La Hacienda Real

We've been on the hunt for some good vegetarian Mexican food lately and we recently decided to give La Hacienda Real out in South Salem a try. I've read several good reviews of their food so we were excited to see what they had to offer.

Everytime we drive by La Hacienda Real, it looks like their parking lot is packed so when we arrived on a Friday right at noon, I was surprised (and relieved) that they were able to seat us right away. They put us in a small booth by the window and quickly brought us water - including a children's cup with a lid and a straw.

The table was clean, their menu is huge and they have several children's options including a burrito, taco, enchilada, tamale, quesadilla, taquitos or a Mexican pizza with the choice of either refried or black beans and a soda (they charged us for her milk). Our waitress misunderstood my order, but it was still vegetarian and we were in a hurry so I didn't complain and it was still delicious. They also brought us the wrong order for dd but fixed that quickly. I was pleasantly surprised when they brought dd's plate that it was not hot like mine was. Her portion was actually larger than my lunch.

My complaints were that their aisles are very narrow (can only pass 1 person at a time) and so you are sitting very close to your neighbor, which was a little awkward. Also, our booth wasn't spaced well and although dh had plenty of room on his side, I was awkwardly crunched in and couldn't fit dd on my lap.

At one point, dd (who just turned 3) became terrified of a pot that had a lizard on it and we had to take her for a walk. By the end of the meal, she was getting very antsy so we handed her a tortilla (homemade) and spoonfulls of sour cream, guacamole, etc. so she would stay busy.

An overall good experience and so far the best vegetarian Mexican food we've found - we will be back!

Chipotle

A few weeks ago, dh had to figure out something quick for us to have for dinner and he decided to stop by Chipotle on Lancaster. We've eaten there several times before and have always really enjoyed their very fresh food. I especially like their vegetarian burritos.

While Chipotle doesn't have a children's menu specifically, they do offer a little listing of things they can do for kids such as smaller portions. I really wish more restaurants would do this instead of having a separate kids' menu, which always seems loaded with fried foods, few veggies or fruit and dessert.

Bug chose to have a quesadilla ($1!) along with some guacamole and chips. It's great to know that you can add things in and their menu makes it easy to choose items that are mild or a bit spicier depending on your child's taste.

I also love that their menu lists so much information about their ingredients including what may or may not have animal products in it and what may have wheat in it. They also have a section that talks about that they purchase organic free range meats and rGBH-free dairy.

Allergy Information

We have several people with food allergies as well as vegans in our family, so whenever I see a restaurant who goes the distance to provide information on allergens or animal products in their food, it earns big bonus points with me.

A few months ago we went to Red Robin and I was very surprised to see the manager come out and spend about 10 minutes talking with a family going over their menu to help them decide on entrees that would fit their gluten-free diet. He provided them with a printed menu that listed the ingredients as well. The official Red Robin website also provides information on food items that may contain certain allergens.

We have also had very good experiences with Sweet Tomatoes who have brought out a list of ingredients in their salad dressings. As I mentioned in my review for them, they also have salad bar items labeled if they have sulfites in them, which is the first restaurant I have ever seen that acknowledged sulfite sensitivity.

I'd love to get a list together of area restaurants that try their best to inform patrons of the ingredients in their menu items. Please let us know if there are places in the area that we can add to the list!

Links to information on allergen/animal products in menu items:
Red Robin
Subway

Friendly Area Restaurants We've Had Good Experiences With Asking About Ingredients:
Thai Cuisine in Keizer - Extremely friendly staff, many options for vegetarian/vegan.
Kwan's Original Cuisine - Offers a huge variety of oil and ingredient choices to fit a wide variety of special diets. Also offers mock meat.

Additional Resources:
Oregon Food Allergy Support Group
Salem Food Allergy Group (does anyone have contact information for them? I cannot find an updated website or phone number for them)

India Palace

We needed a quick stop lunch place last week before Bug's nap and dh came up with a brilliant idea - India Palace in downtown Salem.

It's been a while since we've been there, but it's always been a past favorite. They have a fantastic weekly lunch buffet deal there too - $8 per person for all you can eat and that includes the drink!

Bug was starving and needed food asap so it was great to walk in the door and start putting a plate together for her right away. It was a perfect lunch for little toddler fingers - salad, fresh fruit, rice, bread and a mild curry plus some rice pudding for desert.

The seating area was clean, the staff was very nice and because it was setup for their lunch buffet it was easy to get her a smaller plate, silverware, a straw, etc.

Dh did take her to the bathroom while we were there and he did say that their bathroom was very dirty and was all around old and worn.

I forgot to ask when they start to charge for kids, but the cashier didn't even ask us for dd's age and we weren't charged for her at all so it was a very reasonable price for lunch. We left stuffed and ready for naptime!

Coffee House Cafe Supports Breastfeeding

I was recently contacted by Nikki from the Coffee House Café on Liberty to tell me that they recently put up the International Symbol for Breastfeeding on their front door to show support for mothers breastfeeding in public! Kudos to Coffee House Café for creating a space that is safe for moms to breastfeed! What could be more kid friendly?

I’d love to see more businesses in our area show support for breastfeeding. I have not personally ever been asked to leave any local place of business for breastfeeding my daughter, but I’ve heard a lot of stories of that happening to others.

Word of Mouth Bistro

After hearing tons of fabulous reviews about Word of Mouth Bistro, we decided to give it a try last weekend.

We got extremely lucky and had a very small wait during Saturday breakfast last weekend, which I’ve heard is not very common since they are a hot spot, especially for breakfast. I was very grateful since I wasn’t sure how Bug would do with too long of a wait.

Bug is just under 3 years old so she still doesn’t eat very much at each sitting. We sometimes buy her a meal, but most of the time she shares with us. Unfortunately, WOM doesn’t offer a separate printed kids menu or smaller portions for kids, but they did tell me that if you ask, they can offer single pancakes for breakfast or a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch/dinner. I would really love to see even just a small menu for kids that maybe included some fresh fruit, steamed veggies, etc. for a more well-rounded meal. At other restaurants, we’ve sometimes ordered items ala carte for Bug, but that can get pretty expensive pretty fast.

The staff was very friendly and helpful and brought us an extra plate for Bug so she could share our veggie hash, corned beef hash and creme brulee french toast. Sharing our meals works well for us now (though I have to admit that their food is so delicious that I don't really want to share), but we may need to stop going there once Bug is eating too large of portions to share but not enough for a full-sized plate, because buying a full-sized breakfast portion for a little would get pretty expensive, as they are around about $8. We did order her an orange juice, which they do offer in a kid size, and it was brought to us in a small to-go cup with a little straw. The cost was $1 per cup of juice.

Their bathroom was very clean except for a dirty plug-in air freshener that is right next to the toilet, which of course Bug went right for. There also wasn’t a foot stool in the bathroom to assist with washing her hands. Though we didn’t use one, I did see their booster seats and high chairs and they looked exceptionally clean.

We’ve been there twice so far and have enjoyed almost everything that we’ve ordered. Bug really loved their sunflower seed toast with their yummy homemade strawberry jam. They have nice portion sizes and I think their pricing for adult portions is extremely reasonable, especially considering that the food is very fresh, made from scratch, the quality is excellent and they try to buy local whenever possible.

The Original Roadhouse Grill

This weekend we were running late getting going with dinner. It was so hot outside that we decided to just go for a drive and pick up some take out.

We decided to head to the Original Roadhouse Grill on Lancaster because we like their salads and dinner rolls and we can usually split an appetizer as our main meal and then add salads and it isn't too expensive.

We didn't have a menu with us or their number so dh ran inside to place the order and Bug and I stayed out in the car to wait. Dh placed the order and came back outside.

About 20 minutes later, Bug said she needed to go potty so dh took her inside. Dh said that the bathrooms seemed clean but were pretty dark. On their way back out to the car the hostess noticed him and said that she'd gotten so busy she'd forgotten to put his order in but she'd try to push a rush on it. By that time, Bug was distracted by the peanuts they have to snack on so they decided to stay inside and wait for the food.

It was extremely busy even for a Saturday night, as there must have been a prom going on. While inside, dh said there was a waiter who was messing around acting silly who started swearing like crazy in front of people in line plenty loud enough for everyone, including my 2-year-old, to hear. Not so great.

They finally got our food and we headed home, only to be disappointed once we got back that they'd forgotten a few things in our order. I made sure to send off a comment via their website, though I haven't heard a response back yet.

Since we only got take out I wasn't able to rate their overall family friendliness - has anyone else dined there recently that could shed some light?

Olive Garden

The sickness has hit my family these last few weeks pretty hard. I thought we were making some headway but this a.m. Bug woke up with a barking cough so I am up early and intend to do some catch up with my blogging.

A few weeks ago while running errands, moments after I’d realized that I hadn’t had anything to eat that day, I started to have a blood sugar low. I was feeling dizzy and nauseous so we decided to stop and get some lunch at the closest place to where we were, which just happened to be Olive Garden. I figured it couldn’t be busy at 2 on a Saturday, right? Wrong. But, within 15-20 minutes we were sitting at our table and I begged the waitress to bring us anything asap before I started to eat sugar packets.

I appreciate when we are seated in a low traffic area and that day they put us in a corner so we were able to sort of tuck Bug in the back, which was helpful in trying to thwart her constant escape attempts. I’m not a fan of their chairs with rollers on the bottom though because they move very easily and Bug fell off of hers and almost hit her face on the table when she was leaning forward to color so dh and I spent the rest of the meal with our feet wrapped around the bottom so it wouldn’t slide. The food arrived quickly and was good, but Bug’s plate was scorching hot when they set it right in front of her. Prices seemed higher than what I remember. Most of the children’s items were around $5, which includes a drink but says “Share the grown-ups breadsticks and salad with your meal.” For $5, the portion seemed pretty small, heck even my adult portion seemed pretty small.

While we ate, I started to brainstorm different things that would be really helpful in restaurants. Besides foot stools in the bathrooms, what about bringing them their color pages/crayons if there is a wait, or providing smaller utensils so they can eat easier? The only picture that I was able to get during my low blood sugar madness was of Bug’s fork, which was massively huge.

The bathrooms seemed clean, which is always nice, especially when your toddler says she needs to go potty, but then when you get her in there she’d rather play with the toilet paper and collapses on the floor when you try to pick her up to sit on the potty “just in case.” No foot stools though. The changing area for babies had lots of room so that you wouldn’t have to move out of the way to let other in/out of stalls.

Overall it was okay and I’m grateful that we received pretty quick food once we were seated. But, the prices are a little out of our range right now, especially so since their portion size was pretty small, so I don’t think we’ll be going back anytime soon.

Sweet Tomatoes

We had family visit this weekend so this morning we decided to drive up to have brunch at Sweet Tomatoes in Tigard. Sweet Tomatoes has been a favorite of ours for years. It is an all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar restaurant that always has fresh ingredients, tons of variety with soups, baked potatoes, muffins, breads, pasta, fruit and lots more. It’s a great place to take kids to because they have so many different options to choose from and if one item gets vetoed it’s easy to find something else that they will like. This is another restaurant that I’m an e-club member of. I almost always have a "buy 1 meal + beverage get 1 meal for free" coupon.

There are so many things to love besides the food – easy access from I-5, these little ingenius roller carts that you can place your baby in while you’re dishing up so that you can be hands free, the friendly staff who will offer to carry your tray to your table if you have your arms full of toddler, a super clean restaurant, their labeling of potential food allergens and whether an item is vegetarian or not. I personally have a sensitivity to MSG and sulfites, which are very rarely labeled. I can't remember ever seeing another restaurant labeling sulfites so they instantly go to the top of my list simply because of this.

Today was the first time that we’ve ever had brunch there. When we arrived with our guests I realized that one of the coupons I’d printed was the wrong one, but the manager allowed us to use our "buy 1 meal + beverage get 1 meal for free" coupon twice, which saved us $16.00! In addition to their soup and salads, they also had fixings for breakfast burritos, potatoes O’Brien, biscuits and gravy, cinnamon chip biscuits, breakfast focaccia and all kinds of other things.

When we found a booth, we started to search for a high chair and to our surprise an employee was already heading our direction with one. I usually run my hands over the chair first (if I forget to bring my high chair cover) to see if I might need to wash it, but I honestly could not find a speck of grime or stickness.

Bug ate salad, kidney beans, chicken noodle soup and scrambled eggs with ham and potatoes plus a little bit of Jell-O all for free since she is still under 3 years old. Their pricing for 3-5 year olds is $2.99 and for 6-12 year olds it is $4.69.

Once completely stuffed, we rolled ourselves back out to the car and dd took a nice nap on our way home to enjoy the rest of our lazy Sunday.

Restaurants

Here is a directory of restaurants that we have reviewed so far:
Coffee House Cafe
India Palace
Marie Callender's
Olive Garden
The Original Roadhouse Grill
Sweet Tomatoes in Tigard
Word of Mouth Bistro
La Hacienda Real
Chipotle

Marie Callender's

Due to the economy, my husband has been laid off the better part of the last 6 months. Going out to eat is a rare treat so when we do got out we need to find the best deals possible for all of us.

Joining e-clubs that are available at some restaurants is great because they offer coupons and birthday deals. Marie Callender’s offers some of the best deals that we’ve found so far. I often get coupons for buy 1 get 1 lunch for free from them. An everyday deal though is that with the purchase of 1 adult entrée and drink, kids eat for free.

A few weeks ago we decided to take advantage of this while we were out running errands at that end of town (we do a lot of our shopping at Morrow and Sons on Silverton Road because of fantastic prices!).

Trying to stick to a budget, we ordered water with our meals. Our helpful waiter reminded us that if at least 1 of us purchased a drink that Bug’s meal would be free so we happily obliged. Their menu offers the typical kids’ menu options. Bug asked for “noodles,” so we decided to try the “Curly Noodles with Alfredo Sauce,” which comes with a slice of bread and desert options of a sundae, a slice of apple or chocolate cream pie. I would have liked to have seen maybe some steamed veggies or some fruit to go along with the meal though.

We usually add their all you can eat soup and salad bar, fill up and take our meals home. This also allowed us to get some things for Bug to crunch on while we waited for our orders. Bug snacked away at salad and slurped on soup while coloring a paper that could be entered for a chance to win a bike.

I was very pleased when Bug’s food arrived and the waiter informed us that it was warm and not hot – this is the first restaurant that we have been to that made a point of keeping the temperature of her food safe – this won huge points with me. The noodles got a big thumbs up from Bug.

To top off our nice lunch experience, the waiter brought Bug a balloon, which always makes her happy as can be.