We were meeting some friends after church and the Sweet Tomatoes in Creve Coeur was an easy place to meet where whoever got there first could get started early and there was a lot of variety of food. We were probably going to be the first ones there, and we were and the place was pretty empty a little before noon. We went through the line to see what they had, and it was pretty much the same as usual. The salad stuff was first and it was the usual assortment of fresh vegetables and toppings, so I went to the "prepared, mixed salad" section to see if there was anything interesting there. They had a Thai Peanut and Red Pepper salad and a "Chinese" Wonton Happiness salad that looked different so I tried some of those. In the soup section I noticed the Thai shrimp and noodle soup so I picked up a small bowl of that as well. In the baked section I went with some Bruschetta Focaccia and the Thai Focaccia and at the pasta station I selected the Penne Arrabiata which looked flavorful. (After I got home I noticed they had been having a "Taste the World: Italy & Asia" theme and hence the special dishes.)
After I sat down I realized and started eating I remembered why we really did not stop at Sweet Tomatoes that often. The food is not bad, but it really is not all that great either. It is all just pretty bland, and even the spicy food was pretty bland. I was hoping their "special dishes" of the month would liven things up, and I did like the Wonton salad and the Penne Arrabbiata. The Thai soup was reminiscent of the Thai Curry soup at the Noodles & Company but it tasted much more watered down and had less flavor. Nevertheless the one good thing about Sweet Tomatoes is you can keep getting more, so I did! I got some more Wonton Salad, Penne and Bruschetta Focaccia and even one of the brownie bites.
I noticed that my brownie bite tasted a little different than usual and wondered what they did to make them different this time. But then my wife had one and noticed the cocoa was not properly mixed into the batter and what I was tasting was little pockets of cocoa powder in my brownie bites! My son had noticed this too and thought they were some little bitter chocolate chunks, but it was really just poorly mixed in cocoa. I had to redeem my dessert choice by selecting something I knew they could not mess up -- soft serve ice cream! I do like the fact they have both chocolate and vanilla soft serve, so I got some of both along with some oreo bits and chocolate sauce. That was tasty as expected and ended the meal with a nice flavorful ending, even if the rest of it was not all that exceptional.
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