Cuisine Review

I highly recommend a roll. I mean a rolled sandwich. Different slightly from a wrap, rolled sandwiches have as the binding element more of a breaded tortilla than a regular flat type and are rolled rather than folded.

They look like pinwheels when cut. Thus the name of a new smaller chain outlet called Roly Poly on Dauphin Street in the Food World shopping center behind Chick-Fil-A in MiMo. They seem to be doing very well, especially at lunchtime.

When I ordered here recently, it was take out for a group of five, which I thought might be six and had a platter for eight prepared. The Works platter is for a minimum of eight and comes with five rolls of your choice, chips, cookies and a gallon of tea. This came to $58, which I originally thought was a bit steep, but there was plenty of food for eight, maybe even nine. So not too bad when you run the numbers.

The menu is divided between salads, soups, create-your-own-rolls, or you can select from about 45 of their “classic” sandwiches. Any of the sandwich items can be made into a combo with a choice of chips or side and medium drink or an eight-ounce cup of soup and medium drink.

The rolls are in the $5 to $7 price range. The soups are chosen each day from a list that includes – harvest mushroom, roasted garlic tomato, loaded baked potato, garden vegetarian, old fashioned chicken noodle, Baja chicken enchilada, broccoli and cheddar or beef chili with beans.

There are seven signature salads beginning with the spa salad. It consists of mixed greens, plum tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber, carrots, mushrooms, avocado, walnut pieces, dried cranberries, alfalfa sprouts with balsamic vinaigrette. What a mouthful. They also have a Greek, Alpine Chef, Basil Chicken or Dill Tuna Salad on greens. The Brown Derby Cobb I am anxious to try. There is also a Walnut Spinach Salad with both of these combined with crumbled bleu cheese, bacon, avocado, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and a spicy honey mustard dressing. The other is a Chipolte Caesar with avocado, jalapeno jack cheese, croutons, sun-dried tomatoes with a creamy Caesar dressing.

Just imagine anything you would want on a sandwich and you can have it from the make your own roll section. I counted 18 vegetables and 13 fruits and nuts to choose from alone. You can choose from either a whole wheat or classic fresh tortilla, and they come either classically rolled or hot pressed. Their classic rolled up creations make it hard to choose. And they are tantalizing enough that you would never want to create your own.

I have eaten at their outlet in Seaside over the years and while I would not eat lunch here everyday, it is a nice, different idea once in awhile. All rolls come in small or regular. The small is only for those who would want to try two different ones. One small would leave you hungry – and I say that as I ate four small rolls on the night of my review. I did have to make sure I could accurately describe them to you.

I will begin by describing some of the sliced chicken choices. On an earlier visit I had the Buffalo Slim, with sliced chicken breast, melted reduced fat cheddar, plum tomatoes, mushrooms, onion and spicy wing sauce grilled with ranch dressing. All of the meats are nice quality and are thickly sliced. This sandwich had just enough wing sauce to tickle and was great hot.

For our platter we had chosen the Pesto Chicken, and it was among our top two favorites. This consists of sliced chicken, melted provolone, onion, mushrooms, sun-dried tomatoes and pesto with ranch. What made it of course was the pesto, which was thick with garlic and pine nuts. These were eaten quickly.

Lower on the list was the Chicken Cobb Roll. I like Cobb salads and Roly Poly is the only place I know of in town with one, other than Oysterella’s. It had all the ingredients from the salad, but this was just way outshone by the others. For me, I recommend on your first visit to get an out of the ordinary roll to try. Other chickens include a New Delhi with curry chicken, alfalfa, avocado, pineapple, Swiss cheese, bacon and mango chutney along with an Oriental chicken with cucumber, carrots, green pepper, mango chutney and sesame dressing.

The big winner, hands down for my group was the Basil Cashew Chicken roll, and it is marked on the menu as the “people’s choice.” Fresh basil chicken salad, cashews, spicy Thai sauce, lettuce, tomato, avocado and alfalfa sprouts. What a combination and it works very well. The bittersweet taste of basil, nuts and sauce are a mouthful treat.

We did not try any of the turkeys, but my favorite one they have is Thanksgiving. I actually ate one of these on a Thanksgiving weekend some years ago. Roasted turkey breast, cranberry sauce, cornbread stuffing, onion lettuce and a surprising fresh basil mayo is another to try. They tend to bring basil into sandwiches – you would not think this would work but it does. I would even eat one of these in the summer.

The turkey applejack with apple butter, bacon, the basil mayo again, grilled with honey mustard sounds worthy of a taste. The Hickory Crisco is turkey with melted Swiss and brie with spinach, mushrooms and spicy honey mustard. The list just goes on and on. Another we tried was a Jalapeno BBQ I liked that was not the top on anyone else’s list. Roasted beef, jalapeno cheese, fresh jalapenos, onion and roasted red peppers with, yes, barbeque and basil mayo, it was my second favorite. The only one none of us thought was very good was the Italian Classic, with ham, salami, provolone, artichoke hearts, roasted peppers and Creamy Italian dressing. Not too swift. I love cookies, my favorite dessert, and they do not have a bad one!

I feel like all I have done here is provide you with descriptions. It was hard to do this any other way. You get the idea of the uniqueness of the product they offer, and need to find your own favorite. Just make sure you don’t roll out with an empty wallet – I am not saying it is expensive, but it is easy to let your taste buds get the better of you and go wild.

Kinnon Phillips is Lagniappe cuisine editor. Contact him at kphillips@lagniappemobile.com.

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