Entenmann's Chocolate Chip Cookies

My boyf bought these for himself but I ate a lot. Hehe. They are good, small, and chewy in texture, which I prefer. No nut allergy warning! Lots of cookies per package! Very nice!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

The Pressroom

I came here with my boyf before seeing a musical at the Fulton, but it turns out he'd been here already!!! What a traitor!! Anyway, I still enjoyed it. They have a lot of fun drinks, possibly too fun for people with allergies, so I got a beer with Maine in the name. It was good. The waitress seemed to be very good about allergies. We got the Duck Fat fries app, which was spicy and very moist and filling and good, but not at all like poutine (which is my true app love). I also got the chicken entree, which was a good meal and a lot of food, maybe too much food! And a nice irish coffee for dessert. I think this is a nice, chill, cozy place, good for dates.

BLACK GARLIC RADIATORI: I love the shape of this noodle! This was really good, but very creamy/heavy and filling. No worries about small portions which is a relief. The mushrooms in it were big full bois and that was fun. Still quite expensive though! 7/10

Cloud City IPA Beer: Weird flavor, like lemon grass? I drank it all but didn't enjoy. Beer selection is too quirky! 5/10

Overall
Cost: 3/10 (About 50$ per person, yikes)
Taste: 7/10

Sensible Foods Cherry Berry Crunch Dried Fruit

This tasted decent, but the amount of fruit is so tiny! I liked all of the fruits included, especially dried cherries which are pretty rare, but they all got very crumbly and stuck in the bottom of the bag, so not super convenient to eat those little pieces.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Welch's Fruit Snacks - Superfruit Mix

These were OK - they sure came in handy during long days of work and travel, and for convenience it's great to just tuck a pack of these in your bag. But as for the actual product, it didn't "wow" me. The packs are really small, and I found the fruit flavor to be just generic "fruit" rather than any strong fruit flavors I could recognize. The texture is also more on the sticky/chewy size, so you don't get a nice firm bite, which is my preferred fruit snack texture. In all, not my favorite snack, although they're surely edible and totally nut-free.




Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 5/10

La Tortilla Factory Low Carb Flour Tortillas - Soft Taco Size

Soft taco size is a pretty freakin' big size - which is great, I like the space. And I did use them for tacos, which I always like. The tortillas themselves are kind of irrelevant, but these were honestly not that great tasting - a little wet and not...tortilla flavored? But they were big and didn't rip, and had a shocking amount of fiber (and are low carb I guess) so they're good enough for me. I ate 'em all, don't worry.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Pasta Sides - Stroganoff

This was a little weird for me, because it's a noodle pack but without any cheese or veg in it! It was good, though. Generally a thick and unrunny pasta, and with real actual mushroom pieces, which surprised me. Good on its own but I also added a mixed veg and that was shockingly decent as well. Somehow not my favorite, just because I love cheese, but it was better than I thought.






Overall
Cost: 8/10 [1$]
Taste: 6/10

Crispy Fruit - All Tangerine

This was good; tart and very dry. A fairly unique dried fruit in form, because it comes in actual small wedges of tangerine, and not chips/pieces like apples or bananas would do. Not very filling though, and a little hard to eat because there's a lot of crumby pieces in the bottom of the bag. Still tasty and fun for what it is.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

Lender's Onion Bagels

I seriously appreciate the "nut free" label prose of Lender's. Big props. Anyway, these are good, although they do come out a little chewy in the microwave (as you'd expect). They're also smaller than your store-bought bagel, which is kind of nice. They make a really quick, convenient, filling snack when I'm super tired or in a rush. I do think the cinnamon raisin flavor is superior, though, even though I like onion bagels a lot in general (and they're kind of hard to find in a nut-free locale).




Overall
Cost: 7/10
Taste: 7/10

Knorr Rice Sides - Cheddar Broccoli

These Knorr rices just contain too many calories for one sitting (8-900!!) yet I always eat them all at once. It's one of many reasons I prefer the noodle packs. No self-control required with those! Anyway, this was good. Obviously not as tasty as the Cheddar Broccoli NOODLES, but it had a similar cheese/broccoli flavor, just ported to rice. It was quite filling (as you'd expect) and gave me a wee bit of heartburn, but if you have, like, a family, this is probably a good pick!




Overall
Cost: 8/10 [1$]
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Fiesta Sides - Taco Rice

Well, I must have liked this because I ate it all. It was moist and a wee bit spicy/hot. Apparently, there's cheese in the ingredients, so that probably explains why I liked it. I'm a sucker for cheesy carbs. I ate this unaccompanied, no veg mix-ins or anything. Yom.

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 6/10

Keebler Whoopsy! Fudge Stripes Cookies - Cookies & Creme

We won (AKA lost) these at trivia, but inexplicably the rest of my team wasn't wild about them. So I took the extras home because they were nut free! Take that, nerds! Honestly, they were better than I thought they'd be. I thought they were better than the plain Fudge Stripe cookies, they kind of did taste like a cookies & cream candy bar but in a cookie form. They were nice and thin. Also very bad for you, but that's OK, they're cookies. I haven't seen these for sale anywhere though, just the chocolate fudge covered ones, so maybe they were limited edition? Sad if true; the packaging is hilarious (#Whoopsy) (#AllFudgedUp) and it made someone on my team ask "do you think it really was a mistake in the factory?", L-O-L.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Knorr Selects - Lemon & Asparagus with Cavatappi Pasta

"Selects", huh? Sadly, it seems like the Selects line really boils down to paying more for less food that tastes worse, but is possibly healthier. I guess like life, in a way. Because of the cavatappi, this looks like a fancy wheat analogue to Knorr Cheddar Broccoli Pasta, one of my all time top foods. So I was intrigued. Ultimately this tasted "OK", it's light and easy. The noodles, being wheat, were much firmer than other noodle packs. I still like the cheese ones way more though.




Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 6/10

2015 Witches Cauldron Chardonnay

Turns out there's even variety within Chardonnays! I really liked the Bellula Chardonnay, but I didn't like this one as much. It was less sweet and also more acidic. Ultimately it was fine, but definitely not my favorite. I did notice that the label said it contained milk, which I really appreciate, since drinks don't need to label allergens but I know a lot of wines use allergens in their processing at some stage. The more labelling, the better!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Smashmallow Smash Crispy - Strawberries & Cream

Another product explicitly made in a nut-free facility! Count me in. Upon unwrapping, this looked kind of unappealing, though. It had weird dry brown berry(?) bits on just the top of it. But looking past appearances, it tasted good, with a nice strong strawberry flavor and a solid sweetness (but not oversweetness). A fun spin on a Rice Krispie Treat in a cute package.




Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10

Angie's BoomChickaPop Lightly Sweet Kettle Corn Microwave Popcorn

My parents bought this and didn't like it, so they gave the leftovers to me. Not sure what their issue was, because I think this tastes pretty good! It's tasty, a little bit sweet, and very oily. I didn't check the calorie info, but it doesn't seem to be too terrible, especially since this doesn't taste healthy at all. I will say that the design of the tear-off "top" on the microwavable bowl is a little dumb, but all of the kernels pretty much popped and it makes a good amount. What's not to like? Plus, it says "made in a peanut free facility" on it!



Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

2017 Bellula Chardonnay

This is one of the good wines! Maybe it's just because I had good company: I shared this with my bud Alyssa, but we finished off the bottle with no trouble. I thought it had a nice sweetness, but wasn't too sweet. Just generally a tasty and fresh vino!

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Mrs. T's Classic Cheddar Pierogies

I'm really taking my time going through the pierogi aisle, but I think here I've arrived on basically the prototypical pierogi. These aren't super exciting, with just vaguely cheesy potato insides, but as always, they are warm and easy to make.

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Pepperidge Farm Snowball Cookies

Yum! These are good little powdered cookie circles. They're mainly "plain" cookies, but you can also taste a little coconut in there, which is fun. The texture is hard and the taste is overall sweet and buttery, with just a light citrus&sugar dusting. These were very tasty and not too overwhelming.

Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 7/10

Annie's Real Aged Cheddar Microwavable Mac & Cheese Cup

My boyf bought this because he's too classy for easy mac, but with my unrefined palate, I think I prefer Easy Mac to this. I do like Annie's as a company, but these noodles were just too....thin? And therefore tougher or chewier, even though I followed the directions. Otherwise the taste is similar to Kraft, and of course it's convenient and super fast to make. But honestly I still don't think it's worth it. Just get regular mac.





Overall
Cost: 5/10
Taste: 5/10

Knorr Garlic Parmesan Rice

This wasn't my favorite. I thought it was too creamy for rice, like a risotto, which I don't like. I guess I also don't like parmesan/asiago cheese, or at least not when mixed with rice. It was still edible, but made me wish I had another flavor instead. It does make a ton of food, more than the noodle packs, which is good if you have, like, a family, but actually bad for me because I ate it all and then I felt bloated. We learned a lot today.

Overall
Cost: 8/10 [1$]
Taste: 5/10

Vermont Nut Free - Bag of Cats (Milk Chocolate)

These come in either milk or dark chocolate, and are shaped like cats. Very fun. I got the milk chocolate ones, and to be honest, they had a little bit of a weird taste, not sure what it was. But at the same time, they were good, and again, they are shaped like cats. And nut free. So I like this.

Overall
Cost: 5/10 (4.60$)
Taste: 7/10

Hershey's Kisses

A classic American candy, right? These are good, and I like that they're cutely individually wrapped and in a fun shape. It's true that the chocolate isn't especially creamy or cocoa-y or "premium" in any way, but it's still tasty. These are also quite addictive, and I ate way too many in one sitting. But they were on post-Christmas sale! How can I resist?


Overall
Cost: 8/10 [1.14$]
Taste: 6/10

Knorr Chicken Broccoli Rice

This has the look of a classic Knorr rice side! I guess I haven't reviewed it before because I don't go for the rice nearly as often as the pasta. That said, it tastes basically just how you'd expect. Not bad, not very exciting, but a dependable filler. It's pretty salty, both in flavor and actual salt content. It also cooks really quickly!

Overall
Cost: 8/10
Taste: 6/10

Red Baron Singles Pepperoni Deep Dish Pizza

I had decently high hopes for these because I had an unexpectedly good experience with a full size Red Baron pizza, and also because I was really craving pizza. Alas, though these were not terrible, they weren't that great. Shockingly I think they suffered from a lack of sauce. I will admit I made them in the microwave (I mean come on, it's tiny) but the texture wasn't the unimpressive part, it was the taste and ratios. I should just get a full size pizza!

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 6/10

Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Mini Chips

These are really good! Surprisingly, they are just as tasty as a non-allergy-free candy, and maybe even better! They have a nice chocolatey flavor, creamy almost, a bit tangy, not too bitter and not too sweet. They're also cute, tiny, and don't melt in your hand. What a great innovation!




Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 8/10

Red Robin

When I was in high school (so, like, 20 years ago!?), Red Robin had an AMAZING quesadilla, with mushrooms and cilantro-y pico and bacon and 3 colors of chips. It was so good. But they got rid of it and I really soured on Red Robin, since they mostly just have burgers and fries which I wasn't a HUGE fan of. But now that Burger King has a nut allergy warning, there aren't many places with burgers I actually enjoy. And Red Robin is a decent pick, and they also have a really good allergy menu too (which they will give you on a tablet if you want to see it, which is hilarious). The waitress randomly asked if I wanted a gluten free bun, but I don't think I got one. Anyway, I ended up here recently with my dad because Iron Hill was too full. Honestly I think it was for the best, because we had a decent experience. I got a "tavern burger", which is a skinner patty and tasted like the burger-king-y patty I like, it was great. Tavern Burgers are apparently the way to go. Specifically, here's what I got:

Ghost Pepper Tavern Burger: IDK about the spicy sauce on here, I didn't love it, but the meat itself was enough to overcome that weirdness. 7.

Chips with guac & salsa (app): The chips were decent, but the salsa and guac were a little weird tasting (but OK). Not that many chips either, which I guess is probably good. 6.

Sangria: This was good and only 5.50$, with lots of fruit in it and a decent amount of alcohol too it seems! 7

Smoky Jack Tavern Double: I got this with no mayo, so it's otherwise a burger with BBQ sauce and LTO and pepper jack. It was good but I didn't like the onion/pickle on it. Still the meat itself was great. Got with sweet potato fries, which were good and plentiful, but not really seasoned, just wet oily potato. But good overall. 6

Red's Tavern Double: Very good, just a very classic burger. 7

Haystack Tavern Double: I was worried about the mayo sauce here, but it wasn't bad. The worst part was actually the onion straws, which had a weird rancid oil taste to me. Overall it was good, but to be honest I think I just want a plain burger. The best part is the meat. 6

Overall
Cost: 6/10
Taste: 7/10