Drizzilicious

When most people think of tasty snack foods, rice cakes are likely not at the top of the list.  Sure, I like a rice cake smothered in peanut butter and chocolate chips from time to time, but generally, they seem to be more of a diet culture thing.  Drizzlilicious aims to change that, sorta. 

"Drizzilicious; Mini Rice Cakes Reimagined."

Ok, but what does this mean?  It means mini rice cakes, known as "bites", that have some kind of sweet drizzle on top (hence, the product name).  They come in 6 sweet flavors: S'mores, Birthday Cake, Cinnamon Swirl, Cookies & Cream, French Toast, Salted Caramel, and Very Berry, along with seasonal Pumpkin Spice, all of which sounded good to me.  

"All this for only 90 calories per 21 pieces!? Drizzilicious is a smart little snack the whole family can feel great about!"

That said, they do still lean in heavily to the low cal, low fat, etc aspect of the rice cake base, and appeal to the health foods folks by bolstering the cakes up with quinoa, chia, and flax ("the ultimate combination of some of the most powerful plant-based superfoods on earth").  They also make a line of drizzled popcorn, which I haven't had a chance to try yet, but absolutely would love to, as popcorn is my #1 vice, *particularly* the decadent drizzled kind.

Drizzlicious products are all gluten-free, vegan, non-GMO, etc.  My mother picked these up for my niece when she was required to go gluten-free and dairy free, but, as an avid snacker, of course I was excited to try them too.  Spoiler: uh, they never reached their intended recipient.

Birthday Cake Bites.

"Our Drizzilicious Birthday Cake bites are the perfect treat to snack on for all- young or old! Each bite brings you delicious birthday memories of sweet treats, fun, and smiles."

"Made with quinoa, chia, and flax, it's the ultimate combination of some of the most powerful plant-based superfoods on earth, mixed with a delicious & premium chocolaty drizzle..."

These were insanely delicious.  While they had chia, quinoa, and flax, I didn't taste any of those.  I just tasted the rice / corn base, in a very munchable small puffy bite size "cake", with a lovely sweetness from the white chocolate drizzle.  They tasted lightly indulgent, and fairly guilt free (unless, um, of course you eat the whole bag in one sitting, which I'm certain I could easily do).  Great form factor, great sweetness level, good balance from a bit a salt, just, pretty awesome.

****+.

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Supermoon Bakehouse, NYC

Update Review, December 2024 Visit

It had been quite a few years since I had a treat from Supermoon Bakehouse in NY, although it is always on my short list of places to seek out when I visit.  I finally made it back to snag a holiday themed treat in December.

The experience was good, but not "OMG, I must go back again, stat" inducing.  I'll gladly try more items from their menu, as it is constantly evolving and has creative offerings, but there are just so many top notch bakeries making interesting pastries in NY that its hard to prioritize one that didn't stun me this time (for example, Supermoon was immediately shown up by Dominique Ansel the next day - stay tuned for that review!).

Sugar Cookie Cruffin. $9.50.

"Our signature cruffin filled with smooth sugar cookie vanilla crème pâtissière rolled in a sugar glaze and finished with sprinkles and a festive sugar cookie crumble."

Oh the cruffin.  I'll admit that it is a trend I never was quite as excited about as the masses.  Sure, I've liked a cruffin, but not really my top choice of format for my laminated pastry.  But Supermoon definitely has been on board the cruffin trend wagon from the start, and is one of few places that continues to feature them (their ferrero rocher inspired one is a menu staple).

The cruffin was really pretty perfectly made.  You can tell from just looking at it how very flaky that pastry is.  No spongy soft pastry here.  When I cut it in half to get a shot of the cross-section, it made a horrible mess of shards, as it should.  The flavor was good, clearly heavy in the butter, as it should be.  A rich, well made, laminated pastry, in a perfect oversized muffin form.  Eating this croissant dough made me instantly grumpy at basically every other croissant/danish/etc I've encountered in the past year or so.  They just don't compare to well made fresh pastry like this.  ***+ pastry.

Sugar Cookie Cruffin: Top.

And then there was the decorations.

The top of this looked pretty great: thick sugar glaze, check!  Festive sprinkles, check!  Sugar cookie crumble, YES!

The glaze was a bit over the top, very, very sweet, and just tons of it.  Thick: thick iced sugar cookie.  Yup, the definitely achieved those vibes.  The red and green sprinkles achieved the festive spirit as well.  And lastly, the adorable garnish of sugar cookie crumble.  This was more of a crumble (like on top of a fruit crumble) than a cookie, basically a big hunks of sweet rubble (with more sprinkles baked in), and I adored it.  I'd love to just be able to buy a bag of this as a snack!

**** for nailing the festive and promised sugar cookie experience, but actually just ***+ on my personal enjoyment level of the toppings, as the icing was just a bit much.

Sugar Cookie Cruffin: Inside.

And finally, the filling!  I had seen a cross section of this posted on Instagram, so I knew what to expect.  To be honest, it is part of what drew me in.  Such generously filled pastry.

This was sugar cookie vanilla crème pâtissière, which I can't say necessarily screamed out "sugar cookie" to me, but the vanilla came through very strongly, and it was perhaps a touch sweeter than I'd expect from just a regular crème pâtissière.  Very thick, very rich, pretty classic vanilla pastry cream.  Textbook, no qualms with the execution, although I did find the generous filling to be a bit much by the end, just so much richness!  ***.

Original Review, October 2018

A bakery with crazy Intagram worthy goods, seemingly too hip for its own good, specializing in croissants loaded with fillings and toppings that are very, uh, non-traditional, and signature cruffins ... does this sound familiar to you?  Yes, this sounds like Mr. Holmes Bakehouse in San Francisco, which I've reviewed before.

But it also describes Supermoon Bakehouse in New York City.  Looking at the website and browsing the goods I couldn't help but think someone was playing copy-cat.  Plus, both called "bakehouses"?  Who does that?  It only opened a year ago, so, I immediately thought it was a copier.

I quickly found my answer though - its actually done by the same people.  Well, the original guy from Mr. Holmes, who left the SF bakery in a rather strange ordeal involving a break-in and stolen recipes.  Aha.

So even though I feared this might just be Instagram fodder and not necessarily good eats, I went, because, well, baked goods. 

I went to Supermoon intending to meet a friend for dessert, as I had lunch already.  He arrived a little before me, and decided to get savory pastries for his lunch, since he hadn't eaten.  Thus, I got to try the savories.  And during that time, we decided ... to do something else for dessert.  It isn't that anything was bad, it was all fine, but, it really wasn't better than average, and the location wasn't really somewhere we wanted to hang out longer.

So instead of reviewing desserts as I planned, this turns into a savory review, not items I would have picked, but I was happy to try.

Storefront.

The front of the store is glass windows, with this as the only signage.  If you didn't know the address, you certainly wouldn't spot it easily.

Display Table.

Rather than a display case like most bakeries, Supermoon, just like Mr. Holmes, has one of each item just sitting on a long counter.  The line extended along the counter, which meant that you walked by every item while waiting to get to the register to order, with plenty of time to ponder the beautiful goods.

Seating / Open Kitchen.

Inside has limited seating, just a few low tables with uncomfortable stools.  Far more people in line than seats available.  Loud music pumping, making it impossible to really talk with your group, even if you do get seating.  Clearly ... not designed to be somewhere you want to spend time.

You could view into the working pastry kitchen, which at least made it feel a bit legit, they do really bake things there, it isn't just for looks ...

Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich Donut / Banana Split Twice Baked Croissant / Mocha Croissant / Croissant Toast.

Ok, I'll admit that these things do look really good.  The toppings in particular, just, incredible really.  And ... well, the descriptions sounded equally amazing.

Had I ordered one sweet item, the pb & j sandwich donut likely would have been it.  A donut, with two cores inside, one with raspberry jelly and one with peanut butter creme patisserie.  Dipped in chocolate peanut butter glaze, and topped with vanilla cream, peanut brittle, and raspberry jelly pate de fruit.  Yes, please.

The Banana Spit Twice Baked Croissant also sounded crazy, with a whole caramelized sous vide banana, chocolate almond creme, banana caramel, and vanilla creme patisserie inside, chocolate fudge, more banana caramel, whipped cream "bulbs", dehydrated bananas, and gold leaf on top.

Nearly every item looked, and sounded, really good.

But I didn't order any sweets.

Twice Baked Croissant. $8.

"Thick Cut Smoked Ham, Gouda Cheese, Cheddar Cheese And A Super Creamy Béchamel Sauce Baked In Our Classic Croissant And Then Topped With Crispy Cheese Shards."

I was however meeting my friend, who had already ordered savories.  He selected two of the 3 options, both served warm, which meant that they took time to prepare, so they arrived right when I did.  Even though I wasn't planning on having any, since I just had lunch ... of course I did, starting with the ham and cheese twice baked croissant.

Ham & Cheese Twice Baked Croissant: Inside.

The croissant was very flaky.  It made a huge mess, really.

Inside was good, perfectly melted cheese (cheddar and gouda), it really oozed out beautifully.  The creamy béchamel made it even better.  The ham was good quality, generous amount.  I like the cooked on béchamel on top too, almost like a frico, a fairly unique touch.

Overall, a fine croissant, but not particularly special.  ***.

Sausage Roll. $6.

"A classic Australian pastry snack. Pork Shoulder minced meat inside a flaky, buttery pastry. Ask for it Hot. with Extra Ketchup." 

Next he selected the sausage roll.  It didn't come with sauce, and he forgot to ask for it.  Shame on him and them!

But bigger shame on the way it was prepared.  The pastry was warm.  The sausage ... was not.  Stone cold inside.

Sausage Roll Close Up.

The sausage itself was fine, not particularly notable, but, cold.  The pastry was much like the croissant, flaky, good, but not earth shattering.  The spices on top were nice.

So another item that was good, but not special.  ***.

[ No Photo ]

CROISSANT BUTTER SOFT SERVE.

"Yes. You read that correctly. The flavor, taste and texture is honestly still blowing our minds - and it’s exactly what you’re imagining - our very own house made soft serve made using the best part of our croissant, the Croissant Butter! It’s a SWEET, SALTY, BUTTERY, ICY COLD F****** DREAM.  It comes covered in dehydrated extra crunchy croissant crumbs that have been flavorfied (made that word up) in extra salt and sugar and that’s not all, it also comes with a slice of our signature croissant that has been twice baked with extra salt, butter and sugar on it. But wait, there’s MORE: Every soft serve comes in a HYPERCOLOR COLOR CHANGING cup and SPOON that change color with heat and cold.

Why? Because it’s badass"

Well, this sounded awesome.  I'm a soft serve ice cream girl.  It was warm outside.  I was in the mood for ice cream.  The flavor, the toppings, everything sounded great.  But I'm glad they were eagerly offering up samples of this to everyone, because otherwise ... I would have ordered it, and likely been sad.

It was fine soft serve.  Very creamy.  Sweet.  But that was it.  Just sweet and creamy, I didn't taste butter nor croissant.  Eh.  Cool concept, not sure it really translated.  ***.

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The Painted Duck, Atlanta

I don't go bowling often (I think it had likely been ... 15? years since I last went bowling), but apparently when I do, I do it with style.

"The Painted Duck is a distinguished drinkery, duckpin bowling, and gaming parlour located in the Stockyards Atlanta development on the Westside."

During my recent business trip to Atlanta, one of our team bonding events was at The Painted Duck, a venue that amongst other things, included bowling.  It also had a fascinating food menu, and decent drink program.  I went as a big group, so we had a big group package, so I can't speak to the experience of going as an individual.  It worked well for a semi-social, semi-active, semi-interesting place with food, but I wouldn't say it was particularly great on any dimension, besides novelty.

Venue

If you needed to describe The Painted Duck simply, you'd say, it is "a bowling alley", but, that doesn't really sum it up at all, as they have much more than simply bowling.  From their own materials:

"Our interactive games include: 16 full service duckpin bowling lanes, 2 Belgian feather bowling lanes, 2 indoor horseshoe pits, Knuckleball, Toad in the Hole."

Yes, it is definitely different from most bowling alleys, in other ways too (besides the fact that it isn't filled with arcade games, and has duckpin, not regular 10 pin, bowling).  You don't visit a counter to get your shoes for example.  You fill out the card at your lane, with your shoe size and the name you want on the screen, and they deliver your shoes to you, and pre-set the lane with your names for you.  A bit more full service and upscale.

Entrance.

Arriving at the Painted Duck is part of the experience.

The entrance does not have the venue name, just, a duck, and a bright green door, that we knew to look for.

You go through the door, and then down a hallway, that leads to a bouncer.  Everyone must show ID, bags are searched or left with them.  Then you go down a steep stairwell with zero decoration or frills.  You are descending into a basement.  Another big door.  And then you reach the inside, a hidden world of adult games, a bar, and social spaces.

I somehow failed to get photos of the actual space, but it is fairly large, with a variety of game types all around (shuffleboard, horseshoes, etc), and reservable duck bowling lanes.  There is a large bar area.  There are private booths and semi private areas with bigger tables and tv screens for bigger groups.  We had a section of lanes, and some tables to set our feast on.  

Food & Drink

Since we were in a big group, we had a food package consisting of family style platters from all over the menu.  The menu is ... kinda all over the place, and not what you expect from bar / bowling alley food for the most part.  The execution was varied, with a few decent dishes, but mostly pretty lackluster.  

The service was mediocre.  The food seemed to arrive at pretty random times.  There were no serving utensils provided, even though clearly intended to be family style.  Staff didn't really seem to care where they put stuff, putting multiple of the same dish next to each other, rather than spreading out in our space.  We were provided only forks and plates, we had to ask for knives and spoons (the former to cut some items, the later to serve all the assorted sauces).  I'm not sure how they expected groups to just eat off these platters with no cutlery.

Drinks

Drinks we ordered directly from servers.  The drink lineup was decent, beer (bottled or draught), wines (bottle or glass), and cocktails.  I went with a cocktail that was delivered fairly quickly.

Cameron's Kick. $12.

"Irish Whiskey, Scotch, Orgeat, Lemon."

The cocktail list was fairly long, with some signature cocktails (like the fun frosty "duck l'orange" or others in tiki glasses), and a long lineup of classic cocktails. All were reasonably well priced.

I was drawn to this for the combo of whiskey and scotch.  It was a decent drink, not very sweet, not too strong in the lemon, fairly balanced, even if it looked a bit like a girly lemon drop.  Good to sip on, but I probably wouldn't get it again.  I would like something darker, a bit more booze forward.  ***.

Small Plates

The most extensive part of the menu is the Small Plates.  After all, many people are just snacking while they are there mostly enjoying games and/or drinking.  Options here are really all over the place: think fried chicken skins, loaded tots, beef jerky, but also ... garlic & herb crab claws? A whiskey glazed turkey leg?  Duck nuggets.  Yeah, what?

Our package included a few items from here, plus I ordered the tempura onion rings separately as I really wanted to try them, and another person in my group ordered the turkey leg, because, um, turkey leg at a bowling alley?  (Spoiler: the turkey leg was not really as expected.  No bone.  But they served it like it had a bone, it just ... didn't.  Like, they wrapped some in foil to give a handle-like, but there was no bone, and you had to knife and fork it).  Sadly we didn't get the crab claws or shrimp cocktail that I was also interested in.

Cheese Plate. $12.

"Sweetgrass Dairy Selection, Preserves, Crackers."

The first item to hit our table was the cheese & charcuterie plate.  I do not know what the cheeses were, nor the single meat.  Was it duck sausage?  Who knows.  I did snag the single digestive cracker, tried the preservers (waaaay too sweet), the brie (average), and the strawberries (flavorless).  

Duck Phat Fries / Bearnaise Mayo. $13.

Next up, giant bowls of fries.  The fries were reasonable fresh, hot, crisp.  But truly nothing otherwise interesting about them.  I didn't taste anything  particularly decadent about them or special from the duck  "phat".  The bearnaise mayo just tasted like regular mayo.  Highly average. **+.

Crispy Brussels Leaves / Lemon Aioli. $8.

Yeah yeah, crispy Brussels sprouts, as you see on menus ~everywhere these days in the winter (really, everywhere, doesn't matter the cuisine, they've got em!).  But these were actually done differently in that they truly were just the leaves.  No wedges or halves.  Which made for a really quite unique experience, they were just crispy flakes.  No caramelized exterior, juicy interior.  I think even those who dislike Brussels sprouts for #reasons might find these fine.  

Anyway, I really did enjoy these.  They were crispy, very well seasoned (yay salt!), and greasy but not in a bad way.  They went great with the dipping aioli (which was basically just sorta lemon flavored mayo, but, hey, I like creamy sauce).

Top 3 dishes we had, and I'd get these again.  ****.    

Tempura Onion Rings. $8.

The onion rings were not on our event menu, but they were the item I was most excited for, so I ordered a basket.  They came long after the rest of our food, when I, and everyone else, were far too stuffed to want more, but I still lunged at them the moment they hit the table.  The server even warned me to wait, they were too hot, fresh from fryer.

I did like them.  They were hot and fresh.  Super crispy.  Tempura indeed.  But certainly should have been better drained, they were fairly oily.  They had tons of tempura batter, far more batter than onion, which was kinda ok, the tempura was reasonably flavorful, although could have used a bit more seasoning.  The onion was moist and slimy in the right way.  I appreciated the different spin on onion rings, although I probably wouldn't get them again unless really craving them.  ***+.

They were served with ... ketchup.  I didn't like the ketchup with them at all.  Tempura and ketchup just don't go well.  But we had a table full of other sauces: hoisin, thousand island, lemon aioli, bearnaise mayo, fruity compote.  I tried dunking in every single sauce, and found the thousand island was by far the winner.  Tempura onion ring + thousand island was my favorite bite of the night, with that sauce, ****.

French Bread Pizza.  $12.

"Ciabatta, Pepperoni, Mozzarella, Provolone."

I did not try the pizza, called "French Bread" but specifying "Ciabatta" ... an Italian bread.  But anyway.  We had both cheese and pepperoni pizzas.  Cheese looked reasonably well melted?  But it pretty much looked like what a 10 year old makes for after school snack, and I wasn't inspired to try it.  I didn't hear anyone else mention it, and platters mostly went unfinished.

Dips

Dips!  Perfect party food.  The regular menu has 5 options, two of which were pretty appealing to me: a charred onion dip (with basic Ruffles chip, eh), and smoked salmon (with basic Ritz crackers).  Choice of dipping device aside, these sounded decent to me.  Alas, our group has a trio of other dips.

Chips & Dips: Spinach & Artichoke,
Salsa, Guacamole / Tortilla Chips.

Chips & dips!  But ... not the ones I really wanted.  Still, I tried.

I don't love spinach & artichoke dip, but I like it, and was happy enough to see that on our menu (although I would have preferred some of the other options).  But this was not good.  It was just slimy, lacked seasoning, and didn't taste like artichoke at all.  Just slimy spinach in some cream, which, can be good when properly prepared (<3 creamed spinach after all), but yeah, not this.  *.

I am not sure why I tried the salsa, but I did, and I didn't care for that either.  *.

Chips were thin, crispy, well salted, average.  ***.

Sandwiches / Sliders

For regular guests, The Painted Duck has a few "sandwich" like items: of course a burger, sausage, grilled chicken club, and brisket sando, along with pulled pork sliders.  Why was the pulled pork only available as sliders, while the rest were only full size?  Not sure.  All use unique breads, perhaps they couldn't find large format bread suitable for the pulled pork?  Our package came with a trio of sliders, two drawn from the regular menu that has them in full size sandwich form, and the aforementioned pulled pork.  All sliders came on the one kind of slider roll, rather than the curated breads the full size sandwiches use.

Sliders: pulled pork ($13), smoked beef brisket ($17),
grilled chicken club ($15).
(And more skewers, more pizza)

We had so many platters of sliders.  We barely made a dent in them.  I failed to get a photo of them originally, so apologies of the photo of just one table of mixed leftovers.  I eventually tried one out of curiosity.

Pulled Pork Sliders

"Crispy Onions, Pickles, King's Hawaiian Rolls (3)."

The pulled pork was not very good.  Not juicy, not in a tasty sauce, just kinda mushy shredded pork.  Meh.  The crispy onions were good.  *.

Smoked Beef Brisket

"Pickled Red Onions, Chili Mayo, Cilantro, Brioche Bun."

With our event format, these did not come on brioche buns, but instead, on the same Hawaiian rolls as the pulled pork.  People seemed to like these.  I did not try.

Grilled Chicken Club. 

"Bacon, Swiss, Romaine, Tomatoes, Avocado, Pesto Mayo, Pain de Mie Bun."

And more that just came on Hawaiian rolls instead of the buns they were supposed to come on.  No one touched these.  Not a one.  They looked pretty sad, just bare grilled chicken breasts.  

Quills - Skewers On The Barbie

Skewers seem to be a big attraction.  There were 7 kinds available: chicken, pork, beef, 3 kinds of seafood (ahi tuna, shrimp, lobster), and a token veggie skewer.  Again, menu kinda of all over the place, with ahi tuna, lobster, and Hawaiian pork & pineapple side by side on the menu with more traditional grilled proteins.  But hey, you could order lobster at the bowling alley?

Skewers are priced individually, although you must order at least 3 of a kind.

Our package included 3 kinds, sadly, not the lobster.

Sesame Shrimp ($6) / Peruvian Filet Mignon ($7)
/ Seasonal Garlic & Herb Vegetables ($3).

Sesame Shrimp

The shrimp was actually decent.  I didn't taste sesame at all, but, the shrimp were juicy, succulent, and had nice grilled marks.  They seemed to be marinated, or perhaps brushed with marinade after, so they weren't just simple grilled shrimp.  Reliable option I suspect if you want some protein.  ***+.

Seasonal Garlic & Herb Vegetables

I didn't try the veggies (tomato, squash, mushroom, bell pepper), and neither did anyone else.  Not even the vegetarians.  Not sure why, but no one was interested in these at all.

Peruvian Filet Mignon

The group did try some of the filet mignon, which was more cooked than people wanted of course (not mid-rare), but otherwise they seemed happy enough to have steak.  I eventually tried it myself, and was impressed.  It was tender, flavorful meat.  In the top 4 dishes we had.  ***+.

The center of the board was a bunch of potato sticks, which seemed awkward and entirely out of place.

The Painted Duck

The signature dish.  One that most people do not get, as it serves many.  And requires ordering in advance.  But here it is.  The namesake Painted Duck.

Whole Roasted Peking Duck.  $125.

"Peppered Bacon, Lettuce, Tomato, Grilled Onions, King's Hawaiian Rolls, Kitchen Requires 90 Minutes to Prepare."

Uh ... does this look like Peking duck to you?  Yeah, it did not to us either.  Yes, the menu *did* say King's Hawaiian Rolls, and lettuce, tomato, grilled onions, which perhaps should have been a sign, but I think we kinda glazed past that and just saw that it was going to be a whole Peking duck.  

So, ok, more of the same King's Hawaiian buns instead of bao or pancakes.  And there was some hoisin to go with the duck.  But no cucumber nor scallions.

But then there was the lettuce.  The tomato.  The grilled onions.  The pickled onions.  The bacon.  The ... thousand island dressing?

Such a board of confusion.  You could make a sorta Peking duck slider ... or a BLT.  Or some crazy hybrid of the two.  #confusion.

That said, there were some surprisingly great elements on here.  

The lettuce, baby gems, was really quite fresh and crisp.  After a menu of all fried things / carbs / heavy meats, it was nice to have refreshing greens.  And the sliced tomato?  REALLY good.  Flavorful.  Some of the best tomato I've had in months.  In January.  In a bowling alley.  In Atlanta.  On a Peking duck board.  Just go with it.  The thousand island style dressing was really quite good too, creamy, flavorful, and went beautifully with the lettuce and tomato.  I genuinely really enjoyed these elements, and happily took some leftover home.  ****.  

The peppered bacon was also a star, that was all the meat in the top right.  Various size strips and bits, mostly caramelized, very crispy, lots of pepper, just really tasty.  Quite memorable bacon, again, probably the best I've had in a while.  ****.

The caramelized onions were less good, nothing wrong with them really, but somehow not very flavorful, and the red onions were harsh and too pickled.  The hoisin was fairly generic, thick, very sweet.  ** for all of that.

And then the duck, which did include some bones with meat on them, and some shredded pieces.  It was fairly moist and tender.  But just felt out of place with the rest of what was on this board.  I didn't find any crispy skin pieces. ***.

A mixed bag of "ok", strangely great, and mostly confusing.  Still, the BLT wraps I was making were definitely top 4 of the night, ****.

Sweets

The regular Sweets lineup has 3 items: a ho-hum cheesecake, a decent looking lattice topped apple pie, and little S'mores pops that seem like crowd favorites.  If I was ordering, I certainly would have gone for the apple pie, but our group package had a different item, not from the regular menu.

Brownie Bites.

I did try one of the tiny brownie bites for completeness.  It was a dense generic brownie.  Not much more to say here.  **+.

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Delta First Class, SFO-ATL

I have only flown with Delta three times before.  For international flights, their prices are always considerably higher than others (likely due to the corporate rates I use as my international travel is always for business), and for domestic, they don't serve routes I frequent, besides Boston, but they fly out of the terminal I dislike in Boston, and I generally just go with JetBlue as I like the suite more anyway.  So Delta and I have very little history, besides a two flights on the new A321Neo between SF and Boston when JetBlue prices were crazypants high (BOS-SFO, SFO-BOS), and once on the older A321 from SLC to SFO.

My impressions have been largely average.  Seats not impressive, food mediocre, cocktails good (but alas, discontinued), service ok enough, etc.  I haven't been particularly inspired to fly with Delta again since, but when recently traveling to Atlanta from San Francisco, they were the only real choice (United has a single flight per day, early morning, and no one else flies direct).

Flight Details

Flight Number DL 315

Departure: San Francisco, SFO, 2:33pm (scheduled) 3:49 pm(actual)

Arrival: Atlanta ATL 11:15pm

Length: 4h 42m

Aircraft: Boeing 737-900

Things didn't start off well, as we had a delay hours before I even had to leave for the airport.  Inbound aircraft delayed, and clearly lots of switcheroos going on, as the inbound changed out 5 times that morning.  We were delayed another 30 minutes once we all got to the gate to board, due to missing crew.  And another 15 minutes, because of an issue with tows.  Etc, etc.  But Delta communicated pretty well throughout, and handled it as well as could be expected.

The crew were asked to stay in their jump seats much longer than normal due to possible turbulence, that never materialized.  Better safe than sorry, I know, but we also were not offered a pdb (just little mini water bottles at our seats), and I was looking forward to something to drink.  Our FA didn't come to take drink orders until almost an hour into the flight.

Amenities are minimal - no pillows or blankets, very very cheap headphones (earbuds) to use with the seat back entertainment.  My side was wide, and I had leg room, but recline was broken.  Besides the seat back pocket, and tiny drink tray table, there was no where to put anything.  Very tired first class setup.  I'm clearly spoiled with never aircraft, and in particular, better designed seats.

Food & Drink

Drinks

Delta's drink lineup is pretty uninteresting for me.  I like flavored sparkling water, stiff cocktails, and red wine.  Delta has only plain sparkling water (unlike United that has not one, but two flavors of sparkling Aha, JetBlue that has Lime Bubly, or Alaska with Cranberry Lime Seltzer).  They have no cocktails, just basic spirits (unlike JetBlue with 2 signature cocktails, Alaska with Straightaway pre-mixed cocktails, including an old fashioned or espresso martini) - although Delta used to have very good canned Tip Top cocktails but discontinued them this past year.  Alas.  

Wines.

For wine, I had the choice of a single red, white, or sparkling.  Again, just much less selection than other airlines flying domestically.  $20 price point for the red.

Sparkling Water / Red Wine.

I went with the red.  It was ... table wine.  More acid than I'd like.  No complexity besides the acid.  Meh.  **.  I wouldn't get it again.  The pour was extremely generous.

Food

The meal was definitely at an awkward time, as frequently happens on flights. With our original departure time of 2:30pm, that would put the meal around 3:30pm, which is 6:30pm and reasonable where we were headed, but, crazy early for San Francisco.  The delay made this slightly better I guess; my meal was served at 4:50pm.

Signature (on board) Options.

There were 3 "signature" selections available to order on board, fairly standard generic flight/wedding/etc trifecta of chicken, beef, veggie pasta: Jon & Vinny's Braised Meatballs, roasted chicken breast, or mushroom herb ravioli.  I actually had a hard time making my choice, as none were easy to rule out.

The meatballs are fan favorite of Delta frequent flyers, previously only available for flights out of LAX, a co-branding with a LA restaurant known for these meatballs.  Delta recently expanded offering these out of other airports.  They really do get great praise, and come with a huge glob of fresh ricotta on top (along with fancy marinara sauce and garlic bread).  Definitely not something I'd normally order, but I was tempted, just given how universally loved they seem to be.  My neighbor across the aisle seemed to enjoy them.

Next up is the chicken, which isn't interesting to me in general because I dislike chicken, but it does come with sides I enjoy (mashed potatoes, green beans, and white wine cream sauce), so I considered it for a moment.

And finally, the pasta, the "safe" option on flights in some ways.  Airplane pasta is rarely actually all that good, but, it also is rarely all that bad.  It is the sort of dish that works well in frozen dinner zapped in microwave form, which, kinda is what plane food is.  And in this case, it featured mushrooms both inside and out, and a decent sounding (tomato-mascarpone) sauce.  Originally, this is what I selected when I pre-ordered 7 days in advance.  My seat mate got this, and it looked pretty good.  He said it was fine.  He was vegetarian, so his only choice.  He said edible, but not rave worthy.  I think I made the right choice.

Limited (pre-order only) Options.

Two additional "exclusive" options "curated for this market" are available if you preorder (7 days to 24 ours in advance).  For my flight, this was margherita pizza or shrimp and grits.  I have to laugh as these options exist for many city pairs, so not really sure what specific curation for "this" market is going on here.  Also, uh, the pizza is the fancy exclusive item?  Regardless, only available if you order in advance.

The pizza is the opposite of the meatballs.  Pretty much universally mocked.  Delta has run a few different versions of it, but none are well received.  I would be skeptical too, if I hadn't just had a very tasty slice on my JetBlue flight from Boston just two weeks prior.

And finally, shrimp & grits, not something I'd ever normally order on a flight.  I do really enjoy grits, and I like shrimp, and I really do like shrimp & grits but none of this seemed promising on a flight.  I've had too many dried out polenta/grits sort of bases (including a mediocre version on Delta a few years ago), too many chewy rubbery shrimp (even when they look decent like the GIANT ones United had for a while that were either crazy chewy,  or the ones that were properly cooked but entirely flavorless), and doubted Delta catering's ability to pull off the important element of the flavorful gravy/sauce.  But at last minute (er, 24 hours + last minute), I decided to switch my pre-order do this exclusive dish, based on strong online reviews and many mentions of the shrimp being really well cooked, even if the overall dish was a bit bland and needed seasoning.

Dinner.

For domestic flights, lunch or dinner, Delta meals include a simple salad, and a plated dessert, which all come on the tray with your entree choice.  No appetizers, not even any bread.  Serving the dessert all at once feels like a downgrade in service compared to separate course as most other airlines do on routes of this length (or longer).

Simple packet of salt and pepper and salad dressing rounded out the tray.

Salad.

The salad was really quite good.  Mixed greens base, fresh, crisp.  The cherry tomatoes were juicy, not mealy, and although not the most flavorful out there, it was January, and they were better than expected, and definitely didn't taste refrigerated.  I loved the big juicy crisp crunchy celery.  I avoided the cubes of cucumber.

Overall, this was a great simple salad, freshness was key.  That said, it was bigger than it looked, which was great, I wanted that much, but it was really, really hard to eat in the small bowl.  I ended up pushing half my entree to the side and dumping on to that plate instead, which my neighbor did as well.  So, great salad, tiny bowl.

Served with balsamic vinaigrette that I didn't use (I brought my own dressing as I don't care for vinaigrettes).

***+.

Shrimp & Grits.

"Spicy creole sauce, scallions."

This dish was a mixed bag.  Overall it was perfectly fine.  But some parts were better than others.

I'll start with the shockingly good: the shrimp!  Wow, everyone was right.  The shrimp somehow were really, really well cooked.  Juicy, bouncy, succulent.  Flavorful.  I was blown away by how good the shrimp were.  The serving was 4, which seems perhaps a bit small for big eaters, but was fine for me.  Shrimp, far above average.  ****.

The "spicy creole sauce" . Um, ha.  There was not a teeny, tiny amount of spice in here.  None.  It was just tomato sauce.  More Italian style than anything else.  Creamy tomato sauce.  Not spicy, and not really southern gravy like you'd want with shrimp & grits.  No Cajun seasoning.  No bacon, no andouille sausage.  Just, tomato sauce.  Very low *** as it wasn't bad, but certainly isn't what I wanted from my shrimp & grits.

And finally, the grits.  They were really creamy.  Served properly hot.  Not dried out.  But ... so bland!  Just as others had said.  Woefully under-seasoned.  I was prepared with 1) red pepper flakes, 2) large flakes of Maldon sea salt, and 3) garlic powder, which really did save the day, but, wow, so bland.  **+, for creaminess.

So overall ... definitely lacked the creole element, and grits were pretty blah, but wow, those shrimp.  *** overall, and I"d get it again if craving shrimp, but otherwise would move on to something else.

Tiramisu.

I was sad that the dessert was tiramisu.  Not sad because I dislike tiramisu, as I actually quite like it, but sad because it had caffeine, and I avoid caffeine after noon.  Particularly when I was headed to jetlag, I didn't want to make it worse.  So I saved it, on ice, and enjoyed the next day after lunch, and ate my own dessert I came prepared with on the flight.

The tiramisu was extremely boring.  The mascarpone layer didn't taste like mascarpone, just, white thick mousse, I'm just assuming it was actually mascarpone.  The ladyfingers were drenched in coffee, which was good, but they were quite soggy of course as a result (which is ok in tiramisu).  Besides the coffee flavor in the ladyfingers though, this didn't taste like anything really.  Meh.  **.

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Radish Kosher Catering

I don't keep kosher.  And yet, I somehow do end up eating a fair number of kosher meals, like those from Catering by Andrew in the Boston area, or Fresko throughout New England (they seem to dominate the market, found on most flights catered out of east coast airports, in all hospitals, in retail stores, etc).  

Radish is another kosher caterer that provides meals to hospitals, cafes, schools, etc.  They are based in NY and have all the certifications that matter to those who do keep kosher.  All meals are individually wrapped and double sealed. They offer fresh meals for grab-n-go such as salads, sandwiches, wraps, cut fruit, yogurt cups, and pastries, along with fresh or frozen TV dinner style meals.  They also offer kids and senior meals.  

I've tried a few of their different offerings, and found them mostly lower end of average.  Perhaps an ok option if you are traveling and need a kosher meal, but otherwise I wouldn't recommend.

Entrees

The entrees I tried all reminded me of frozen "tv dinners", although they were delivered refrigerated (I'm not sure if previously frozen). I think the packaging is what gave those strong vibes, with the individual sections of the plastic trays.  I picked up a trio of dishes, two to share with my mom, and one for my dad, but I tried most components.

Almond Encrusted Trout
w/ Orzo & Baby Carrots.

First up, a dish I'd order from a restaurant with no problem, almond crusted trout.  I was drawn to it for the trout, not the sides though.

It was ... ok.  The portion was fine, there were two thin pieces of fish, skin-on.  Fairly average trout, a bit fishy, as trout is.  It was very mildly seasoned.  The "encrusted" description let me down, as what that seemed to mean is that there were slivered almonds in the container to put on top, but it wasn't really crusted.  I had expected more of a breading/crust and perhaps smaller bits of nuts.  The almonds were fine, but a bit over-toasted and dark.  There were tons of them, below the trout was basically just all nuts.  The dish really seemed like it was missing a critical sauce to really liven it up and tie things together.  A lemon beurre blanc, a cream sauce, anything really.  Very low *** as there was nothing wrong with it, but it wasn't very enjoyable or interesting.

I didn't try the roast baby carrots, but my father had them, and said they were undercooked, but otherwise fine.  I took a bite of the orzo and handed that off to my mom, who said it was very bland and entirely plain.  It had a few tiny bits of veggies, and no seasoning nor sauce.  Again, the dish just seemed like it was missing sauce (my mom quickly added a sage lemon butter sauce to everything and greatly enjoyed it that way).

Would not get again.

Blackened Tilapia
w/ rice & zucchini.

Next up, blackened tilapia.  I was drawn to it because back when I was in grad school, and living on very limited funds, when I got taken out to dinner a few times I went to Ruby Tuesday (which would have been a huge splurge and way outside my means), and I got the blackened tilapia.  It is literally the only other time in my life I've had tilapia (besides once during the pandemic when my parents and I ordered frozen meals from Top Chef Meals), and it felt nostalgic to me.  Again I wasn't interested in the sides.

The tilapia was really well coated in blackening spices.  The seasoning was very flavorful, and really made it quite flavorful and enjoyable as-is (even though I had a cajun remoulade on standby, I didn't really need it).  The fish was moist, and very mild otherwise, just not a flavorful fish in any way, but not offensive either.  Pretty ho-hum average tilapia, but great seasoning.  ***+.

I didn't try the zucchini nor the rice with a few bits of veggies in it, but my mother said the rice was fine but bland.  She threw out the zucchini after a single bite.  Their sides really seem to be a weakness.

The fish was a fairly small portion given how thin it was.  Overall, it seemed like a very small meal, just give the thin nature of the fish, the single piece of fish, and the fairly small non substantial sides.  More of a lunch than dinner portion, unless you added perhaps a side salad and bread.  I'd consider getting it again if I was craving blackened fish.

Vegetable Rollatini (parve).

And finally, a non-seafood option.  This one I picked out for my dad, but of course I tried it first.

What was this exactly?  It looked a lot like lasagna roll ups, and did indeed have lasagna noodles and marinara sauce.  And it was vegetarian.  But it was also parve (and thus vegan) and didn't have any cheesy component, which is pretty essential in my mind for lasagna-adjacent dishes.  Instead the filling was a mix of egg and matzo ball mix, with bits of vegetables: onions, squash, carrots, bell pepper.

It was ... awful?  The pasta was basic.  The sauce was ... overly herby, acidic, and just not very good.  The filling was however what took it from "not good" to "awful".  Inside was just mush.  I certainly couldn't distinguish any vegetables.  The matzo ball mix is what it seemed to mostly be made from, but, in mush form.

Even cheese wouldn't have helped this in my mind.  None of us wanted this.  *.

Sides

I also got some extra sides to round out our meal.

Dirty Mashed Potatoes.

I'm not exactly sure what "dirty" mashed potatoes are, and the label did not included any ingredients, it just said "dirty mashed potatoes".

I'm still not entirely sure what the dirty part was, but they were good mashed potatoes.  Clearly made with real potatoes, not instant.  Good texture, no lumps, not gloopy.  Quite flavorful, I think there was garlic along with good seasoning (salt and pepper) and herbs.  Far better than I expected.  ***+.  

Pasta Salad.

My parents love pasta salad, so this was for them (I like it too, but, the mayo heavy kind, which this was not).

This was the sort of pasta salad that you find at a potluck, brought by someone who absolutely does not cook, and signed up too late to grab the coveted easy chips & dip, cheese & crackers, or fresh fruit slot.  Was it bad?  Well, no, but if I purchased it at a deli, cafe, or even grocery store as a pre-made item, I'd be pretty disappointed.  

It was a zero skill dish.  Think: cook pasta moderately well (not super mushy, but not al dente), add some Italian vinaigrette from a bottle, and chop of a few bits of red bell pepper to "make it pop".  And that's what we had here.  As I said, zero skill dish.  It tasted as generic as can be.  It honestly could have been one of those Suddenly Salad mixs.

As I don't care for Italian vinaigrette, this was a big miss for me (when I ordered, I was hoping "pasta salad" would be more like macaroni salad, or at least mayo based).  *+.

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