Have a recommendation? We'd LOVE to hear it!
Salutations Readers!

Kalamazoo has good food.
Great food, in fact. We have made it our mission to check out all the local eateries one at a time - and more for our own poor memories than any other reason, we'll be chronicling our adventures in food here. And some places float our boats way more than others, which is why we have developed the very scientific
five golden forks rating scale. Ok. It is not scientific at all. It is actually quite unscientific. But, it is something. And now, you can search all of our reviews by the forks rating. YAY!


But, wait! There's more!
Kalamazoo Foodies no longer just eat at restaurants then review them. There are recipes posted, some easy, some less easy, all delicious. There are, or will be, book reviews, the new
Foodie Movie Review-y which will focus on movies about food or ones that have a lot of beautiful food in them. There are other food musings, and hopefully soon contests and so much more. But, Foodie Friends, it is all about food. Because we love it!
And, we want to hear from you!

We want to hear your comments on our recipes and reviews. We want to know where you love to eat. And, we are looking for GUEST bloggers to broaden our horizons a bit. And, if you haven't found us on Facebook, you should do that too. Like our page for other fun Foodies stuff like photos, polls, and more.


SO KALAMAZOO PATRONS - where do YOU love to eat? Because we'd love to check it out and share our thoughts here. Give us a comment below, and quickly! Our tummies are grumbling in anticipation.

A Note from the Foodies about our typical fair:
So, you may notice as you read our blog that we often order the same thing wherever we go. OK, maybe not quite, but we do often order similar things. Kristin has her caprese salads and mushroom dishes. Kate has her baked goat cheese and things with tofu. Well, readers, we wanted to let you know that this is absolutely intentional. A) We love those things, so why not order what you love? And, B) It is a lot easier to compare apples to apples than it is to compare apples to comquats. So, we like to order similar things to have a good sense of how to compare them. Just wanted to let you in on that little secret. Bon appetit!

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Soup Kettle

Kristin: Cup of Chicken Noodle Soup and the Salad Bar
Located on the Downtown Mall, this stop is an easy one for Kate and I to make during our lunch hour - hence, we stopped in. Just a point of reference for y'all that have never been there, you have two door choices as you walk in - you want the one to your right.

The food was good - nothing special, but satisfying. The servers were super friendly, especially in being patient with us as Kate blurted out "We're new here. Help."
That being said, while the food was decent and the people were nice, I found their "flow" to be really unhelpful. From the moment we entered the wrong front door, we just didn't know what to do. How do we order? Where do we go? Do we leave our trays here or bring them up somewhere? There's a lot of things to look at in the Soup Kettle - take out menus, reviews from big-shot newspapers (how do Kate and I get in on that action?), interesting people-watching, etc, but there's very little in the way of "How does this place work?"
In that aspect, I could see the Soup Kettle being more one of those places you have regulars, and then those people who you really could care less about when they get flustered with the layout. Sadly, I was one of the latter today, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't go back. I mean, hey, I've got it figured out now.
(Still though, please post some arrows or directions, or ... something.)
three golden forks out of five.

Kate: Cup of Hearty Vegetable Soup, the Salad Bar, and Cornbread
So, in all honesty, this was not our desired destination. We went down craving some Sprout, but found the windows covered and the door locked. SAD! Not sure what is going on, but Sprout, come back soon! I had remembered seeing the Soup Kettle in a few of my walks down the mall, and said to Kristin, 'hey, let's try that Soup Kettle place' and so it was. Um, Kristin has done a great job in describing our confusion. And, yes, I really did say, 'we are new here, how does this work?'. The response I got back was 'welcome' which made me smile.
I found the soup to be lacking in flavor. It was hearty. And it wasn't bad, but it kind of just was. If you are going to have soup in your name, I would expect it to knock my socks off. Not the case here. But, I was starving. The salad bar was not too bad as salad bars go. Pretty fresh looking, nice variety. Not a great selection of dressings, but they had olive oil and balsamic vinegar, so I was good. The cornbread was a little less moist than I prefer, but pretty tasty.
So, not a bad lunch. On the light side, which is what we were looking for. A little pricey for what it was, if you ask me. $8.37 for soup salad and cornbread...? I am confident we will give the Soup Kettle another chance.


three golden forks out of five.

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