By Ana Marie and Sara Ortega
Ana Marie:
When one hears the name Noodle & Company, thoughts about appetizing Asian cuisine or tasty Italian pasta may come to mind. Yet, unbeknownst to many, Noodles & Company is so much more than merely noodles! This charming restaurant prides itself with a diverse menu that ranges from Japanese Pan Noodles to Wisconsin Cheesesteak to Chinese Chopped Salad and even Thai-Curry Soup!
In addition to a world class selection of delicious cuisines, Noodles & Company guarantees the ultimate home-made experience. The employees will welcome you like an old friend. Each restaurant location is designed to provide an inviting, casual ambiance for the whole family. And the best part is that the each delicious dish is prepared with plenty of tender love and care to ensure your dining experience is a memorable one.
When we visited the restaurant for the first time, it felt like walking into grandma’s kitchen. Each member of the staff is eager to welcome you. The goal is to make its patrons so comfortable that you would choose Noodles & Company for lunch, dinner and even desert! Our lunch started with their signature Chicken Noodle Soup, made with chicken breast, celery, carrots, onions and wavy egg noodles. The portion was perfect and the taste was so comforting it gave me nostalgic memories of mom’s cooking.
The next dish we sampled was their newly created, limited-edition, spring Garden Pesto Sauté. The dish is a blend of warm, freshly-cooked pasta and a fresh airy spinach salad. It was a fusion of spring asparagus swathed in a light lemon Genovese pesto sprinkled with red bell peppers, mushrooms, onions, pecans, and feta over gluten-free fusilli noodles. I was blown away by the burst of flavor and quality of this dish. It was the perfect combination of fresh ingredients and hearty pasta. I was happily satisfied after the meal and couldn’t have asked for a better experience!
Sara:
This Spring, Noodles & Company is offering their “A World of Spring” menu featuring fresh asparagus. We were lucky enough to be invited to a special tasting of the spring menu at the Loehmann’s Plaza location and get our asparagus fix! I had personally never been to Noodles & Company before this visit so I was very excited to see what they were all about. To start, the personable staff had the whole place glistening and feeling like home—something about it was just more comfortable than the average restaurant experience.
Our meal began with the Tomato Basil Bisque which was heartier than any other tomato soup I’ve ever tasted. The soup was a perfect combination of salty and spicy. The bite-size chunks of real tomato, with touches of parsley and basil for garnish, really made the dish feel homemade and just for me! I had typically always stayed away from tomato soups because I couldn’t stand the watery texture, but this soup was nothing like that.
The Spinach & Fresh Fruit salad on the side was a perfect solution for the hot weather. The fresh-cut apples, pecans, crumbled blue cheese, and bacon with balsamic fig dressing was unbelievably refreshing.
If there are two things I love, it’s pasta and spicy food. The Penne Rosa pasta dish that came next brought these two components together into one beautiful plate. The penne pasta was covered in a spicy tomato cream sauce, made with mushrooms, tomato, spinach, and fresh parmesan cheese. I was hesitant to try spicy pasta, but this plate far exceeded my expectations and I would definitely order it again.
When I say that the whole experience had a very homemade and home-grown feel, I mean it. All dishes are made to order and I definitely tasted the difference. I also had no idea of the accommodations Noodles & Company made to accommodate customers with allergies and special dietary needs. They’re ready to substitute any vegetable, sauce, or even regular pasta with whole grain or rice pasta to satisfy your appetite. They even offer different portion sizes of their dishes to make sure you are able to closer monitor your own portions!
Noodles & Company
2435 Fair Oaks Blvd
Sacramento, CA 95825
(916) 484-7250
The SacFoodies were a guest of Noodles & Company, and although the dinner was complimentary, the opinions expressed are our own.
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