Lunch Bites: Safeway Deli
Lately I’ve been thinking I need to get back to posting more in-person reviews and more “on the street” type stuff (if that makes sense), and one way I figured to do that is by posting short lunch reviews. I recently decided I’d try going out to lunch on Fridays (ordinarily, I almost always bring my lunch to work), and figured I’d set some ground rules to pick where to go (and then write about it).
Here’s my (arbitrary) criteria:
- Can I stay within a $5 budget? Not a huge deal if I go over, but I’m also interested in where the best deals are.
- No fast food—McDonald’s and the like. Though I’d probably make an exception for Subway since it’s “fresh” fast food.
- I work on the east side (almost as far east as you can get), and I only have an hour for lunch, so I need to stay east and maybe central. Don’t expect many reviews of restaurants on the west side of town, in other words.
- I don’t need overly fancy or specialized; straightforward, low-key, under-the-radar is perfectly fine.
In the past few weeks I’ve been to Taco Stand (which I hadn’t been to forever) and Baldy’s BBQ (over in the Shell station at 27th and Highway 20). I’ll revisit them to write up future Lunch Bites.
Today though, I kept it simple: the Safeway Deli.
This would be the east side Safeway in the Forum Shopping Center at the intersection of Highway 20 and 27th Street. The Deli counters at Safeway all follow the same basic options: sandwiches, bulk salads, and a variety of hot comfort foods including Chinese-style dishes, various fried chicken offerings, jalapeno poppers, mac and cheese, and the like.
I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted, but I was leaning toward chicken strips and jo jo potatoes (such a healthy combo) so I asked about lunch specials. For chicken and potatoes, they offer a “meal” of two chicken strips, potatoes, and a small drink for $2.99, and the same with three strips for $4.99. Since strips can be of varying sizes (read: small) I ordered the three-piece. For potatoes you get something like a third of a pound of them.
However, I totally could have gotten away with ordering the two-piece: these were seriously huge pieces of chicken, and I swear I must have had at least a half pound of potatoes. In fact I saved a (large) chicken “strip” and a bunch of potatoes for another lunch, so this worked out to $2.50 for the meal, not bad at all.
As for the food, it was exactly as expected: breaded, deep-fried chicken breasts and fried jo jo potato wedges. With ranch dip. It’s not gourmet but it does hit the spot sometimes, and I like Safeway’s better than some other places.
Among other deals you can also get one-entree Chinese meals for $5, I believe, and on “$5 Fridays” (or at least today) they were offering up a big platter of chicken fried steak for $5 (“serves 2 to 3”) which seemed random to me.
Overall, for a quick and easy lunch, the Safeway Deli gets the job done. You know exactly what to expect (grocery store deli counter) and it’s definitely easy on the wallet. Plus you can get any other shopping errands done while you’re there too (if that’s a benefit to you).
Subway is “Fresh” food? Is that why their menu board says that “all meats are turkey based”? Yuck. If you want a sandwich, go with Port of Subs.
Inasmuch as I can see that the sandwich is being prepared to order, yes; who knows where those Big Mac patties have been sitting. 😉 (Not to mention just the healthier benefit of loading a sandwich up with fresh veggies, in lieu of saturated fats and processed cheese…)
Port of Subs is good, but a little farther out of the way for me. But TuckMo is over here on the east side, so I’ll be hitting them up sometime.
One of my FAVORITE places over there is the Super Burrito. It is inexpensive & the portions are large & it is super yummy! I LOVE their salsa! It’s across from Tuck Mo subs in the other half of the gas station convenience store. If you haven’t been there, I would recommend trying it… (Tuck Mo is yummy too, but more expensive.)
I had almost forgotten about Super Burrito, I keep thinking it’s still A&W in that location—thanks for the reminder!
You gotta try the made-to-order sandwiches at Safeway Deli! All of their bread choices appear to be fresh-baked, and of course their meats and cheeses come straight from their deli. The Boars Head (brand) roast beef is the best I’ve ever had! And if you like your subs simple, you can get a foot-long for $5. My favorite is the aforementioned roast beef on their French bread with just mayo, lettuce and tomato. They also have some awesome signature sandwiches on different artisan breads. The only negative is that the service can be quite slow, since there’s no “assembly line” building your custom sandwich. Port of Subs is super-close to my work, but I still go to Safeway’s Deli for a change of taste. See you in line!