however was fairly meh.  Double crusted, lovely sugar topping, thick, well sculpted back crust, but, it tasted a bit dry and I wasn't into the whole wheat nature.  The crust sure looked great, but didn't really deliver, and certainly not in the way I remembered from previous Mission Pie pies.

But that filling.  It was pretty spectacular, and I'd gladly get it again.  

Thank you Mission Pie, for showing me that I can I like lemon desserts.

Update Review, October 2015

If you didn't read my original Mission Pie review, I suggest you start there, and then return to this update, since I'm skipping the background this time around.  See "Original Review, June 2015" below.

One Friday in July, a mere month after I published my original review of Mission Pie, I was sitting at my desk when an e-mail with a very appealing subject line showed up: "Peach and berry pie in the kitchen".

It had the following explanation: "I was at Mission Pie on my way to work and it looked awesome so I got one.  Because Friday.  Help yourselves.   Its still warm."

I love my coworkers.  Now, it was only 9:30am, but I rushed to the kitchen area.  Pie is totally legit breakfast, particularly if it has fruit, right?

Peach Blackberry Crumble Pie.

I apologize for this photo.

As I mentioned, I dashed to the kitchen moments after seeing the e-mail at 9:30am, and there was indeed a whole, hot, fresh pie.

I grabbed my slice, made a cup of coffee to enjoy alongside, went back to my desk to savor it, and then returned to take a photo.  I don't think it was more than 20 minutes later.  Definitely still before 10am.  And ... this is what was left.  Turns out, others were just as shameless as I was about eating pie for breakfast, and it was nearly gone.

For good reason.  This was a very good pie.

Inside were huge chunks of peach and blackberries.  The fruit was crazy sweet, definitely sweetened, but still quite tasty.  It really needed some whipped cream or ice cream on the side to counter it, which, if you got it at the shop itself, they would serve it with.

The topping was delicious, sweet, crunchy, and the perfect crisp topping.  The crust was buttery and flaky.

Overall a winner, and I love this concept of getting the best of both a crisp and a pie in one dessert.  Pie crust AND crisp topping.  YES!

I'd definitely eat this again.

Original Review, June 2015

Mission Pie is, you guessed it, a pie shop, located in the Mission.

Apparently they also sell some savories, such as soups and salads, plus quiches, pot pies, galettes, and tarts, although I'd argue that quiche, pot pie, galettes, and tarts are basically pies themselves, even if savory.  To go alongside your pie you can also get coffee or tea, or, if you stop in earlier in the day, they make scones and muffins too.  But basically, they make pie.

They do care about sourcing, and use local and organic ingredients as much as possible, even including the flour.  The pies use an all butter crust, which they make in large batches and then hand roll (except for vegan varieties, that use coconut and conola oil).  You might not expect a company whose business is pie making to care about health, but they do purposely use 1/3 white and 2/3 whole wheat flour and not too much sugar.

I was really excited when Mission Pie came to San Francisco, because, well, dessert.  And people all raved about it constantly.  Hype was high when they opened, and I eventually trekked all the way to the Mission for it.

I remember not being very impressed.  I visited perhaps two or three times a few years ago, and then moved on, and haven't thought about Mission Pie since.  But, recently, a co-worker showed up with a fresh whole pie, so I was eager to try again.

I also dug  up the tasting notes I somehow still have, from when I tried the banana cream pie, clearly something I got with Ojan, since it is often a favorite of his.  My notes were simple: "Not very good.  Crust not yummy.  Pudding layer totally generic.  Whipped cream totally generic".  Hmm, I wasn't impressed!  I hoped this time would be better.

And indeed it was.  I'm glad my co-worker brought the pie in, because now I'm eager to try Mission Pie again.

Strawberry Rhubarb, 9 inch, $24.

If you've read my blog for a while, you might recall how I feel about rhubarb in general.  It was the ingredient that ruined jam for me as a child.  I still have a thing against it.  So I wasn't thrilled when I saw the variety of pie my co-worker had chosen, but still, I persevered.

The pie did not have not the tartness I expect from rhubarb, although there were generous chunks of nicely cooked down rhubarb (and strawberries of course).  The fruit was in a very thick sauce, which I think was highly sugared, even though they claim they don't use much sugar.  The filling was far to sweet to be just from the strawberries alone.

It was double crusted.  The top crust was perfect, although the edges were pretty crisp.  It had a rich butteriness that reminded me of a croissant.  I guess all butter crust will do that.  The bottom crust was quite doughy, not actually cooked through, but, I liked it that way.

Right after lunch I had a slice alongside a cup of black coffee, and it totally satisfied my sweet tooth.  The super sweet pie plus the black coffee made for a great pairing.  However, when I went for a second slice later, it was just too sweet for me.  It clearly needed whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream, to cut the sweetness (which I would have gotten if in the shop itself).

You can get pie by the slice ($4), or a whole 9 inch for $24.  If you get a slice in store, it comes with complimentary Straus Family Creamer organic whipped cream, or you can add Strauss vanilla ice cream for $1.50, and I'd clearly opt for at least one of those with this pie.

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Saison Smokehouse

If you are a Michelin stared restaurant, what do you do in the days of COVID, particularly when there was *no* indoor nor outdoor dining allowed?  Well, most closed, and hoped they could ride it out.  But the owners of Michelin-starred Angler and Michelin two-star Saison had other plans.

The pivoted.  In a major way.  And introduced a whole new restaurant concept, Saison Smokehouse, operating out of the Angler kitchen.  They offered takeout only when it was the only option, and immediately opened some patio seating once they were able, right along the Embarcadero.  They also added a larder, selling their condiments, different styles of bbq sauce, pork cracklings, bone broth, and more.  The only item from either the Angler or Saison menu that stayed on?  The embered caramel frosty.

To say the concept has been a hit is an understatement.  People have been *raving* about this as legit BBQ.  Nearly every menu item is met with accolades - the best brisket, the best biscuits, the best pastrami, etc.  Even if I wasn't really craving BBQ, I was drawn in by a few side items.  I would gladly order again, or return for patio dining.  I'm very curious what will happen as dining opens back up ... will they keep the concept?  It is so very different from what either Saison or Angler had before ...

Setting

During the shelter-in-place and restaurant closure in San Francisco, Saison Smokehouse set up shop in a prominent location: inside Angler, the sister establishment of Saison, right on the Embarcadero, just 10 minutes from my house.  I took advantage of the location randomly one evening, when the weather wasn't awful, and I wanted to grab a snack.  

Some Dining!

My visit was the first week that outdoor dining was allowed in San Francisco, and Saison Smokehouse took advantage, with a few tables out on the sidewalk.

I got takeout however, and it was ready quickly through Caviar.

Side note: Stuck doing a lot of takeout and delivery these days? Want to try some free food and new pickup or delivery services?  Here are some codes for free money!

• Door Dash ($15 off, $5 each of your first 3 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Caviar ($20 off, $10 off your first 2 orders) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Ritual ($6 off) [ Pickup only ]
• Delivery.com ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Grub Hub ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]

Food

The concept is BBQ.  Casual, approachable, BBQ.  With, um, some seriously talented chefs backing it.

Menu.

The menu stars two large, customizable set meals, designed to feed multiple people (the "Red Meal" for $75 and the "Gold Meal" for $140), with your choice of proteins, your choice of sides, and of course, their biscuits, slaw, pickles, and the frostys.  

There are additional sides, sandwiches (think: smoked pork belly cubano!), and the larder items, available as well.  Sides are kicked up a notch or two though, the collards have ham hocks, the mac and cheese is made with local cheeses from wine country and orecchiette pasta, the slaw has wild fennel vinegar as the base, the barbecue beans come from Rancho Gordo, etc.

Takeout Snack: Biscuits & Pickles. $8.

Yeah, yeah, I went to a BBQ joint, and ... didn't get the BBQ.  For one, I'm not really a BBQ girl normally, although I certainly would be happy to try this, but really, the portions of the BBQ are huge, and I was alone, so, I opted to just get a snack.

I almost got a few other sides, trying their beans, or the mac and cheese, but decided to keep it simple, get my biscuits and pickles (cravings!) and go home to eat more dinner.

Everything was packaged nicely.

Grandma's Buttermilk Biscuits and Honey Butter. Half order. $6.

The biscuits were served hot, which delighted me.  I wasn't sure if takeout would be room temp / cold in general, for you to bring home and reheat or not.  The moment I felt the bag and felt the warmth, I was quite pleased.  The honey butter was actually not packaged in with the biscuits, so it wouldn't melt.  Good call on their part.

A half order of biscuits is 2 biscuits, served with a half container only of honey butter.  $6.  Price seemed reasonable, $3 per biscuit for a Michelin star biscuit?  A full order of 4 is $11.  This amount of honey butter however was not sufficient (more on that soon).

Grandma's Buttermilk Biscuits: THE LAYERS!

I will admit, the biscuits sure did look pretty amazing.  I mean, look at those layers!   Crisp perfectly golden exterior.

Grandma's Buttermilk Biscuits: DENSE!

But they weren't actually layered and flaky within.  I was really quite surprised at the texture.  They were moist, but very very dense.  And very, very heavy.  Loaded, loaded, loaded with butter I'm sure.

I think for this style biscuit, it was a very good biscuit.  Flawless, in the baking, no question.  But I was wanting / expecting either something more flaky and layered, or more crumbly.  This kind of biscuit isn't quite what I was going for.

I also wanted to taste more of the buttermilk?  I love a tangy biscuit, and this really didn't have much tang at all.

So I was kinda saddened by the biscuit.  I could tell it had good pedigree, but it just wasn't really the style for me.  Luckily, the best part was still to come, and made it enjoyable, nonetheless.

Honey Butter.

Yeah, the honey butter.  Of course honey butter is good, but this *really* good.  3 Michelin star honey butter!  Heh.

As fluffy as it gets, and the sweetness level was just nailed.  I adored it, really.  I literally used this entire tub on a single biscuit, but luckily I devoured it nearby, so I could return and ask for more.  Yes, yes, I did.  Gulp.  Don't judge.  I loved this stuff.

Country Pickle. $2.

I also have been really craving pickles, so I wanted to see what they did for pickles.  The menu listed them sold whole, but it actually was 3 spears - I guess that does make a whole pickle together.  

They were fine pickles.  Good crunch. Nice acid level.  But nothing particularly notable.  Good if you want some acid and crunch with your food, sure. 

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JAL Sakura Lounge, Haneda Airport, Tokyo

Update Review, September 2019 Visit

It had a several year hiatus in visiting Tokyo, so this review is very past due!  For a more detailed overview, see my original 2014 review and my update 2017 review.

In the few years since my last visit, many aspects of the lounge and the offerings, remained unchanged.  The biggest update? More desserts!  Which, if you know me, is always a good thing. 

Savory

The savory spread at the JAL lounge is fair extensive, with options for whatever mood you are in, ranging from simple soup/sandwich/salad, to dim sum, to hearty Italian comfort food.

The lounge menu changes quarterly, just like the flight menus, and is posted online in advance, so I knew what to expect.  The only thing different was the sushi ... there was none, which was disappointing as it was supposed to feature eel.

Shumai.

The lineup started with shumai, which I remembered from my previous visit.

I did again like the wrappers on the shumai, particularly the ones that were more dried out (I know, its strange, but I like them that way!).  The filling though was just a big hard ball of meat.

I appreciated the soy and vinegar on the side.

Lasagna Style Gratin

.

Now this just made me laugh.

"Lasagna"?  It was rigatoni with tomato sauce and cheese melted on top.  I guess that is "lasagna style" ...

The sauce was not remarkable, the pasta was kinda mush, and the cheese was lackluster too.  Lower quality than most buffets.  Not a high point for Japan Airlines.

Meatball Mustard Flavor

.

I didn't have the meatball, but I did try the sauce.

It was a mustard cream sauce, not bad.

Beef Curry.

I finally tried the famous JAL beef curry.  People seem to rave about it.  A feature of every JAL lounge.

And ... I'll admit, it has great flavor.  There wasn't much beef in it, but the beef that was there was tender and flaked apart nicely.

Pickles.

I topped it with the provided pickles, and with some tempura from the noodle station, and thought it was pretty nice that way.  I liked it more than I expected.

Undon Station.

I didn't try the miso or borscht-style soups, nor the udon, but I gladly at the toppings - tempura bits, fish cake, pickled things ....

Salad Wrap: Ham & Cheese.

Ok, yes I tried one of these.

No I don't like sandwiches or wraps but ... my office had grab and go wraps that looked exactly like these, same paper wrapper and all, and I kinda loved them, um, because they were like 70% mayo.  Sooo much mayo, delicious Japanese mayo, and I didn't really care what else was in them, as the lettuce/carrots/etc and mayo were delicious enough to carry any sandwich.

I thought this would be the same, and it did have mayo, but, it really was just a ham and cheese wrap, not the most exciting.

Salad Bar.

The salad bar had a couple different salad bases, grilled chicken, and fusilli pasta to add on, a couple dressings, plus shrimp summer rolls.

I didn't try anything from here.

Lounge Snack: Round 1.

For my first round, I opted for a bit of the curry (good!  Particularly with toppings!), a shumai (also good, at least the wrapper), and the aforementioned lackluster "lasagna", plus some of the snack mix (super flavorful rice cracker mix in assorted shapes and sizes, definitely like).

I had a glass of of not very good wine, and then moved on to sweets ....

Sweets & Baked Goods

The sweet lineup isn't really a high point for the lounge, but, it was better than last I was there.

Pastries.

"Apricot Fromage Danish / Macadamia Muffin / Plain Scone / Matcha Green Tea Scone / Madelines"

I love that the baked goods are not limited to the morning hours.  Available all day.  The lineup was entirely different from last I visited.

Maison Kayser Croissants / Baguettes.

Well, besides the basics, croissants and baguettes, which were unchanged.  I didn't try them again.

"

Moderation?

You know me and baked goods .  I had no choice to to try them all.  After all, I knew there were no breakfast carbs available on my flight (!), and the dessert options on the flight all had caffeine, so I needed to stock up.

I know this is technically against the rules, but I did save the muffin and scones for breakfast on my flight, and the danish and madeline for dessert after my meal, so its not like I was hoarding them to bring home ...

Apricot Fromage Danish

,

The danish ... was really not good.  The pastry was incredibly dry and stale, although slightly crispy on the outside, in a dried out way, not a good flaky pastry way.  Really, worse pastry than even standard for airline lounges / hotel buffets / etc.

The filling was fine, kinda a custard that had a decent apricot flavor to it.

But yeah, not a good item.

Madeline.

Madelines are never something I'm excited about, and this was no exception.  A decently moist, but very plain, little cake.

For me, cake is a vessel for frosting or ice cream, and without either ... why?  At least, that is how I feel.  So I brought it on my flight, and added ice cream, which made it better, but this was still pretty boring to me.

Matcha Green Tea Scone.

The scones were biscuit style.

The plain one was ... well, plain, and there was no cream to go with, only butter and jam packets.  Slight tang to it, not awful, but not exciting.  I brought the rest of it on my flight, and had it a la mode with the excellent custard pudding ice cream, and that was quite a winner.

The matcha green tea one was better on its own, although it did have a strong bitter green tea taste.  I liked the little white chocolate chips in it.

Macadamia Muffin

This was the worst of the items.

Odd flavor, tasted very fake if that makes sense, certainly not fresh, and ... there weren't any bits of macadamia in it.

Almond Jelly.

The almond jelly hiding in the salad bar was ... fine.

It didn't actually taste like almond, and the different colors were indistinguishable from each other taste-wise, but it was pleasant enough.

Taiyaki!

I had seen photos of the taiyaki, and was thrilled to see that they were provided during my visit, in two varieties: custard and red bean.

They had instructions to heat in the provided toaster for a minute.

These clearly weren't fresh, but the toaster helped warm and crisp them up.  The exterior pancake was fine, but not amazing.

The custard really was decent - thick, slightly vanilla, pudding.  I'm a sucker for custard though.

The red bean filling was less exciting, just standard sweetened red bean, which I had a lot of on the trip, so I was kinda over.

So, mediocre taiyaki, tasty custard, standard red bean.  Uniquely Japanese, and I was glad to see it in the lounge.

Update Review,  September 2017

The Space

The JAL lounge is huge, made up of many different rooms, on two stories.  Much like the entire Haneda airport, it felt strangely vacant, not in a deserted way necessarily, just in a not really being utilized way.

It offered every style of seating (comfortable lounge chairs, dining tables, high tables, counters, desks, a quite room, a tv room, etc), and was well designed with power outlets everywhere.  Clearly very modern. 

Free Lockers!

Right when you walk in to the lounge, there is a large section of storage lockers.  Complete with locks and keys.  Free of charge.  It was easy to get a locker, there were plenty.

Um, wow.  Why do all lounges not have these?  It was such an amazing feeling to be able to walk around unencumbered, and not worry about my belongings.  A single locker easily fit my roller bag and laptop.  

There was a second room full of these on the upper floor.

Window Seating.

The number of styles of seating was amazing, and each area, completely wide open.  Along the windows, with a stunning view of the runways at night, was a high counter with bar stools.

This was wonderfully designed space, with plenty of power outlets, and a nice standing option for those who were sick of sitting on flights.

Interior Seating.

Of course, if you prefer to sit, there are plenty of options for comfortable seating as well.

More Seating.

The round semi-circles were particularly fascinating.

Dining Area.

Even the dining area had power outlets at every seat.

Drinks

Drinks were all self-serve, no bar.

Soft drinks, juices, tea, coffee, beer, wine, sake, hard alcohol, an impressive collection overall.

Hard Alcohol, Wine, Sake.

A nice selection of hard alcohol, chilled white and red wine, and two types of sake were laid out.

I enjoyed the sake.

Beer on Tap.

Two types of beer were on tap, with chilled beer glasses in the fridge.  They clearly take the beer seriously!

Drinks.

The middle shelves held pitchers of JAL's signature Sky Time, Water, Tomato Juice, Iced Tea, Iced Coffee, and a sweet drink. On the bottom was tonic, on top, the aforementioned chilled beer glasses.

I was impressed with the iced coffee offering.

Soft Drinks.

The soda dispenser had an interest assortment: Coke, soda water, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Real Gold (an energy drink), Minute Maid Juices (orange, and ... melon?), and something that looked like tea.

I appreciated the soda water dispenser, although would have preferred bottles.

Food

The food selection was very extensive at my mid-afternoon visit.  Japanese selections, Western selections, soups and salads, and even some shockingly good dim sum.  Dessert was the only meager offering.

Everything was exceptionally well labelled, in Japanese and English, with full nutrition information on every card.

Udon Soup Broth / Pickled Plum / Pickled radish.

The first station was an area to make your own udon soup bowls, with broth, noodles, and toppings.

I tried a bunch of the assorted pickles, here and at subsequent stations.  None were particularly good.

Udon Noodles & Toppings.

The second half of the noodles station had the noodles themselves already in bowls, and more toppings: seasoned and sliced deep fried tofu, fish cakes, boiled mountain herbs, and bits of deed fried tempura batter.

I tried the later two, and again, not really very good.  To be fair, I had spent the entire past two weeks eating these sorts of items daily at breakfast and lunch, so, I might have just grown tired of them, but these didn't seem to be of very high quality.

Miso Soup / Pickled Scallions / Sliced Vegetables  Pickled in Soy Sauce.

Next came miso soup, and more pickled stuff, again, not remarkable.

Rice.

And of course, steamed rice.

Chuka-don (Chop suey on rice).

The chop suey didn't look particularly good, very, buffet steam tray quality, if you know what I mean.

Fresh Salad Bar.

The salad bar wasn't very extensive, just mixed greens, mini tomatoes, shelled edamame, corn, 4 types of dressing.  And fruit cocktail, the kind that looks like from a can.

Parker House Rolls, Ham, Mayo.

This was a build-your-own sandwich station, complete with instructions ... I'm not kidding.

Step 1: "Please take a parker-house-roll and ingredients".
Step 2: "Open a parker-house-roll".
Step 3: "Put ingredients.  Enjoy your parker-house-roll sandwich!"

Uh.

Creamy Tomato Soup / Japanese-Style Soup with Mushroom and Potato.

I did not try either of the soups, but they had a western option (creamy tomato) and a Japanese-style soup.

Tatsutaage Fried Chicken (Ginger Soy Sauce)

I didn't try the fried chicken bites.

Spaghetti with 5 Mushrooms.

I love assorted mushrooms, so this was actually pretty exciting looking to me.

The pasta was fine, not too mushy, but not particularly good.   But those mushrooms?  Super slimy, and not enjoyable.  I wished it had more sauce too.

On the side was parmesan cheese, salt, pepper, and hot sauce.

Shrimp Dumplings.

The dim sum however was shockingly good.

The shrimp dumplings were great.  The wrapper was soft and pliable, the filling flavorful, with crispy bits of veggies in the mix with the shrimp as well.

I was impressed with the quality of these items, and with the fact that they had soy sauce and vinegar on the side to make dipping sauce.

Pork Shumai.

The pork sui mai was extremely greasy, but the wrapper was great.  Again, really impressive for a buffet. 

Maison Kayser Breads & Toaster Oven.

JAL has a partnership with Maison Kayser for baked goods, served both on board and in the lounge.

The lounge lineup was: Croissant, Baguette, Strawberry Danish, Cinnamon Roll, Takana Bread, and Mini Apple Cream Bread.

A toaster oven was on the side for warming if you wished.

Cinnamon Roll.

This I tried warming up in the toaster oven, which was actually kinda nice, although it got strangely moist.

The cinnamon roll wasn’t great though, not flaky, not laminated, and, well, it didn’t have any icing, a key component to a cinnamon roll in my mind.

Mini Apple Cream Bread.

This one was actually wonderful.

A soft, slightly sweet bun, shiny outside.  Inside was a lovely custard cream and bits of apple.  Apple isn’t what I would choose, but, the cream filling was so good I didn’t mind.

Quite tasty, the best thing I ate in the lounge, suitable for breakfast, alongside a coffee, or even as a dessert.

Takana Bread.

This was … a surprise.

A soft bun, not sweet like the apple cream bread.  Sesame seeds on top.

The real surprise was the filling.  It was not sweet.  It was very savory.  Bitter even.  Bitter greens, spiced with curry perhaps?  I clearly didn’t know what “takana” was.

It turns out, it is pickled mustard leaf, which I learned much later.  Yup, that sounds right.  Bitter greens, that seemed spiced.

This was actually pretty good, just entirely not what I was expecting.

Cookies.

The only dessert offerings were cookies.  Hard style, chocolate chip and butter.

Rice Cracker Mix.

Finally, snack mix, located on the side with the drinks.

Rice Cracker Mix!

As you often read, I love snacks.  American Airlines probably generally wins this category for the snack mixes in the lounges, but, I'm generally just a fan of anything salty and crunchy.

The snack mix was a fairly generic offering of soy (?) flavored boomerangs and a few crunchier rice seasoned rice crackers.  Nothing extraordinary, but not stale, and I certainly enjoyed munching on it alongside a drink.

Original Review, September 2014

As you've been reading on Tuesdays for weeks now, I went on a business trip to Tokyo.  It concluded with what I am sure will go down as history as one of the most memorable experiences of my life: a flight back, via Hong Kong, on Cathay Pacific, First Class.

The start of my epic journey began at the Haneda airport.  I was glad to fly out of Haneda, as it is much closer to Tokyo than Narita, and, much, much smaller.  While there wasn’t much to do once I got through security, I appreciated the fact that there were no lines to check in, no lines for security, and it was all a relatively calm experience.

After quickly poking around the very few shops, I headed to the the JAL Sakura Lounge. Unfortunately, the first class lounge was closed for renovation, and Cathay Pacific shares the JAL lounge.

My only other comparison point for JAL lounges is the one in SF, which is ridiculously unimpressive, so the Haneda one was a welcome surprise.  It still wasn’t really the calibre I’d expect from the lounge of the flagship operator of the airport, but like I said, Haneda is a small airport, and I’m not sure JAL even has First Class flights out of there.

I think there were showers, but I didn’t check them out.  Bathrooms were nice enough, but standard.

Window counter seating, table seating.

I was stuck by how large the lounge was, particularly for the small airport.  It wasn’t even remotely full.  There were many seating options.  Counters along the window with viewing areas of the runways, all with power jacks.  Tables, mostly for 2, with assorted types of seats.

Soft Seating Area.

Softer seating of armchairs and couches took up the rest of the main area, along with space for workstations, and a large section deemed the "quiet area", not that it was loud anywhere.

At the entrance was a bar, but there was an additional bar area with the food station, which I went to explore, even though I wasn't that hungry.

The food station was quite large, particularly compared with the SF one.  It had a rather strange assortment of food.  I was particularly surprised that it didn’t have onigiri, as the SF one did, and this seemed to be the most common snack food all over Tokyo.  I had been looking forward to having one final one!

Rice, toppings, sushi.

Starting at one end were steamers full of rice, with toppings like ume and pickles.  And sushi rolls … but beef sushi only.  Is this normal?  (Sorry for the blurry photo, I was trying to take photos quickly so as not to look like a wierdo ...)

Soups, noodles

There were also a couple soups, noodles, and ... cornflakes.  Odd items to have grouped together!  I guess they all go in bowls?

Hot Dishes.

Then there were strange hot dishes that I couldn’t identify at all.  Honestly, no idea what these were.

Steamed Veggies.

Next, cold steamed vegetables.

I tried the winter squash, since I love squash.  It was well cooked I guess, but just squash.

Salads.

The next station was a bit more familiar to me, with salads and dressings.

Most impressive were the salads.  I had one with hijiki seaweed, beans, and some veggies.  It was fresh, well seasoned, and a great last taste of Japanese cuisine.  A bit fishy from bonito flakes, but in a good way.

I also had the lotus root, pumpkin, and apple salad.  Such a strange combo.  I love lotus, and this was fresh and crisp.  The pumpkin was mushy, a bit like a sauce.  I liked that too.  The apple was crisp, but I’m not really a fan of apple, and I don’t see how it fit in here.

My favorite station of the lineup.

More Hot Dishes.

Next were hot dishes, a beef curry and assorted dim sum.  All had ingredients I didn’t like, and I wasn’t hungry, so I skipped these.

There was also a bread selection, which I’d read about previously, since they feature selections from the Parisian bakery Maison Kayser.  Unfortunately, since it was afternoon, the lounge didn't have any of the pastries I’d read about, and just 3 types of bread instead: ciabatta, le delice blanc, and baguette monge.  Boo.  I skipped these.

Savory Baked Goods.

This area also contained tuna pizza.  What?  Beef in the sushi, tuna on the pizza ....

And a tuna bread thing.  The only thing I tried from this area was a blueberry pastry, but it was dried out, burnt, flavorless, and not good at all.  Presumably left over from breakfast?

Snacks, coffee, tea, soda.

On the final side were little snacks, like generic chocolate covered graham crackers, and snack mix.  I love snack mixes, but this wasn’t very good, mostly fairly plain rice crackers, with a few peanuts, and not particularly flavorful wasabi peas.

Overall, nothing that great here, but a far better selection than the SF lounge.

The drink selection was also better.

Juice, milk, beer.

There was beer on tap (I know this is what my co-workers must have gone for!), with cold beer glasses in the fridge.

Also in the fridge was juices, and pitchers of their famous Sky Time cocktail.  I had to try that, and it was good, not too sweet, refreshing.

Hard Alcohol, Wine, Sake.

 There were also a couple red wines, a small but decent hard alcohol selection, and sake.

Chilled  Sake.

And chilled sake.

I spent about an hour in the lounge, and it was comfortable enough, but not really notable.  An announcement was made that my flight was boarding, so I jumped up, and went to my gate.

Massage Chairs, in a Separate Room.

Right before boarding, I spent the last few minutes in the massage chair room.  Not as nice as other lounges that have real massage services, but a nice touch.  The chair was highly confusing however, even the attached manual didn't help much.  No food or drinks allowed in this area.

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