Sweet Tomatoes and other food related notes

I really didn't intend on having this blog become a source of restaurant reviews, but until I make a Chicagoland restaurant review blog (if I do), there may be some reviews popping up from time to time [EDIT: I have created a restaurant review blog, Tasting Chicago]. I love trying new food and restaurants, so it seems like a logical move to review my experiences.

Tonight I tried Sweet Tomatoes in Glenview (IL) and was overall impressed with my experience. If you've never heard of this chain before, it's a soup/salad/bakery all-you-can-eat buffet with a variety of soup and salad choices. While I wish I could say that this is always a good healthy choice , it has several less healthy options like pizza focaccia bread, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies (among other baked goods), and various pasta dishes.

I arrived to find a rather crowded atmosphere with a short wait to be seated (about 10 minutes). It's structured so that you build your salad (or choose an already made salad) before paying and being seated. After you're seated, you can look around and get whatever else you want. My asian chicken salad was decent, although the chicken pieces were small. The pizza focaccia bread was much better. My favorite part of the dinner had to be the cornbread with honey butter and the chocolate chip cookies. All of these baked items were very fresh and you could tell that they were baked minutes earlier. In addition to these items, I tried a mexican meatball soup that was a bit on the spicy side, but very delicious. It was one of eight varieties of soup. For dessert, I had fat free chocolate frozen yogurt (they also had vanilla) with crushed peanuts on top. It wasn't anything special, but it satisfied my dessert craving.

All in all, for $9.99, it was a very good meal. I usually set my standards low when it comes to all-you-can-eat buffet style restaurants, so Sweet Tomatoes fell above my expectations. If you're feeling carnivorous, you may want to look elsewhere. Check out their locations and menu if you're interested.

Rating (out of 10): 7