Review: Scooter’s Coffee in Maumelle

Maumelle, or technically outside of it on Hwy 365 towards Morgan, has had its first Scooter’s Coffee for a couple weeks now! After getting a couple coupons in the mail, I decided to try it and I was not disappointed, not even a tiny bit.

Scooter’s is kind of big deal making its debut around Central Arkansas. There is even another one being built currently on Maumelle Boulevard on the other side of “town”. This Nebraska chain totes they only use coffee from the top 10% of special coffee beans in the world. Their menu of drinks is vast and, unlike 7 Brew, they have food, too!

While the menu has everything from your normal coffee shop regulars, it also has smoothies, teas, and even drinks and food for the kids. I decided to stick to what I would normally get from any coffee shop, though the fall specials like the Caramelicious coffee were very tempting.
I stuck with a medium hot skinny vanilla latte and a large iced chai tea latte. With my coupon for one drink half off, my total was just under $9. So, they aren’t cheap, but what is these days?

Both drinks were delicious! I don’t think they could have been any better, honestly. The chai tea was so flavorful, all the way down to the last drop. The spices in this tea are perfect, in my opinion. I’ll always order this!
The skinny vanilla latte was one of the best I’ve had. I do think both of these drinks tasted better than 7 Brew’s versions, so I may stick to Scooter’s from here on out when I need a special coffee treat.

I did not order any food, but have heard good things. If you’ve tried any of the food, please let me know what you thought in the comments so I can plan my next visit.

Overall, the service was fast and super friendly and the coffee and tea were absolutely delicious. I’m so glad to have Scooter’s in Maumelle!

Food Review: El Sur in SOMA

I’ve been wanting to try El Sur for a while now, and I finally got to around lunch time on Sunday. Here’s the breakdown:

Environment:

El Sur has a great clean and open space. You walk in and order at the counter, then they bring your food to the table or seat at the bar you choose. Water and cups are available for free at the bar, as well as some sauces you can put in cups to bring to your table. My favorite thing, however, was the fresh flowers cutely vased at each table.

Menu and Food

Their menu is found here on their website. Full of many different Honduran and other Latin American foods that you can’t find in many places around central Arkansas, it was hard to pick! I really wanted to try the fried yucca (I know I love that), pupusas, and the pollo chuco.


However, it was brunch time and I felt like I should try something I can only get once a week there. So, we ordered the Torrejas, Honduran French toasts simmered in syprup from dulce de caña, topped with orange zest and choice of two eggs.

The chorizo and eggs we chose were perfect- flavorful, but not too greasy. You can’t go wrong here. The French toast was plentiful and smelled amazing with citrus. If you like your french toast soggy, you’re going to love this. Unfortunately, I do not. So, this wasn’t my favorite dish and I had big regrets not ordering the Pollo Chuco.

On the specials board, the Salpicon sounded amazing and a lighter dish would help level out our meal of French toast. So, the decision was made.

In all honesty, I was a little disappointed when the dish was placed at my table. It looked pretty bland. However, I poured the sauce it came with over it all, as well as a mild and hot sauce from the front counter and everything was pretty good! There’s a great citrus flavor in the beef, though the texture is more like canned tuna, so it threw me off a little. While I enjoyed this, I was still deeply regretting not getting one of the items on the menu I know will be good, like the pupusas.

Overall, I think I need to give this place a second chance with its most popular dishes rather than trying ones that are only available that day. So, if you’ve had any dish there that I MUST try because it is so good, please comment and let me know!