A new option for healthy quick eats has opened it’s doors in the Downtown core and I wouldn’t call it fast food but rather good food fast. The Tossed chain is from the USA and the location in downtown Vancouver is the first and only in Canada.
The interior is bright and modern and goes with the healthy eating concept, the food is prepared when you order it but everything is packed to go~even if your eating in, you can order online for pickup in advance right now but eventually going to get there online ordering system to the point where they will deliver your food to you in your office downtown, they also do catering.
The menu is really diverse compared to other options like this in the fast casual market, they offer custom made salads as well as chef created choices, soups, sandwiches, panini, smoothies and desserts as well as something I haven’t seen before-fat free, whole wheat buttermilk crepe wraps.
On my first visit I was served by the owner of the location, he was very helpfully with suggestions and answered any questions I had.
I went with the Turkey Crepe Wrap for $7.95, it had smoked turkey, smoked bacon, romaine hearts and chopped tomato with mayo.
It was a was a good lunch but the smoked bacon flavor over took the wrap and the turkey flavor was muted, as for the crepe as a wrap I really like it compared to a tortilla, the texture and flavor were light and showcased the ingredients in the wrap. Your wrap comes in some white paper-keep it on and peal it down as eating otherwise your wrap will be a mess to eat-I removed the paper to get a photo and have learned my lesson, also you might want to not get them to cut it in half and eat it like a burrito.
On my 2nd visit I went with something I saw on There Is Always Room , Heather raved about the soups here and I had to try them-I love some good soup, they had Mushroom Bisque or Chicken Noodle, I went with the bisque as part of there Tossed 2 combo for $7.95, you get your choice of daily soup or 1/2 salad (Caesar, spinach or vegetarian) and 1/2 a sandwich or panini.
The soup was totally delicious, it had a mix of wild mushrooms in it including shitaki, the flavor of the broth was nice and rich in a good mushroom way, it wasn’t a creamy mushroom soup that’s for sure~I licked my bowl clean and would order a large bowl of this again.
I chose the roast beef sandwich for my main on multigrain bread, it had baby arugula, roasted red peppers and thousand island dressing. It was one good sandwich, the bread was nice soft yet it totally held together, the thousand island dressing was light in taste and worked with all the ingredients~something I never would have put on a sandwich, the arugula and roasted peppers provided a nice savory note and were a nice change from the typical lettuce and tomato for a roast beef sandwich.
I think Tossed is a great healthy option that fits with the lifestyle of a lot of people who live in Vancouver, they also offer a gluten free menu, it’s a great addition to the Vancouver Good Food Fast Scene!
You can order and check out there menu online by clicking here
Now the old spaghetti factory has turned more tourist destination than local joint but can that be a bad thing-let’s find out shall we. I used to think the restaurant was unique till I was down south in Atlanta and walked past one on the way to eat some killer Mexican food at Rosa Mexicano, it was filled with whimsical antiques and decorative items like velvet armchairs, vintage-looking fringed lamps and booths made from iron bedsteads filled the dining room.
Coming back here was like walking back in time-it’s just the same as when I was here as a kid, I was greeted and seated really quickly and the restaurant was packed with family’s finishing lunch so my server took a bit to get over to me and take my order-no big deal because it gave me some time to check out the newspaper style menu
Complementary bread and whipped garlic butter & regular butter. This is a staple of the Old Spaghetti factory, the bread here isn’t as good as the bread basket at other places-the bread here is really dense but the whipped butter is really good. I wonder how much bread is thrown away on weekly basis seeing the volume they do?
Garden Salad with Creamy Italian Dressing. The choice of minestrone soup or salad is given with every meal and I think I should have gone with the soup, you can also upgrade your salad to a Cesar or a french onion soup for a couple bucks more. The salad was right out of the fridge cold and the iceberg lettuce was kinda lame, the dressing was nice and tart.
The Managers Favorite-choice of 2 sauces in one plate for $10.95. I went with the classic meat sauce and something I have never heard of-Mizithra Cheese from Greece, it was supposed to be a sauce of browned butter and the cheese but it was more like regular buttered noodles with yummy cheese which is all good in the end. The meat sauce on the other hand was just of-they rinse the pasta here which makes it impossible for the sauce to stick to so I was left with sauce on top of noodles that ended up being sopped up with that bread.
Spumoni Ice Cream. The classic Old Spaghetti Factory spumoni ice cream, this was a nice treat at the end of the meal and was pretty good.
