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View The Fresh Gourmet menu
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Restaurant: The Fresh Gourmet
Where: 2004 Huntington Dr., San Marino
Phone: (626) 308-1720
Reservations: Dinner only
Cocktails: No
Service: Tableside wait service
Atmosphere: Casual
Outdoor Dining: Yes
Credit Cards: MC, Visa, American Express,
Discover, Debit w/logo
Kid’s Menu: Yes
Senior Discount: No
Food to Go: Yes
Catering Menu: Yes
Price Range: $7.29 – $8.99, Dinner specials a
little more |
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Interior shot of the counter area |
One
thing I overlooked in the review, but should not have, was some delicious
garlic bread |
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Chicken Barley Soup |
Napa
Salad |
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Chicken Club Sandwich |
Chicken Tequila Fettucine |
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Turkey Avocado Wrap, sans avocado |
Meat
Loaf Special dinner |
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Fresh
Raspberry Chocolate Grenache |
Fresh
Blueberry Tart |
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Also
available for dessert, Fresh Fruit Tart, Triple Chocolate Cheesecake |
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DOT COM DINING A Look At San
Gabriel Valley Restaurants by SanGabrielValleyMenus.com
The Fresh Gourmet in San Marino a
Great Stop for Lunch or Dinner
By Bill Coburn
One of the places
I’ve been meaning to get to, but haven’t for one reason or another, is The Fresh
Gourmet down in San Marino. It’s a small family-owned and operated restaurant
with some outside seating area that opened back in 1996. Original owner Norma
Olivas had started out with a sandwich/salad delivery service, taking meals to
office buildings and the like, and was doing well enough that she decided to
expand with a storefront of her own. With now co-owner daughter Nicole, she has
built up The Fresh Gourmet, and not long ago they expanded and began staying
open for dinner, though be warned, they do close early, 7:30pm on weeknights,
4pm on Saturday. They are closed on Sundays. We finally got down there last
night for dinner, and I can assure you we’ll be back, and we won’t wait so long
for a return trip.
I ordered a cup of
the Chicken Barley soup (the other option was vegetable barley) and it was quite
good, lots of white meat chicken, carrots, onion and loads of barley. I’ve only
had beef barley soup in the past, and really enjoyed my first try of chicken
barley.
The Fresh Gourmet
menu features 16 different salads, (including Cranberry Delight, Italian Chopped
Chicken, Parisienne, Texas Grill, Mandarin Chicken, Asparagus and Baby Greens,
and many more) half a dozen “Classic” Sandwiches, eleven “Specialty” sandwiches
(including a Los Robles Melt, California Melt, Montecito Chicken, Manhattan
Steak and others), four baguette sandwiches, half a dozen pastas, 5 “Wraps” and
seven “Southwestern Specialties.” In addition, the night we dropped in there
were another half dozen dinner specials, including Salmon, Rib-eye, and Meat
Loaf, among others.
I ordered the Meat
Loaf Special, and the Chicken Club Sandwich, Katie ordered the Chicken Tequila
Fettucine and Keelan ordered the Turkey Avocado Wrap, no avocado. Katie also
started her meal with a smaller portion serving of the Napa Salad. Yes, we
ordered a lot of food, but we wanted to discss a representative portion of the
menu in the review. We’re givers. We did it for you…
The Napa Salad has
poached chicken breast, gourmet baby greens, dried apricots, red onions, candied
pecans and feta cheese tossed with balsamic vinaigrette. I didn’t really expect
to like it, but it was a nice mix of tastes, and I wouldn’t hesitate to order it
as a meal on its own next time we visit. The Chicken Club, featuring lots of
grilled chicken breast, cheese, bacon, sprouts, lettuce and mayo on multi-grain
bread (I ordered it sans tomato) was also quite good. I brought half of it
home, and just had it for lunch. I especially enjoyed the multi-grain bread,
which is not something I would usually order, but it rounded out the sandwich
nicely.
Keelan hasn’t been
feeling well, and his appetite wasn’t up to snuff, but I finished his turkey
wrap and it was good, filled with a bunch of turkey, and surrounded by a spicy
tortilla wrap. Not overly spicy but enough that you knew it was there. The
Meat Loaf was a good size portion served over fluffy mashed potatoes with
sauteed vegetables. No filler in this meat loaf, just plenty of tasty beef.
Katie’s Chicken Tequila Fettucine included sauteed chicken, bell pepper,
cilantro and red onion in a tequila lime cream sauce. I just re-heated it for
lunch, and even though (as is to be expected) the sauce broke down in the
microwave, it was still delicious. But I recommend you stop in and try it hot,
fresh from the kitchen.
We finished our meal
with some tasty desserts, a fresh raspberry and chocolate grenache, and a fresh
blueberry tart, both of which were on flaky crusts, and sprinkled with powdered
sugar. We enjoyed everything we tried, and will look forward to trying other
items on our next visit. I wanted to try the triple chocolate cheesecake, but
decided to save that for our next time.
You can find this
restaurant spotlight online, with full-size, full color photos of the food, by
visiting DotComDining.com.
And you can find The Fresh
Gourmet’s menu at the San Gabriel Valley Menus website, or go directly to
www.freshgourmet.net.
Bill Coburn is owner of SanGabrielValleyMenus.com, a restaurant website
featuring more than 150 restaurant menus, as well as downloadable coupons. He
has nearly 20 years experience in the restaurant business, and has been eating
for much longer than that.
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