Breakfast at Taco Bell Cantina

Yeah, I went back to Taco Bell.  For breakfast no less.

Remember a few years ago, when Taco Bell did a promotion that if anyone stole a base during the World Series, they'd give away free Doritos Locos Tacos?  Well, that was my first time ever having Taco Bell.  I uh, wasn't impressed.  I didn't return.  Until now.

Why?  Because Taco Bell did it again, only this year, they offered up free breakfast.  Since I can't resist a chance to try silly freebies like this, you know I eagerly headed off to Taco Bell the morning of the promotion.

The Space

Cantina Seating.

But I didn't head to just any Taco Bell.  Nope.  I went to the fancy new Taco Bell Cantina in Soma.

Still obviously a Taco Bell, but, the seating is certainly upgraded.  They even have a big communal table in the middle.  So hip.

Open Kitchen.

The menu is still standard Taco Bell, and the kitchen I'm sure is a similar set up, but at the Cantina the kitchen is open, so you can watch orders being assembled, more like being in a real taqueria.

I hear that they do have some additional menu items, mostly sharable appetizers.

Branded Soda Machine.

The soda machine is also a fancy cantina branded one.

But besides that, it is Taco Bell.  You order a register, you wait for your number to be called.  Or, if you are fancy, you order online first.

Eventually this location is supposed to serve beer, wine, and sangria, but when I visited they still had a petition near the register to sign to convince someone to let them.

Food

Anyway, the food.  So yes, Taco Bell serves breakfast (and has for about a year and a half).

You can likely guess most of the menu, different spins of breakfast burritos.  Much like the lunch/dinner menu, the breakfast menu reads like a mis-mash of a few different ingredients, just assembled differently.  The basic building blocks are scrambled eggs, bacon/sausage/steak, hashbrowns, and cheese.

The simplest option is the "Cheesy Burrito", stuffed with scrambled eggs, cheese, and your choice of meat.  The "Grilled Breakfast Burrito" seems to be a small step up, offering nacho cheese sauce instead of shredded cheddar cheese.  I imagine it is also grilled, per the name, but they photos don't look it.  Next up is the "Grilled Breakfast Burrito Country", with scrambled eggs, potatoes, southern gravy, and your choice of protein.  Going bigger still is the "Grand Scrambler", with scrambled egg, cheese and nacho cheese sauce, potatoes, pico de gallo, sour cream, and your choice of protein.

If you prefer tacos over burritos, go for the "Biscuit Taco", a fluffy taco shell, filled with scrambled eggs, cheese, and your choice of meat.  Or the "Sausage & Cheese Biscuit Taco", with just a sausage patty and cheese, sans egg.  The final taco offering is an "A.M. Grilled Taco", a traditional flour tortilla, stuffed with, you guessed it, scrambled egg, cheese, and your choice of meat.  It really looks more like a quesadilla though.

The last section of the breakfast menu is devoted to the most unique item: the "A.M. Crunchwrap".  These are full burrito size flour tortillas filled with not just scrambled eggs, cheese, and your protein choice inside, but also a full hash brown patty and sauce.  And they aren't just folded over, they are formed into a hex shape, and then grilled.  It is the Crunchwraps that Taco Bell was giving away this time.

You can get your breakfast sandwich as a combo with a drink and either hashbrowns or little Cinnamon Delights (fried dough balls, stuffed with icing, coated in cinnamon and sugar).  The sides are also available a la carte.

Packaging.

I ordered my Crunchwrap, and stepped back to watch it be assembled.  The staff moved efficiently, with one person adding eggs and proteins, the next putting on the correct sauces and folding them up, and the final person put them into the press to be grilled.

Although there was a line, and mine was made to order, it still only took <3 minutes before my number was called out, and my piping hot bag was handed over.  Fast food man, it really is fast.

A.M. Crunchwrap.  $2.89.

So, for the free item, I could select a Crunchwrap.  The standard offering comes with scrambled egg, cheese, bacon, a full hash brown, and creamy jalapeño sauce.  You can sub out the bacon for a sausage patty free of charge, or opt for steak for a slight price increase.

The other Crunchwraps on the menu still have the base of scrambled eggs, cheese, and hashbrown, but the "Country" version uses southern gravy instead of creamy jalapeño sauce and defaults to a sausage patty, and the "California" version throws in some guac and pico de gallo.

I didn't realize the other versions were included in the promo, and hadn't looked them up, so I had no idea what was in them (and the signs at the Taco Bell itself don't actually say).  So, I opted for the regular Crunchwrap.

Except ... I don't really like eggs, even good eggs, and I've had enough fast food eggs at this point to know better than to even try (like the flavorless rubbery eggs in the otherwise good Starbucks breakfast sandwiches)  So, I opted for no egg, just like I did at Panera.

The standard version uses bacon, but  I wasn't really interested in the greasy little bacon crumbles they use for bacon, so went for the sausage patty.  This substitution was free of charge.  I was pleasantly surprised by the sausage patty at Starbucks (not so much at Panera), so I though it stood a chance here.

So, my order: Sausage A.M. Crunchwrap, no egg.

I pulled it out of the bag, and was a little surprised to see that it did indeed match the photo I had seen online.  Hex shaped, grilled.  Hmm.

It was really hot, clearly fresh from the grill press.  The outside was crispy from the contact points.  Hmm, not bad, actually.  I continued.

Sausage A.M. Crunchwrap, no egg: inside.

Once I took a few bites from the edge to get past the plain tortilla, I got to the insides.

I took a few bites of it all together, rather ... enjoying it.  This thing wasn't bad, actually.

The hashbrown was indeed a full patty.  It wasn't too greasy or oily.  Sure, it was a frozen hashbrown, but I grew up on these (the kind you throw into a toaster?  I used to slather them with ketchup or syrup and be quite satisfied).

The sausage however wasn't great.  When it was combined with everything else it was fine, but on its own, it was obvious that it was rather rubbery and flimsy, and didn't taste particularly good.  Not that I was expecting high quality at this price point, but the Starbucks one was considerably better.  

The cheese was basic shredded cheddar cheese, but it was nicely melted.  I would have liked more, as there really wasn't much.  Extra cheese is an option for customization, for a fee.

And lastly, the creamy jalapeño sauce.  I appreciated the creamy component, but, this just made no sense at breakfast for me.  It had a little kick, which was nice for some flavor, but, random mayo-y sauce wasn't really what I wanted.

After reading about the Country Crunchwrap, I do wish I had gone for that instead (sans egg of course).  It would have been the same as what I got, but with gravy instead of creamy jalapeño sauce, which just makes a lot more sense for breakfast to me.  Plus, mmm, sausage and gravy!

I obviously can't evaluate the egg, since I had it left out.  I did find the whole thing a bit lacking in flavor, but luckily they have a slew of different hot sauces and ketchup available, so I was able to slather mine in sauce and add whatever kick I wanted.  I saw most other diners doing the same.

So overall, it really wasn't bad.  It was freshly made.  I liked the crispy exterior.  The cheese was melty.  It was hot inside.  Hashbrowns are tasty.

Do I want another?  Well, no, but I was glad to give it a try.

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The Daily Crave Veggie Chips

Update Review November 2015

A few years ago, I reviewed one kind of veggie sticks made by The Daily Crave.  I didn't remember how much I disliked them, and accidentally tried another one of their products.  I won't make this mistake again :)

Veggie Chips.

"Say goodbye to greasy chips that are full of artificial flavors and colors.  The Daily Crave Veggie chips contain none of the "bad stuff" but still gives you all the great taste you desire."

These just really don't taste like ... anything.

There are three colors, but they taste identical, and not like any veggie I could pick out.  Plain green, plain red, and plain orangish, I dubbed them.  The color is natural, the green comes from spinach powder, the orange from tomato powder, and the red from beet powder.

The texture is also a bit strange, since they are made from potato and rice flour, not slices of potato.

And ... besides that, they have no taste.  Oh, I take it back.  They do have a taste: salt.    Very salty. Meh.

But at least vegan and gluten-free?

Original Review November 2013

I'm constantly on the lookout for things to munch on, as I'm a serious snacker.  Particularly salty, crispy things.  So I was excited to find The Daily Crave, as the products sounds interesting.  They make veggie chips, veggie snicks, and "veggie skinniez".  All are vegan.

The packaging was exciting.  They looked good on the outside.  But unfortunately, I didn't like the one variety I tried at all.  I don't really see a reason to try the rest of their product line.

Veggie Sticks.

The veggie sticks looked like crispy french fries in the picture.  They came in a trio of colors: slightly green, slightly orange, and slightly yellow.  But, they didn't look great in person.

They tasted about how they looked.  Just like the colors, the flavors were muted.  They didn't really taste like ... anything.  One other reviewer said they tasted like packing peanuts.  I thought more like styrofoam.  You know, if we'd actually ever consumed those things.  The only enjoyable part to them was that they were crispy and crunchy.

I was curious about what was in them, so looked at the ingredients.  It turns out that "veggie sticks" really just were potato flour, rice flour, and oil with some tomato powder, spinach powder, and beet powder added to give them color, and presumably, market them as something other than potato sticks.

Meh. I certainly wouldn't get them again.

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Alfajores from Sabores del Sur

Sabores del Sur is local small catering company, specializing in South American treats.  They were born out of the La Cocina incubator program, where I discovered their treats at the La Cocina stand in the Ferry Building.  Now, in addition to catering, they also have a restaurant.  Certainly a La Cocina success story.

I don't know anything about their catering business, but their sweet treats, the alfajores, are known all over town as the best.  You can find the alfajores at cafes around town, and even at Whole Foods now.  Even though I'm not a huge cookie fan, I had to try them, because, well, if the are the best, how could I not?  I'm sooo glad I did.

Alfajores.

“Delicate round butter cookies filled with creamy dulce de leche caramel and dusted with white powdered sugar”.

I tried one, still expecting "just a cookie", and figured I'd hand over the package to Ojan.

I was shocked.  These were really good!  The cookie was buttery and delicious.  The filling was sweet, who doesn't love dulce de leche?  The powdered sugar all over them added even more sweetness.  Alfajores seems to be very ideal pairings with black coffee.

I also had a package that somehow got old before I broke into it.  The cookies were not stale tasting exactly, but they crumbled into tiny bits and developed a chalky texture.  Whoops.  The filling got a bit crunchy, rather than creamy, which I actually liked, basically like a cross between dulce de leche and toffee.  I extracted the tasty filling and just ate it on its own, which was perfectly enjoyable.  But, uh, don't let them get stale.

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Radish Restaurant

Radish is an American restaurant in the Mission, known in particular for their brunches (served not only on weekends, but Wed, Thurs, and Fri too!)

I do love brunch, but that is not why I swung by Radish one day.  You see, they are also known for ... their root veggie chips.  Yes, really, I'd go out of my way for chips.

I've been a little obsessed with chips lately.  I'm not sure what it is, something about the crispiness, the oral fixation with munching on them, the addicting saltiness ...

I've been exploring all sorts of chips, and root veggie chips are far better than standard potato in my mind, so when I read that Radish makes house made root vegetable chips that people seem to love, I had to pick some up.

Root Vegetable Chips.  $3.50.

I'm not certain what types of root vegetables were included, but there were at least two kinds, including taro.  Mmm, taro, an ingredient I absolutely love.

The chips were indeed kinda awesome.  Thin, very crispy, great flavor, nicely salted.  Obviously fresh made, so much better than any packaged chips.  Yes, just the chips alone were great, but obviously I wish that, like the plantain and root veggie chips at Le Mar, they came with awesome dipping sauces.

I'd gladly pick these up rather than buying a bag of chips any day, and $3 isn't that much more expensive than a bag of Terra chips anyway ...

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Romano's Macaroni Grill, O'Hare Airport

As you read last week, I recently travelled through O'Hare airport.  I visited Tortas Frontera for my savory food, and then eagerly set off to TCBY to get some froyo.  There was a TCBY in my hometown when I was growing up, and I recall going there for a splurge from time to time, getting a "shiver", with my favorite candies mixed in.  Definitely my introduction to froyo, and I hadn't encountered TCBY in years.  I was so excited, particularly since I didn't really love my lunch.

I rounded the corner, determined and excited, only to discover that the froyo machine at TCBY was ... broken.  I still really wanted dessert, and I had very little time left, and few options.  I basically had two choices: Chili's or Romano's Macaroni Grill.

I picked Romano's because I did have fond memories of that place too, although not necessarily for dessert.  And no, these weren't childhood memories.  I only ever visited Romano's in California, when I moved out here.  Let's just say I ate very differently when I first moved to California (I was mostly vegetarian, for one), and I recalled being quite into the eggplant parmesan or the create your own pasta options at Romano's.

So ,Romano's it was.  I was met with a fairly boring dessert menu: tiramisu, cheesecake, chocolate cake, or gelato.  I ruled out the melty item, and the ones with caffeine, and settled on cheesecake.

New York Style Cheesecake / shortbread crust / fresh strawberries.

I laughed when I opened the box.  “Fresh strawberries”, eh?  And what were these giant chunks of … biscotti?

Looks aside, the cheesecake wasn’t very good.

It wasn’t very creamy, it didn’t really have any cream cheese flavor to it.  Or *any* flavor really.  It was just ... there.  On top was what I guess was a little whipped cream?  It was white, but it wasn’t fluffy or creamy, and also didn’t taste like anything.  The white layer was too thin to really tasty anyway, and it only extended part of the way back.  Even canned whipped cream would have been better than this.  Maybe it was sour cream?  But it didn’t taste sour either.  I have no idea.

The crust was probably the best part, a sweet crumbled shortbread crust.  It wasn’t great, don’t get me wrong, but it was better than the cheesecake itself.

As were the large chunks of biscotti.  When I looked at photos online after, I saw that normally these are little pieces, crumbled up on top.  That makes slightly more sense, as the big chunks just seemed strange and out of place.  The biscotti had a nice texture, and actually a bit of flavor.  Nothing special, but not awful.  If I had coffee with me, I would have liked to dunk them.

The fresh strawberries were indeed just mushy berries in a way-too-sweet syrup.  They were certainly not fresh berries.  Fairly awful.

So ... yeah.  Flavorless cheesecake, sweet strawberry goo, and random biscotti.  Not a winner.

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Breakfast Sandwich from Panera

I've reviewed Panera a slew of times before, including the lackluster muffins, the mediocre pastries and cookies, the fairly tasty bagels with awesome cream cheese, the decent beverages, before finally finding a really good scone.

And you've likely been to Panera yourself, so, I have nothing more to say about Panera as a place.  This review will focus on two things: the order in advance Rapid Pickup system, and my first try at one of their breakfast sandwiches.  The online ordering was definitely a success.

Rapid Pickup Custom Order.

For this visit, I opted to try out the rapid pickup option.  You can order online, or through your phone.  You can order far in advance, or for "ASAP".  The web site was really simple to use, and in fact, it allowed me to discover huge sections of the Panera menu that I never new existed from reading only their posted signs in the cafes.  I had NO idea how much I could customize! (more on that soon).  Ordering online was easy peasy.
As was pickup.  They have an entire shelf dedicate to the rapid pickups, and you just walk in, say your name, and grab it.  I ordered a hot item, and I was apprehensive about this setup.  I asked for 8:45am pickup.  Would it be made at 7am and just left sitting?  I wanted it hot and fresh!  I arrived a few minutes early, and my order was indeed sitting there.  My heart sank.  And then I picked it up.  The bag was hot.  I read the tag attached.  8:38:53AM it read.  It really had *just* been made.  Perfect.

So rapid pickup?  Definitely a success.  My order?  Not quite as much, as you'll soon read about.

But first, let's talk about the amazing customizations.  While Panera doesn't have an explicit "build your own" sandwich option, they allow you to change any element of the sandwiches, so, in practice, you can build your own.  Just consider the 10 that they have on the menu as mere "suggestions".

To start, the choice for the bread.  The pre-made breakfast sandwiches use a few different breads, including bagels (everything or asiago cheese), a sprouted grain bagel flat, slices of whole grain bread, and ciabatta.  But if you want to customize it, you have far more options.  You can pick any bagel you'd like as the base.  Want a chocolate chip bagel with your egg sandwich? Go for it, it might be nasty, but no one will stop you.  Prefer a decadent croissant?  Sure.  Want basic sliced bread?  You can pick from any of Panera's loaves.  Want some crunch?  Go for the demi or baguette.  Low carb? Opt for flatbread.  Basically, any bread product that Panera offers, you can pick from.

Next, the choice of eggs.  Whole egg, just egg whites, or a crazy egg white patty-thing with turkey sausage bits inside.

Then, cheese.  For some reason, every one of the menu provided sandwiches uses white cheddar, but every cheese that Panera offers is an option if you want: gruyere, american, asiago parmesan, cheddar (white or smoked), feta, gorgonzola, gouda, swiss, mozzarella (sliced or fresh).  You can sub out any cheese free of charge.  If you want more than one cheese, you can add a second cheese for $0.30.

Next, meat!  The breakfast sandwiches on the menu stick with the standard options of bacon, sausage,  steak, and ham.  But you can pick any of the other meats that Panera has for the regular lunch sandwiches, so you can put chicken, salami, turkey (roasted or sliced smoked), or even tuna or chicken salad, if you really want.  Again, simple swaps are free, additional meats are $1.

Finally, veggies.  Most of the breakfast sandwiches on the menu do not have veggies and stick with the tried and true meat/cheese/egg combo, but there are a few that add in spinach, avocado, tomato (fresh or sofrito), or basil pesto.  But you can probably guess where I'm going here.  If Panera has a veggie for other purposes, you can pick it.  Want some greens?  Add romaine, green leaf lettuce, spinach, basil, or "field greens".  Add on cucumbers, onions (red or caramelized), pappadew peppers, or pepperoncini if you really want.  Spread on pesto (regular or sundried tomato).

So, yes, you *could * create something horrible, like a chocolate chip bagel spread with pesto, filled with a scary egg white sausage crumble patty, topped with tuna salad and gorganzola.  Go for it.  No one is stopping you.  They even have an amazing tool if you order online that builds it visually for you.  You can see how uh, amazing it would look.

I didn't take it that far.  If you read my receipt, you can see that I removed one element of the sandwich, subbed out another, and added 5 extras.  So much fun!

Sausage, Egg, & Cheese on Grilled Ciabatta (with MANY modifications). $ 4.79.

"All-natural egg, freshly cracked every morning, a thick slice of Vermont white cheddar and all-natural sausage all grilled on our freshly baked Ciabatta."

Now, take that description, and then what you see above, with a lot of grains of salt.  I customized this ridiculously.  The only components that I kept were the sausage and cheese.  I really could have started with pretty much any of the sandwiches as a base, I just picked this one sorta randomly (and actually, and in looking at it more, I think I would have wound up with fewer modifications if I picked the "Mediterranean Egg White on Ciabatta").  But anyway.

I was inspired by the sausage and cheddar breakfast sandwich I had at Starbucks a while ago.  It wasn't great, but, flavorful sausage and melty cheese again sounded good.  And, unlike Starbucks, at Panera I could customize it, adding in a few more goodies.  It had potential, right?

The description Panera came up with for my actual creation was "Sausage, Egg & Cheese on Grilled Ciabatta with Sprouted Grain Bagel Flat with Basil with Caramelized Onions with Tomato Sofrito with Spinach with No Whole Egg."

To start, I removed the egg entirely ("with No Whole Egg").  The Starbucks eggs were all awful, reheated patties of strangeness.  I wasn't convinced that these would be fresh cracked eggs (it says they were cracked "every morning", which doesn't inspire me to believe someone was frying up an egg to order here).   I don't even really like eggs to begin with.  So I removed it, which I couldn't do at Starbucks, since they are pre-made there.

Next, I replaced the Ciabatta with a Sprouted Grain Bagel Flat ("with Sprouted Grain Bagel Flat").  The one item I consistently like at Panera is the bagels, so it seemed reasonable to sub in a bagel as my bread choice.  Except I was going to fill my creation with a ton of elements, so I didn't want a big heavy bagel.  The bagel flat seemed like a great option, and, although I had only one choice for bagel flat, it looked a lot like the whole grain bagel that I had really enjoyed before, so, I was happy with this.

So let's talk about the bagel flat: "Freshly baked bagel, pinched and slightly flattened, made with select ingredients, including sprouted wheat, rye, spelt and oats mixed with whole wheat flour and a touch of honey, then topped with oats."

The bagel decision was a good one.  Just like the whole grain bagel, it was nicely hearty, I liked the flavor, and the oats on top.  The flat was a good choice, the bread didn't overwhelm as I think a regular bagel would (for context, the flat is about 100 calories less than the regular one, so definitely a bit thinner).  It had beautiful grill marks on top, since the breakfast sandwiches are grilled (probably to melt the cheese?), rather than toasted in their standard toaster.  The outside was nicely toasted, but the interior was really gummy.  So, although this was freshly made and composed on the spot, rather than just magic-ovening a premade sandwich like Starbucks, Starbucks actually wins a bit here, since somehow the english muffins I had both times there came out really crispy and were never mushy.  But the bagel flat itself was good, and I'd certainly get just that again, not part of a breakfast sandwich.

My Creation: Top Layer.

I added in 4 items: basil, caramelized onions, tomato sofrito, and spinach.  I really couldn't resist jazzing it up once I realized I could.

I opened it up to see how they choose to handle my additions.  I had no idea what order they'd put anything in, as that wasn't something I was able to specify.

Spread on the top side of the bagel was what seemed to be pesto.  I didn't ask for pesto, but I did ask for basil (and yes both are options), and I didn't see any basil on my sandwich.  Some of the other breakfast sandwiches include pesto, so I'm guessing they assumed that is what I wanted?  Either that, or the "basil" they include is always finely chopped and pesto-like?  Anyway, the basil/pesto was actually my favorite part of the entire sandwich, so I'm glad it was there.  It was super flavorful, and the basil flavor went really nicely with the hearty oat-y bagel.

Next came the cheese.  I kept the cheese that all of the breakfast sandwiches use, white cheddar.  Not really my top pick for a cheese, but really I was just overwhelmed by the slew of other choices I had, so I kept it simple and didn't change it.  Plus, if they use it for ALL of the sandwiches, it must be the best, right?  No.  The cheese was really disappointing.  It wasn't really melted, as you can see here.  Just slices of cheese, with only the very edges melted.  Again, comparing to Starbucks, where they just magic-oven a pre-made sandwich and somehow get perfectly melted cheese, this was sad.  The only thing I can imagine is that they somehow normally rely on the egg to melt the cheese?

Next came spinach, another addition of mine.  Not much to say about it, other than that it was fresh, and the quantity provided was good.  Again, it went well with the bagel itself, and it was slightly wilt-y from the heat of the grill, which was nice.

So far, flavorful and good, except for the not melted cheese of course.

But under the spinach came the tomato sofrito.  To be fair, I had no idea what tomato sofrito was.  I just added it because it looked like roasted, seasoned tomatoes, which seemed like they'd be great with cheese and spinach, right?  I hated it.  It was really flavorful, and was sorta like moist sundried tomatoes, which I also never like.  The flavor was strong and intense, and took over the entire creation.

The not melted cheese kinda sucked, but the sofrito ruined it for me.  My own fault though.  I scraped off as much as I could, but I still kept getting a taste of it from time to time.  Such a powerful element.  Proceed with caution.

My Creation: Bottom Layer.

Below the tomato sofrito was the sausage patty.  I sometimes really love sausage, which I realize is completely out of character for me.  My mom laughs whenever I order sausage patties when we go out for breakfast, she still doesn't believe I like it.  What can I say, sometimes, you like what you like, right?  And again, the Starbucks one was well seasoned and really not that bad, so, I had hope.

The Panera sausage patty wasn't good.  It was really thin, super processed, so ... fake.  I realize that is strange to say about something that is always processed, but this was more so than usual.  It was covered in the sofrito, which actually worked out well, as I could just remove the sausage entirely and also get rid of a lot of the sofrito.

The final element was my last addition: caramelized onion.  I love caramelized onions and thought the flavors of caramelized onion, spinach, and cheese would be delicious together.

The onion was somehow worse than the sofrito!  First, it was red onion, which I wasn't quite expecting.  Not a bad thing necessarily, but, just not what I expected.  But the real issue?  It wasn't caramelized.  It was charred.  Burnt.  There were actual bits of black charcoal in there.  Seriously.  See all the little black bits?  It tasted really awful, I don't know how to describe it besides that.

So, overall?  A mixed success.  The bagel flat was a winner.  I liked the spinach and basil.  If the cheese had been melted, I think I would have been pretty happy with those ingredients, and would certainly consider getting another, and leave out the sausage, sofrito, and onions.  But as it was, no, I wouldn't get another of these.

I did really appreciate that I could modify every element of the sandwich, and I think it is strange that Panera doesn't make that more known.  There have to be others who would like customized breakfast sandwiches and don't realize how easily they can do it?  It was also amazing that even though I modified it extensively, the price didn't change.  You can sub out anything free of charge, and add up to 5 extras, without incurring any additional cost.

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Tortas Frontera, Chicago O'Hare Airport

Oh, airport food.  Not something anyone looks forward to.  I'm sure most of you just grin, bear it, and swing through McDonald's to cure that McDonald's itch that I know we all get.  But not me.  I can get McDonald's anytime.  To me, every airport is an adventure.  There might be something ... new!  I had a 2 hour layover in O’Hare, and of course, immediately began researching my options, trying to find the best of the lot.

The answer was pretty clear: Tortas Frontera.  It sounded like people thought it was good, as in, legit good, not just for airport food.  Hundreds of reviews, and 4.5 stars on Yelp?  Even regular restaurants don’t normally get those sort of accolades.

Tortas Frontera is one of Rick Bayless’s places.  I’ve tried a few bites at the Frontera Grill in a food court in San Francisco, and was impressed there by the flavors (sadly, it was shuttered), so, this certainly had potential.

At Tortas Frontera, even in the airport, nearly everything is made fresh to order.  They pride themselves in their ingredient sourcing.  The menu has a large section devoted to where the food comes from, ranging from the Miller antibiotic-free chicken from Orland, IN, to bread from local La Fournette bakery in Chicago, to even a special coffee blend made by Intelligentsia.  Serious quality sourcing.

The Space

Menu Board, Seating.

The establishment is located in a big food court, alongside McDonald’s, generic looking pizza, and all the usual suspects.  The food court shares seating in the middle, but Tortas Frontera has private seating in addition.  Not much, just a long thin counter with a rail separating it from the walkway, but, it is something.

Bar Area.

There is also a bar on the side, which was constantly active, with bartenders whipping up some pretty tasty looking margaritas.  So far so good.

Lots of Agua Fresca!

The menu mostly features tortas, as you might expect given the name.

If you are into sandwiches, they seemed to have something for everyone, meat lovers and vegetarians alike.  For those who want to load up on meat, the cubano is filled with smoked pork loin and bacon, or you can opt for the pepito with braised beef short ribs, the chochinita ibile with braised pork, the choriqueso with chorizo, or albondigas (pork and bacon meatballs).  Prefer poultry or seafood?  Several options exist for you too.  Vegetarian?  No problem, the roasted mushroom version gets rave reviews.  All tortas come with assorted flavorful sauces and other filling components as well.

If you don't want a torta, you can go for a salad, or have any torta made into a salad.  Tortilla soup, corn & poblano chowder, and a host of chips and salads and guac options round out the menu.  The other main choice is molletes, open faced pizza/flatbread sorta things.

Tortas Frontera also offers a breakfast menu with scrambled egg tortas and a greek yogurt bar, but I visited in the evening.

For non-alcoholic drinks, they have a slew of house made aqua frecas, pictured above.

Prep Station.

Everything as made to order, as promised.  Not typical fast food.

Every station was frantic, busy, churning out orders at a rapid pace.  And yes, each and every salad was hand tossed with dressing to order.  No soggy lettuce here.  Each sandwich assembled and grilled to order.  I can't even count how many fresh avocados I saw chopped up during my brief time there.  The only thing not made to order is the molletes (open faced flatbread/pizza like creations), which are also the only items that garner lackluster reviews.

The model is order-at-the-register (except for bar seating), get a buzzer, and wait.  When I ordered, I was warned that it would be 10 minutes, which I already expected.  The wait time estimate was dead on, my buzzer ran in precisely 10 minutes.  All orders are packaged to go.

The Food

Garlic Shrimp Torta. $12..

"Smoky garlic mojo, poblano rajas, goat cheese, black beans, wild arugula, lime."

I wanted something a bit lighter than the heavy meaty options, given that I was mid transit, and didn’t really want to over indulge and feel nasty on my next flight.  Plus, I had my eye on the TCBY nearby for an after-dinner treat.  I oped for the garlic shrimp torta.  Since I don’t like goat cheese, I subbed that out for cojita, which I knew they offered since other tortas used it.  It was no problem to make the switch.

The sandwich was nicely grilled, very crispy on the outside.  Inside was a smear of a black bean spread, and a generous layer of grilled poblanos.  There was plenty of arugula, which made it feel light, exactly what I was going for.  The arugula was really spicy though, in a peppery way, that I didn’t quite care for.  As for the shrimp, again, a generous amount.  They were … decent.  Not too rubbery.   I didn’t taste the garlic though.  I never found any “lime” in it either.  The smokey garlic mojo was provided on the side.  It was nicely spicy, but I actually expected this to be more of a creamy component, which I really wanted.  My sandwich needed some fat!  I wanted aioli!

Overall, it was … fine.  Ojan really enjoyed it.  But I guess I just wasn’t really in the mood for it, and really, my decision to go for something light backfired.  At the end of the day, when am I ever happy without mayo, cheese, or cream, anyway?  And, oh yeah, I don't like sandwiches.

But if you do like sandwiches, then trust Ojan on this one.  He really did enjoy it.

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