June 8, 2015 – mmm-yoso

mmm-yoso!!! a blog about food…and acquisition of such food. Todays post is written by Cathy, while Kirk and Ed(from Yuma) are resting.

I've written quite a few posts under the "Markets & Grocers" category of this blog. It seems that new and old grocery stores of every ethnicity have some sort of in-store eatery. More than two years ago, I wrote a short post only about the restaurant inside the Del Mar location of Whole Foods. There is a theme-named restaurant inside *every* Whole Foods and I thought I'd share about eating in the restaurant from the menu and from store purchases.
Walking into the La Jolla location (near Torrey Pines Golf Course), you'll notice the restaurant next to the main door…Looking straight ahead
There are more-or-less lunch and dinner food items you can purchase by the pound (soups are priced by the bowl size).
There are also sandwiches, pizza that can be made whole or purchase by the slice and bakery items you can purchase by the each.

However, if you drop by when the store opens, at 7 a.m. daily… The by-the-pound items are more 'breakfast-y' in nature… The sandwiches and pizzas also carry a 'breakfast' theme.

You can select your foods, pay and then have a seat inside Torrey Pints or at one of the small booths in front of the cash registers.Here is a rather large purchase (±$9)(a full pound) which includes beets, chorizo, scrambled eggs, turkey sausage links, a piece of veggie quiche and cheesy bacon potatoes. Actually, I am fascinated by the breakfast pizzas here, especially this whole egg-asparagus one. The whole pizza is baked and on the counter, then if you would like, it is re-heated in the pizza oven (which this was)…and still the egg yolk is runny. Within the Torrey Pints seating area, we noticed the signage of daily specials (most of which we have partaken in). There is always a home made sangria of the day available. The menu includes creative items, made from fresh items from the store. The burger is wonderful; we usually always seem to order it. So here's one of our Friday lunches…The Winter Caprese salad ($8) is made with red and yellow beets, herbed honey pine nut ricotta and served with arugula, pine nuts and drizzled beet oil.The Mediterranean plate ($7) has cauliflower tabbouleh, no-oil hummus, lavash cracker and a tomato-onion salad. Refreshing, flavorful and all veggie treats.
The Whole Foods store is fascinating, clean and always has something new. Sometimes the prices are really good, sometimes not; you just have to know your prices (the regular price of Whole Foods brand Ricotta cheese is $2 a container less than the regular price of Albertsons brand Ricotta)