Brownies and Zucchini

Full Disclosure: Noodles and Company invited some bloggers to come an taste some of the new menu items.  We were given many selections from the menu to try free of charge. If you have been following the blog for a while – or know me in real life – it’s no secret that Noodles is one of my favorite places to eat, and I eat there often. All of the opinions are completely my own and I am not being compensated in any way for this post.

When the marketing and PR person from Noodles and Company contacted me about getting together a group of local bloggers to taste some of their new menu items I couldn’t say yes fast enough.  Noodles is one of my favorite places to eat, and I know others love it too.  Even though it was just Katie and Laura and I that ended up being able to make it, it was still a delicious good time.

One of the (many) reasons that I love Noodles is because they are a healthy option for quick meals when I just don’t feel like, or have time for, cooking.  They offer a few seasonal dishes, and all of their ingredients are fresh, locally sourced when possible (Wisconsin cheese!), and every dish is made to order.  Did I mention the ingredients are fresh?  Yeah, they don’t even have microwaves or freezers in the restaurant!

We got to taste several different dishes at the dinner (the Noodles folks were super generous!) so I’ll just highlight a few of my favorites, rather than going through each and every dish. To be fair though, there weren’t too many things that I didn’t like, so this may not shorten the list too much.

To start we got to try some appetizers.  My favorite was the Cheesy Garlic Bread with marinara sauce (which I’ve had before) and the Margherita flatbread was pretty tasty, too.

Then we moved on to the main dishes.  We got to try the Asparagus di Parma, which is one of their current seasonal dishes.  While I was not a huge fan of the parmesan crusted chicken that topped it, the rest of the pasta dish was delicious.  The sauce was very light, and the small pieces of asparagus were crisp and perfect.

Another favorite was the Backyard Barbecue Chicken Salad.  They have had this in the past, but they brought it back this year with a slight tweak of the recipe.  The sweet barbecue sauce on the chicken and the tangy dressing is the perfect combination.  The fresh corn is a great addition,too. Also, I almost always get my salad dressing on the side, but this dressing was already on the salad and it was the perfect amount, just enough to coat the greens and not drown everything.

Sometimes their seasonal dishes are so popular that people get upset when they take them off the menu.  This happened with the Alfredo Montamore.  This was actually a special dish that was created for them using Sartori Montamore cheese. (Fun fact: all of the cheesees used at Noodles are Sartori!)  They brought it back this year because of popular demand!  Again I’m not a fan of the chicken, but the sauce is delicious and not too heavy.

I also tried the Tomato Basil Bisque, which was quite tasty.  Definitely a hearty tomato soup. (It would be pretty delicious with the cheesy garlic bread!)

(Unfortunately I don’t have a photo of those two items. Blogger fail.)

And if that all isn’t enough, we were sent home with some dessert as well – a rice crispy treat (which they make in house 2-3 times a day!) and a cookie.  Our host also told us that they are in the process of rolling out plated desserts and they should be coming to the Madison area later this year – I’m pretty excited about that!

Overall the event was great.  I got to eat lots of delicious food and I met two new blogger friends. Thanks again Noodles!

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Filed under: Restaurant Review Tagged: | dinner, Noodles and Company, restaurant review