One of my readers suggested that we try Halo, a restaurant on Ashley Avenue across from MUSC. My readers haven’t steered me wrong yet, so we decided to give it a go.
Parking can be a little challenging for this restaurant, but the parking gods were smiling on us and we found a metered spot a few streets down from the restaurant.
On the way to ordering we ogled the glass covered “jewel box” of fresh made pastries. I could see one of these treats was going to be in my immediate future. My husband went up to check out the upstairs seating while I stood in line to order.
Although it wasn’t very busy (we got to lunch very late), the ordering process took awhile. There was one cashier who is very helpful, but because there were a lot of options, i.e. breads, side dishes, etc. each customer was asked and given all of these options, which took some time. There could probably more efficient way of doing this that I believe would help to drive traffic and sales.
After placing our order I headed up to the great outdoor table that my husband had found. Once you place your order you’re given a small plastic number that stands on your table. Your food is then delivered to your table. We waited for lunch and watched the world go by…….
If I had one complaint it would be that our lunch took a long time. For a not-so busy restaurant it took almost 20 minutes for our lunch to arrive. BUT… when it did arrive it was well worth the wait.
The menu consists of the baked goods that we first saw, 3 soups, 8 salads and 24 sandwiches. Their breakfast menu (7:00 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.), looks very interesting and we can’t wait to go back and try it.
During our wait we munched on the blueberry scone that we’d ordered. I have worked with a very large bakery café chain in the past and I thought I knew scones. This was the most un-scone-like scone that I’ve ever eaten. It was moist, light, and airy and the blueberries tasted like they were picked that morning. I’d go back to Halo just for that!
I ordered the Quesadilla Salad with Chicken. I thought the item sounded interesting. I really didn’t know where the chicken was going – on the salad or in the quesadilla, and found out that it comes in the quesadilla. A large, hot quesadilla was served atop a pile of greens and fresh accompaniments – diced tomato, carrots, banana peppers, and black bean and corn salsa. All were very fresh. Although the mixed cheese and pretzel roll advertised with the salad did not make the trip upstairs to our table, I would not have known they were missing until I reread the menu this morning. The salad was very good, but I didn’t care for eating out of a plastic clam shell with plastic silverware as if we had taken the item to go. Despite these few pet peeves, the salad was a winner.
When we go back for lunch I’ll be trying the sandwich selections. My husband’s “Brickhouse” sandwich came out cut in half and stacked at least 4-5” high. The side dish was the pasta salad of the day, which was as he put it, “Not their specialty.” He didn’t seem to mind, since the sandwich was terrific.
Served on a nice, fresh Ciabatta roll (they were out of multigrain bread that the sandwich is usually served on), thinly sliced roast beef was topped with a heaping serving of crumbled bleu cheese, roasted red peppers, red onion and pesto. All I kept hearing was “You ordered the wrong thing, this is great!”
Upon leaving one of the employees (a manager perhaps?), asked how everything was and said that he was pleased that we enjoyed everything and invited us back. And back for a visit we shall go.
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