GUYS! We visited ANOTHER TRADER JOE’S! I think this was our 27th store to
visit since January 1, 2015 (in 14 different states, well, 13 states and one
District).
The newest store (new to
us) was on Killingsworth Avenue in Reston, VA.
The night before Halloween I surprised David by driving us out to a
house I had found online that was all lit up for Halloween and had the lights
danced to music! Anyway, when we were
done enjoying that, we Googled and saw that there was actually a TJ’s nearby
that we had never visited, so off we went!
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| Here is the Halloween house! See those jack-o-lantern lights? THEY SANG! It was cute. |
The Reston, Virginia Trader Joe's is very nice! It is big, well stocked,
well lit, clean, and has wide aisles.
They also have something that I have not noticed in any other Trader
Joe’s around the country: a little play
kitchen for kids! We got there shortly
before closing time, but this little girl was enjoying the play area! Isn’t it adorable?? I bet kids love it (parents, too). I talked to a super friendly, really nice
employee named Kimberly who didn’t know that her store was SPECIAL by having
the play kitchen J. I was like,
“Kimberleeeeeey, no, not all stores have those!
It is amazing!”
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| LOOK! A little kitchen to play in!!! |
Another really cool thing
this location has is MULTIPLE STUFFED ANIMALS TO HIDE… Do you know about the TJ’s stuffed
animals? Each store has one (at least I thought they only had one!) and they hide it on the shelves. Kids that are shopping hunt for the animal,
and if they find it they report it to the customer service area and get a
treat. But Kimberly explained to me that
she feels like it shouldn’t be too hard for kids to be successful in this
adventure, and that is why she deploys MULTIPLE ANIMALS! Isn’t that kind (and smart)?? I love it!
Lucky Reston kids.
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| Shhhh, one of the animals in hiding in the coffee department in Reston! |
Oh, and get this… The store captain is named SUNSHINE
HAVEN! With someone named SUNSHINE
running the place, how could it NOT be glowing and lovely?? I hope to go back sometime and meet
Sunshine. And hey – Sunshine – Kimberly
is a great representative of your store and the TJ’s brand. I don’t know if it is within your realm of
power, but if it is, give that lady a raise, she is great.
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| The Reston, Virginia store has a very nice feel |
We picked up several items
while we were at this location, one of which was the luxurious advent calendar
I wrote about recently Super Amazing Fancy Advent Calendar Review . the item I
am actually reviewing today did not come from this particular store, but I am
sure they carry it.
French Onion Soup. David, who lived in Paris for a few years,
has eaten some French Onion Soup in his day.
Here is what he thought of this version from Trader Joe’s:
“Very, very good. I have had me some French Onion Soup, and I
love it, but it is often a disappointment.
This one is FULL of flavor, very rich, although we should point out that
we ended up cooking it 15 – 20 minutes longer than the insructions said to, so
I think it reduced a little bit. But
still, the balance of the onions, the soup, and the cheese (which is not
overdone but which is very flavorful) is, I would say, perfection. The only downside is that you have to think
about cooking it about 40 – 45 minutes before you are actually going to EAT,
and that is usually outside our zone.
But, IF you can remember to do that, and go do something else for half
an hour while this cooks in the oven, I think this is a winner. I give it a 5… Well, I have to give it a 4.75 because of the
TIME it took.”
Oh my… This is embarrassing… My sweetie and I normally agree on stuff, but
on this one, not so much… I do not think
this soup is that good… It is more like
a GRAVY than a soup (that could be because we cooked it too long…). We ran out while it was in the oven (one of
the places we ran was to Trader Joe’s, so that should count for
something!). But this soup is too
“beefy” for me.
Plus, there is not enough
cheese. I like French Onion Soup like in
PARIS – you put your spoon into a big ol’ GLOB of cheese… Then it kinda bloobles on your spoon. That is what I was HOPING for, but this isn’t
it.
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| You can tell even when it is still frozen that there isn't going to be enough CHEESE on it. Not enough for me, anyway. |
The packaging is sort of
weird. The soup comes in two little
frozen “blobs”, which you put in your bowl and then cook in the oven. I personally don’t think this one was worth
the time to cook. The thing I liked most
is that cooking this gave us an excuse to use these delightful little Le Creuset
dishes we inherited from David’s mom. We
keep them high up in a cupboard and always forget we have them, but they were
perfect for this soup because you need an oven safe bowl to cook them in.
I wouldn’t buy these again
for me, but David really love it, so we probably will get them again. I talked to a woman in TJ’s recently who
adores these (she microwaves hers because she doesn’t have an oven). I don’t think this product is horrible, it
just isn’t as good as French Onion Soup should be in my opinion.
I like that it came in two
easy serving sizes, but I don’t like the taste.
I sadly give it a 2.75.
Price – $4.99
Rating (average of 2
raters) – 3.75
