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Warrensburg, MO, United States
Love your life or change it.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Not Too Far From the Tree Pt. 1

Critique No. 12
Restaurant
The Fig Tree Cafe & Bakery
817 NE Rice Rd.
Lees Summit, MO 64086
(816)347-0442

Hours:
Mon-Tues 6:30AM to 2:30PM
Wed-Fri 6:30AM to 8PM
Saturday & Sunday 7AM to 3PM


Cuisine: Local/Regional Specialties/Mediterranean/ Bakery


Max. Occupancy: 100

Here we are with another referral from a friend of mine.  Let's see how this place stacks up.  In Lee's Summit you have choices when you want to eat out for breakfast, lunch and dinner.  There's a little bit of everything.  Though it is a town that has the corporate eateries, I am happy that there are several home grown places!  If you're driving down 291 Highway, you'll find this hidden little spot at the corner of a strip mall in between a gas station and a hair salon.  When you walk in to The Fig Tree, you get a feeling of calm and relaxation.  The dark wood and brightly painted walls makes for a very whimsical atmosphere.

I visited the cafe on a Monday- right around closing time.  The waitress (which happened to be the manager) was very nice, she brought me my tea and I began to look over the menu. 

After opening the first page- I was astonished that this local restaurant had more things on it's menu than IHOP!  52 options (including the "kids menu") And then there was the Bakery options (not listed on the menu, I guess you have to ask?)
With my focus these days being on getting a meal that has good protein and fairly low calories- I went with the "This, That and the Other" option.  You get a half order of any soup, salad or sandwich.  You can pick 2 or 3.  I chose the Chicken Club Salad w/ Spicy Garlic Dressing and a cup of the Lentil Soup. 

A few minutes later- This is what I got!

The first thing that hit me was the color and scent of this soup.  The smell of Curry filled the air, and I got excited.  After snapping my little picture here, I turned to the soup, stirred it around and noticed that the lentils were very broken down (DING). But, it smelled really good. So, I took a spoonful and tasted... I tasted what I can only describe as lifeless, under seasoned broth with the slightest trace of curry, onion and nothing else (not even lentils (DING, DING)  I ate one more spoonful then gave up on the "soup" (DING, DING, DING!)

Salad, SAVE ME! 
I got knee deep into this salad, and I really liked it.  I was happy to see they were using Turkey bacon (a good option for people trying to cut some calories), good black olives (not the shriveled up black discs you usually see), and a dressing that had a lot of flavor!  The chicken was also seasoned well.  Now, I eat quite a bit of salad- so I've got some grounds for comparison and over all- I was happy with this one.  The only criticism I have for it was the croutons. On the menu it says the salad had "house made brioche croutons".  As you can see in the picture- this looked more like a slice of wheat bread that they toasted dry and had nothing on it.

Okay.  I left this encounter with a clear picture of how this blog entry would go- But I wanted to give them another shot because there is so much more to try.  Stay tuned for Part 2 of this review- coming soon!