Denzil Reviews Everything!!! (Sweet Tomatoes Restaurant)

Yes, every single thing... I'll review it... like the Dayquil I just took this morning to help with my cold, said it was non-drowsy... slept for 6 hours afterward. But it helped.

I wanted to talk about food.  There's not a place in this world where you can find massive amounts of food being trucked in than the city of Dallas.  There are restaurants everywhere, that is, everywhere there's not a Whole Foods or some specialty grocery store.  Seems that all people do here is eat.  And I'm okay with that.  My goal was to go to one restaurant a paycheck, try something new.  I'll do that, eventually, and I will finish when I'm Methuselah's age.

I have to say, I'm addicted to Sweet Tomatoes.  I think there's a misconception about me and food, that as long as it has cheese or comes in a box that can be warmed up in the microwave, I'm all set.  And while that's certainly true, there's always a question of flavor.  If I'm going to eat, I would really like to have something that tastes like something.  You find me something that is healthy, and tastes amazing, bonus points if it's cheap, and I'll be the healthiest person on Earth.  

I found the answer to this paradox in the glorified salad bar that is Sweet Tomatoes.  Take the idea that Golden Corral made and then refine it.  The difference being that, you pay the exact same price for either place to eat everything that you want, but at Golden Corral, you walk out absolutely stuffed, but then can't remember anything that you've eaten.  You've eaten a massive amount of food, but your body doesn't remember any of the flavors experienced.  My brother says of me (and he's right) that I remember the places I've been to by the things I eat there.  I can tell you the exact places and foods I ate that were the best "X" I've ever eaten.  And those come along so rarely, that those engrams are pasted into my memory as firmly as any "where were you when" scenarios. 

So I was fighting a cold in January and saw the promotion at Sweet Tomatoes of their (shock) Tomato Soup.  I had to have some.  So I filled up a plate with salad, a Romaine Asiago with Lemon, covered with a Lite Honey Mustard Dressing.  Each flavor you put on that salad adds or detracts from it.  Blue Cheese adds a tart, musty flavor right in the back of the throat, while the lemon is a tang on the top of the mouth.  I tried adding Balsamic Vinegar to it... bad idea... that was too much.  And the thing is... it's all that way. Everything in the restaurant has a flavor to it.  It's not trying to get you to buy a drink, not trying for filling you up, it's trying to get you to remember those flavors, perhaps, with a carbonated beverage, you'll remember them for an hour afterwards, but that's okay.  

The businessmen who run these eating places, they make things like Taco Bell's Steak Stacker, and put all this meat and cheese in it, and forget to add flavor.  IHOP's omelettes are huge, and bland, and I've been to plenty of Mexican restaurants where spices by the ton are added to a dish, but no flavor.  It just makes you thirsty (which, of course, is the idea).  Give me a place that values flavor over filling, and I'll eat there every day.  The olive oil on the cheese bread, the Rosemary in the Potato Leek Soup (needs a little more salt, though.) Fantastic stuff, each touching parts of the palette, each adding a memorable part of the meal.  That I don't get leftovers, and that I might have to eat later on that day, are both worth actually enjoying a meal.

One last thing, if you're reading this in February 2015, go get the Red Velvet Cake they have for dessert.... creme cheese frosting.... so good!!!  And there's always coupons, signing up online for them, and whatnot.  The closest one to my friends in Georgia is the one at Gwinnett Place Mall, or one at Perimeter Mall.  Go have soup and a salad... you'll be glad you did.