Roadster's New Menu Tasting

"Yes, I think I do. After reading a lot of overheated puffery about your new cook, you know what I'm craving? A little perspective. That's it. I'd like some fresh, clear, well seasoned perspective."  Anto Ego.

All foodies  know Anto Ego from Ratatouille and his renowned strict criticism. And all remember his famous line that If he didnt love the food, simply he wouldn't swallow it!  
Still he is a logical person . A perspective is what he only needed to judge Gusteau's! 
Well, I personally think that restaurants criticism is a 100% biased process as much as the food critique tries to hide this biased opinion.
Why? One single moment from Ego's childhood, transformed all his thoughts about the restaurant. Food critisim doesn't get born at the moment we taste food, it is a process that mingles together all our thoughts, memories, the people we are with , even the music we are hearing there....
It is a sensory "crumbling" .
All the neurons are moving and the signals going back and forth from the mouth to the brain, then from the brain to the stomach. Continuous set. One peculiar odor from the meal on the table, will shift everything, bringing memories, whether sad or bad. You will forget what you are criticizing and base it on mostly what you are feeling when you tasted this meal.
As much as food critiques will tell me that this is not the case and they succeed in isolating their feelings when tasting. I believe that this is useless. What is the purpose of  tasting  food without a memory to remember or build upon? Tasting food is not just a physical experiment to the tongues as much as it is a creation of new feelings and new tastes. Eventually, creation of new memories.
What brings you back to the same restaurant and order the same meal is what it had created the same time you tasted it.  The memory was stored in a special place in your brain and you want to enjoy it again and again. 

Restaurants have this mission to keep the same memory, unchanged, and untouched. This is quality. 
And once they change their menus or maybe a recipe, they are in a dilemma of making us unhappy. They will either lose us or they will succeed in repeating the same process of building an enjoyable memory again

And here I am talking about one of my favorite Lebanese Chain restaurants : Roadster's Diner*. Roadster's will always remind me of my college days when we used to ditch classes at AUB and go eat there and enjoy our times chatting.It will always remind me of the vividness of Hamra, its diversity and its noisy setting.


Last wednesday I got invited with a bunch of Lebanese Bloggers and social media experts to try the new menu items by Roadster's Diner. As much as I like to avoid food criticism , I call it on my blog " Sensory Evaluation".  Atleast, my readers will know that I will be biased. 

• Curly fries are the first addition to the menu. They were ...simply curly and crispy!
• First tasting was the Rd Cheese-At-Heart: Rd special patty stuffed with Swiss and Cheddar cheese, lettuce, crispy chips sprinkles with RD's Classic sauce. Everyone loved it.
  Personally, the chips balanced the softness of the patty and the cheese, giving a crispy sensation in your mouth.

•  Then came the Rd Texas Chicken: Grilled chicken, Cheddar cheese, grilled oinons, lettuce, pickles and their special sauce. Oh what a sauce! 

Addictive Texas Sauce

The Texas Chicken disappearing from my hand

• Then we tried the Rd Double-Steak: Grilled beef filet slices, sautéed mushrooms and onions, Swiss and Cheddar cheese, with mayonnaise and Philly Steak sauce in a two layered bun. I couldnt take any pictures because I was already devouring the burger.  Everyone agreed again that this is the number one!  

Ofcorse we cant miss the Desserts!

Orea Cheesecake :  cheese cake with mixed oreo chunks and orea base at the bottom as you can in the photo. despite my lactose intolerance and I forgot my lactase pills at home, I tried 3 spoons from it. And it was worth the sacrifice ! It is not too sweet that the usual desserts that suffocate your throat which makes you get back to have more. Yes, I warn you it can get addictive!

Oreo Cheese Cake

And the De-"Light"-Ful Brownie ( New and light)
Low calorie chocolate brownie  with light cream cheese on the top as you can see.

De-Light Ful Brownie was indeed light and fluffy!

Next time, I will try the double diner or the Ambassador's steak as they are both new as well on the menu!
Did you try RD's new menu ? What was your favorite?  (You may download the menu here)

RD's menu will take you anywhere ! 

Bon Appetite,
Pearl

* Roadsters has the ISO22000 since 2008 and has been awarded the  Golden Legion of Merit for best quality restaurant chain “Tatweej Academy”  for its commitment to excellence.
& RD have been acing the social media scene with their interaction on their facebook page with over 22,000 fans and with more than 4000 followers on Twitter .