On February 29, 2008, I celebrated my 18th Leap
Year birthday with a bunch of my friends at the Sweet Tomatoes restaurant--a
restaurant that I go to when I want to pig out and can fool myself with saying
how healthy the place is with salad after salad after salad and all kinds of
healthy food---of course my scale and I know better!

Sweet Tomatoes is the kind of restaurant that has
rows and rows of fresh, colorful vegetables dishes one after the other--we won't
mention the Caesar and/or speciality salads that can really add the pounds on. I particularly like
their tuna tarragon noodle salad. We won't talk about the soup station with 7-8
different soups, each better than the other. We could talk about the pasta
station with 3 different kinds of pasta or the bread station with 2-3 different kinds of faccachio and an assortment of different breads, muffins and roles. There are baked potatoes, sweet potatoes
and rice with all
sorts of things to add to them.

There is a regular chili and a fat free chili and
sour cream, shredded cheese and scallions to add to it, not to mention a chicken
soup so loaded with chicken that people drain the chicken out and use it as a
protein course. To top it all off there is a desert bar consisting of 3
different types of soft ice cream and assorted toppings like peanuts, chips,
chocolate or caramel and assorted puddings from tapioca to chocolate and
assorted fruits.

It is self serve including drinks but they have bus
people to remove your dirty dishes and help you anyway they can. (Don't forget
to leave them at least a 10% tip!) You can make as many trips to as many of the
stations as you want.

Sweet Tomatoes is a very
clean place, easy to manage and get around. Each month they 'celebrate' a different
country and change their soups, salads and bread station to reflect the
particular country from Chinese to Mexican to Greek, Italian, French, etc. Their
prices are very reasonable with prices varying from weekday lunch
and dinner to weekend lunch and dinner and they always seem to have a discount
coupon in the Sunday paper or on their web site. They have a senior's discount.

Just don't rationalize like I do that because it
is called Sweet Tomatoes and has plenty of vegetables that you won't get fat
eating here!  LOL