Food Pit
I recently made a trip to Pita Pit, a chain of restaurants one of which is located near me. In case you have never been to one/heard of it, it is essentially a subway where the only bread is pita bread. You get to choose a meat, and then all kinds of toppings/veggies and sauces. I picked roast beef because that sounded good, but they had many other options. I picked lettuce, tomato, pineapple, pickles, and possibly others and then loaded it up with tzatziki sauce, hot sauce, and secret sauce (their secret sauce, not thousand island). Aggregately all of this may sound disgusting, but it honestly was not; on the contrary, it was the best thing that I have had in a long time. All the ingredients blended perfectly together in the pita creating a taste sensation the likes of which I had not had in a long time. Well, the price wasn’t too bad, coming in at about 6$ for a pita helping and about 2$ extra to make it into a combo, with chips and a drink. The negatives? Well, they did run out of a few sauces: (guacamole, humus, and a few others) that kind of disappointed me. Also, the portions were not gigantic for the price, but it is up to the discretion of the customer to put in as many ingredients as he/she wishes and thus affect the size of it. However, the negatives are insignificant when compared with the positives, and I was very pleased with my first trying of pita pit. Ultimately, Pita Pit receives a score of 9 pitas out of a possible 11.
Palazzio
I recently took a trip to Palazzios on State Street in downtown Santa Barbara. In case you cannot tell from the name, Palazzios is a snazzy Italian restaurant. I was skeptical when I was walked in and saw the sign that read “People generally don’t leave here hungry”. From what I had heard, this place is primarily gone to because of the complimentary garlic rolls served to every guest and the large-family sized portions that accompanied. The great thing about Palazzios is that you can customize your order in any way that you want, adding or subtracting ingredients to your pasta at your discretion (i. e. sausage, tomatoes, etc.) to best fit your taste buds and stomach. The rolls were good, just nothing to write home about, but from what I understand used to be much better. The food is typically shared among two-three people for a half-size, but or three-four for a full portion. I shared a pesto that came with tomatoes and ham, with one other gentleman, and both of us being men, we devoured it. All other parties at the table; however, went away with boxes. The sad part about this is the $$$. The price was unusually high, and the thing that perturbed me a snicket was the 17% service charge they automatically charged, thereby forcing you to tip that amount, in addition to the tax. These together tipped the bill well over the Benjamin mark, and while we were splitting it between everyone at the table and thus it didn’t turn out to be super expensive, I still would have sacrificed a little taste for a lot less money. As far as atmosphere there was one thing about Palazzios that stuck out to me: at a seemingly arbitrary moment, a loud rendition of “That’s Amore” with many people in the restaurant singing and the waiters each coming up and toasting at our table. Everybody there was totally surprised by the whole event, but it was a fun little shindig. at the end of the day, the price put a sour taste in my mouth for Palazzios and it gets a mere 4 buckets of pasta out of 9.
Food Incorporated
Did you know that ketchup is made partially from corn? How about Coke or even diapers? If you’re interested at all about where your food comes from or how a relatively unknown company named Monsantos has a near monopoly on pesticide-resistant soybeans with an army of PI’s to enforce their claim, see Food Inc. As a food critic I jumped at the opportunity to see a food movie, and Food Inc, although not playing in many theaters, is completely worth the price. I would totally advise seeing it, and I give it an unprecedented 6 out of 6 film reels.