I noticed New York Bagel & Cafe across the parking lot while I was eating at La Bou just a couple weeks ago. I’ve seen it plenty of times but never given it much thought and apparently missed it when building my list. Today I finally checked it out.
I arrived just after 11AM to a quiet cafe. One customer was sitting in the corner, and remained the entire time, and another was waiting for their to go order. I took a glance at the salad portion of their menu as well as soups. There were basically no descriptions so I had to ask about the CEO salad and the Adobe salad. The Adobe was described as having corn, beans and chicken and for the CEO she said they didn’t have some ingredient prepared yet. I figured I’d get the large Adobe salad [$7.49] and add a cup of creamy asparagus soup for $2.99. I added a soda [~$2.50] to finish it off.
I filled my soda up at the fountain machine located back in a corner and took a seat. Slowly people started trickling in, all of whom seemed to be regulars for a while. Then a little before I headed out they had a sudden line to the door. The woman that took my order called out to me and said my salad was ready. I picked it and a basket with dressing, soup and a thin strip of toasted bread up from the counter.
Speaking of bread, they bake a lot here. They have a walk-in sized oven and happened to pull a rack out while I was paying and it smelled amazing. The bread that came with my meal was simple, a light brushing of butter. It was crusted with sesame seeds on one side and surprisingly tasted strongly of them. They weren’t just for show/texture, which I don’t see very often (not that I’m a huge bread connoisseur or anything).
The soup was crazy smooth and had a nice rich asparagus flavor. There were a few small chunks of actual asparagus in it, but for the most part you could totally just drink this through a straw.
The dressing was, I think, ranch, but it was more buttermilk-y than anything and fairly mild. The salad itself, wow, what a salad. It was a really good size and had a little pile of corn and one of kidney beans on the side. A handful of super plump and juicy grape tomatoes sat on the other side of the plate. The big strips of chicken were cold but incredibly tender and very tasty. The thing I was not expecting at all on this was the huge amount of fresh avocado, which must have been at least half of a large one. That was a really nice surprise. Underneath it all was a pile of crisp romain lettuce and a little red onion.
Once again, like Andy Nguyen’s yesterday, they seemed happy to have me there taking photos, despite me having said nothing about what it was for. She even brought over a cup of fruit and said the salad would look even better with it! So I got some free fruit out of it, and it was actually really damn good fruit at that, very sweet and delicious. Overall, a hugely good lunch. I suspect I will be returning here soon, and I am very interested in trying their bagel sandwiches.
Website: None
Rancho Salads 