“Bacon Truffle Mac & Cheese”

Rating: ⭐⭐1/2

Presentation: ⭐⭐

Not excellent. Though it has no bearing on the flavor potential, this mac was pretty devoid of anything visually appealing. Of course, I had to forego the bacon element as a vegetarian – that was rather unfortunate in this case, because the mac really needed something.

Flavor: ⭐⭐

The smokiness of the cheese (smoked Gouda, I believe) was nice, which is good, because it was really the only flavor going on here. Sure, this mac is a side dish – a fact that cuts it a bit of slack – but even in comparison to other mac sides, it was lacking. As we know, I am generally a big supporter of green onion in mac & cheese, but the green onion here carried a flavor more akin to asparagus (how that came to be is truly a mystery to me); whatever was going on with it definitely detracted from the mac.

Oh, and how about that truffle? I didn’t detect a hint.

Chief called – he said that this ain’t it.

Creaminess: ⭐⭐⭐

Creaminess was decent, but not great; the texture of the sauce was really just that of a bechamel, devoid of any cheesy elasticity. Something I am not a huge fan of with sauces like this one is that they tend to get clumpy as they cool, which is not incredibly appetizing.

Cheesiness: ⭐⭐⭐

Again, a lot of eggs were put in the smoked Gouda basket here – it needed some assistance.

Texture: ⭐⭐

Apart from the cavatappi, there was no textural variety.

Overall Experience:

I doubt that I would order this mac again, which I hate to say. I like eating at Slim’s quite a bit, especially for brunch – it’s awesome, and I definitely expected more from their mac and cheese.

One could definitely make the argument that bacon could have improved it a touch, but if bacon is what makes or breaks a mac & cheese, it’s not a good mac & cheese.