Food Friday #014 – Boudin

The best thing about having a friend who drives (thank you Diana) is being taken to food places as a conversation companion. For lunch this week, we went to Boudin, a bread company originating in San Francisco that makes various sourdough breads and sandwiches, among other things. It's a new restaurant in the Almaden Costco Plaza next to Blaze Pizza (which I visited but forgot to take pictures of) as the two of them are the new restaurants that replaced the Fresh Choice Buffet.

As you will see further below, I went for the half sandwich, half salad combo. The choice for sandwich was between Chicken Pesto and Turkey Avocado. Obviously, the Turkey Avocado is the safe choice, as there is absolutely nothing foreign in it, whereas the Chicken Pesto was a bit of a leap of faith with things like "arugula" and "balsamic vinegar" (don't worry, I know what those are, that was sarcasm for dramatic effect) but as one can't simply go out of one's way for a Turkey Avocado, I went for the Chicken Pesto. Unfortunately, below is the result:

I'm not even mad, but I was utterly confused as to how a restaurant could make a Chicken Pesto without any trace of chicken in it. I was already on the car by the time I opened up the sandwich, so all I could do was call them to ask if I could get a replacement sandwich. The call recipient was just as confused as I was, but immediately offered to prepare a new sandwich. I went in five minutes later, gave her the manager's name, and just like that, she handed me a bag with a new full size sandwich (even though I had only bought a half originally) and entire loaf of bread! On a side note, the salad was still absolutely scrumptious and so were the sandwiches, but I'm still utterly bamboozled about the initial sandwich situation. Nevertheless, it all worked out in the end, and the customer service at Boudin is incredible.

With the bread, I made a ham, salami, cheese, and lettuce sandwiches for lunch today, and it was probably the best lunch I've had at school this entire year. Unfortunately, I forgot to take pictures of that as well, and my family really likes sourdough so I have no more bread left over to make another.

»Service: 3.5/5 – A long line but it moved quickly. Service was swift and clearly communicated.

»Food Quality: 4/5 – A point off for the initial lack of chicken, and the bread was a bit tough to chew.

»Customer Service: 5/5 – Thoroughly impressed by how well they responded to the situation.

»Visit Again: 4.5/5 – I definitely need to try a few more of the items on the menu.