The Lunchbox: Fool me thrice?

After vowing to never return to the little ol lunchbox in downtown Gainesville, I found myself starting at its menu yet again. I knew the original owners had sold the place and was assured that quality had actually improved. As far as the original owners, I can't think of a better move for someone so out of touch with culinary skills. The new owner, unfortunately, hadn't changed the menu at all and I was faced with the same 4 boring choices. To reiterate, they are:

1. asian sandwich
2. asian style taco
3. latin style taco
4. rice bowl

To each of these, you'd add a protein (ribs, chicken, baked tofu, fried fish) and voila, lunch. For some unknown reason, they love pickled cabbage, pickled onions, and cilantro. In fact, those seem to be the only ingredients available to them as each of the above 4 choices comes with them on top/inside. I'd venture to say that nothing is less appealing than baked tofu with a few pieces of cilantro and some pickled vegetables.

Today, I decided to do my last resort test for any place in town, venture into the carnivore realm. I'm trying to avoid meat, but consider myself at best a non-strict vegetarian; therefore, I tried the chicken latin-style tacos.

In all honesty, they weren't bad. The tortillas and the chicken were pretty fresh and tasty, and even the garlic-lime mojo sauce was pretty good (albeit weakly flavored for such bold ingredients). I didn't feel ripped off and I didn't think the meal was totally lacking of any quality. I do still feel with all my being that the pickled vegetables HAVE TO GO. Also, I got more than 4 tortilla chips this time but they tasted fishy as they were surely fried up in the same oil as the fish.

All in all I wasn't blown away, but I was hopeful. If the new owner reads this, there's no reason you can't be better than what you bought. First off, ditch the baked tofu. It's terrible. This is a tempeh town. Hook up some great tempeh from one of our local providers. Fry that shit up or bake it and it will be infinitely better than the tofu.