Souplantation – Farm fresh food, straight from nature
Souplantation – Farm fresh food, straight from nature
Souplantation recently underwent a remodel of several of it’s Orange County locations. The restaurants now resemble a contemporary farmer’s market kind of feel with new hardwood floors, new paint, new artwork, updated unifrforms for the staff and an upgrade to the dining room with an emphasis on fresh produce, which is piled high on a cart near the entrance.
Last week I dined at the Irvine Souplantation and was amazed at how incredibly busy this particular location was. I usually dine at the Laguna Niguel location where you just walk right up , pay and get your food. The Irvine location had a line out the door. I have never seen such a buzz in a Souplantation like that.
If you have never been to a Souplantation before it is a moms dream come true. It’s an extrmemly family friendly restaurant where everything is offered buffet style, allowing kids to try different items without fear that they will waste an entire entree. The food is wholesome and farm fresh so you can rest assured your child is getting the nutrients he or she needs.
With the new remodel restaurants now have a long bar style table that encourages co-mingling. Kids love to sit up high and it’s a great way to keep your kids in their seat.
Fresh pastas are made continuosly throughout the day and the menu changes monthly; My kids love the homemade mac-and-cheese.
The soups are plentiful and include up to eight soup selections. Thier signature soup is their chicken noodle soup with huge chunks of chicken and giant thick noodles. On the day I went they had something new I had not tried before – Chicken Orecchiette. It was delicious.
My kiddos were happy and even went back for seconds. I have never had that happen at home!
Let’s not forget the pizza and focccia! They make great little dippers for your soup and salad.
Next to the bread is a baked potato bar. With all of your favorite toppings, you won’t be leaving hungry.
Make sure to leave some room for dessert though. Souplantation has a soft serve ice cream bar that will please anyone’s palate. The day I went I got a suprising treat. They had chocolate mint ice cream, a flavor that is hard to come by. You can even put them in mini ice cream cones.
To find the nearest Souplantation near you click here. Or find them on Facebook and Twitter.
Sadly, Souplantation’s mysterious “soft “serve” product contains neither calcium nor protein, so it is not real food; just reconstituted sugary white grit. I just fired off an email asking the company for a list of ingredients in their soft serve. Notice: there is no noun in the title, so I’m guessing that they have something to hide; namely, the fact that they are cutting costs by serving fake food to trusting customers who remember when real food was served. Very sad – they used to serve either Dreyer’s or Breyer’s frozen yogurt a few years back, and to cut costs they are now pretending to serve ice cream/yogurt but actually serve, well, “soft serve”.
no matter to us. It still tastes good and we will still eat it =)