Truly Good Foods Snacks

Truly Good Foods is a snack food manufacturer, that makes a vast array of mostly savory snack foods, ranging from nuts or dried fruits to sesame sticks, bagel chips, corn nuts, veggie chips, pretzels, soy beans, edamame, and tons, and tons, of mixes.

"We have been manufacturing fresh, high-quality snack mixes for 40 years. With over 60 unique blends that are blended fresh daily, there is a perfect snack mix for every business."

60 different blends?!  Yeah, that's a lot of snack mixes.  I clearly haven't tried them all, but, I tried a decent assortment.  And, these are good products.

They also have a retail line, distributed mostly in convenience stores, but every time I've had them, it has been in bulk.

Sweet

While the majority of Truly Good Foods items are savory, a number of the mixes will call out to the sweet tooth, with chocolate, marshmallows, sweet coatings, and dried fruits making a number of appearances.

Campside Crunch Mix.

"One taste of this snack mix and you’re transported to your childhood by the campfire.

A blend of honey graham toasters, chocolate chunks,  mini marshmallows and dried strawberries."

Honey graham crackers + bittersweet chocolate + white chocolate coated mini marshmallows + dried strawberries.  Oh yes. This stuff is totally addicting.

Mini marshmallows, coated in white chocolate.  Sweet, gooey, and my favorite component.  But wait, then there are chunks of bittersweet chocolate, good quality.  Great to alternate (or combine!) with the white chocolate marshmallows.  Second favorite component, or, wait, no, sometimes my favorite.  And then, just to add some chew, no, not awful raisins nor dried cranberries, but dried strawberries, bigger, chewier, fruitier.  Also my favorites.  The chocolate covered strawberry thing goes into full effect when you combine the strawberries and chocolate.  Plus, then you are having fruit right?

The only component I could do without is the honey graham crackers, basically cereal, but that is because I don't like cereal, nor graham crackers, so, this was never going to be something I wanted.

Overall, a wonderful mix, and very dangerous to have around.  Great to munch on, or use as a topping on ice cream or frozen yogurt.  I also later discovered that adding soy milk to it makes for a fabulous bowl of totally totally unhealthy cereal ... (in which case, I do appreciate the grahams in it at least?).

They also make a version of this called "S’mores and More", which has all of the same ingredients, plus peanuts (which we didn't have because, allergies). That sounds fantastic too.

This is one of my absolute favorites.

Sweet Caroline® (No Peanuts).

"What makes this mix so delicious? Just like the song (So Good! So Good!), this is a wicked good snack mix. Sweet Caroline® is a crunchy mix that makes the perfect sweet treat. It has honey roasted sesame sticks, butter toasted peanuts, honey roasted almonds, honey roasted peanuts, and banana chips."

This mix normally has peanuts, but, our version does not, sadly (I feel for the folks with allergies, I do, but, ... I love peanuts and wanted butter toasted AND honey roasted peanuts!).

It was ... fine.  But it really did feel like it was missing something - the sesame sticks were quite sweet (as you'd expect, honey roasted), the banana chips I mostly picked around as they aren't my thing, and the honey roasted almonds were fine, but, were also quite sweet, and I wanted them to be a more interesting nut.

It felt a bit one note to me, but was nice to sprinkle into salad (yeah, yeah, sweets and salads, not necessarily what you think of as a good combo ...).

Neopolitan Mix (mislabeled, clearly)

"Like the classic ice cream flavor, you get the best of all worlds.

Neapolitan Mix tastes like your favorite chocolate, strawberry and vanilla flavors.  The snack mix consists of strawberry yogurt raisins, chocolate brownie bites and yogurt pretzels balls."

I'm a bit obsessed with this mix.  I first discovered it at The Lounge, Boston Logan Airport, Terminal C, of all places.  It looked like any other snack mix, likely filled with hard raisins (meh!), and flavorless yogurt coatings, but, it was so much more.  I later discovered that it is made by Truly Good Snacks Foods, so, including a review here as well, for completeness.

The white things are not yogurt covered raisins or peanuts, as I expected, but rather ... pretzels!  I loved them, crunchy inside and creamy coating, although not particularly "vanilla" flavored.  The pretzel ball inside is salted, so this burst of salt comes through once you bite in, which makes for a magic sweet and salty bite when combined with the sweet white yogurt coating.

The brown ones are *also* not just peanuts or raisins, but instead, chocolate covered brownie bites!  They were awesome combined with the pretzels, and pretty great on their own too.

The pink ones however *are* yogurt covered raisins, and they did not taste like strawberry as promised.  Meh to those.

Overall though, a winner, and I found it way too easy to devour handfuls of the non-raisins.  The perfect thing to munch on alongside your coffee in the morning.  Or for an afternoon pick-me-up.

[ No Photo ]

PB&J

"This mix brings back nostalgic memories of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

PB&J Mix® encapsulates that flavor with an added crunch. One bite and you’ll be hooked. PB&J Mix® includes PB&J flavored peanuts, cherry flavored cranberries, and peanut butter drops."

I really like the peanut butter chips in this, and kinda even like the cherry flavored cranberries, but strangely, the peanuts I don't like.  They are just ... plain.

But still, totally worth having around, just to pick out the peanut butter chips if nothing else.

Savory & Savory Mixes

But most of the 60+ mixes are savory, some even try to sound healthy.

Snacks!

Chia ReCharged Stix Mix (leftmost above)
"Chia is one of the hottest superfoods right now and this mix is a tasty way to get the health benefits.  Chia ReCharged Stix Mix™ is part of our ReCharge® line of natural snack mixes that contain antioxidant benefits. It’s a savory and sweet mix with chia sticks, cranberries, roasted and salted almonds, dark chocolate chunks, yogurt raisins, low sugar, no sulfur pineapple and white cocoa chips."

This was actually really good - despite the chia focus in the name, which I'll admit almost scared me away.

The almonds were nicely roasted and salted, above average, and had a nice flavor to them.  The chia sticks were extremely satisfying, crunchy, salty, and the chia flavor didn't bother me at all.  The dried pineapple and cranberries I even enjoyed for a bit of chew and sweetness.  The dark chocolate chunks were tiny but felt like "winning" a prize every time I got one, clearly good quality dark chocolate, and I adored the little white chocolate chips, pleasantly sweet, and I was thrilled they were white chocolate, not yogurt.

This blend really had it all - sweet, savory, crunchy, chewy, and I found it far, far, far too craveable and munchworthy.  The kind of snack you *don't* want to have around your house, for your own good.  Because ... it is perfect any time of day.  Early morning?  "Oh hey, it has fruit, totally legit pre-breakfast".  Mid-afternoon?  "Look, I'm responsible, I just need a little protein, it has almonds.".  In a slump?  "I just need a little sugar/chocolate boost ...".  Yup, it happens.

Dark Chocolate Energy Boost (middle above)
"Dark Chocolate Energy Boost™ is part of our ReCharge® line of snack mixes that contain antioxidant benefits. It’s the perfect midday pick-me-up with almonds, cranberries, low sugar, no sulfur pineapple, dark chocolate raisins, dark chocolate espresso beans, dark chocolate probiotic cranberries, and dark chocolate chunks."

Next up, a similar mix to the Chia ReCharged, another ReCharge line product, the "Dark Chocolate Energy Boost".  Much more chocolate forward, as you'd expect.

It contains the same well roasted flavorful almonds, sweet and chewy and not-too-dried out cranberries and pineapple bits, and slightly indulgent but tiny dark chocolate chunks.  But in place of the white chocolate chips and chia sticks, more chocolate components are added instead - dark chocolate raisins, dark chocolate espresso beans, and dark chocolate cranberries.

I could have done without the dark chocolate raisins and cranberries, as they just aren't really ever my thing, but the dark chocolate was good quality, and the slight chew the dried fruit inside added was pleasant.  I did enjoy the dark chocolate espresso beans quite a bit - amazing crunch from the espresso bean, and again, quality dark chocolate.

I prefer the Chia ReCharge, but, this was a satisfying mix as well.

Mustard Pretzels (rightmost above)
"A crunchy pretzel with a delicious, tangy mustard seasoning. A great anytime snack."Great coating, but, I'm not really a pretzel girl.

Update Review:

I loved these savory mustard pretzels in the airport lounge when I landed in Boston, perfect after a long flight.  Nice seasoning, good flavor, so salty, and apparently, what I was craving.  I didn't like them quite as much when I was leaving Boston, but, they were still flavorful and good.

Another Update Review:
For me, these are perfect near the end of a long flight, or, when arriving as I noted above. Somehow my body craves simple carbs, something to munch on, and salt.  I highly recommend getting these somewhere for your upcoming flights - I recently did, and about 6 hours into a flight I found them to be just the perfect thing to satisfy every craving I was having.

Wasabi Peas.
"These green peas definitely have a kick of bold flavor. They’re a great crunchy snack for a large crowd looking to be adventurous in their snacking."

Ok, wow, these had some serious kick.   I've had a lot of wasabi peas in my days, but these are among the most intense I've ever had.  I liked them, but I definitely encourage caution before you grab a huge handful.

Bartender's Blend.

"One taste of this snack mix and you can picture yourself sitting at your favorite bar stool, watching your home team.

Bartender’s Blend™ has something for everyone and feels as familiar as your favorite bar. A blend of roasted and salted peanuts, pretzels, rye chips, sesame and plain breadsticks, this crunchy and flavorful snack is the perfect choice for a bar or sporting event."

I almost sorta like this.  It has a bunch of things I like: rye chips, sesame breadsticks, good seasoning ... but trends a bit too plain, with the peanuts, pretzels, and plain breadsticks dominating in the end.

Honey Roasted Sesame Sticks.

"Honey roasted sesame sticks are crunchy and delicious with a touch of buttery sweetness. They’re the perfect mix of sweet and salty."

Average sesame sticks, crunchy, slightly sweet, not remarkable otherwise.

Giant Toasted Corn.

"These giant toasted corn nuts take snacking to the next level. The extra large size allows for more flavor and crispness that everyone will want to reach for."

Standard corn nuts.  Crunchy, savory, salted, but not remarkable in any way.

K Tea Cafe, Sunnyvale

I had my first ever Jianbing at Joe's Steam Rice Roll in New York, and found it fascinating.  When I returned to the Bay Area, I decided to seek it out.

My destination? K Tea Cafe.

"We are a locally owned family-friendly cafe. Our menu features milk teas, hot tea lattes, infused teas, and more! All of our tea and coffee drinks are made to order and freshly brewed in front of our customers. We proudly does not use any powders or high fructose corn syrup in our personally made drinks.

We also serve a variety of street foods including our specialty Jianbing - a traditional Chinese savory crepe cooked to perfection! Other items on our menu include crispy chicken, takoyaki, bento boxes and other street foods!"

I was additionally drawn in of course by the promise of milk teas (including those with cheese foam!), and fun things like takoyaki.

K Tea Feast.

Our group shared several dishes, so I was able to sample a range from the menu.

Setting

Store Front.

My quest lead me to K Tea Cafe, located in downtown Sunnyvale, the perfect destination when I had some co-workers in town for a conference.

Prep Area.

K Tea is a casual setup, order at a register, and your order is called out when ready.  Most of the food prep happens right behind the counter.

Crepe Station!

Just like Joe's Steam Rice Noodle, the jianbing making station was front and center, and I loved watching them being made.

Condiments.

I appreciated the DIY condiment station, with all the tasty sauces.

Cuisine

Main Menu.

The menu at K Tea Cafe is ... extensive.  And hard to define.  It is Korean.  Japanese.  Chinese.  Vietnamese.  Um, #allTheAsian.  But, with a bit of American pub food sprinkled in too?  But not really fusion.  So. Many. Choices.

One of my guests lauded K Tea in just owning up to the fact that they serve dishes from a slew of different cultures, and just pick the best of every one.   They don't try to be authentic to one region or another.

Still, it really was amusing, and slightly overwhelming, to have a menu to pick from for our main dish that ranged from Vietnamese bahn mi, to Chinese jianbing, to Korean rice bowls, to fusion bao ... with street foods from around the world as snacks.

And that doesn't even get into the beverage lineup, a full array of milk tea, fruit tea, coffee drinks, and more toppings than even places that specialize in *just* the drinks.  And ... new Hong Kong desserts were just added, although their waffle machine was broken.

Kinda something for everyone here, with many protein options, beef, pork belly, chicken, and tofu too.  The only thing I didn't see represented was seafood, besides octopus in one dish.  Oh, and, uh, anything vaguely healthy or vegetable focused.  Very, very few vegetables on the menu, only used as garnish.  Not much freshness here.

Noodle Menu.

Another menu board listed out all the options for building your own stir fry noodle dish, again with a range of options, and I don't just mean the type of noodle (egg, rice,whole wheat), or the protein (chicken, tofu, pork belly, beef), or the toppings (too many to list out here).  No, I mean, spanning ... all the cuisines.  The sauce choices were named like "Malaysia", which featured a sweet soy sauce, "Saigon" for garlic and black pepper, "Seoul" for gochujiang, etc, etc.  Tokyo, szechuan, bangkok were all options too.

So many choices.

Street Food

The street food menu had a slew of things we wanted to try, but since we weren't that hungry, we settled on only 3: sweet potato fries, because they were what I wanted the most, takoyaki because most people had never had them, and one of the fried crispy chicken options, so there was enough protein in the meal.  Yes, here we had an American item, a Japanese items, and a Korean one.

That meant we had to look past the garlic fries (good, but less delicious to me than sweet potato fries), and the corn nuggets (which I totally would have ordered if the topic of takoyaki hadn't come up), and the more standard items like potstickers or spring rolls.

The street food items all came served in cardboard boxes, even though we were dining in, with little skewers with which to stab and eat them, true street food style. 

All were served in generous portions, so big that even though we got 3 sides and 2 mains for 4 people, we had far too much extra food.  I gladly saved all the leftover sweet potato fries, and enjoyed them a day later (they crisped up perfectly in the toaster oven), and my companion really enjoyed the leftover crispy chicken, but we easily could have ordered just 1 side, or 1 fewer entree.

Original Crispy Chicken. $6.75.

For the chicken (e.g. responsible protein), we could pick from "original", lemon pepper, garlic, or spicy.

Since it was our first time, we went for the original to try the basic version.

It was ... fine.  It was indeed crispy, but the coating was not really a style I like.  Seemed to be mostly dark, a bit tough, chicken.

I did like the whole cloves of garlic that were mixed in, although, we did wonder why we had those, given that ordered the original, not garlic, version.  Was the garlic one ... more garlic?

One diner liked this, particularly when dipped in sweet chili sauce from the condiments table.

Takoyaki. $6.75.

The takoyaki we ordered a bit on a whim, mostly because in discussing the menu we realized the others were not familiar with takoyaki.  

Neither myself, nor the other guest who was familiar, had any particular great experiences with takoyaki before though, so we didn't particularly expect it to be good.  We went to what is supposed to be some of the best in Tokyo, Gindaco High Ball Sakaba, and, as you may recall, we were not impressed.  The best I have ever had was still just at a random catered reception in Tokyo.

This however, was definitely good.  Served hot and fresh, so hot of course that it burnt the mouth of the person who dove in right away.

The texture of the balls was really what was spectacular, crispy on the very exterior, but soft and slightly chewy and almost even mochi-like inside.  I really enjoyed the texture of the balls.  The bits of octopus inside were a bit chewy, as it fairly common I think.

On top, a decent coating of sweeter takoyaki sauce and a drizzle of spicy mayo.  I of course loved the sauces.

I was pretty surprised by how good these were, and the other person who was familiar with takoyaki agreed it was better than he'd had in Tokyo too.  The others weren't as impressed, lamenting the chewy octopus.  I'm glad we tried these, and I'd get them again.

Sweet Potato Fries. $5.75.

I'm not going to lie.  I partially picked K Tea Cafe because I was really craving sweet potato fries, and I had read that they had good ones.

And ... well, they did.  Even the person who said he wasn't into sweet potato fries, and doesn't normally like them, was pleased with these, and he ate far more than anticipated.  He praised them even.

Like everything, they were quite hot and fresh, and super crispy.  I loved the good sweet potato flavor, the assorted sizes and shapes, and they even almost seemed battered, just slightly.

Very, very good sweet potato fries, but I found myself really needing a sauce.  Well, I always am all about sauces, but for these, I really wanted something to dip them in, and the spicy sauces, or even the banana ketchup or sweet chili, just weren't doing it for me.

At some point, I discovered that I could dip them into the sauces in with the takoyaki, and kinda loved them that way.  The sweet sauce and creamy mayo ... a good combo with the sweet potato fries.

Side of Spicy Mayo.

So ... I went up and asked for a side of the spicy mayo of course!

It greatly, greatly improved my already good experience of eating the sweet potato fries.  The mix with the sweet takoyaki definitely worked too, in a different way, but I found mixing it with the spicy chili was even better, just more of a rare flavor combination.

Jianbing

The main reason we were at K Tea Cafe however, was to try the jianbing, a dish I had only discovered a few weeks prior in New York, at Joe's Rice Noodle Rolls, in the Canal Street Market.   I found it really unique, tasty, and something I wanted to try more of.  It also happens to be the signature dish of K Tea Cafe.

If you are unfamiliar, jianbing is a savory crepe, usually eaten as breakfast in China, sold as street food.  They come with different fillings and sauces, but usually have baocui (crispy fried crackers), some kind of protein, scallions, and a chili or hoisin sauce inside.  They are folded and served to be eaten with the hands.

All jianbing come with egg, crispy fried wonton, green onion, cilantro, black sesame, and spicy and sweet black bean sauce.  From there, you can pick your protein (chicken teriyaki, bulgogi beef, pork belly, tofu, or, classic, with nothing else added).  From there, you can add chili oil, lettuce, dried pork, and preserved mustard for free, and cheese or ham for $1.50 more.

We ordered two to split between the 4 of us, as we were ordering other things, and, because we had been eating all day at our conference, and weren't that hungry.  It turned out to be plenty, as these are quite sizable items.  Both were made fresh to order, and well timed to be ready at the same time as our other foods.  They cook quickly.

Classic Jianbing. $8.75. All free toppings.

"Chinese Savory Crepe with egg, crispy fried wonton, green onion, cilantro and black sesame. Topped with garlic chile and sweet bean sauce!"

For the first jianbing, I wanted to just go classic, mostly because none of the fillings actually called out to me.  I was sad that they didn't have crab or sausage as options, like Joe's had.  We opted for all the free add-ons (pork floss, preserved mustard, chili oil, lettuce). 

The crepe style was a bit different from what I had at Joe's, in that it came as one large (VERY large) crepe.  I think it would have been quite hard to eat this way, and suddenly appreciated that Joe's had cut it into two chunks, and that Joe's had rolled it differently, more folds, but far more portable and easy to eat.  Since we were splitting it though, we had to cut it up anyway, so that didn't matter.

The crepe base was good, I liked how well distributed the green onions and sesame seeds were, and it wasn't too eggy (always a concern for me).  I did wish it was a bit crispier though.  It was brushed lightly inside with the sauce, but it was quite lost, even with few fillings.  I'm not sure why they menu said it would come topped with sauce, as, it didn't.  The pork floss, lettuce, and mustard though I didn't taste at all, and I really wanted to, as they were the parts that sounded flavorful and interesting.  I did like the generous portion of crispy wonton.

Overall though, it was quite boring.  Just, not as flavorful nor interesting as what I had in New York.

At Joe's though, part of what made the jianbing was the sauces.  Oh the sauces.  I adored that peanut sauce, and the other mixes I came up with.  K Tea however didn't have nearly as exciting of sauces.  Soy sauce, sweet chili, a little spicy chili ... it worked, it added something, but it certainly didn't leave me wanting more. 

I ended up using the extra spicy mayo I had added on for the sweet potato fries, and I liked that, but, it wasn't quite appropriate. 

I wouldn't get this again, and the others felt it was interesting to try, but weren't really thrilled either.

Bulgogi Beef Jianbing. $10.75. All free toppings + cheese ($1).

For the second jianbing, they picked bulgogi beef, and we decided to add cheese to this one too.

I didn't try it, as I was far too happy with just feasting on sweet potato fries and takoyaki, but they said it was more flavorful.

Black Sesame Latte, Iced, Soy, No Sweet
with Egg Pudding, Aloe Vera, Lychee Popping Boba,
Krema (on the side).

For my beverage, er, dessert, I went for a black sesame latte, but, customized it heavily.  They had sooo many choices for me to make.

This was a very random choice for me, not one I had pre-planned.  But I realized I didn't want just another standard bubble tea, and when I saw black sesame as an option for a latte, I decided to just turn it into a bubble tea, basically.

The latte is available iced or hot, I went for iced, as it was hot out.  Milk choices were extensive: almond, cream, organic milk, soy, or oat.  Given my love of soy milk, that was an easy option, and it was nice they didn't charge extra for it (only for oat milk).

Sweetness options of regular (100%), less (60%), extra lite (30%), or No Sweet (0%).  I went for No Sweet, since I often find that even the lightest sweet option results in a very sweet drink, particularly when I add all the mix-ins. 

I wanted many many mix-ins, and the person taking my order told me that if I got more than two (I had selected 5), it really winds up as a cup of mix-ins, and not a beverage.  I assured him this was fine, but reduced my order to only 3 mix-ins (egg pudding, lychee popping boba, aloe vera), and ... krema, but on the side, so I could use it as I pleased.

The base of this turned out to be ... well, not sweet.  My fears of an overly sweet creation were unfounded, as they seemed to really just use black sesame that ... wasn't a crazy sweet powder to start.  So often you start with a sweet powder, then they add additional sweet, so, this started out actually not sweet.  And the soy milk used seemed unsweetened too. 

It was an interesting base, the black sesame didn't really dissolve, again, they seemed to use real black sesame, and for a cold drink, this resulted in lots of bits of ground up black sesame seeds throughout.  It had a light sesame flavor, and I liked the black sesame with the soy milk, but if you were expecting a sweet, powder based, very strong black sesame flavor, this certainly was not it.  One of my companions tried a sip and was like "that is not sweet enough for me!".

I thought it was nice to sip on alongside my spicier food, but it didn't meet my dessert needs either, and I ended up going out for cheesecake instead, and mostly saving this for later.  I may or may not have repurposed the soy sesame milk for my granola the next morning, with some of the mix-ins too, and really, really enjoyed it.  I need to use bubble tea milk for cereal more often!

I really liked their version of krema.  Fluffy in the right way, savory, and quite salty.  I was glad to have it on the side, so I could use it on other things.  Definitely one of the highlights of the meal.

Mix-Ins: Egg Pudding, Aloe Vera, Lychee Popping Boba.

Now, for the rest of the mix-ins.

I had many, many choices, including 7 types of boba (honey, brown sugar, mango bursting, strawberry bursting, passion fruit bursting, lychee bursting, crystal), 4 types of jellies (coffee, rainbow, lychee, grass), puddings, red or mung beans, aloe vera, and more.

Narrowing down to just 3 was hard, but I decided on egg pudding (in case I wanted to extract it as a dessert), lychee bursting boba (for sweetness and complimentary flavor), and aloe vera, my recent new discovery that I like to add.  It was hard to pass up the jellies and more of their house made boba though.

The pudding was very average, clearly from a can, big chunks.  It had ... virtually no flavor, even when I singled it out and just ate it alone, and thus provided little other than texture (it was firm and slimy, in a good way, but the taste was non-existent).  I'd skip this in the future.

The aloe vera was fine, I appreciate having that more crispy texture compared to boba, and it was refreshing.  Fairly standard.

The lychee popping boba were my favorite mix-in, quite sweet, nice bursts of juiciness.  But, much like the pudding, these clearly weren't made in house, or anything special, just, generic from a supplier mass produced juicy boba.

My mix-ins were fine, but, I think in the future I'd likely go for the honey or crystal boba, since they seem to make those in-house, and probably the rainbow or lychee jellies, since I do tend to love those.

Elephant and Castle, Boston

Elephant and Castle.  Two items I don't normally put together.  Why is there an elephant with the castle?  I have no idea, but I do know that Elephant and Castle is a chain of British inspired pubs (ok, I do know, it is a neighborhood in London that they named it after).

"Get your Brit on."

Yes, that is really their slogan.  The menu at Elephant and Castle is pretty much what you'd expect from a British pub: sausage rolls, meat pies, wings, bangers & mash, burgers, fish & chips, even the Sunday roast, plus, uh, hummus and veggies and a veggie wrap.  To satisfy the non meat eaters.

I tried a few items, and was ... highly underwhelmed.  On the plus side though, the staff were really quite friendly, even remembering me by name the second time I visited!

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!

• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• 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 ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

I placed my orders in advance on Seamless, and they were ready in <5 minutes each time.  Very prompt.

Setting

I visited the Boston location.

Bar.

Since I visited for takeout only, so I didn't get the full pub experience, but it is a large space, with plenty of bar seating and regular tables, and seemed to be a decent place to gather over a pint, if that is your thing.  +1 point for ambiance.

Outdoor Seating.

They also had outdoor seating, I think makeshift because Covid, as it didn't exactly have the pub ambiance of inside ...

Cuisine

Mashed Potatoes.  $3.50.

"with fried onion garnish."

Well, this wasn't quite what I was expecting.  I was in the mood for creamy, smooth, yellow, mashed potatoes, and these were skin-on, hunky, red skinned mash.  At least I knew it wasn't instant?

My order was ready in ... literally one minute, so clearly just scooped into a container to go.  The mash was cold, lumpy, not creamy ... just, really not very good at all.  It had some garlic in it.

The crispy onion pieces I was excited for, but, uh, they were soft, and tasted kinda stale, and were clearly not freshly fried crispy onions, but rather, something from a package.  They looked so promising!

And finally, the gravy.  Also cold.  Also not the consistency I wanted ... just kinda thick and congealed.  No real flavor.

So, meh, meh, triple meh.  Nothing really positive to say about these.

*, I'll give credit for having the topping and gravy included for only $3.50 ...

Onion Rings.  Side.  $4.

"Panko crusted onion rings. served with chipotle aioli."

I was excited to see that the onion rings, like the sweet potato fries, came with a chipotle aioli.  Unlike the potatoes, they were freshly cooked, hot, and crispy.

But, uh, not panko crusted as advertised, rather they were crispy battered.  Kinda greasy.  All a thinner style than I like.  Highly mediocre.

The chipotle aioli was nothing special either, likely just from a Sysco bottle.

The onion rings are available as a side for $4, or a share plate for $8, presumably the difference is just portion size.  

**+, nothing exactly wrong with them, but, just not very good either.

Dig, Boston

Dig.  Formerly known as Dig Inn, a chain of fast food restaurants with locations in Boston, New York, and Philly, that takes a healthy spin on things, works directly with farmers, sources locally, yadda yadda yadda.  (Side note; they now partner with JetBlue to provide dishes for the new London routes ...).

The concept is build-a-bowl, with a greens or grains base, protein, "market sides", and sauce, or pick from their curated bowls.  Some of the sides and bases are hot, others are chilled.  The menu has some staples, but also adds seasonal offerings every few months. 

Service is assembly line style, everything is pre-made and held in hot steam trays (or cold well), and your bowl is passed down the line with things added.  You can also opt to get any of the market sides as a la carte items.  Service is fast and quite efficient.

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!

• Allset ($5 off) [ Pickup only ]
• 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 ]
• Seamless ($10 off) [ Delivery or pickup ]
• Nextdish: ($10 off your first order) [ Delivery only ]
• Uber Eats ($20 off - use code eats-lejw5 at checkout) [ Pickup or delivery ]

I ordered online in advance to skip the line, and it was ready promptly.

Jasper Hill Mac & Cheese.

"Jasper Hill three-cheese blend, Ithaca milk, whole-wheat pasta, crispy panko breadcrumbs."

The mac and cheese is their most popular menu item.  It gets rave reviews.  Mac and cheese lends itself well to that kind of heat and hold serving style, so, I was excited to try it.  It looked great too, creamy, good amount of crispy panko breadcrumb on top.

But ... eh. It was almost too cheesy, if that makes any sense.  Just, too strong in the cheese, and not nearly as creamy as it looked.  And the pasta was mushy (and eh, whole wheat?).

**+, not sure why people love this so much (then again, I'm partial to my totally low end Krispy Krunchy Chicken mac and cheese!).

Coconut Roasted Eggplant (Seasonal).  $3.27.

"Eggplant roasted with coconut oil, confit garlic, toasted coconut, parsley, mint, and lime."

I was going through a serious eggplant phase, so I was excited to see eggplant among the seasonal summer offerings.  And with confit garlic?  It sounded great.

Just a note - this dish is served cold, so, warning if you are expecting a hot item.

I ... didn't really like this either.  The eggplant was quite bitter.  I didn't taste coconut, not that I really wanted to, but the "coconut roasted" element certainly didn't come through.  The garlic wasn't nearly as strong as I hoped either.

It wasn't horrible, but, eh.

**+.

Kitchen Sink Cookie. $1.87.

"Spiced oat cookie with flaxseed, grated carrot, raisins, and chocolate chips."

I threw a cookie on to my order, on complete whim, as I was kinda going through a cookie phase.  And you know I need to have dessert.  But, um, a healthy flaxseed cookie?  I don't know what I was thinking (ok, I do know.  I wasn't going to have it that night really, but rather, uh, save it for breakfast.  Flaxseed, carrots, raisins, chocolate chips?  Sounds like breakfast to me!

I'm glad I got it.  Shockingly.  It was soft, with a slight chew.  It tasted healthy, but, in a way I wanted.  Sorta like carrot cake.  Lightly spiced. Sooo much texture from the flax and sunflower seeds, moist ... just, well, good.  And yes, it worked great for breakfast.

****.