Whole Wheat Vegetarian and Tomato & Garlic slices, $7.51

When you walk into Blondie’s it’s your stereotypical Berkeley restaurant: the logo is a peace sign, and I can’t remember their slogan word for word, but it has something to do with “Make pizza, not war.” They have a huge variety of pizzas, ranging from the health-conscious Whole Wheat Vegetarian to the meat-stacked Carnivore. Their slice-by-slice menu varies every day. You can always get a slice of cheese, pepperoni, or vegetarian, but the daily special constantly changes. Examples of unique pizzas they have include BBQ Chicken (it’s better than the CPK version), Chipotle Chicken, Green Pesto, and Tomato & Garlic (shown above). Nutrition-wise, the only items I would recommend are vegetarian and any daily specials that don’t have red meat. But if you have a metabolism faster than Tony Parker, go ahead and order two slices of pepperoni. However, if you don’t have Parker’s contract ($50 million over 4 years), I would take into consideration the fact that each slice is $3.50. At Costco, you can get two monster slices for $5. At Pizza Hut, you can get a whole pizza for $10. Blondie’s is really good, but $3.50 is a bit too much, even if they make some pizzas that you’ve never seen before. Another knock on Blondie’s is that it tastes great, but it never fills me up. You can get a more filling and cheaper meal across the street at Smart Alec’s or Chipotle. But doesn’t everyone have an inner pizza-craving instinct built into them? This is why I often swing by Blondie’s to grab a slice or two.

Quality: 8.5/10
Nutrition: 6/10
Value: 3/10

Blondie’s is…

Good Stuff!

Grilled Chicken Chipotle Wrap ($7.00) and Fruit Cup ($3.25)

San Francisco Soup Company is a great option if you suddenly think to yourself “Shoot, I haven’t had a vegetable today!” Despite its name, I think it’s the salads that make this place awesome. My personal favorite, the Grilled Chicken Chipotle Salad, has a perfect mix of lettuce, black beans, corn, avocado, crushed blue corn chips, and this turnip/potato hybrid thing called jicama. The dressing is great as well, but you should always go light on it (it’s mayonnaise based). Of course, even though I usually get the salad wraps, a San Francisco Soup Company review would be stupid if I didn’t talk about the soups. You can get the usual soups that are available every day, such as the Chicken Tortilla, Tomato Bisque, Chicken Noodle, and Mac and Cheese. There are also soups of the day, which are taken from a huge pool of something like 40 different soups. My personal favorites are the Chicken Tortilla and Steak Chili. If you’re a health freak like me, the menu has labels next to the items, such as V for vegan and L for low-fat. Even if the salads and soups are awesome, there is a drawback: SFSC isn’t cheap. The salads range from $7.00-7.50, which makes them the only well priced items on the menu. The soups are $4.50 for a mere 12 oz, while the yogurt parfaits and fruit cups are a steep $3.00 and $3.25, respectively. To put that in perspective, you can get them at McDonald’s for a buck. Nonetheless, SFSC is a great place to go for eating healthy or if you want a piping hot soup on a chilly day. Just remember: go light on the dressing, and go easy on the chowders.

Quality: 8/10
Nutrition: 9/10
Value: 5/10

San Francisco Soup Company is…

Good Stuff!

Honey Bunches of Oats w/Almonds: $6.90

The good thing about Bear Market is that you pay with meal points and not money. A small packet of beef jerky is a whopping $8.00, or 8 meal points. To put that in perspective, an all you can eat meal at the dining commons is 8 meal points. Sure, bear market has a nice variety of snacks, including rice chips, goldfish, cookies, energy bars, candy, and a large collection of sugary drinks. It’s just the price and unhealthiness of most of the products that bring this place down. I would only recommend this place if you have a huge surplus of meal points or if you pay no attention to how healthy you eat. 

Quality: 6/10
Nutrition: 5/10
Value: 1/10

Bear Market…

It’s aight.

Chicken Burger w/Sundried Tomato Pesto and Air-Baked Fries: $7.11

Smart Alec’s is always my go-to place for lunch whenever crossroads decides to be lame. The chicken burgers always have a nicely made tower of whole wheat buns, chicken breast, lettuce, and tomatoes. The sauce is based on your choice. The default is basil mayonnaise, but you can pay $0.60 extra for green pesto, sun-dried tomato pesto (my personal favorite), western BBQ, or teriyaki. The quality of the chicken isn’t gourmet (I saw them stick it in the microwave today), but the pesto is awesome and the vegetables are pretty fresh. The fact that they use whole wheat buns is a plus. Now onto the fries. Smart Alec’s prides themselves on their “guilt-free fries”. Instead of frying them in oil, they air bake them. To put the nutrition in perspective, McDonald’s fries have 7 grams of saturated fat per serving, Smart Alec’s fries have a mere one gram of saturated fat in a similar sized portion. Regardless, fries are still just a bag of carbs that you’ll need to burn off later on in the day. But once in a while, you gotta let your fry-loving instincts take over your brain for a meal. The burgers come at a good, but not great price. A chicken burger ranges from $4.39 to $4.99. You can add on fries for a pretty cool $1.49, and you can make them regular or garlic (I prefer regular, the garlic fries are a little overpowering). Other items on the menu include big salads and vegan soups that come with some awesome cornbread. You’ll probably see one of them sometime in the future.

Quality: 7.5/10
Nutrition: 9/10
Value: 7/10

Smart Alec’s is…

Good stuff!

Basil Chili Chicken: $6.50

Ahh yes, good ol’ Thai Basil. Situated in Durant Avenue’s “Asian Ghetto”, there’s a good reason this place always has people lined up in front of its register. A common issue with Thai food is that it’s way too expensive. Back home, my family and I go to a Thai restaurant less than a mile from our house. I order the same thing every time, basil chicken and brown rice. It turns out to be a whopping $13. At Thai Basil, I can get the same meal for half the price. I always get the basil chili chicken because it simply never fails to amaze me. The chicken is always in good shape, and the onions and chili peppers compliment it very nicely. However, I also have my concerns. Thai Basil only offers white rice, no brown rice. As we all know, white rice is a simple carbohydrate that raises the insulin levels in your body, which in turn stimulates and accelerates fat growth. Also, as you can see in the picture, the chicken is drenched in oil. Sure, vegetable oils contain a lot of unsaturated fats (which are good for you), but at some point too much oil just means that your meal isn’t very healthy. Regardless of its nutritional shortcomings, I still think Thai Basil is a great place to go thanks to its exceptional flavor and great value.

Quality: 8.5/10
Nutrition: 4/10
Value: 10/10

Thai Basil is…

Good Stuff!

Chef’s Salad with Chicken and Herbal Vinaigrette: $7.75

Are you excited to read my first review? You bet you are! I’ll start off by saying that the salads were HUGE. I was totally stuffed at the end, like after 10 bowls of chili at Souplantation. Don’t worry, the presentation above isn’t what the salad looked like at the start. It was a nicely organized bed of salad under a blanket of garbanzo and kidney beans, cherry tomatoes, avocado, and chicken. At first I wasn’t too thrilled with the sight of the chicken because it looked like your run-of-the-mill canned tuna. But after a bite, it tasted really good - the low fat mayonnaise and dash of mustard combined for a taste that I’ve never experienced before. The beans and avocado were very fresh, and the croutons gave my mouth an explosion of fireworks after it had soaked up all of the vinaigrette. Also, the salad came with a big loaf of honey whole wheat bread. It tasted like it was fresh out of the bakery, with the perfect ratio of honey to wheat. It was so good, I may stop by in the future just to get some bread. But nonetheless, the star of the show was the salad. Whether you buy one for yourself, one for two to tango, or two for you to tango (I would recommend against that), you’ll come out of Cafe Intermezzo feeling like you got your money’s worth.

Quality: 9/10
Nutrition: 9/10
Value: 10/10

Cafe Intermezzo is…

REALLY Good Stuff!!!

This blog is inspired by my habit of saying “good stuff!” to anything that’s, well, good stuff! It mostly applies to food right after I’ve eaten it. I usually have four reactions after a meal:

1. Good Stuff!

I would go back to restaurants that get this rating. Basically, places that get the “good stuff” seal of approval make food the way it’s supposed to be made: not too unhealthy and flavorful. I also take value into account, because who would pay $10 for a plain ol’ sandwich? Not me.

2. REALLY Good Stuff!!!

Places that get this rating are the epitome of good restauranting. It’s “good stuff”, and then some. Exceptional flavor and value without sacrificing nutrition is what gets Nick’s golden seal of approval.

3. It’s aight.

Ever had a meal and think to yourself “It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t anything special.” Well for me, it’s aight. Usually its restaurants that have food that lack flavor, but places with good flavor but poor nutritional or monetary value can slip down here.

4. That’s just turrible.

No, I didn’t spell “terrible” wrong. For those of you who don’t watch the NBA on TNT, the best analyst in the world, Charles Barkley, can’t physically pronounce “terrible”. Instead, he says “turrible” (e.g. “I dunno what’s up with the Spurs tonight. That defense is just turrible.”) Well, this is how I feel about some restaurants. It takes a combination of poor nutrition and/or taste, and the feeling that I just got $6 ripped off of me.

That’s what you should expect from me. Enjoy reading!