Marie Callender's Beef Pot Roast

I ate this for lunch at my parents' house because selections were limited. The plus side is that this has no soy or peas in it, so nothing to worry about allergy-wise. The taste was very average though, it mostly tasted like carrot and weird wine sauce. Not great but at least not actively bad. Also like 200 calories total, which is a mixed blessing because it wasn't very filling either, but better than nothing.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Little Caesars

Pizza pizza! When I was very little, there was a LCs just down the block, and we had it often and I have great associated memories. They had great mushrooms on their pizzas, not raw like most places but cooked and tasty like a chinese food. Also loved their breadsticks. Then I had a many year gap, and had LCs again in grad school but only in the context of their 5$ Hot And Ready Pizzas, which are super cheap but also not great and didn't have mushrooms. So mixed feelings. But I recently had some leftover mushroom pizza from the LCs near my parents' house, and it was decent. The pizza itself was just fine, but the mushrooms were still quite good for a pizza place! And decently plentiful, too.

Lunch Combo: This is a drink and a 4-piece "hot and ready" roni deep dish. Good deal but the 'za isn't my favorite. Very doughy crust, nice buttery sheen on the bottom but the cheese/sauce/roni is a little too "frozen pizza chic" for me. Dad liked it though, and it's a good amount for 2 people. 6/10

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Vermont Nut Free White Chocolate Ghost Shape

I had to make this pic extra bad for the lols. Sorry mates. Anyway, I always loved white chocolate as a kid (it was my favorite kind of chocolate easter bunny, back when I could eat whatever), but sadly this VNF white choco isn't as good as it should be. Wah. It just doesn't taste right, not creamy enough I guess. I do love the little smile expression on him though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Vermont Nut Free Milk Chocolate - Witch Shape

OK, sorry for the janky pic of a dark chocolate witch shape instead, I ate mine too fast! Anyway, this is obviously from Halloween clearance, so maybe that's why the texture of this felt oddly too soft for my taste. I dunno, but the taste was fine. It's no truffle though.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Skittles

Ahhh. As promised, here I am, ready to review for you these fun size Skittles! They've been a great little nighttime snack, courtesy of Christmas Gift. Skittles are skittles, you're probably familiar with 'em. Mine were maybe a little bit on the old side, so they were kind of tough to chew but they have a good flavor. I like the different colors actually have distinct flavors and I don't hate any of them. I think my ranking is red > green > orange/yellow/purple. These are a classic airport style candy, sweet and non-melty.


Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Saul Good

After this review, I'm officially done with the Lexington chapter of this blog for the foreseeable future, and I'm so thankful I finished it off before I got the official rejection from my dream job there that I know is coming but didn't officially come yet (will it at all? academia!). Whew, what a weird and sad weight on me. :D:

Anyway, this, like many of the other KY restos, was (surprisingly?) solid! Apparently it is a mini-chain and the other two have cool zebra print on the outside, but this seemed just like a normal resto. It was my last night and my eating companions got one, so I even had a beer - a nice local IPA/sour! (Is this why I didn't get the job?? ha ha! ack!). But I digress. I ordered the Cajun Chicken Pasta and it was huge and delicious, just like it sounds. A fun sidenote: I informed the waiter I have a nut allergy, as you do, and all seemed fine. But midway through eating, a different man (the manager?) came to the table and was like "Is there a nut allergy here?" and I thought I was 100% about to die, but he just read about the FDA approving the peanut pill and wanted to tell me. I think you can guess my thoughts on the peanut pill, but lol at this man who was trying to be nice and friendly but nearly killed me via heart attack!! And the restaurant did have peanuts on the menu in some places, so I was anxious already. But I indeed didn't die. Whew. Amen. Catch you tomorrow for a nice, unemotional skittles review. :)

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Joe Bologna's

This is a semi-famous place within Lexington, it seems. The building is an old church/synagogue (it was once both), which is pretty quirky and cool, and you can see the stained glass windows still. The menu is all the typical italian fare (pasta, pizza, sandwiches), and supposedly the breadsticks are awesome but I didn't get one myself. They had a lunch special where you can get a personal pizza, so I did that with mushrooms and green pepper, and it was great and just the right size. Very cool and chill, plus table service so it's relaxing too.

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 8/10

First Watch

I really loved this place, so I'm giddy to find out it's a chain! (And there's one in Hershey and also on the way to Havvo)! They serve only breakfast/lunch/brunch, which is ripe for nut allergy issues, but they have a great allergy menu online and even better, the waitress was proactive about serving me seedy bread or using the toaster, so she gave me untoasted plain white bread which is actually the perfect solution, and I ate it all up. I got the Tri-Athlete, which was an egg white omelette with mushrooms and it was great and came with the aforementioned toast as well as a nice fruit cup. I also got a coffee. It was really delightful. I don't know if all servers would be as great, but if they were I would be so happy to come back here and try more foodz.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Cole's on Main

These reviews are depressing me! Ack! Anyway, this was a fancy place, and therefore it had many nuts and many fishes. But the great thing was, I was seated on a booth with little pillows of cats and cute things. Classy yet comfy. It was also nice and dark inside, which I always like. So there weren't a lot of nut-free options on the menu, but the server was legit great about allergies to the point where when she brought the breads (2 types), she told me that only one type was definitely safe and the other one was a "may contain" (so I didn't eat that one obvi). I really appreciate when servers go that step above. For food I got beef/steak of some sort, it was very good but a huge cut so I couldn't finish it (mostly due to social norms but it was also legit big). It also came with horseradishy potato(?) balls that were fried and soft inside and really great. But I can't find this entree on the menu and I'm fuzzy on the details. Anyway, this place impressed me beyond how I thought it'd be, for sure. Seems like a great date spot or interview spot. I'm sweaty.

Overall
Cost: 3/10 (def expensive)
Taste: 7/10

doodles

Next up in our Lexi-tour is Doodles, for breakfast. This is a cute place with a cute name, but unfortunately even though they have gluten free stuff it wasn't that re-assuring allergy-wise. It's counter-ordering, so you can't ask too many personal questions about the food. I asked if they used peanut oil and they seemed to think the answer was "no", but that was it. Lol. Anyway, I got an omelette (that came with either a biscuit or grits and I was scared to eat either one so I got the nice big biscuit and then didn't eat it) and the omelette was totally normal and fine and filling. The coffee was self-pump in a mug mug, and it was fine. The seating was cute and casual. Seems trendy but consequently not really my thing!

Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 6/10

Bella Notte

And thus marks the beginning of my Lexington, Kentucky dining adventure! (Most likely the only time I'll ever be there, which is devastating, but overall the food was pretty solid!)

This was a nice Italian restaurant, located in kind of strip mall area but the restaurant itself was classy and big. I got Chicken Saltimboca, which was good as usual, and came with very nice risotto. I enjoyed it a lot and had no allergy issues. I didn't eat the bread, though, since I was not informed if it was safe, and I didn't get any alc or coffee because I was anxious for other reasons, but the food was tasty and filling and the place was pretty. And it snowed! Truly a bella notte.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Vermont Nut Free Grand Assortment

My boyf got this for us to split on Valentine's Day (at my, uh, gentle hinting?) which was very fun and good. I love truffles, but this is the canonical 6 truffles (mostly good) plus a few other things: caramels (milk and dark, both salty and delicious, and fairly firm caramel), raisin clusters (tastes like raisinettes glued together, with lots of nice choco - very nice), and crunchy clusters (choco with like crisped rice - fine). There are also buttercreams (cherry and ....orange?) which I'm not crazy about, but which are decent choco type things nevertheless. There are no labels here, which is kind of frustrating, but nothing is terrible and many things are great. Just a lot of fun. You get 2 of each type of thing, I think (6x2)?

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 8/10

MadeGood Chocolate Chip Granola Bar

Unlike the weird rice krispie bar, this worked well to satisfy a craving after a long day. Yum, chocolate and also food. Good stuff.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Jolly Ranchers

These are a pretty classic nut free candy, and they are invididually wrapped so good for travel or sharing. Plus as a hard candy, they last a long time. They are very sweet. Not my favorite candy, but a bit of an old reliable. The wikipedia page randomly talks about their chemistry in some detail, which was kind of interesting.

They come in 5 flavors, cherry (the best), watermelon (OK in small amounts), green apple (better than watermelon but still a once in a while taste), grape (OK, typical grape candy), and blue raspberry (the sweetest one, turns your tongue blue). Apparently there used to be a lemon flavor, which is intriguing!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

MadeGood Chocolate Chip Crispy Square

You think this will be like a rice krispie, but alas it is not as sweet or as sticky. The plus side is that it's healthier, of course, and it even contains vegetables (in a tiny bit of non-pea powder)! And there's less chance of allergy issues. So this is good. But unfortunately, even though the texture is a fun one to bite into (like a krispie), the taste is just not that great, and it isn't very filling either. Like vaguely sweet almost chocolatey air cereal bar vibes.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Made Good Soft Baked Mini Cookies - Double Chocolate

Ahh, the mystery chia veg ball cookies are back! But I do this this flavor, double chocolate, is better than the regular chocolate chip version, which did not woo me. Usually I don't like chocolate flavored things, but here at least there was a chocolate flavor to them, which is much better than no apparent flavor. Still not great though, alas.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Café Du Monde

I'm of two minds on this place, which is also nut-free due to its limited menu. Basically, I like it. But now when I talk about wanting bennies, I'm not sure if I mean benefits or beignets! CDM has only beignets and chicory-laced coffee, which I am apparently not allergic to. (It was no regular coffee though). The hype for it is kind of baffling to me, but hey, I did eat a total of 9 bennies in 4 days. (They come in orders of 3, which is plenty). They're covered in tons of powdered sugar, nice and warm and cute. Not too pricy, either. I can't complain! But really this is no substitute for a lunch or dinner, it should be for brekkie only.

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 7/10

Izzo's Illegal Burrito

This was another new-to-me chain in New Orleans that I ate at out of sheer lack of options. But I figured it'd be similar to Chipotle/Moe's/Qdoba, right? And it was nut-free and that's nice. But it was really most similar to the freakin' "Burrito Elito" Cal Tort knock off in the Philly airport that is super awkward, dry, bad, overpriced, missing half the menu items, and the workers are baffled by a customer's presence. I always think it will be different there, by the way, and it never is! I wish CalTort were still around.

ANYWAY, this place was dry and bad and didn't have half the ingredients their website says they do. I wanted, like, guac. But I got chicken in I think soft tacos, with sparse lettuce and maybe chips and queso (the best part was this tiny queso). Not great, but it was food and not nuts. Desperation option.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10 (Compared to New Orleans, not compared to TexMex fastfood)

Raising Cane's

More New Orleans shenanigans -- I couldn't find a single non-nut fast food chain in walking distance from my hotel except for this one, which was in a mall food court. Unfortunately, I don't really like chicken fingers (I never order them elsewhere), but beggars can't be choosers. I do like the idea of a limited menu, but it works more for me at In 'N Out or Chipotle than it does here. Anyway. I got the Box Combo, which I assume is "the default meal". It had 4 chickens (greasy and boring, but fine), fries (same), a texas toast slice (kinda fun, buttery), and cole slaw (surprisingly good slaw). Also a drink and a cup of their special sauce (slightly spicy mayochup?). It was decent and definitely filling, but made me feel like a trash can. Ah well, I'm still grateful this place was around!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Drago's Seafood Restaurant

This place has a lot of hype for a hotel restaurant, but as someone with a seafood allergy I really do not care. However, since I was staying in said hotel, this was a perfect place to eat with 7 of my closest friends (or, 3 of them and 4 grad students)! We waited at the hotel bar for a bit and then were forced to "be counted" before we could either make the reservation or sit down. A bit weird and potentially age-ist? Anyway, the waiter was pleasant and I ordered the boneless short rib, which was a huge hunk of meat. It was tender as promised, and was decently good but I think I actually liked the other restos in NOLA better. The service here was notably quicker, though, and more willing to make substitutions. Still, it was too awkward to finish my meat, and it was really expensive for what it was.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Copper Vine Wine Pub

I also went here with two buds/colleagues at LSA, and it was like an awkward first date. But this was a nice, airy, classy place inside. Never heard of a wine pub before but they had beer and cocktails too. I got the pork chop, which came with grits and greens and mustard. The pork was good but not great. There were random grapes too, which I did like. The wine was also good. But the service was very slow (I guess it's a NOLA thing).

Overall
Cost: 4/10
Taste: 7/10