Hi there folks! Another day in the paradise we call San Diego! Noodles & Company recently invited us to try their new seasonal menu which features asparagus. We had gone before a while back, and while it wasn’t bad it wasn’t very memorable either. So this was our second attempt to see how their food has changed or evolved with the new items on the menu. The manager there Jorge set us up with a table and gave us a little history on the restaurant as well as explained what they typically do for a tasting. If there was anything in particular that we wanted we could have tried it, but I always like to leave it up to the restaurant to decide and be “surprised” so to speak. So Anh and I were ready to get this show going. Jorge warned us to pace ourselves so pace ourselves we tried.
So off we were on the race. Starting off with four appetizers: chicken lettuce wraps, springtime flatbread, potstickers, and asparagus stack. The runaway winner and favorite out of the four was the flatbread. It had asparagus, mushrooms, parmesan, and bacon. It reminded me of a good flatbread you could get at a nice sit down restaurant that may charge two or three times more. The other apps were not bad, but this was the one item we’d go back and order again and again. One note is that the lettuce wraps were served cold. This is how they serve them here and I tend to prefer hot filling when eating lettuce wraps or similar dishes.
Jorge brought out two salads for us to sample in the Spinach and Apple Salad and the Med Salad. The spinach salad had a little too much dressing for us and the balsamic took over the flavors of everything else it touched. But the Med Salad was a treat. The spicy yogurt dressing wasn’t too spicy and hits you on the back end. Everything was better balanced here and the pasta was a nice touch adding a little different texture in there.
We realized when the first four appetizers came out that Jorge wasn’t kidding about the amount of food coming our way. We rested for a short while and Jorge came out with these four pasta dishes – The Penne Rosa, Garden Pesto Saute, Japanese Pan Noodles, and the BBQ Pork Mac and Cheese (not on menu). One thing that we didn’t know is that the most popular items on the menu are listed at the top and go down in popularity. The Garden Pesto Saute and BBQ Pork Mac and Cheese stood out from the rest. The pesto pasta was light and our full stomachs appreciated that aspect very much. Something about it was pleasant and overall satisfying. It hit that food loving spot and we enjoyed it quite a bit. The BBQ Pork Mac and Cheese was the opposite. It was bold, over the top, and didn’t spare you any mercy. It reminded me of Cincinnati chili. I could only eat a few bites of it but they were enough to leave an impression.
Luckily we had some to go boxes and enjoyed everything over and over again for many days. Jorge even gave us some rice crispy treats he made earlier in the morning! Special thanks to Jairo over at Bouchard for setting it up and Jorge at Noodles for taking care of Anh and I. I’m glad we got to sample all the seasonal spring items because those were by far our favorites of the day. Not only was the food good but the service was great. All of the staff seemed to tend to the customers and check on them which I didn’t really see at the UTC location previously.
If you made it this far, we’re going to do a giveaway later this week for the same Noodles & Company tasting I just described! Stay tuned folks…
Noodles & Company
3650 Rosecrans Street
San Diego, CA 92110
(619) 223-3200
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