Review: Boston Market

I mentioned a couple of months ago that I joined BzzAgent, which is a word of mouth marketing company. The most recent campaign I signed up for was Boston Market. I was curious, because I hadn't eaten at Boston Market in over 10 years.

With my BzzAgent coupons in my pocket, I took Alex for lunch one day and was pleasantly surprised - the food was quite good. Mindful of my Weight Watchers points, I ordered the half-chicken individual meal with steamed vegetables and green beans. My BzzAgent coupon covered the cost of my meal, which was $7.99 plus $1.79 for a drink. I paid for a kid's macaroni and cheese meal for Alex, which came to $4.10 and included one side, cornbread, and a small drink.

I was hungry, and ate my entire meal, except for the cornbread (I did take a couple of bites - in order to write a thorough review, of course - and it was good). I also ate just a bite of the chicken skin, then peeled the rest off - it was very tasty, but not worth all of the points.

Alex's meal was actually too much for him, although he'd had a peanut butter sandwich not that long ago. If he'd been as hungry as I was, he probably would have eaten more. As it was, he polished off the mac and cheese (which actually came with rotini, not elbow macaroni), and took a few bites of cornbread. He said the corn was good, but ate very little of it - I'm not sure if that's because he wasn't hungry, or because he recognized it as a vegetable. I would have preferred it if he'd had a different kid's meal, but a drumstick, roast turkey, or meatloaf isn't the sort of food he likes (unfortunately).

I was looking forward to eating some of my weekly points in the form of a cupcake, since BzzAgent sent free cupcake "pogs" (coupons) for me to use and distribute. But I was told that cupcakes had been discontinued a couple of weeks ago, which was disappointing. They did have some brownies and cookies, but I had my heart set on a cupcake so I passed on those.

I didn't study the other side dishes since I didn't want to be tempted, but I caught a glimpse of herbed steamed potatoes that looked good. According to the web site, I also missed out on sweet potato casserole, spinach artichoke dip, and chicken tortilla soup.

The service was extremely good at the location that we went to. It opened a few minutes early, which is always nice, and the employees were very friendly and welcomed my coupon.

Overall, I thought the entire experience was good - the restaurant itself was pleasant and the food was tasty. The cost for a complete meal is comparable to the cost of a meal at drive-thru fast food places, and I think the food at Boston Market is more satisfying. Unfortunately, there isn't a location that's especially close to us, so our next visit will have to wait until we pass one on our way to or from some other place. I've noticed Boston Market coupons in the newspaper on a regular basis, so I'll definitely be clipping them and keeping them in the car for that time.