A great lunch...

After heading to the mall to do some shopping (Nick bought Guitar Hero 2 & Alyssa bought clothes + a purse) it was time to find a place for a late lunch. Since we were at the mall, my default answer of course was Famous Dave's but since the kids just had it for dinner the night before with their grandparents we looked elsewhere, Valerie suggested Go Roma. I've never been there. She insisted that there was one in Crystal Lake.

We couldn't find it... so after she wasted the $20 or what ever the hell asinine price it is to call 411 with Cingular she was informed that there isn't one with 10 miles of us. We wanted to try something new to us... so we headed to Noodles & Co.

It's a good thing the restaurant was pretty much empty because we must have looked like a bunch of idiots just standing in front of the counter for several minutes to read the description of everything and decide what to get. The manager walked by and asked us if we needed any help, I said, "Not yet."

A few minutes later she asked again if we needed help and asked if we've been to Noodles & Co. before. We told her this was our first time. She went out of her way to explain how things worked there. She even noted that you can change around pretty much everything. Add an ingredient(s), leave one (or several) out. She was very polite, very informative. After we figured out what we wanted we ordered. I ordered the Penne Rosa, Valerie got the Mushroom Stroganoff and the kids ordered Buttered Noodles. The food was excellent. She checked back on us while we were eating to make sure everything was okay and she gave us 2 "Try us for free" coupons which are basically worth a free meal. "So you can try something new the next time you come in." Nice! Oh yeah... and they have Miller Lite, which is always an easy way to win me over.

It was a very nice lunch... We will certainly be going back!