Second HELPING

Working Downtown, I was sad to see Chomp Chompleave the neighborhood, but its spacious new location (only 10 minutes away) will have you applauding the move.

The menu hasn’t changed much, and the dishes still rock Chomp Style. The Philadelphia Experiment ($8.50) is piled high with slightly sweet, tender pork and a creamy sauce with a little bit of a kick to it, over a bed of spicy arugula. The bread here is worth noting — it’s a fresh baguette that revs the sandwich into high gear.

The Pork Banh Mi ($8.50) — my underdog choice — was a surprise. Pork can be unmanageable in a sandwich unless it’s shredded, but Chomp must have some serious blades passed down from ninja warrior to ninja warrior, because the thin-yet-hearty strips of pork were the perfect thickness for the bread surrounding it — you could definitely get your mouth around a manageable bite.

The Come Up ($8.50) features a great big, juicy portabella mushroom, one veggie I will always want. The Chomp version is in round bun, slathered with smoky sauce, chunky green tomato salsa and toasted almonds. It’s not often you see green tomatoes in a dish unless they’re fried, but the firmer texture of the ones here worked really well.

A few (really, just a few) words about the sides offered at Chomp. First, you can never go wrong with their famous Curry Chomp Chips that accompany most items. If you haven’t enjoyed them yet, do it soon — these chips have earned a place of honor in the Jax food scene.

Chomp Chomp pays plenty of attention to several other sides. The French fries and pasta salad are totally worth the extra $1.25. The cooks here make French fries the way you’d make French fries at home … if you knew what you were doing. They’re chunky potato wedges with lovely granules of salt.

Now here’s where I get a little evangelical. Chomp’s pasta salad makes every limp, mayonnaise-y pasta salad you’ve suffered from at family functions as a child seem like the greatest insults to the culinary world (at the moment; next week it’ll be coleslaw or something).

I mean, really. I have been openly aggressive about my distaste for pasta salad in the past, but Chomp has made me change my mind. Why is it so good there? For starters, the perfectly cooked pasta has real flavor, with a lovely garlic aroma. Next, slices of carrots, diced peppers and onions add a nice textural crunch. Our pasta salad just happened to accompany the Come Up. Some toasted almonds joined the pasta salad party, adding another level of crunch that tasted like it was on purpose.

With lots more room to spread out, a great staff — I mean really lovely people — and the same quality Chomp fare, you can’t go wrong when you grab a beer and hang out on the patio at Chomp Chomp 2.0.