Restaurant Review: Shake Shack

This is not a review about burgers and fries from the beloved +SHAKE SHACK . Yes, the juicy hamburgers and crisp French fries may be what many people salivate over at the fast food joint. I am not one of them.

However, I do really like hot cocoa during the cold winter months as seen here and here, and I stopped in for a salted caramel hot chocolate during the latest winter storm in D.C. Shake Shack makes a mean hot cocoa, in addition to its famed selection of meat patties, hot dog variations, two types of fries, several creamy shakes, frozen custards, and soda floats.

Are you drooling yet?

It may not be healthiest food option, but the chain restaurant does do an excellent job explaining allergen information contained in each menu item. On its website, the company lists menu items based on vegetarian criteria, and if it contains milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat, shellfish, tree nuts, fish, gluten, sesame seeds, soy, or sulfites. To indicate that the ingredient may not contain an allergen but was processed in a facility where possible cross-contact occurs, a “P” is clearly displayed. 

As for the salted caramel hot chocolate: soy-free with a possibility of cross-contamination during processing.

Overall grade: B. Not all of the menu items at Shake Shack contain soy. Yet, to be truly soy-free it’s best to avoid the famous hamburgers and fries, because their website shows them to contain the allergen. Most of the frozen custards, shakes, and beverages or soy-free.

Restaurant Review: Pei Wei Asian Diner

Happy {Chinese} New Year! For many, the new year began on January 1. However, last weekend was the celebration of the Chinese New Year, marking 2014 as the year of the horse. In honor of the Asian celebration, I decided to look at a popular American Chinese restaurant chain, Pei Wei Asian Diner, and evaluate their menu for Sans Soy. Chinese food is delicious, but it is also a well-known fact that the dishes oftentimes are full of additives such as MSG and soy sauce. 

Growing up, I enjoyed plenty of food from my neighborhood P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, only to sacrifice my health for the following days. It took me a while to connect (one of my slower moments) the swelling and crankiness I endured after Chinese food consumption to the ingredients. Now, I rarely consume Chinese food. However, a brand new +Pei Wei Asian Diner, the little brother of +P.F. Chang's, opened in my Dupont Circle neighborhood in the District. As I walked by the diner, I started to think about the ingredients which must go into their wonton soup, steaming noodle bowls and crispy spring rolls.

Reviewing the menu for Pei Wei is not surprising: almost every dish and condiment offered contains soy. However, the Chinese fast food restaurant does an excellent job clearly indicating allergens through its nutritional info chart. In addition to labeling menu items containing soy, other allergens that are marked include corn, mushroom, sesame and sulfites.

Overall grade: C-. The Chinese food chain gets major points for easily displaying food allergens to its customers. However, someone who wishes to avoid soy would have difficulty doing so at Pei Wei Asian Diner due to the limited number of soy free plates. The sweet chili sauce may be soy free, but it is hard to enjoy when the vegetable spring rolls, crispy potstickers and Vietnamese chicken salad rolls are laden with soy. I would gladly eat here if there were a wider array of soy free food choices.

Restaurant Review: FroZenYo

There comes a time in everyone’s life when they want to be empowered to make their own choice. Maybe the choice is of life altering status, perhaps, deciding to move to a new country. Other times, the choice is minuscule, on the same scale of choosing the color of socks to wear. No matter the decision size, the ability to choose is a wonderful privilege. Last Sunday, I had a moment of selection insignificance. I was hot from biking around the District, and I was hungry. I rode past a ubiquitous frozen yogurt shop, +FroZenYo , and elected to cool down from the unseasonal warm weather.

For those who thrive on the ability to choose—sometimes referred to as control freaks—a joint like FroZenYo is ideal. This type of place was made for the strong-willed. All of the yogurts are soft-serve, allowing customers the ability to choose precisely how much cake batter-flavored yogurt they would like to straddle their generous swirl of peppermint frozen yogurt, complete with a dollop of caramel-flavored yogurt. A generous topping bar further gives customers the gift of selection by allowing guests to sprinkle their cold treats with garnishes including sugary sauces, fresh fruit, nuts, gummy candies, chocolates and more. 

Although the self-serve frozen yogurt is not organic, and loaded with chemicals to create alluring flavors such as snickerdoodle, salted caramel pretzel, and nondairy raspberry pomegranate sorbet, FroZenYo clearly displays in its stores common allergens found in each flavor. The yogurt flavors containing soy have an "S" displayed on the nutrition chart, which easily allows customers to avoid soy products if they wish. 

Overall grade: B. The self-serve frozen yogurt allows guests to customize their yogurt sundae exactly to their liking. This increases customer satisfaction due to their nearly complete control over their frozen yogurt masterpiece. Nutritional and dietary information is clearly displayed in each store, although this knowledge is lacking from the FroZenYo Web site. Filled with synthetic flavorings and chemicals, the frozen yogurt is a far cry from a healthy dessert, but would do when in a pinch.

Restaurant Review: Panera Bread

We have all been there.  Appointments are filled to the brim, and you are searching for a place to grab a quick and healthy lunch while finalizing an e-mail to send. Thankfully, Panera Bread delivers in such situations. Fresh bread, a wide array of salads, sandwiches, and soups from which to choose, in addition to edible pastries, caffeine concoctions, and free wi-fi.

Although, oftentimes, the casual diner is filled with groups of soccer mothers, +Panera Bread offers tasty food that satisfies hunger pains, wanes fatigue and can serve as a productive off-site office when need be. It may come as shock that not all of the food and beverages available at Panera are soy free. However, the website for Panera may be easily navigated to find full lists of ingredients.

To access the nutrition and dietary information, select the "Menu Items" tab at the top of this Web page, and choose your category that you would like to learn more. Scroll to the middle of the page and select "Get the Facts." This will allow you to see the ingredients, or, you can click here for easy redirection to the Panera Bread nutrition Web page.

Some popular menu items including soy:

• Cinnamon Crunch Bagel
• Rustic Penne Bolognese 
• Broccoli Cheddar Soup
• White Balsamic Fuji Apple Salad Dressing
• Caramel Latte

Overall grade: B+. Panera joins the top ranks of Chipotle as a fast food restaurant that discloses nutritional information to its customers. Menu selections not containing, but are processed in close proximity to soy are clearly labeled. However, it is important to double check ingredients for small amounts of unlabeled soy, such as miniscule amounts of soybean oil.

Restaurant Review: Chipotle

Spicy, fresh salsa? Check. Cilantro-herbed rice with lime? Check. Freshly made guacamole? Check. Decent vegetarian options? Check. Free range meats and cheese created from animals raised without the use of synthetic hormones? Check. Olé-tastic atmosphere? Check.

Have I made it clear that I am a fan of Chipotle? That is why it saddens me to write that not all of the food options at the Mexican joint are suitable for those with soy allergies.

After enjoying a meal at Chipotle, I have frequently experienced a flare up of symptoms which I have come to associate with soy consumption: swelling, water retention and headaches, to name a few. I decided to look around on their website, and found an informational chart listing common allergens found in Chipotle meal components.

Chipotle does a superb job maintaining the honesty about its ingredients. In fact, Chipotle proudly states the belief, “food with integrity is our commitment to finding the very best ingredients raised with respect for the animals, the environment and the farmers.” That, in my opinion, is a refreshing statement to read from a company once owned by McDonalds.

Here is a list of which ingredients contain soy or soy byproducts:

• soft flour tortilla
• cilantro-lime rice (white & brown)
• fajita vegetables
• chicken
• steak
• sofritas
• vinaigrette

Saddened? Yes, me too. However, Chipotle has taken the initiative to communicate which foods contain soy, allowing customers to choose something that better suits their dietary needs. This is a step further than several other common restaurants.

Overall grade: B+. Although not the healthiest food to eat, Chipotle it delicious, cheap and fresh. Displaying food allergens in an easily accessible place makes it easier for customers to enjoy their Chipotle visit without having unfortunate adverse allergy reactions. Olé, indeed!