Ultimate Cookie

If you live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and purchase baked goods at local coffee shops (that aren't made in house), chances are high that somewhere along the way you have encountered treats from Ultimate Cookie.

Ultimate Cookie is a wholesale bakery located in San Francisco (yes, actually, in the city, not far from where I live actually).  They make, well, cookies obviously, but also biscotti, brownies, bars (including tons of healthy style protein and vegan bars, alongside classics like lemon squares, pecan chewy bars), cakes, cupcakes, and rice crispy treats.  They supply many cafes, upscale markets, caterers, and the like.  They have been in business since 1978, so, clearly, they are doing something right.

Ultimate Cookie put their name on the map with a signature item: "Oat Cakes".  It was these oat cakes that actually caused me to pay attention to their brand.

Famous Oat Cakes

"They only look like hockey pucks!"

Yup, that is their tag line.

Oat cakes are ... interesting.  They really do look like hard, dense hockey pucks.  They look healthy.  They taste healthy.  And they are pretty healthy, fat-free, high fiber, high protein (although they still have 400-500 calories each, and nearly 30 grams of sugar, so, not a light item).

I'm not entirely sure when you are supposed to want an oat cake.  For breakfast, rather than a scone or muffin?  For breakfast, rather than a bowl of oats?  For a snack (albeit a very calorie dense one), instead of a granola bar?  On a hike?  Dessert, instead of a oatmeal cookie?  They kinda work for any of these situations I guess.

Ultimate Cookie makes oat cakes in 3 varieties: apricot, cranberry orange, and cinnamon apple. People love these things.  While most of their products are only available wholesale, individual consumers can actually mail order these.

Apple Cinnamon Oat Cake.

"Dried apples, applesauce and spices... Delicious!"

The apple cinnamon is the flavor that most Yelpers rave about. Made with dried apples, spices, and applesauce.  At room temperature, it was kinda just dry and crumbly, but with decent spicing, and chunks of apple.  But it seemed like just a super dry granola bar. 

People online recommended heating it up, so I tried that.  It was even more dry that way.  I slathered in in jam, but it didn't help.  I did not enjoy it.  

I think that perhaps warm with butter it would have worked, but I kinda think I just got a stale one, and the spicing wasn't really the type I enjoy.  Would not get again. **.

I froze half of it originally, and when I pulled it out of the freezer, I warmed it up, wrapped in foil so it wouldn't lose moisture.  And, of course, added the butter I thought it needed.  It wasn't any better.  Just strangely dense and gummy, and the spicing tasted like soap. 

Apricot Oat Cake.

"The ULTIMATE Oat Cake... Our hottest seller.  Tangy dried apricots and raisins in a healthy oat cake."

The next one I tried came with dried apricots and raisins.

It was a lot more moist than the apple cinnamon, perhaps because it was fresher?  Moist is a relative term of course, as this is still a pretty dry, dense "puck", not a scone.  It seemed like the base should have been the same as the other variety, but this one wasn't nearly as crumbly and chalky.  It also had a lovely sweet flavor to it.  I enjoyed it just as it was, plain and at room temperature.

I got strangely addicted to it.  It was still very dense and hearty tasting, and almost too healthy/boring tasting, but then it had this sweetness on the finish that was really delightful.  It almost seemed like maple?  The chunks of apricot gave it a nice chew as well.

It was like eating a bowl of oatmeal, where you mixed in some dried fruit, and drizzled with maple syrup or perhaps brown sugar, except ... in a puck.  I really don't know how else to describe it.  It was nothing like a granola bar, nothing like an oatmeal cookie, and nothing like a scone, and those are all the things I'd expect it to resemble.  Imagine taking a bowl of oatmeal, and dehydrating and compressing it?  Doesn't that sound appealing?

They say it is their best seller, which was interesting, as people didn't seem to talk about it much, but I enjoyed it. ****.

I froze half of this as well, and warmed it up, wrapped in foil so it wouldn't lose moisture.  It wasn't nearly as good this way.  Unlike the apple cinnamon, it really did not benefit from added butter.

Update: I've since had many more of these.  The texture certainly depends on how fresh they are, which is hard to know when you purchase from a coffee shop.  They have week long shelf life at room temp, 2 weeks refrigerated, and, who knows how the individual place stores them.  But when you get them seemingly fresher, softer, they are great.

I'm always blown away by how much I like them when I get a fairly fresh batch.  So dense.  So hearty. With such an amazing sweetness that I can't explain.  And I love the chew from the bits of apricot.  I shouldn't love these, but, I do. ****.

Crumb Cakes

"Our famous Crumb Cakes are so good they have quickly risen to be just about our top selling dessert. They are light but full of natural flavor. The Cinnamon Crumb is a classic… and the rest of the flavors are all wonderfully delicious."

Crumb cakes are available in 5 flavors: cinnamon, wild blueberry, raspberry ripple, caramelized apple, and New York.

Besides the oat cakes, these are the second most common Ultimate Cookie item I see around town, likely due to their full week shelf life.

New York.

"Our delicious cake with a thick topping of streusel and dusted with powdered sugar. A New York Classic!."

The cake here was fairly boring, kinda plain sweet pound cake.  That part I could do without.

But the topping was decent.   Huge chunks of sweet streusel.  Tons of powdered sugar.  It broke off in big chunks.

I liked the topping, but I wouldn't want the cake itself again. ***.

Wild Blueberry.

"We toss wild blueberries in cinnamon and sugar and gently mix them into OUR FAMOUS Crumb Cake. Top this off with our brown sugar topping and you have a delicious new breakfast offering."

Next I tried the wild blueberry cake, made with tiny little wild blueberries, and the same crumb topping they use on the cinnamon crumb cake, rather than the decadent New York style.  The berries were mixed in and scattered on top, and there was a generous brown sugar crumb layer as well.

The cake was moist and flavorful, and the berries gave little pops of flavor.  Not tons, but, little bits.  The topping was crispy and sweet, not as interesting as the big chunks in the New York style, but, still good.

Overall, this was good too. ***.

Raspberry Ripple Crumb Cake. (2018).

"Swirls of raspberry jam and fresh raspberries, topped with a sprinkling of raspberries and sugary crumbs."

Moving on to the raspberry ripple.

Major eh.  This didn't even look great, but I was really in the mood for coffee cake.

I did not like, at all.  Boring, sweet cake.  Crumb topping basically just dark color bits.  Tiny bit of raspberry swirl.  If you like boring pound cakes, perhaps you'd like this.  *+.

Raspberry Ripple Crumb Cake. (2019).

I guess I had forgotten my distaste for this, when I encountered it again, again at a time when I was craving coffee cake, and when the raspberry and crumble topping drew me in.

I didn't dislike it quite as much, but, I found nothing very interesting about it.  Just rich buttery pound cake, slightly spongy/oily in an odd way, with some not crispy crumble and berry goo on top.  **.

Cookies

"Our gourmet cookies are what made us famous. We proudly offer about 20 delicious varieties. Of course they are all hand-made and freshly baked using only the finest ingredients. Try them dipped in dark or white chocolate — wonderfully decadent!"

Given that they are the namesake, I obviously had to try a cookie, even though I'm not generally one for cookies.  Ultimate Cookie makes a wide range, as you'd expect.

Russian Tea Cakes.

"Buttery ball full of nuts, rolled in powdered sugar." -- GourmetXpress, Distributor

"A buttery mound full of nuts and rolled in powdered sugar." -- Ultimate Cookie

I opted for the #6 best seller, a speciality cookie, the Russian Tea Cake.

These were ... pretty standard Russian tea cakes.  The most notable aspect was the MORE than generous powered sugar coating.  Seriously loaded up with it.  Which is a good thing.

Inside was ground nuts, and I suspect butter, flour, and more sugar.  Kinda crumbly, decent texture, but not exciting really.  Average quality.  ***.

Other

The Ultimate Cookies makes a wide range of other items, including brownies and bars, sheet cakes and cupcakes, turnovers, and breakfast breads.

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Cupcake.

"Moist pumpkin cupcake with a cream cheese filling."

It was fall, and pumpkin was in full force.  This cupcake, even if slightly abnormal looking, called out ot me.

This was almost good.  It was moist, and it was pumpkin spiced.  The cream cheese filling was sweetened and added more moisture.

But ... it wasn't really a cupcake to me.  More appropriate to call it a muffin.  Or just a cupcake shaped spice cake.  I was expecting some more dessert-like, and this didn't meet my dessert needs.  But for a *muffin* it was absolutely fine.

***.

Classic Crispy.

"Rice Krispies and marshmellow all melted together." (sic)

These were ... exactly the rice krispie treats that you likely grew up with.  Sticky, gooey, basic Rice Krispies and marshmallow.  No more, no less.

And thus ... entirely boring to me. **+.

They also make a chocolate topped version, and one with mini M&Ms on top.

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Ramenwell

Ramen.  Not something I seek out.  Not even when in Tokyo.  But San Francisco has a decent ramen scene, although, again, not really what I seek out.  And yet I sought out Ramenwell, a ramen restaurant in the Mission.

"San Francisco's source for delicious ramen, beer, and sake. Best Ramen in the Mission."

I don't think Ramenwell would make it to the top of lists of best ramen in SF, as there are too many others that are far better known such as Ippudo, Mensho, Marufuku, Hinodeya (very good agadashi tofu, fyi), Waraku (which, by the way, has excellent takoyaki!), and more.  But, per their claim, it could be the best in Mission, as most others are in Japantown or further out.  Yelpers seem to like it, with 4 stars overall, and in particular, folks love that they have both vegan and gluten-free options.

The menu at Ramenwell obviously features ramen as the main attraction, available in signature pork ramen, but also a vegetarian mushroom one, and even a vegan version.  The base recipes for each bowl include some toppings, but you can add more on as you choose.  Or you can just get the add-ins on the side, which, um, of course I did.  There were more than 20 additions available, ranging from wakame to garlic confit to three different kinds of noodles (vegan, regular egg, gluten-free) and many, many more.  The thing is, even if ramen is what the restaurant is known for, it isn't really something I like all that much.  The rest of the menu however called out to me instantly.  I wanted tons of things, even from the relatively small menu.

For those who want something before their ramen, or, like me, wanted something other than ramen, there are a couple appetizer options, including basic edamame to munch on, or more exciting things like takoyaki, "fries with eyes" (yes, fried smelt), two kinds of bao, katsu chicken, and dumplings.  Besides the chicken, all sounded good to me.  I also don't understand how it fits in to the menu at all, but they also randomly have macaroni salad ... vegan macaroni salad at that.

And then, of course, you know me, no meal is complete without dessert.  And what a stunning dessert lineup they have.  Small, but, um, so very good.  First up, pudding.  But not just any pudding.  Rice pudding.  And not just any rice pudding.  *Ube* horchata rice pudding.  Zomg.  And then, soft serve ice cream.  And not just any soft serve ice cream.  *Taro* soft serve.  Double ZOMG.  If you know me, you know I love pudding, you know I love soft serve, and you know I love both ube and taro.  Seriously, ZOMG.

I didn't actually venture to the restaurant though, and opted for delivery, via Door Dash.  While ordering was easy, and I loved that they had all the extras available a la carte, including tons of sauces too, the delivery experience was pretty abysmal.  My Dasher got very, very lost, and spent 35 minutes circling my neighborhood.  And then got lost in my building.  Etc, etc.  It meant that more than an hour elapsed between the time he picked it up and I got it, and thus, it was clearly stone cold (at least I didn't order the soft serve ... I wanted to, but decided not to at last minute just due to delivery concerns ... it would have been such a disaster!).  My order was also missing an item, and missing the utensils I had requested.  So, um, delivery experience, not great.

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App: Dumplings. $8.34.

"Scallop, pork, shrimp, fried garlic, scallion, cilantro, side spicy sesame soy garlic sauce."

Rather than ramen, I opted for dumplings.  Technically an appetizer, they came 5 to an order.  Because of my loooong delivery time, the dumplings sadly were stone cold when they arrived, and completely stuck together.  Thus, I know my experience is not the same as if I had them actually at the restaurant, or even delivered in a reasonable time frame.   Once I dug them apart, I ended up re-steaming them, and even tossed one in my panini press try it crispy.

The dumplings were fine.  Average.  Well formed, sealed, and stuffed with a filling that was a mix of scallop, pork, and shrimp, all ground.  The mix worked well actually, and I liked how some bites tasted more like a classic pork dumpling, and others had a fishy nature.  The wrappers were reasonable thickness.  There didn't seem to be any herbs or seasoning in them, so, although the mix of proteins was interesting, they were a bit bland.

The toppings, pickled red onion, scallions, and fried garlic were a bit lost due to my needing to reheat the dumplings - the fried garlic had long since gotten soggy anyway.  The sauce on the side wasn't particularly great, but it was slightly spicy, slightly soy, and had sesame seeds in it.  I didn't taste any garlic.

I'd call these highly average, and I wished for a bit more flavor, either to the filling, or to the sauce.  I jazzed them up at home with more fried garlic and onion, and some chili crisp.  I don't see a reason to get these again, but if I ever wound up at the restaurant and wanted dumplings, I'd consider them.  The price was reasonable for 5 big dumplings.

***.

Side: Vegan Macaroni Salad. $4.74.

I really don't understand why Ramenwell has macaroni salad on the menu, as I can't imagine pairing ramen and macaroni salad, but, I love macaroni salad (even cheap mass produced deli ones), so I was thrilled to see it on the menu.  I ordered it to go with my lunch the next day.

The portion was quite reasonable, and I used a scoop per day for two days alongside my lunch.  It was fine macaroni salad.  The pasta was not too soft, it was creamy but not over dressed.  I did hope that it would have some kind of interesting element to it, a Japanese twist, even a sprinkle of furikake, or chopped up bits of Japanese pickles or something, but it was fairly plain.  I needed to jazz it up a bit. ***.

Interestingly, they choose to make this vegan, again, just like the existence of the macaroni salad on the menu in the first place, it seems like an odd choice.  I didn't mind though, as it didn't taste like "fake mayo".

The Door Dash price of $4.75 still seemed reasonable given the generous portion, but it is only $3.95 at the restaurant.

Side: Fried Enoki Mushrooms. $3.54.

Ramenwell has more than 20 extras you can add on to ramen bowls, or, even just get as a side.  I kinda love extras, and wanted many of them, including at least 4-5 of the sauces.  I settled on just one random extra to add to my order though: fried enoki mushrooms.  I'm so glad I did, as these were the highlight of my meal.

These were super crispy.  All stuck together, but in a good way, it made them fun to eat.   Really well seasoned, salty, "chef's palette" level of salt.  You could see salt glistening on them.  Clearly fried, greasy in a good way.  Did I mention, so crispy? 

Basically, just a joy to munch on, satisfying my immediate desire to eat something while I heated up my dumplings, but also very satisfying in a fried sense, and a super salty sense.  Comforting, slightly unique, and quite tasty.  It seems like it would be a shame to submerge these in ramen, and I think they were tasty just to munch on, or, as I did with a few, crumble on top of my dumplings and macaroni salad for a bit of texture and salt.

I'd definitely get these again, and would even probably make it a double order so I'd have more for the next day.  ****+.

The portion was small, but it was just an add-on, not a real dish.  The Door Dash price of $3.54 did seem a touch high, and they are only $2.95 directly from the restaurant.

Dessert: Ube Horchata Rice Pudding. $7.14.

And then, of course, my dessert.  While I really did want the taro soft serve, and people rave about it, I knew better than to get soft serve delivered.  Plus, I do love pudding, and rice pudding, and people do rave about the ube horchata rice pudding too.  It sounded like perfect comfort food.

I took my first few bites, and was underwhelmed.  The ube flavor was really quite mild.  It also seemed most likely to come from either powder or possibly extract, as there was no real visible ube in it, and it was too purple to be the real deal.  Most ube or taro milk tea has considerably more flavor.  I was really expecting, and hoping for, something far more intense in the ube department, and I had hoped for chunks of ube too.  So, the ube part?  Definitely a let down.  At least it wasn't cloying sweet.

The "horchata" part was also underwhelming, but that I didn't mind.  I thought the cinnamon would clash with the ube anyway.  I think the only cinnamon was just what you could see on top.

And then, the rice pudding itself.  It was a slightly odd style, made of chopped bits of rice, no full grains.  Tiny bits of rice.  Slightly al dente, which I did appreciate, but I wanted bigger grains of rice.  It wasn't a thick and rich and creamy pudding, rather, more of a thin style.  Almost frothy on top.  

I mostly just found it boring.  No strong ube, nor other, flavor.  No thick creamy pudding.  No interesting texture.  It just ate kinda plain.  I jazzed it up, adding fresh kiwi, white chocolate crispearls, whipped cream, and hunks of waffle cone, and then did enjoy it, but, on its own, just, plain.  I probably wouldn't get it again. ***.

The portion was reasonable, and only $5.95 at the restaurant, but it felt small for the delivery price of $7.14.

Tamano Hikari Junmai Ginjo. $14.40.

Since Ramenwell prides itself on the beer and sake selection, it was no surprise they had a good lineup available for takeout.  I fairly randomly just picked a mid-priced ginjo from the lineup.

I'm not sure if it was cold when my Dasher got it, but, by the time it got to me, my can was room temp.

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Freshëns Yogurt, MCO

Freshëns is a chain I've been vaguely aware of for years, usually noticing it off to the side in a food court somewhere. 

"Freshëns is a healthy “fresh casual” concept, which offers prepared to order food inspired by fresh ingredients, as well as our signature fresh blended smoothies."

Their concept is healthy stuff, salads and bowls, plus smoothies and yogurt.  Frozen yogurt that is.  I do actually quite like froyo, so I'm not sure why I wasn't ever interested in it before, but, probably because when I've been near food courts I've had other priorities.  Anyway, the chain is actually quite successful it seems, with more than 350 locations, and has been around for 30 years.

That said, not all locations are created equal, particularly in the land of franchises.  When I was recently flying out of Orlando, I took a quick look at what food options would be available to decide if I'd purchase lunch there, or pack my own, and, wow, everywhere got such awful reviews.  Freshëns in particular just got scathing reviews.  I couldn't really believe it could be *that* bad, thinking likely it was just people who wanted healthy options upset that it wasn't actually as healthy as they though (lots of reviews mention chemicals, etc).  I was still curious enough to cruise by ... also, I had 1.5 hours before my flight, and nothing better to do really.

Food Court Location.

The Freshëns location at the Orlando airport was in a food court at the entrance to gate areas 30-59, next to another healthy type place, and Wendy's and a generic Asian place.  Everywhere else had quite long lines, but Freshëns was relatively empty.  This could have been because their card reader was broken, so they could take cash, or tap payments only.

The location doesn't offer the full Freshëns menu, just smoothies and yogurt, along with some very sad looking packaged bagels and cookies, and generic chips and oatmeal.  It is hard to describe, but, it sorta had a run down feel to it.

The signage didn't say what toppings were available, nor what flavors of yogurt, but I could see the machine in the background, with one side broken, and the other said "vanilla".  I asked if they had only the one flavor, and the staff said yes.  I asked if it was sweet or tart, and I didn't get an answer, but instead, she did just hand me a cup with a small swirl in it - a regular cup, not a little sample cup, and no spoon. I wasn't quite sure what to do - did I stick my face in it?  I said, "and spoons are ....", kinda trailing off.  She pointed down to the end of the counter area.  I walked away to try my sample, fully expecting to hate it.

I didn't hate it, but, it wasn't really something I'd ever pay for, or go seek out, if I was anywhere else.  After cruising around the entire terminal area to see if there were better options, I returned, as, well, there just weren't any good options - a Wendy's Frosty actually probably would have been better, but, the line for Wendy's was soooooo long.

I approached again to make my order.  I asked what toppings were available, specifically, if they had any fruit.  The cashier rattled off a list of fruits in rapid succession, no clear pause between them, and far too fast for me to even take in.  And then glared at me.  "Do you want fruit?", she said.  All cups of yogurt come with 3 toppings included, so I fully intended to pick 3.  "Uh ... raspberries," I said, hoping those were in her list.  "We don't have raspberries", was the curt reply.  I then was able to look past her at the cold well where the fruit was ... it was all smoothie fruit, that is, frozen fruit, or, semi-frozen fruit.  There wasn't actually any *fresh* fruit.  It all looked quite sad.  I was also able to see the dry toppings, about 8 different things, none labelled either.  I made my selections as fast as I could, mostly because she looked like she hated me.  I can't say this was pleasant service.

A few minutes later, as I stood off to the side eating my froyo, she made a smoothie for the next customer, and went to put it on the counter for the customer, and, well, missed the counter.  The smoothie went crashing to the ground, and made a horrible mess.  She didn't even seem to say sorry to the customer who was now covered in smoothie, and who needed to wait for a new one to be made.  So, on the service front, I certainly understand the reviews.  It was worse than expected.

Yogurt with Mango, White Chocolate Chips, Peanuts. $6.49.

So, the frozen yogurt.  Was it sweet or tart style?  Um, yes?  It was kinda both.  It was also kinda icy, certainly not smooth and creamy yogurt that makes you think it is ice cream, but, not chunky icy.  It didn't taste vanilla in any way, mostly plain, lightly sweet, lightly tart, very, very, very generic yogurt.  It reminded of old school frozen yogurt, what I remember from the 1990s, and haven't had much since.  Which, actually, most likely is exactly what it is - the business has been around that long, and perhaps just never pivoted to embrace newer trends.  The yogurt was actually rather refreshing, as it wasn't too sweet, and the icy nature added to the refreshing feel.  It nearly tasted healthy actually.  It seemed like a reasonable thing to eat before a flight, not something that would bog you down.

But then of course there are toppings.  I opted for mango as my fruit topping, as the others just looked so abysmal.  It was semi-frozen mango, but, it was sweet and fairly flavorful, and went well with the yogurt.  I also opted for the white chips, not knowing if they were yogurt or white chocolate, but they seemed to be the later, fairly sweet, fairly clearly just made of oil and sugar.  They were a large size chip, which isn't as nice for froyo as the little chips.  My last selection was the nuts, which I think were just peanuts, little bits, that seemed about the same as what you get in a package at McDonald's.

So ... not exactly great yogurt, and definitely lower end toppings, but I did actually enjoy it.  Captive audience, boredom, etc.  If I was there again, and wanted a cold treat, and the line for Wendy's was too long, hey, I'd get it again.  ***.

I got the "regular" size, there were only two sizes available, this and a larger one for $1 more.  If the toppings had been higher quality, I'd say it was a reasonable price, but, the lack of fresh fruit really was a downfall.

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