The Weekend Gourmet's Best Bites for May 2018 #bestbites #diningout #newmenuitems

One of my favorite things to do is try new-to-me restaurants and new/seasonal menu items at long-time favorite dining establishments. Over the past few weeks, Michael and I have visited Snooze for brunch, tried some new seasonal menu items at California Pizza Kitchen, enjoyed create-your-own pizza and salad at MOD Pizza, and created customized Mediterranean bowls at Trio Modern Mediterranean Kitchen. All four dining experiences were wonderful! I can't wait to share them with you today.

(1) Snooze: an AM Eatery's Weekday Brunch. Snooze is based in Denver, Colorado, where they've been providing amazing sweet and savory breakfast/brunch items since 2006. Their concept has been so popular that they've expanded to 20+ locations in four states. Snooze's San Antonio location has been wildly popular since it opened last March, with long weekend waits. However, we discovered that the wait is much shorter on weekdays! We visited Snooze around 1100 on a weekday morning and enjoyed a variety of their sweet and savory menu items:

We especially love to share Snooze's genius Pancake Flight Trio and Benny Duo -- which let you sample multiple sweet and savory menu items at once! I also fully support Snooze's local community initiatives. One percent of sales from every Snooze location is given back to the surrounding community via donations and services. Snooze supports local causes and issues related to the neighborhoods where they live and work. Snooze is open daily from 6:30AM until 2:30PM. If you live in Colorado, Texas, Arizona, or California, visit their website's Location page to find a location near you! 

(2) California Pizza Kitchen's Spring/Summer Menu. California Pizza Kitchen is one of our favorite upscale casual restaurants to visit -- we love the wide variety in their menu. CPK's innovative menu always strikes a perfect balance between offering customer's iconic menu items -- like their iconic Original BBQ Chicken Pizza -- with adding creative new and seasonal menu items. We recently visited CPK's San Antonio Alamo Quarry Market location to try some of their new and seasonal menu items. There were a few surprises...and we couldn't resist ordering a longtime favorite pizza to accompany the new menu items:

All of the new menu items were flavorful and featured fresh ingredients...but the true surprise of our meal was the cauliflower crust pizza! My party of four was a bit skeptical at first, but one bite was all it took to win us over! The Shrimp Scampi Pizza on gluten free cauliflower crust was AMAZING! The crust was thin and perfectly crisp. We *never* would've guessed the crust contained cauliflower if we hadn't known beforehand! The crust was topped with lemon-garlic shrimp, caramelized onion, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses, a bit of red pepper flakes for heat, arugula, and fresh oregano. Truly an amazing pizza!


(3) MOD Custom Artisan-Style Pizzas. What if I told you for that one low price -- $10 or less -- you can create your own personal pizza masterpiece from 30+ delicious toppings? At MOD Pizza, that's exactly what you'll experience! Whether you want a vegetarian delight...or a carnivore's pizza dream come true...you can do that a MOD! Simply pick from three crust sizes -- then tell them exactly which sauces, toppings, and drizzles you want on your pizza. They assemble your pizza to your exact specifications and bake it in minute using an authentic wood-burning pizza oven. From start to finish, our pizzas were ready to eat in about 15 minutes:
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Not feeling creative? MOD also has a menu of Classic Pizza combinations to choose from. Not in the mood for pizza, you say? MOD also makes customized salads! We created a side salad to go with our pizzas, but they also make larger customized entrée salads. Two personal suggestions to augment your MOD pizza experience: make sure to get a glass of their house made fruit-infused lemonade...and save room for a house-baked NO NAME CAKE. It looks familiar as it's a recreation of a favorite dessert from your lunchbox days! To find a MOD pizza location near you, visit their searchable online Store Directory.

(4) Trio Modern Mediterranean. Trio Modern Mediterranean recently opened a location in my neighborhood, so we eagerly checked out their creative concept! Customers build their customized Mediterranean-style meal -- selecting from a rice bowl, pita pocket, laffa wrap, or salad. All meals feature a choice of meat (or other protein), fresh vegetables and other toppings, and a variety of drizzles/sauces. The entire process is fast, but I love how fresh and healthy the ingredient options are. It's so nice to have an option for a quick meal that's healthier just up the street! This video will show you the entire ordering process from start to finish.

We ordered brown rice bowls served with warm, freshly baked pita on the side. My bowl featured chicken, hummus, tomato-cucumber salad, feta, and a drizzle of yogurt dill sauce. Michael prefers more spice, so he added jalapenos and fiery feta to his bowl creation. I can't wait to go back and create more customized meal items at Trio Modern Mediterranean. There are currently two Trio locations, both in San Antonio. One is located at Potranco/1604, and the other is located at the Forum Shops.

Disclosure: The restaurants feature in The Weekend Gourmet's Best Bites provided us with a hosted meal to try their menu and facilitate inclusion. All opinions expressed are solely my own.