Dressing Is Not Dressing When It's Just Oil

So, last week I went to Crouton's for lunch and chose to get two salads, one for lunch and one for dinner. I was really looking forward to tucking into the pear and blue cheese with turkey and poppy seed dressing. I checked to make sure both salads looked good and that they both had the salads on the side. This should've been enough of a check to make sure everything in my order was right. Right? I mean who has ever thought to themselves, "Hey, maybe I should check the dressing." So, salads in hand, I headed back to work.

I sit down at my desk, gently pull the salad out of the bag so it doesn't accidentally spill. Yes, there was a lid on it but with my luck you never know. Remove the lid, take the salad dressing out, "Huh. It looks kinda light and not many poppy seeds." *SHRUG* I shake the cup of dressing vigorously, pour it liberally on the salad, toss and dive in...

Chew chew chew. "This tastes like straight up oil", I think to myself. It must've been a fluke. Toss the salad some more. Chew chew chew...ew ew ew. YUCK! Thank the food gods I had some emergency lemon wedges in the fridge at work and a coworker provided the salt but it still didn't help salvage it. So, what did I do? Wrote a letter to headquarters to complain. Hey, they built their reputation on salads, they should know what kind of product is going out the door.

I received a response back from the owner/general manager who was just the right amount of apologetic. He offered to refund my money and try his food again, on the house. I like that type of customer service.

This time around I got the same salad they messed up the first time, I wanted to a) see if it was just a fluke and b) I wanted them to redeem themselves. There are so few places in San Diego that do salads and do them well. I also got their Californian panini. Just because you put avocado on a sandwich, it doesn't make it "Californian." But I digress. The sandwich, once I pulled the tomatoes off of it and wiped the slimy seeds away, was very tasty. I haven't tried the salad yet, I'm waiting till I get home but I'll take a pic of it and let ya'll know if Croutons goes back onto my list of 'must eat salad' places or if I leave the croutons to get stale and the salad to go limp.

Born From Frustation

Are you wondering what would possess me to write a blog titled "I Said No Tomato?" Well, like any blogger just starting out, it spawned from experiences I've had and the people around me telling me, "You should start a blog about this" and so, I have.

I have horrible luck with food to go. Take out and to go orders are forever being screwed up in some form. I'm not making this up! It's become a running joke with family and friends. The one that happens the most is burgers ordered with no tomato and getting home to find those red slimy slices with their insidious seeds working their way into every nook and cranny.

It doesn't stop there though. Oh, noooooo, it couldn't just end with a random tomato. Salads with key components missing. Sandwiches on the wrong type of bread. I could go on ad nauseum and I will, that's the whole point of this blog.

I hope going forward I have very little to write about because the more I have to share with all ya'll, the more meals they're jackin' up and that's no bueno.