Du Jour’s Soup Stand

Du Jour’s is great for a quick bite on a crammed class schedule @ CSUS
SITREP
Once a week since the beginning of October 2011 I have found myself on the campus of the California State University — Sacramento (CSUS) in Modoc Hall for my day-​long cources in CSUS’ eLearning Training Certificate Program (as it so happens, I will keep coming here throughout the rest of Winter & Spring 2012).
Sometimes when given only 30 – 45 minutes for the lunch break, I put a premium on places that are close by to power walk.
SETUP
As it turns out, Du Jour’s is just a 6 – 7 minute power walk away from Modoc Hall inside the Union University Building along with many other restaurant & eatery options here. Apparently Du Jour’s serve breakfast here before 10:30am, but I am solely one of their lunchtime patrons.
LE MENU
I’ve actually come here several times now that I’ve had almost everything on their menu. They serve both Salads and Sandwiches. The things that are standouts that I really enjoyed include:
* Apple Cranberry Harvest Salad, which include bleu cheese & candied walnuts with a raspberry vinaigrette dressing.
* Lasagna Chicken Caesar Salad, which includes chicken, croutons, parmesan cheese, caesar dressing
* Best item? The Combination Sandwich, which if you are meat-​eater, you will really enjoy this since it includes turkey, ham, roast beef, salami, swiss cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, pickles, and peppers
Though it pains me to say this — especially since I prefer to seek out good vegetarian options (though I will eat red meat and fish on occasions) — I was not a big fan of:
* Their vegetarian sandwich, which included grilled vegetables, hummus, tomato, lettuce & pickles.
* Nor did I like their Asian Chicken Salad, which included water chestnuts, mandarin oranges and almonds with Sesame Dressing
These two items just seemed to lack substance and taste. And I have to note that sometimes I do find inconsistency depending on which staff person is preparing the sandwiches, which shouldn’t be, but it does happen, and I attribute that to insufficient training.
PRICING vs. PRODUCT
I have found this to be a great lunch stop for the 3 items I mention above, but I give a 4-​star rating (on what could have easily been a 5-​star rating for this place) because of pricing. I get so tired of places that seem to charge a premium price for vegetarian /​meatless options when neither the quantity nor quality of the product justifies the pricing of these options at almost identical & nearly the same pricing of the meat-​product options, which clearly the vegetarian items lack in the quantity of each ingredient, the number of ingredients and the overall substance of the food item.
THE LOWDOWN
Du Jour’s is a great eatery option for a quick bite to eat when spending the day @ CSUS.