FoodstuffsChinese Chicken Salad

Margaret: Hmmm....Asian salad. So popular here in the Mart. Anyway, I thought this was pretty good. We asked for the dressing on the side and they did put it on the salad, but...alas, we ate it anyway. There really was too much dressing, but the salad was good! It had good decent chicken chunks, it had BROCCOLI (I swear people, it's the little things that make me happy), edamame, green peppers, cucumbers, all kinds of good things. The bowl is so big, John and I shared a salad and ate it for almost our whole lunch hour. I think this is the best salad we've had so far there, it just seems like Foodstuffs is kind of getting their act together. It's still on the expensive side, but if I have to pay extra for broccoli, then it is extra well spent.

John: When we walked up today the line was the same size as everybody else. Thats a good sign. Foodstuffs still has some growing pains to work out but its getting there. I'm a big time lover of the Asian salad. This one was GREAT! Romaine, edamame, red onion, broc, cuc, peanuts, carrots, grilled chicken and mushrooms all tossed in a light peanut vin dressing. There was actually so much salad that they couldn't shut the container. Its kinda pricey but worth it. Once this place settles in (and gets rid of those damn video menus) they are going to be great. For the fresh and yummy - A- for you Foodstuffs. You are welcome.

FoodstuffsChopped Chicken Salad

Margaret: Okay okay, we're doing a little better at the Foodstuffs. The wait was a lot shorter this time around, the poor everyone there has kind of a problem with ordering a salad AND something else from the "sausage" menu, but all in all, s'not bad. My only other complaint is the screens with the menu on them. The screens keep changing all the time, so you can never look and just decide on a salad, you have to reach way up front and grab a paper menu to decide what you want. It's really annoying. Anyway, today we had the chopped salad with chicken breast. I liked it pretty well, it covered a lot of bases previous salads don't...for example, broccoli. Such an easy thing to put in a salad, but I think that this may be the first salad we've had with broccoli in it. I LOVE broccoli, and it really smartens up a salad, how can this be the first one I've had? The chicken was still processy, but less processy than some others. I thought the vinagrette dressing was fine, but would have preferred a Ranch. But I think there's some good things on this salad. I liked it fine, honestly, its better than most. B. Solid B.

John: I'm just not feeling the groove of this place. This just seemed like stuff in a bowl with a little cup of brown poured on it. $7.99 makes it the most expensive non-vomit-sushi-salad salad in the mart. Whats killing me is that everything in the bowl is fresh and great. Why then doesn't it taste like anything? Crappy crappy dressing. Thats what it is. I still feel like there is a shot for the "makeyourown" to be good. C me in line at Foodstuffs.

FoodstuffsBLT Salad

John: Foodstuffs is really just a 'lil Au Bon Pain. Too bad. Where to begin? I'm sure that once the "newness" wears off the lines will get smaller - but today it was a full half hour between the time we got in line and the time we sat down to eat. HALF AN HOUR! You can't do that to people who only get 60 minutes with travel time to eat. But its new and therefore being overwhelmed by people looking to try it and I can look the other way. The workers were moving at TOP speed the entire time and the wait didn't have anything to do with them. Our "Salad Artist" was great actually. The salad itself was also just so so. It reminded me of the Pazzini Chicken Salad. All the required ingredients were in the bowl, but it didn't seem like I was eating a salad. More like scooping things out of a bowl into my mouth. I already have my first tip for you readers - get it tossed with dressing on the side. Our chopped salads were more mashed than chopped - and the lack of a step will save you time. This place may turn out to be awesome. Maybe not. Today was a not. For the time and the lack of WOW, I give you D.

Margaret: Well well well, Foodstuffs huh? Sausages and Salads huh? Mkay, I can jive with that. I can even jive waiting way too long to get a frickin salad, because, well, its your opening week. I understand that things aren't going to run so smoothly right now. That's okay. Plus, the TWENTY minute wait for our food allowed us to meet other wonderful salad eaters as well.I actually think Foodstuffs could be the new meat market of Chicago, you never know where your next boyfriend is coming from. So we decided (I decided) on the BLT salad. Simple, easy, delicious...or not. Something was terribly wrong here. I'm not sure if it was the croutons, or the bacon, but something tasted funny. not funny like spoiled food or anything, but funny like they spiced something wrong. First salad, and already I'm leery about ordering the next seven. But I do what I have to do folks. I do what I have to do. D.

Just when I thought that we were out they pull us back in

Looks like we are going to have to postpone the World's Largest Salad Blog Photo. Why? Because FoodStuffs just opened in the old haunted Great Steak space. Suddenly we have 6 salads to go. Will Potbelly's get de-throned? Who can say? Oh yeah - us.