Another restaurant trying to navigate between the extremes of full service and fast food, Camille's Sidewalk Cafe has a menu that revolves around sandwiches.Reflecting its Western origin, the cafe emphasizes health along with a number of Tex-Mex and Asian flavors. Wraps are featured, and all of the current permutations of health concerns, from low-fat to low-carb to whole foods, are accommodated. As with other restaurants that are trying to meld the formal and the informal, Camille's takes orders and payment at the counter and cooks food to order; many orders are carried out. For eating in, touches include flowers on each booth and table, soft music and orders that are usually delivered tableside. A coffee and smoothie bar turns out smoothies that taste natural ($3 to $4), not too sweet and not full of emulsifiers, binders and other additives. Although the menu offers breakfast, lunch and dinner items, all are available throughout the day. The menu is big and must require lots of training for the staff, which is eager to offer samples of just about anything -- especially the soups. You could do a lot worse than starting with Camille's chicken noodle soup ($2.75/$3.75), notable for the chunks of carrot, which provide color as well as flavor to the OK broth, which holds pieces of chicken and plenty of noodles. The best thing about the poblano chicken wrap ($5.95) is the dressing, which has notable but mild chili flavor from poblano peppers. The wrap holds a lot of white rice and modest amounts of chicken, black beans, onions, spinach and scant quantities of cilantro and chives. There's also a hot barbecue-style sauce to provide spicy heat. Many wraps would gain from having the ingredients listed on the menu and lavishly photographed on the menu board. Case in point: the Paris bistro grilled wrap ($6.95). The ham-and-brie-style cheese melted over it is fine; but the promised green apples, spinach and tomatoes were sparse. In a similar vein, the turkey habanero panini ($5.99) should contain the mango-habanero that contributes to the grilled sandwich's name.It would contribute to the combo of turkey breast, cheddar cheese, sweet peppers and onions. Be sure to request it. On the other hand, a veganini panini ($5.99) accurately and deliciously included grilled eggplant, a fetastyle cheese, roasted sweet red peppers, sun-dried tomato "pesto," true pesto mixed with mayonnaise and an effective balsamic glaze. The menu claims that the cafe chicken salad ( $5.99) is freshly made, and it has, in fact, tasted fresh, with a nice dill flavor.Also in the salad are mild olives, strips of carrots and pepper-Jack cheese, tomato wedges, sunflower seeds and romaine lettuce that has also looked and tasted fresh.All in all, the restaurant offers an interesting twist on the concepts offered by Panera and Cosi.
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