Northstar Cafe

I'm really behind in my postings, so bare with me as I randomly update!

After a morning of visiting several farmer's markets, my friend and I decided to have lunch at the Northstar Cafe. In Columbus there are two Northstar Cafe locations, Clintonville (we went to this one) & the Short North. Both have decent outdoor seating available. We got there around noonish, but apparently on the weekend they only serve from the brunch menu until 3. I wasn't feeling all that great and wasn't very hungry, plus I had already had breakfast so not a whole lot on the brunch menu sounded appealing to me. I looked at the lunch & dinner menu online and think I will definitely have to go back and try some more items off the menu, or go back for brunch when I haven't already eaten! My only complaint was I thought it was pretty expensive, I ordered soup and a cookie and my total was $9.

My friend ordered the Northstar burger (11), from the menu "made with organic brown rice, black beans and beets, topped with white Cheddar, lettuce, tomato, pickle and onion + simple salad." The burger came with chips and salsa, which was pretty good. I thought the burger looked great and I liked that there was a ton of toppings on the burger, so many toppings that you could easily take some off and have a salad to go along with your burger (or for leftovers).

She also got a side of roasted sweet potatoes with onions (3, as a side dish), not sure if this was a substitution for the simple salad or if it was a separate order. They looked good, but I'd have to take her word that they tasted good as I do not like sweet potatoes in any form.

I ordered a cup of roasted tomato soup (4.50). I'm a sucker for tomato soups, I order them everywhere I go. This one was different, not in a good or bad way, just different. At first I disliked it, I think it was all the junk on top (herbs, garlic, etc.) but once I stirred it up it got a little better. But still it was more like a tomato salsa soup, than tomato soup. It wasn't the most horrible soup I've ever had, but something about it wasn't doing it for me. Oh well....there are plenty of more soups for me to try out there!

I also ordered a double chocolate cookie (3). It was pretty big and was VERY chocolately, but almost too much - at least for me. This cookie wasn't really cooked all the way through, as it was almost pudding like. Now normally I am a fan of cookies that are kind of undone in the middle, but this was just to undone for me.