Chevy's FRESH mex

We drove out to veterans to take advantage of Mr. Dahl's Mr. Manager position at Chevy's Fresh Mex (food fo free). Chevy's is a pig out place. I made the mistake of looking at the nutrition facts pre-dinner, and basically decided that everything is pretty terrible for you, but pretty delicious, so why even bother thinking about it??? Let's eat!
We started with a chicken flautas appetizer (not pictured) that is served with pepper jelly dipping sauce. Flautas are delicious and strangely comforting to me. Don't really know why. It came in an order of six flautas (larger than we remembered), and they were devoured pretty quickly.
I decided to go for fajitas--asparagus and portabello mushroom fajitas. The fajitas are served sizzling on this really large, really heavy, fajita get-up. Don't know any other way to describe it. The mushrooms and asparagus were served on onions and peppers and were kind of oily, but good nonetheless. I opted out of the fresh mex rice, but got black beans, cheese, pico de gallo, and sour cream. I "built" my fajitas on flour tortillas made by EL MACHINO. OH and the BEST part of my meal was the tamalito (aka corn pone). How they make this corn mash so delicious, I do not know. But it is fantastic. The only bad part of my meal was one chewy/burnt asparagus stalk that tasted strangely like marijuana.
Ellie got fajitas too, but as she suspects she might have an iron deficiency, she ordered shrimp and carnitas fajitas. Her dad used to joke that carnitas were marinated in Dr. pepper, but I believe this is a lie. The carnitas were really tender and well-seasoned, whether sugary soda was used or not. She got the rice and refried beans.
Jolie went with the combination of two delicious tex mex favorites--- fajita quesadilla. I believe she had the carnita fajita quesadilla, which was topped with sour cream and guacamole. She didn't say much about it, but there was little to complain about besides lacking tamalitos (aka CORN PONE). It was one of the largest quesadillas I have ever seen.

As Dana loves flautas, she ordered flautas along with a chicken chimichanga, served with rice (she opted out of beans) and tamalito. She did not like the chimichanga, as the cheese on top resembled nacho cheese. I tasted it though, and I thought it was tasty enough. The flautas, as always, were a hit.
It is a tradition that we order dessert at Chevy's. And the dessert must be the Oooey Gooey Chewy Sundae. Fresh-baked molten brownie, topped with 3 scoops of rich, creamy vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and crumbled oreo cookie. It is drenched in some sort of chocolate sauce. Let me tell you, this dessert

was absolutely delicious. We split it between the four of us, as it's pretty huge.

The ice cream was a perfect ending to a fattie meal, but it was a delicious and a FREE meal, thanks to Mr. Dahl (whose real tall!) It's a tradition that should be taken advantage of at least once a year. Unfortunately, at the end of this meal, we had to say bye to Jolie, who hopefully will continue Eating for Sport in San Francisco, a food athlete mecca.

Marigny Brasserie

For one of our last collective summer food blogs; Rachel, Dana, Jolie, and I decided to splurge and tried a fancier restaurant than our budgets usually allow so Friday we went to Marigny Brasserie. I was personally very excited about the outing. I looked forward to it all week. I confess that by the time I had gotten to the restaurant I knew exactly what I wanted having read the menu repeatedly online (usually while I was at work, sitting in my cubicle and eating my standard turkey sandwich lunch). I had built Marigny Brasserie up in my mind but even in spite of that, the overall dining experience proved to be hit and miss (especially considering how much they were charging for the food, entrées ranged from $25-35 and the sandwiches were around $15). One of the things that we were struck by was the lackluster service for the decidedly upscale atmosphere of the restaurant. Supposedly there was a special and a Fish of the Day, but our waitress never informed us of them. Also, when we were given menus, only two of us got dinner menus while the other two got the lunch menus and so we played musical menus. One of the high notes of the meal was the bread and basil butter we were given, which we ravenously scarfed down before anyone could whip out a camera.

Everyone except for Rachel abstained from a small plate.She got a strawberry walnut spinach salad with chunks of blue cheese. Based on her reports and the bite I stole, I surmised that it was relatively delicious and quite refreshing. The strawberries were sweet and plentiful.

Rachel and I enjoyed our pricier entrées, while Jolie and Dana’s more moderately priced sandwiches left a lot to be desired. I ordered the blackened redfish accompanied by what was touted as a “shaved fennel apple salad with cider lemongrass vinaigrette” on top of the fish, which rested on a base of shrimp jamabalaya drizzled with creole tomato sauce. The apple salad just tasted like a bunch of apple bits, the fish and jambalaya were very flavorful with the perfect amount of spicy kick when eaten together with a bit of the tomato sauce. My only complaint was the fact that the presentation of the dish, while aesthetic, rendered eating the towering mass much more awkward than necessary.

(Also, please note that I was the only one with enough balls to sport the headband.)

Rachel had the rich and delicious Eggplant-Forest Mushroom Lasagne which was covered in a roasted garlic bechamel, spinach sauté, and shallot preserves.

Jolie ordered the soft-shelled crab po’ boy that turned out to be pretty average. There was a classy sauce (herb aioli) that was used in place of the traditional mayo, which might have been the only one of the po’ boy’s redeeming qualities. The crab itself was soggy and a little cold.

Dana’s Wild Blue Burger was a big disappointment. Sloppy and terribly greasy, this burger did not deliver on the delicious promise made by its description. The burger seemed like a safe bet with blue cheese and applewood smoked bacon; however, it fell far short of Dana’s expectations.

Both Dana’s and Jolie’s sandwiches came with “fries” which turned out to be 3 thick potato wedges. These fries were determined to be inferior to their shoestring counterparts. When the waitress boxed up Dana’s half-eaten burger, she threw out Dana’s last bite of fry, greatly distressing Dana.

As the evening progressed the surrounding tables grew louder and rowdier. I’ll give Marigny Brasserie the benefit of the doubt that they make better drinks than they do food. We chose not to imbibe so as to minimize our bill, but the drinks sounded very tempting.

Considering the myriad of other restaurants the city has to offer, chances are that you won’t get the most bang for your buck at Marigny Brasserie in spite of its otherwise pleasant ambiance.

Better Late Than Never

So...yes. I realize that in the beginning of the summer I promised to update with frequent tales of the delights of the cafeteria at the ADVANCE program, and sadly I never did. Not because I didn't want to, but simply because the Fine Arts education of fourteen 12-15 year-old girls unfortunately took precedence over updating this blog on any sort of basis. However...I did photographically record two different meals that I consumed and feel that now, as a way of ushering out summer 2009, I will finally write about them.

Both were free. I've always said...free food is the best kind of food a person can eat. Is it true? No, but I've always said that.

The first meal was a tuna salad sandwich consumed at the ADVANCE cafeteria. Well, the cafeteria is technically called the LSMSA Showcase (cafeteria for the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts) and this particular sandwich came from a section called the "New Orleans Deli." It's basically just a plastic buffet set-up with some lukewarm lunch meats hanging out on it...with a sad little placard above claiming its products are from the Big Easy, but it's pretty clear they're from Sam's Club. Anyway, I was left a little unsatisfied with whatever the meal of the day was, so in order to supplement it, I served myself what I believed to be chicken salad on a slice of wheat bread. I chose to ignore the unsettingly vibrant redness of some small chunks that were hanging around in there...even though I had not noticed them when I previously ate a chicken salad sandwich the day before. After a bite...it was still unclear whether it was chicken or fish. After another...it remained unclear. I, eventually, with the help of my olfactory senses and those around me was able to determine that it was, in fact, tuna fish. Long story short, it turns out that according to this New Orleans Deli, the biggest difference between mayonnaise/fish products, and mayonnaise/chicken products isn't necessarily the protein use, but rather these small red things. That's the only major difference I could discern.

All things considered, it was still kind of good. But not really. But at the time...didn't seem that bad. But mostly in comparison to what else I was eating. In retrospect...it was about as delicious as this photograph is flattering of me.

The only other picture I have of myself wearing this headband and consuming any kind of food is this one...which I'm realizing now that I probably took the same day...as I am wearing the same t-shirt. There is a chance though that I was really just wearing the same shirt out fo laziness, or possibly devotion to Emory University. That's beside the point. Because this was a special day.

This was free root beer float night at Sonic. There isn't really much to say about free root beer floats. They're delicious. And they're free. They're a little small I guess...but that's something you really have to deal with if you're going to somewhere for a free beverage. So...yeah. It was good. I will take a brief instant to comment on the merits of Sonic as a drive-in and as a place of acquiring sustenance. Since there are inexplicably two Sonics within two miles of each other in Natchitoches (which is barely two miles long itself), it was where many evenings were spent trying to get visions of bad casseroles and bad children out of our troubled minds. While not necessarily healthy...Sonic's assortment of hamburgers, chicken dishes, fried foods, wieners, and ice cream never disappointed. The only real complaint I have about Sonic is that when you order a hamburger, they say "What kind?" and then you have to choose ketchup, mustard or mayonnaise. You can only have one...and it defines your hamburger. I don't like that. It's a hamburger. Don't try to put it in a box. It's got to float. It's gotta have wings, man. Anyway, I had a ketchup burger once and it was good. Like, it was really good. But I don't like idea of it. And I'm a little crotchety and I don't like it when this doggone kids start messing with the originals. The end.

St. James Cheese Company

I met ellie and camille on my lunch break at St. James Cheese Company, a mere half block away from Camille's house. I can't believe we've never eaten there before given the vicinity to some of my other favorite eateries (Kyoto, creole creamery, crepe nanou). The small dining room was pretty crowded, as it was around noon at this popular lunch spot, so we had to sit outside even though it was sprinkling. We ordered at the counter covered in blocks of varieties of cheese from around the world. Ellie and I both ordered the gruyere (gruyere cheese, caramelized onion "confit", on multigrain bread).
Camille ordered the beechers cheddar (smoked turkey, basil, avocado, white cheddar and tomato on cibatta). We all got side salads, though you could also get kettle chips. The gruyere sandwich tasted kind of like french onion soup.... in a sandwich. Though this may not sound that good, it was really delicious.

It was pretty much like a grown up grilled cheese. The bread was really nutty and seedy. Camille's sandwich was also really good. The basil was a perfect compliment to the relatively mild cheddar and smoked turkey. The bread was really fresh and soft. I wish you could have tasted the avocado, though, as the basil overpowered the flavor a bit. St. James also has salad options which sounded really good, but the bread is so good and fresh that it's hard to pass up the sandwiches. The table next to us (full of belching children) ordered cheese and charcuterie plates which offered a variety of cheeses, meats, grapes, apples, bread, etc... and allowed for a sampling of different things. Maybe next time I'll give that a try. But for lunch, a filling and flavorful sandwich from St. james just hits the spot.

Slice of Awesome

Rachel and I arrived at Slice Pizzeria a little earlier than Jolie and Camille, just in time to catch the last 10 minutes of happy hour.  2 words: abita pitcher.  Huge and literally overflowing with beer (it sloshed all over the table when we tried to pour), this $5 pitcher was worth the trip to the downtown side of St. Charles.  Our waitress was sweet and tried to get us another pitcher before the end of happy hour, but alas, her efforts were in vain and we were in no mood to spend $10 on it. 

Back to the food side of things, the selling point of Slice Pizzeria is intuitive…you can buy pizza by the slice.  We started things off with half salads all around; because it sounded so good, all four of us got the spinach salad with mushrooms, red onions, pine nuts, and pepperoni bacon. The salad came with a gorgonzola smeared crostini.  We all agreed that they were stingy on the gorgonzola and the salads a little dry.  Overall the salads weren’t terrible, just less than amazing.

There were many interesting and delicious sounding pizza options, Jolie and Rachel got a slice each of the Spinach, Artichoke, and Sundried Tomato; Camille got a slice of “Fresh” which included basil, mozzarella, and tomatoes; I got a slice of Bacon, Basil, and Garlic.  All of the slices were delish.  I especially liked the whole cloves of roasted garlic that lay like landmines on my pizza.  Slice Pizzeria offers unique and inexpensive pizza options as well as copious cheap beer.  

Rachel Hahn: Top Chef in my heart

A few weeks ago (I know…late post), Rachel threw a dinner party that was simply divine.  Our wonderful hostess served Jolie, Camille, and I appetizers of baby mozzarella balls on a toothpick with grape tomatoes and freshly picked basil leaves.  These were delicious and refreshing; when we ran out we just went in her yard and picked more basil.  

      

As a person who intensely dislikes tomatoes, this is high praise indeed.  The only thing we had to look out for was exploding tomato guts.  Rachel also made us some lovely sangria with white wine and limoncello as well as mixed fruit.  It tasted great and we also got to munch on wine infused apples and strawberries as we drank. 

   

The main course was sooo delicious.  Rachel made naan pizzas topped with goat cheese, zucchini, and eggplant.  If that weren’t enough, she brought out parfaits in fancy wine glasses for dessert.  The parfait consisted of angel food cake topped with strawberries, blueberries and cool whip.  Rachel is a force to be reckoned with in the kitchen, she concocts original meals that are good and good for you.   Rachel truly is an all around food athlete.  

     

     

St. Joe's

So this entry won't say much since there is actually no food involved (minus a post-bar trip to wendy's for frostys). All I have to say is that blueberry mojitos at St. Joe's are perfectly delectable and fantastic. They each cost $6.00 and aren't actually that alcoholic... but they're so tasty that they are just worth it. Drinking is a sport too!!!

Additionally, the ambiance at st. joe's is pleasant. There is a back patio with pretty iron tables and lots of fans to beat the heat and blow away skeeters. There are also asian themed lanterns above the bar in the back (it looks a lot nicer than it sounds). Inside, there is a pool table and a semi-classy bar. Or maybe I'm just used to college bars and this isn't actually that classy. But it was still nice, nonetheless.

Juan's Flying Burrito

Jolie picked me up from my house and drove us to mid-city to meet ellie for burritos and margaritas at Juan's (a self-proclaimed "creole taqueria")!  Juan's was really crowded for a wednesday at 6:30 PM.  In fact we had to wait for a table, and once we were seated, a line up to the door was formed.  So it is apparently a very popular place!  Upon walking in, I noticed two hand-written signs (thick, colorful magic markers were clearly used) to advertise two special drinks:  summer sage sangria and melon margaritas.  Both sounded good, but I decided on the melon margarita ($6) upon being seated.  The melon margarita was really good (a little strong) but the chunks of melon at the bottom were too big to go up the straw, forcing me to drink it really slowly which I guess wasn't a bad thing.  I wasn't carded (which I had hoped for since I just turned 21!), and later when ellie and jolie ordered drinks, the waitress just said "Ya'll are 21, right?"   So clearly they're not too strict with drinking age here.  Anyway, ellie ordered a mango margarita ($6.25), which was basically a totally delicious mango smoothie.  Jolie got a house frozen margarita ($5.25) which was good, too.  I was pretty jealous of ellie's mango margarita.

We ordered some guacamole and chips ($3.95) as an appetizer so we didn't drink on an empty stomach.   They were good, but nothing spectacular or unique.

Jolie and I both ordered the supergreen burrito ($6.95), which is a mix of grilled spinach, onion, peppers, broccoli, green chile, mushroom, jalopenas, avocado and salsa.  You can get it with or without cheese/sour cream.  I got cheese and jolie got both cheese and sour cream.  The monster of a burrito is wrapped up in a thin spinach wrap. We felt okay about our choice being SO huge (and eating all of it) since there weren't any beans or rice... clearly just a way to make ourselves feel better.  The burrito was messy, to say the least--I got burrito juice all over my white shirt!

Ellie ordered "Al Pastor" burrito ($7.50), which involved shredded pork, grilled onions, pineapple salsa, sour cream, pickled jalopenos, cilantro, pinto beans, and yellow rice. Al Pastor was really flavorful and the pineapples were a great addition. However, the jalopenos snuck up on you and sometimes were really concentrated in certain parts of the burrito. Ellie was a good girl and took like half of her burrito home.

Overall Juan's Flying Burrito is a good deal. You get a LOT of food for pretty cheap. The drinks are good, too, but it might be better to go during a happy hour/drink special time, as $6.00 drinks can add up, especially when they're so drinkable and delicious. Also, prepare to wait for a table (even on a weeknight!) as this place is really popular after-work dinner/drinks joint. Also, the decor is really fun and I love their logo (which is on the burrito wrappers and on a neon sign on the wall): a donkey with wings.

Boucherie!

Boucherie apparently started out as a purple truck that sold BBQ at festivals, a local classic I'm sad to say I missed. Now its a delicious, semi-fancy restaurant down the street from the old streetcar home. Located in the old Iris (with Iris still beautifully carved into the buildings window), you feel more like you're going to visit someone in their shotgun then going out to eat. We got there early for dinner, 5:30, and thank goodness we did. The place started to fill up, and about a half an hour after we arrived, another group of four got turned away for not having reservations. It was that good.

We started out with a "Small Plate" Collard Greens with Grit Fries. Though as a good southern girl I'm a fan of good greens, these were way more flavorful then I've ever had. And the Grit Fries (grits fried into sticks) were the perfect way to soak up all the juice from the greens. Next, we were gifted with an Amuse Bouche, Wahoo Ceviche on Corn Chips. We thought it was a special present from our cute waiter, since no one else had gotten any. But either way it was a perfect snack.
After quite a wait for the food, and much spilling of water, everything was brought out. I got the Pulled Pork Cake with Potato Confit and Purple Cabbage Cole Slaw.

The pork cake was tasty though a little dry, but the

cole slaw added color and strong flavor.

Rachel ordered the Grilled Wahoo with Fried Pickled Okra & Roasted Tomato Harissa. They didn't have the Wahoo so she ended up with Mahi Mahi. The fish was slightly raw which made it juicier, and the harissa sauce was made it better. The okra was perfectly crispy.

Ellie had the Smoked Scallops with German Potato Salad & Fried Arugula Coulis, my favorite. The scallops were ideally flavored, and the potato salad was like juicy scalloped potatoes, making it a dish of circles.

Finally Dana got the Smoked Black Angus Beef Brisket with Garlicky Parmesan Fries. The beef brisket seemed to be Boucherie's true roots: a melt-in-your-mouth, slathered-in-sauce piece of meet. And the Parmesan on the fries seemed to add just the right amount of salt.

We left feeling full but not stuffed, after resisted what looked like yummy, fatty desserts like Krispy Kream Bread Pudding and Bacon Brownies. As we stood outside discussing the food, we noticed a tree which seemed to be growing bags across the street. On closer
inspection, it was an avocado tree, one of my favorite deserts.

Mimi's in the marigny

Mimi's in the Marigny is mostly a bar (the top-rated bar in new orleans by gambit, I think), but upstairs, a pretty extensive tapas menu is served.  We drove over to the marigny to delight in some flavorful tapas as our dinner.  The bar downstairs was relatively crowded when we walked in around seven, but the upstairs was completely empty.  We sat down and perused the menu, basically concurring that pretty much everything sounded good.  Since Jolie wasn't there yet, we decided to order a few different tapas, with hopes that she'd get there by the time they came out.  The nice thing about tapas is that you can keep ordering to your heart's content and it comes out pretty quickly.  We started with our all-time favorite- goat cheese croquettas.  Three balls of fried goat cheese topped with honey and caramelized onion.... heaven.  It was pretty dark upstairs, so we took pictures without flash first, and they came out pretty terribly.  Also, we were so ravenous that we ate pretty much everything nearly to entirety before realizing we hadn't taken pictures.  I'll post pictures just out of formality, but they're pretty terrible. These goat cheese balls are half-eaten and destroyed. 

The next item we got were beef-filled empanadas with roasted red pepper aioli.  The meat inside was really well-spiced and the aioli provided a perfect compliment to whatever spice was used.  The order came with four empanadas, and by the time we took the photo, there was only one left

Next we got gambas al ajillo, which were shrimp sauteed with garlic, parsley and white wine, and by the taste of the dish, a LOT of butter.  Three large shrimp and a large piece of hearty bread which soaked up a lot of the sauce were presented on the plate.  Though this dish was tasty, it was not as good as when I had had it previously.  Maybe the sauce was too buttery and rich.  The chunks of garlic hidden in the sauce, however, were a nice surprise.  The fourth dish was a potato dish.  It was almost like chunky hashbrowns with a somewhat spicy tomato and cheese sauce.  Fancy bar food.

Ellie with the gambas (front) and patattas (back)

Me with gambas and mostly-eaten pattatas.  

Jolie and Ellie sucking on the heads of the gambas [sort of].

Dana munching on something.

We decided to order two more tapas after finishing the first four.  We went for spanish cheese with red peppers, which was served with some warm hearty bread, and mushroom manchego toast (not pictured).  The cheese listed that came with the cold cheese tapas plate were manchego, mahon, drunken goat, and valdeon, and the portions were very generous.  We weren't really sure which cheese were which, but we're pretty sure the drunken goat was the "stinky cheese", which was pretty moldy and very strong.  The other cheese were good, though I found a few of them to be a little oily.  The manchego mushroom toast was absolutely delicious.  The toast was crunchy with melted manchego, smothered with an extremely creamy mushroom sauce.  Possibly my personal favorite dish (after the goat cheese croquettas of course).  

A torn-apart cheese plate.  

We finished our night with the new seasonal beer from abita: SATSUMA flavored beer.  When we got to Rouses right before closing, we were pleasantly surprised to find only one 6-pack of the beer left on the shelves.  It was fate.  Personally, I really enjoyed the beer, though the flavors are definitely strong, and could be described as tasting like flowers.  The more you drank, the more mellow the flavors became, though, and it was very pleasant to drink.  The strawberry beer by abita might edge out the satsuma beer by a little, though!  At Mimi's, ellie also ordered a woodchuck cider (pear flavored) which was very tasty, but kind of pricey at $4.50 a bottle.  

Satsuma brews

Overall, Mimi's is a fun place to share lots of dishes.  It's a crime to order the same dish at a restaurant within a party, so by ordering lots of different things to share, that problem is solved.  Every dish is relatively small (and very very flavorful), but also relatively inexpensive (ranging from $5-$7), so the more people you have, the more of an excuse you have to order lots of different dishes to taste.  I imagine on the weekends it is more crowded and the ambiance is more upbeat, but even on a slow thursday night, it was a really chill place to hang out, pig out, and drink if you're of age (**they are actually seemingly strict about carding**)  

Surrey's Café & Juice Bar

Today’s food venture was truly a union of both eating and sport. After a yoga class at Wild Lotus (in which Rachel, Dana, Jolie, and I were instructed at one point to stick our butts out, like at the club) we hungrily headed downtown on Magazine St. to Surrey’s Café & Juice Bar. I didn’t say anything at the time, but I had my misgivings about Surrey’s. Sure they had wheatgrass shots and Banana’s Foster Pancakes, but breakfast for $10? Surrey’s, you had a lot to prove to me. However, I am happy to report that this was the best meal I have eaten all summer. 

Despite a small crowd outside the door, we didn’t have to wait more than fifteen minutes before being ushered into this colorful local spot situated in a stately old house (you know its for real when signs in the bathroom ask you to respect the 100 year old plumbing).

 We were directed to “the table top with the 50’s kitchen décor” by our server. I was quite taken by a mannequin in a beaded pointy bra surrounded by plastic fruit and reclining in a hammock suspended above the bathroom door. Dana made the astute observation that it would suck to work at Surrey's, it is tiny and you had to wait for someone to walk down the single aisle between two rows of tables before attempting to traverse the length of the restaurant yourself. 

I got an apricot iced green tea ($2), which was good…but basically just iced tea. I hesitated for a while before ordering, wavering between my safety breakfast of migas ($7) or the more adventurous shrimp and grits (a whopping $12.50). I figured that I would be daring and do the shrimp grits (plus I knew I would have to take a picture with my chosen dish). Best decision I’ve made in a long time. First of all, I didn’t know that grits could be that creamy. As for the barbequed shrimp sauce- superb, I don’t know how much butter was involved in the production of my meal, however the sauce was seasoned to utter perfection. I did salt it and throw in some Tabasco, but if you’ve ever dined with me, this is a pretty standard routine. The shrimp were fresh and large. The whole thing was garnished with crispy bacon and some slices of French bread, both items perfect for dipping. The whole deal was topped with a sprig from what I will assume to be a Christmas tree. In sum, I would recommend this spot to anyone who wouldn’t mind shelling out a little more cash for a truly excellent New Orleans breakfast. *Warning! This place is cash only, so be prepared.

RACHEL:I had intentions of getting something "healthy" at surreys, but 

failed once I saw they had banana pancakes on the menu.  So I ordered the "big banana pancake" with pecans as an add in. The other options for extras were peanut butter and cream cheese, all three of which were an extra $1.25.  Since banana pecan pancakes are one of my favorite foods in the world, I chose the pecans, though I imagine peanut butter would be pretty darn good as well.  When it came out, it was literally the size of a pizza.  It covered an entire plate that was at least one foot in diameter.  I covered it in syrup and dug in.  It was thick, doughy and sweet and the bananas tasted nearly caramelized.  I was a little skeptical to pay 7.50 for ONE pancake (including pecans), but the size and the taste made it worth while.  I ate a little more than half of it, and brought the rest home...which I ate as an afternoon "snack"!!  Since Surrey's is a juice bar I also ordered one of their fresh juices.  I got carrot/apple juice, which you won't like unless you really like carrots (which I do, and the addition of the apple sweetens it and makes it more drinkable).  It was good, but at the price of $5.00, I wish I would have gotten more.  I also wish it would have been colder.  As far as I know, all they do is pass the fruits/vegetables through a  juicer, so I don't see why it is so expensive.  A shot of wheatgrass is an extra $3.00, so I passed that up, no matter how healthy it is for you.

DANA: I started off with an iced coffee which was good but make sure you specify if you want milk with your coffee as I was served just black coffee on ice. For my meal, I went back and forth between getting french toast or the migas, but in the end the migas description won me over- "lightly scrambled eggs sauteed with red onions, bell peppers, and tomatoes folded into grated cheddar cheese and corn tortilla chips, served with pico de gallo" I chose the biscuit and hashbrowns to go with it (the other options were toast and grits). DELICIOUS. The eggs were fluffy and full of flavor from the onions, peppers, and tomatoes. The portions were big and the biscuit homemade- perfectly crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. I wouldn't exactly call the hasbrowns hasbrowns- they were more like potato wedges than the traditional grated kind, but were well seasoned and tasty especially with the side of sour cream I ordered (extra $1.00).