Jason's Deli - Healthy Choices

Corrin and I decided to go to the fast food restaurant, Jason's Deli, just recently named by Parent's magazine as its choice for Best Restaurant. Another superlative to test! It touts its organic vegetables, gluten-free menus, and other healthy choices. It uses natural grilled chicken in its wraps. When we walked in we were greeted by a crowd of people vying for tables and orders. This was a busy and popular place. We saw the enticing sign for organic vegetable soup and grabbed a menu while we were waiting in line eager to try its offerings.

Jason's features salad including an all-you-can-eat bar, sandwiches, wraps, soups, and even mufaletta's. It has a kid's menu too. Rather than potato chips for a side with a sandwich you may choose veggies or a fruit cup. We chose a Reuben with pastrami and corned beef, Irish potato soup, the organic vegetable soup, and mac and cheese for the toddler. We sat down among all the people and waited for our order which was delivered in about 5 minutes. In the meantime, we noticed that there was free soft serve ice cream and toppings for all. Wow! We also glanced over the salad bar which was extensive with a decent amount of toppings, other specialty salads, puddings, and muffins. Our order was delivered by a friendly server. We laughed at the organic veg soup which was nothing like the picture. The vegetables were lost in the dull broth. It tasted OK but we could not get over its lackluster appearance.  The potato soup with its full-bodied flavor and hearty potatoes was good. Our Reuben needed better bread and the corned beef tasted a little strong. The meat was plentiful for a change. The mac and cheese appeared to be a boxed Kraft. Of course we had some soft-serve ice cream and we agreed that the secret to Jason's is the notion you can be healthy and yet end with an ice cream cone. It was fun to watch people on their lunch break breaking out in a smile as they licked their cones after eating their veggies! In summary, we like the concept - healthier eating - but there were still plenty of unhealthy choices and the quality of food was average.

Meaty sandwich

Atmosphere 6
Service - 8
Price - 6
Presentation - 6
Food quality - 6
Overall - 6