Their shakes are delicious, so far I’ve done coffee and strawberry and have yet to be disappointed. The shakes are creamy and are drinkable from the get do – no waiting for a hunk of ice cream to melt.

Burgers are ground daily and the fries are hand cut. They have this fountain of butter to flavor the rolls before throwing them on the grill.  I order a cheeseburger with bacon and mushrooms. Pretty tasty, not heavy at all, and at around $5, the price is right!

After hearing about this from Katie, who works around the corner, we decide to go back and try the Asian salad, with napa cabbage, scallions, toasted noodles, toasted almonds, sesame and sweet soy dressing. Per Katie’s recommendation, we go with add ons. One salad gets chicken and a fried egg.

My salad gets avocado, sauteed mushrooms and a fried egg, There is something so great about this salad, and it is so simple. First, fried egg on anything makes it an instant success in my book – creamy, salty yolk, umm…yes please. the avocado is creamy and delicious, the mushrooms give this salad a little bit of body, and the crunchy noodles make the whole salad. The dressing is subtle but adds just the right hint of sweetness. So stop over and grab a meal at Flat Patties, you can’t beat the price and it doesn’t seem like you can go wrong here.

Flat Patties

33 Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA

http://www.flatpatties.com/

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Cold press juicers work by first crushing and then pressing the ingredients for the most amount of juice. Cold pressing juice keeps more of the ingredients nutrients in tact. While the juices look great, I dig the #1 smoothie, perfect for those looking to ease their way into juicing.

Love the flavor, berries, sweet but not too sweet, and a great consistency. They take cash and cards. Check them out on Wednesdays outside the BPL and see their website and Twitter page to see where they are the rest of the week!

Mother Juice

http://motherjuiceboston.blogspot.com/

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The Santorini – chopped romaine with citrus shrimp, feta, red grapes and chickpeas; topped with a cucumber basil yogurt dressing and a fresh lemon squeeze. Really nice flavoring, love the citrus shrimp and the red grapes. The salads run you $6-$13, but they are enormous. I like the salads so much that one day I went for lunch AND dinner!

The District Cobb – shredded kale + chopped romaine with roasted chicken, goat cheese, hard boiled egg, bacon, raw corn, avocado and grape tomatoes; topped with an agave dijon vinaigrette. I get mine with balsamic instead of dijon – this is by far my favorite salad.

Wednesdays are usually my day for salads, with a stop at Mother Juice, a juice truck across the street, for the perfect lunch.

Sweet Green

659 Boylston Street, Boston, MA

http://sweetgreen.com

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I held out for a while, but now I am there at least twice a week. My new favorite, the figawi smoothie – strawberry, mango, banana and orange juice (sweet, but naturally so). Grab a small for $6 and a large for $8. See the menu here. In addition, you can pick up juice in the morning for a daily cleanse, a specialty good item (like an exotic chocolate bar) or fresh produce.

Juice Bar

145 Dartmouth Street, Boston, MA

http://www.juicebarboston.com

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MET Bar in the Natick Collection was fairly empty when we went one Sunday afternoon. The service leaves something to be desired…it feels like even the servers don’t want to be there. Here’s what we order:

The MET Bar and Grill
1245 Worcester St.
Natick, MA 01760

508.651.0003

http://metbarandgrill.com/

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When you walk in, look left for the hostess stand, otherwise you might just think they don’t have one.

We sit at a two top, one side a bench and the other side a chair. The seats are pretty close to one another…which is a bummer. We start of with the Korean style chicken tacos, roasted pulled chicken with kimchi slaw, house made hoisin sauce in a flour wrap. Pretty hard to pick up, but really great flavors and textures. The chicken is tender and moist, the sauce is sweet and the slaw is a little bit tangy. The veggies in the slaw give the dish some nice crunch.

I had the Manhattan burger, the works, swiss cheese, bacon, sauteed onions, mushrooms on a sesame seed bun. Pretty darn good, although the bacon just came out of the burger on the first bite and most of the mushrooms rolled out. The french fries were perfectly crisp and had just the right amount of salt.

We share dessert, the toll house chocolate chip pie with vanilla ice cream, chocolate sauce and chocolate covered pretzels. Didn’t do it for me. The pie was dry, and it was really just a cookie in the shape of a piece of pie, the pretzels were out of place and didn’t have a great flavor to them…so next time, we will pass on dessert.

The MET Bar and Grill

400 Legacy Place
Dedham, MA 02027

781.467.1234

http://metbarandgrill.com

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They have a cool bar area in the front but it has more of a diner feel towards the back. Some of the menu items are really creative and they have a lot of options on the menu that can be made gluten free.

We start by sharing the fruit with granola ($5)-Honeydew, raspberries, kiwi, bananas, strawberries, and cantaloupe with granola made from  oats, pecans, honey, cashews, maple and vanilla. The granola is excellent-it has a sticky consistency and is SO good on top of the (super) fresh fruit (you can also get it with yogurt!!).

My eyes are totally bigger than my stomach. You can get one or two pancakes, I got two, but totally should have had one! (one for $6 or 2 for $7.75) Think pancakes the size of dinner plates-and they are filling. I got the coconut cakes, cashews, shredded coconut, and chocolate chips drizzled with coconut sauce. Sweet and delicious, it tastes like a dessert-and it’s not overwhelmed by the coconut-the flavor is subtle.

The king cakes are two mini pancakes with chocolate chips and banana inside and peanut butter in between with real whipped cream on top with bacon ($10.25). These pancakes are quite a bit smaller than mine (thus “mini”) but equally filling. These are EXCELLENT! The combination of flavors is something you can’t go wrong with. The bacon is cooked perfectly, not too chewy not too crisp. The peanut butter starts to get melty the longer it sits in between the pancakes…making it that much better!

How can you go wrong with a place that makes M&M pancakes, or pancakes with toffee crumbles, gingerbread waffles or home made bread? You can’t. The service was pretty decent considering how crowded it was there.  I wonder how many Sundays I would have to go here to try everything on the menu…

Friendly Toast

1 Hampshire Street, Cambridge MA (Kendall Square)

[617] 621-1200

http://www.thefriendlytoast.net/

Sun-Wed 8am-10pm; Thurs, Fri, Sat 8am-1am

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I have only been walking by this place for about 5 years-there really is no excuse for not trying the place. They have a cute patio for outdoor dining when the weather is nice. We happened to go on a day when it was pouring-so we ate inside. The restaurant is partially below ground-and much bigger than it looks from the outside. We were greeted and seated promptly. There are enough rooms and corners that you can easily have a private corner to yourself if it’s not busy. The decor is forgettable-it doesn’t add to your experience.

We were greeted by our waiter with salsa and chips-yum! We then both ordered the burrito azteca-not very creative I know. (Large flour tortilla filled with marinated chicken, rice, chopped tomato, onions, cilantro, topped with cheese and red sauce)

I kid you not-this was the biggest burrito I have ever seen-it may have weighed 5lbs and if you threw it, it could have been used as a deadly weapon. It was pretty tasty…I got 2 meals out of it! It comes with rice and beans with a side cole slaw like salad for $12.95, quite affordable! I walked out with half a burrito and a stuffed stomach-I felt like you had to roll me out.

The burrito was good-perhaps next time I go there I will be a little more adventurous- and hopefully be wowed. But if you are looking for an affordable place that is a step up from your regular burrito joint-this is your spot.

Sol Azteca

914A Beacon Street Brookline, MA 02446

617.262.0909 or call 617.278.2121 for deliveries

http://www.solaztecarestaurants.com/

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John, the CEO of Boloco, reached out to me after I wrote a not so great review of his burrito. He offered me a few free burritos too see if giving them another shot would change my mind.

I decided not to go back to the Natick store. I figured that perhaps the reason the chicken was dry was because they didn’t have a lot of turn over. So we went to the Boloco down by Boston College-lots of college kids+burritos=high turnover. Good assumption on my part, the chicken was quite moist this time around.

I did my research before I went. I didn’t want to be that stumbling/confused customer twice! I tried the summer burrito:mango salsa, melted cheese, black beans (but I opted not to get them) boloco rice on a flour tortilla. I opted for the white meat chicken and added corn salsa. The chicken was moist and the mango salsa was really good-it was sweet and delicious. The difference between this time and last time was like night and day.

I also tried the Nutella milkshake: creamy nutella, skim milk and non fat frozen yogurt. It tasted just as good as the ones that I get at the Paris Creperie.

So I chalk my last review up to a bad day-everyone has them.

**update**

So John wrote me a nice response:

Thanks so much for re-reviewing us!  What’s also interesting is that the Natick location is actually busier than the Cleveland Circle one… but regardless I’m glad you enjoyed your experience better at Cleveland.  The lesson for us, of course, is that we need to work harder to make sure that every experience at every location is like your second one… if not, in most cases, there won’t ever be a second
Thanks so much again for including us on your blog.

Cheers,John

I decided to go back to the Natick store for my last free burrito. It was in fact more crowded this time-tons of families. I got the summer burrito again (just to see how it would stack up to the Cleveland Circle one) and my dining companion had the Memphis BBQ (sweet barbecue sauce, creamy coleslaw, pinto beans in a flour tortilla) with steak. It was a bit on the spicy side, but I liked it! It’s weird because the chicken in my burrito was still dry…I don’t know what’s going on in that location….

Just to show you, here is the difference between an original and a small. The small is pictured above and here is the original:

I just happen to think (and this is of course just my opinion) that the Cleveland Circle store was much better than the Natick one. The food seemed fresher and the service was much better. The experience in Natick was just stressful. When you have people that are working who are stressed out-you convey that to your customers…and you don’t want anyone to see you sweat….

In conclusion, no two burritos are ever alike. They depend on where and when, who is making it etc. So stop in and decide for yourself.

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I had never heard of this place before, but that’s probably because I don’t work downtown. It’s probably a good thing I don’t work downtown because I would eat all of my meals out and that wouldn’t be good for the wallet or the waistline. I met up with my dining companion on a rainy Friday afternoon. He told me that it was a perfect day for Chacarero because there wouldn’t be a line. Chacarero used to be located in the old Filene’s Basement building-you would have to wait in one line to order and pay and then go around the corner and wait in another line to pick up you order. There were no tables to eat at inside, yet the line on a nice day would be around the block.

Apparently the line on a nice day is still around the block even though they have moved to a new location (with inside seating). Who knew that Chilean cuisine would be so popular! They have a cult following-like Anna’s. So here is the deal. You order-chicken or steak. Large or small. You pay. Move down the cafeteria like line and you tell them what you want on your sandwich. Green beans, hot sauce, tomatoes, munster cheese, salt and pepper, and/or avocado spread. For here or to go. Done.

We get small chickens with everything but tomatoes. I’ve never been here before, so I go with what my dining companion is getting. The bread is baked fresh in house daily, and boy is it good. The chicken is thin and cooked on the grill. The beans are cooked but still have a nice crunch to them. The hot sauce sort of surprises you throughout the sandwich with a little kick here and there…but don’t worry it’s not super spicy. The salt and pepper just add a nice zing. We sit in the stools by the window (there are also booths) and dive into these sandwiches. For $7 these aren’t half bad. I like the combination-and to be honest I wasn’t sure I was going to love beans in my sandwich…but its good. PS. I love the avocado spread!

For what this is, a $7 “fast food” sandwich, I think that it’s great. It is what it is.  I’ll be back again next time I’m downtown for lunch!

While we were in line waiting to customize our orders, I was telling my dining companion about my theory on Anna’s-how there should be a ‘rookie’ line and a ‘regular’ line (as an Anna’s regular himself, he agreed there should be). The guy next to me jumps into the conversation saying “boy-you’re harsh”. I said to him that when you are a regular and you know what you want, sometimes it can be frustrating when people are holding up the line and being indecisive. And then I thought to myself, “only a  rookie would say that!”

Chacarero

101 Arch Street Boston, MA 02110-1124   (617) 542-0392

Alternate location:26 Province Street Boston, MA 02108  (617)542-0392

www.chacarero.com

HOURS:
Monday – Friday 8:00AM to 6:00PM

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