Foods from Olly Fresco's
Comments
2012 Apr 27
ilikerealfood - We must run into each other and never know it, because we eat at a LOT of the same places!
Olly's is always a dependable breakfast/lunch spot. The hot breakfast buffet is only available Fridays (I think), but I agree that the food is really good. Any other morning you can visit the sandwich counter and get an extremely decent breakfast sandwich (although I recommend avoiding the "eggs", which are carton eggs microwaved in a deli container). The BLT, for about $3, is great, and they put real cheese on sandwiches. The bread selection is impressive.
The lunch sandwiches are really good as well - I agree that the paninis are better than the pre-mades. The Italian meats are a really nice quality (not DiRienzo's, but a million times better than Subway)
I, for one, actually love the pizza! It reminds me of the Godfather's pizza I would eat for lunch in high school...what can I say...
The hot buffet, though, is a staple if you know the things to avoid. I am currently on the candida diet (BOO!) but I can still enjoy a great selection of steamed veggies, salmon, and stir fry for about $7-$8. My vegan husband can also manage to find more than a few things to eat, which is nice.
I didn't know about 1/2 price salad! Great tip!
Olly's is always a dependable breakfast/lunch spot. The hot breakfast buffet is only available Fridays (I think), but I agree that the food is really good. Any other morning you can visit the sandwich counter and get an extremely decent breakfast sandwich (although I recommend avoiding the "eggs", which are carton eggs microwaved in a deli container). The BLT, for about $3, is great, and they put real cheese on sandwiches. The bread selection is impressive.
The lunch sandwiches are really good as well - I agree that the paninis are better than the pre-mades. The Italian meats are a really nice quality (not DiRienzo's, but a million times better than Subway)
I, for one, actually love the pizza! It reminds me of the Godfather's pizza I would eat for lunch in high school...what can I say...
The hot buffet, though, is a staple if you know the things to avoid. I am currently on the candida diet (BOO!) but I can still enjoy a great selection of steamed veggies, salmon, and stir fry for about $7-$8. My vegan husband can also manage to find more than a few things to eat, which is nice.
I didn't know about 1/2 price salad! Great tip!
2012 Apr 27
Ok, I admit it; I’m a fan of Olly Fresco’s – formerly the mega Marcello’s on Laurier between Bank and O’Conner. Olly’s is kind of like an upscale cafeteria. Although certain things can be on the pricey side, I find that they serve high quality food, have a fantastic variety of virtually everything, and if you know what to purchase, you can find very reasonably priced, filling breakfasts and lunches.
What not to order (or rather, exercise caution): Prepackaged things. These carry a huge premium.
Sandwiches are close, if not the same price as the a la cart sandwich booth. (and they are usually light on sauce, so you are left with a dry sandwich)
Lunch Buffet: Be very careful! Your lunch buffet can easily break 12 for Salisbury steak (ew) and potatoes. The lunch buffet is actually decent, but they charge by the 100g, so I would skip the inexpensive, heavy things like chickpeas and potatoes. Go for the Salmon, salads, pastas, seafood paella etc. This buffet is key to anybody trying to eat out on a Paleo diet. (not that I would ever willingly give up bread and legumes HAH!). I definitely have strategically packed a very satisfying 7-ish dollar meal from the buffet, so it can be done.
They have little boxes filled with tuna sandwich squares, carrots, hummus etc. for about 4.99 to 6.99. These are not good value, and you’ll wish you got more out of your 5 bucks. Trust me. Also, I find that their pizza isn’t very good and virtually anything that is sourced from another manufacturer (such as vermicelli rice rolls, or Indian things like samaras and pakoras are unreasonably expensive)
What to order!
As mentioned above they make some great sandwiches to order. There is a little sandwich booth which can assemble a mean sandwich – not unlike what you would find at La Bodega or Gooney’s. This clocks in at about 5.50 or so.
Salads in the refrigerated window!!!!: At the front of the store they have a variety of salads such as chickpea, egg salad, beans, grape leaves, fatoush, broccoli/chicken, pasta salads, tuna salad etc. These are NOT WEIGHED, they are charged by container size. This section boasts mega value! It may not look like much, but they cram the salad into 3 sizes of ‘poutine’ containers. Skip the small, but the medium and large will do the trick for lunch. All three sizes come in at under 5 bucks and the salads are consistently hearty and tasty. In my opinion, the medium is the best value as the large is not much bigger then the medium. And since the servers literally pack the salads down, depending on the server, you may even get more out of the medium (I find the young ladies tend to be more generous; adding more salad and cramming it down when the container is seemingly full).
secret insider tip: after 2pm any left over salads in the window get knocked down to half price. So we are talking 2.50ish for a hell of a lot of salad, especially if it is something like couscous or bean salad (which can be packed in tightly).
Other good options include the soups and chilies (which are priced by container size – and in my experience, all fantastic), the freshly tossed caeser salads (large size being only 3.99), and finally the new breakfast buffet (again, if you are conscious of the weight of food).
Pictured is my breakfast buffet selection from this morning (sorry I took a few bites before taking the picture). Very lean bacon (I expertly separated the choice bacon pieces lol), sausage, a piece of French toast, homefries, baked beans and I threw in some ‘health’ with the shredded raw beats, tomato and cucumber. 5.50, a healthy hearty breakfast and full tummy make this a great go-to for breakfast!
Go explore Olly’s, as they are better then all the other mega cafeterias downtown, and if you follow these tips, you won’t succumb to the methodically placed and misleading money traps at Olly’s.
What not to order (or rather, exercise caution): Prepackaged things. These carry a huge premium.
Sandwiches are close, if not the same price as the a la cart sandwich booth. (and they are usually light on sauce, so you are left with a dry sandwich)
Lunch Buffet: Be very careful! Your lunch buffet can easily break 12 for Salisbury steak (ew) and potatoes. The lunch buffet is actually decent, but they charge by the 100g, so I would skip the inexpensive, heavy things like chickpeas and potatoes. Go for the Salmon, salads, pastas, seafood paella etc. This buffet is key to anybody trying to eat out on a Paleo diet. (not that I would ever willingly give up bread and legumes HAH!). I definitely have strategically packed a very satisfying 7-ish dollar meal from the buffet, so it can be done.
They have little boxes filled with tuna sandwich squares, carrots, hummus etc. for about 4.99 to 6.99. These are not good value, and you’ll wish you got more out of your 5 bucks. Trust me. Also, I find that their pizza isn’t very good and virtually anything that is sourced from another manufacturer (such as vermicelli rice rolls, or Indian things like samaras and pakoras are unreasonably expensive)
What to order!
As mentioned above they make some great sandwiches to order. There is a little sandwich booth which can assemble a mean sandwich – not unlike what you would find at La Bodega or Gooney’s. This clocks in at about 5.50 or so.
Salads in the refrigerated window!!!!: At the front of the store they have a variety of salads such as chickpea, egg salad, beans, grape leaves, fatoush, broccoli/chicken, pasta salads, tuna salad etc. These are NOT WEIGHED, they are charged by container size. This section boasts mega value! It may not look like much, but they cram the salad into 3 sizes of ‘poutine’ containers. Skip the small, but the medium and large will do the trick for lunch. All three sizes come in at under 5 bucks and the salads are consistently hearty and tasty. In my opinion, the medium is the best value as the large is not much bigger then the medium. And since the servers literally pack the salads down, depending on the server, you may even get more out of the medium (I find the young ladies tend to be more generous; adding more salad and cramming it down when the container is seemingly full).
secret insider tip: after 2pm any left over salads in the window get knocked down to half price. So we are talking 2.50ish for a hell of a lot of salad, especially if it is something like couscous or bean salad (which can be packed in tightly).
Other good options include the soups and chilies (which are priced by container size – and in my experience, all fantastic), the freshly tossed caeser salads (large size being only 3.99), and finally the new breakfast buffet (again, if you are conscious of the weight of food).
Pictured is my breakfast buffet selection from this morning (sorry I took a few bites before taking the picture). Very lean bacon (I expertly separated the choice bacon pieces lol), sausage, a piece of French toast, homefries, baked beans and I threw in some ‘health’ with the shredded raw beats, tomato and cucumber. 5.50, a healthy hearty breakfast and full tummy make this a great go-to for breakfast!
Go explore Olly’s, as they are better then all the other mega cafeterias downtown, and if you follow these tips, you won’t succumb to the methodically placed and misleading money traps at Olly’s.
ilikerealfood
This is a medium size, it comes to 3.14 after tax, and it is really heavy (deceivingly so). It's more then enough for lunch. At the bottom of this container is a mixed bean salad (sweet and vinegary, but very good), topped with a tuna pasta. The girls at the counter really pack the salad down, (so make sure you skip items that take up a lot of space, like broccoli).
More then enough fat, starch, and protein to get you through lunch - tasty too. At 3.14, it's probably the cheapest, heartiest lunch downtown.