★★★★ (4 Stars)

IHOP Cafe - Downtown

IHOP Cafe just opened at the Vistana today.  I visited expecting them to not be fully prepared as the Grand Opening isn’t until next week, but I am pleased to say they seemed to have everything down perfectly.

IHOP Cafe is more a coffee shop than an IHOP restaurant.  It has a coffee shop feel and they provide free Wi-Fi.  IHOP Cafe has a truncated food menu perfect for this coffee shop concept.  The menu includes mini pancakes with or without toppings, omelets, wraps, mini melts (slider type burgers), and salads.

The coffees and drinks include brewed coffee, espressos, iced coffee, blended coffee and tea.  They also compliment their drink menu with milkshakes and 4 smoothies.

The pancakes were really good; just as you would expect from an IHOP.  I ordered a mocha espresso and I’d say that could use a little work as their competitor’s have a lighter, sweeter, more full flavor.

Overall I’ll probably make this a regular stop especially when I need a coffee kick before heading into work.

IHOP Cafe Pancakes

★★ (2 Stars)

I’d seen HB’s Deli before and was wondering what the food was like, so I thought I’d venture in.  Upon entry, the restaurant looked really promising. I thought perhaps I’d finally found a really good deli downtown.

★★★ (3 Stars)

Uptown Deli is the perfect definition of a 3-star restaurant.  There is nothing fancy about this restaurant or its food.  The restaurant is located in a semi-rundown building that reminds me of an office kitchen/eating area.

The food is pretty good.  If you forgot your sandwich at home and really wanted a sandwich for lunch, Uptown Deli is perfect.  They have various sandwiches and salads at reasonable prices.  It was $6.99 for a sandwich, a side, and a canned soda.

I had the Uptown Club which is just a regular club that I could have made at home.  It was nicely stacked, though!  I think I’ll try the french dip or teriyaki chicken next time I’m there.

Superb customer service.

★★★ (3 Stars)

Deli Mama is an offshoot of the Mama’s Cafes that are dotted around San Antonio.  Although there is no shortage of delis in downtown San Antonio, Deli Mama provides another option with a menu that varies slightly from the rest.

I ordered the Turkey Fiesta sandwich, chips, and a soda for around $7.  The Turkey Fiesta sandwich tasted really fresh and had sliced turkey, sprouts, guacamole, lettuce, tomato and provolone.

- They have daily specials, so look for the board as you walk in.  I didn’t realize they had a special until I was walking out.
- Avoid the tables along the windows with the air conditioner vents underneath them unless you want to freeze!

★★ (2 Stars)

Not very impressed…

First, their website must be out of date because I ordered the Mediterranean Tea Smoked Chicken and the menu at their business doesn’t list the same ingredients as it does on their website.  The salad on the website sounds a lot more in depth and actually worth the $12.99 I was charged.

When I received the salad I noticed it was lacking a few ingredients listed on the menu.  It was mainly only field greens, a tiny bit of feta, and a chicken breast that tasted like it was put on a George Foreman Grill.  It was nothing special and paying $18, after beverage, tax, and tip, I felt ripped off.

I’ll try them again later for a sandwich.  Those looked decent.

★★★ (3 Stars)

Located on the downtown corner of Soledad and Houston, Murphy’s Deli, a franchise HQ’d in Houston, is a welcome change from the regular Subway or Quizno’s sandwich shops.  They are a notch above these other chains, but you can expect the prices to be as well.

Murphy’s Deli offers a variety of items featuring New Orleans style muffuletta sandwiches, gyros, soups, salads, and coffee.  They also have a variety of regular deli type sandwiches such as reubens, french dips, and BLTs.

Again, Murphy’s is located downtown, so the usual idea to expect to wait in line at lunchtime applies.  They have a credit card minimum of $3, which isn’t bad, but is against credit card merchant agreement policies nonetheless (http://www.msnbc.msn.c…).  Open during the weekday morning and lunch hours only.

★★★ (3 Stars)

Across from Hotel Valencia sits an almost unnoticeable cafe popular to the business crowd who visit for a quick coffee and breakfast sandwich or taco.

If you’re looking for a quick bite to eat and to be frugal at the same time, Matinee Cafe offers a moderate selection at decent prices.  The breakfast offerings, sandwiches, tacos and a small omelette,  are excellent and where else in San Antonio can you get a sausage and egg croissant or English muffin for under $3?  The staff was really friendly and seemed to know the regulars.  There’s definitely a good feeling in this restaurant.

I haven’t tried their sandwiches, at lunch, but these also seem promising.  They have Reubens, BLTs, Clubs, among other sandwiches, all of which come on your choice of bread and with chips for about $5 to $6.  Like I said, I don’t know what the sandwiches are like, but I’ll definitely update once I go by for lunch.

★★★★ (4 Stars)

I visited Panino’s on the recommendation of fellow Yelpers!  This sandwich shop is great.  It’s a nice non-corporate shop offering plenty of sandwich variations.  They seem like the type of place that would also put together any type of sandwich you want.

Panino - Santa Barbara, CA

The people working there were very friendly and knew their menu very well.  I thought it was going to be slow to get my food as there were about 5 people ahead of me, but the service was a lot quicker than I thought.  The only thing that didn’t happen as planned was that I asked for my sandwich on a baguette, an option on their menu, and they had run out.  While this might sound like a negative, it makes me think that, in order to only serve fresh bread, they keep away from stocking a lot of it.

I placed the order to go and didn’t get home for about 45 minutes.  I was afraid the sandwich would become somewhat soggy, but it wasn’t.  It was well wrapped and tasted really, really fresh!