Restaurants

You are currently browsing the archive for the Restaurants category.

Vegan Vienna Adventures

January 18, 2010 in Meet-Ups, Restaurants, Travel | 12 comments

I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while, especially since I visited Vienna back in mid-October.

I had a blast, and ate tons of amazing food. When Bazu and I arrived, we were famished, so after dropping off our bags at our friend Carmen’s, we headed over to Formosa Vegetarian to meet up with Melanie and Rachel.

I decided to try out a Bionade drink, which was really light, bubbly, refreshing, with just a hint of sweetness.

Then I had Cordon Bleu with a potato dumpling. Luckily, Melanie was there to translate for me since I really wanted that dumpling instead of potato salad. The Cordon Bleu was frighteningly realistic, and stuffed with perfectly smokey ham and creamy cheeze. I don’t need to say it was vegan ham, right? I also got soup. I don’t know what was in it, but it was savory and good.

I topped off the meal with some of the most perfectly creamy, delicious vegan ice cream I’ve had. I couldn’t decide, so I chose a scoop of both raspberry and blueberry vanilla swirl.

Later that night, we went to Landia, the first of two trips. I opted for the goulash with more dumplings. I can still taste it. It was perfectly salty and fatty, with tons of sweet paprika and onions. We went there for a huge PPK meet-up a few days later, and I just couldn’t resist ordering the same thing. The owner/head chef and staff were incredibly nice. He actually planned a menu with tons of great Austrian food for our huge group, and there was also a cute little dog behind the bar helping to keep the customers in line.

The first big meet-up took place at Rupps, a vegetarian restaurant and whiskey bar. I had some really authentic tasting bratwurst and the most amazing grilled cheese sandwich with chopped vegetables.

We also had some amazing meals in Bratislava and Budapest. Stay tuned! I do plan on posting more this year, even if I’m the only one reading this!

V-Spot Brooklyn, NY

November 11, 2009 in Meet-Ups, People, Restaurants, Travel | 4 comments

Well, my goal for MoFo this year was to post more than usual, and definitely more than last year, which I accomplished. I also hoped it would be a nice jump start to get me blogging more regularly. I may not post every week, at least until we move, but I will try to post a couple of times of month. There are a lot of blogs out there, I’m happy if one or two people come across mine now and then and find something they like.

Anyway, on to the food! Before Bazu and I left on our trip to Central Europe, we met up with our friend Michelle, who was kind enough to pick me up in the middle of Manhattan, and drive us to JFK. We had plenty of time to grab food, so we decided on V-Spot, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn. I’d never been, and it’s always nice when I can order anything on the menu without modification!

I had a chicken burger with cheese and tempeh bacon, and a nice little salad on the side. The sandwich was nice and crispy without being greasy, but it was still nice to have a little salad on the side to cleanse my palate and make me feel somewhat virtuous. If I’m remembering correctly, we also shared a side of sweet potato fries, which, in my opinion, you can never go wrong with ordering!

Bazu had plantain chips with guacamole which she really enjoyed,

and Michelle had a pepperoni pizza made with Daiya cheese…delicious!

I really enjoyed eating at V-Spot, and I’d like to try out other things on the menu the next time I’m in Brooklyn. Check it out if you’re nearby!

Vegan Mofo – Vegan Night – Brookland Cafe

October 9, 2009 in Dinner, Restaurants, VeganMoFo 2009 | 1 comment

More and more restaurants in the DC area are offering vegan options as part of their regular menu. Brookland Cafe is now hosting a vegan night every Wednesday from 4pm – 11pm. One of the chefs comes from Soul Veg, another great place to eat. Brookland Cafe is conveniently located a few blocks from the Brookland/CUA station on the red line, so a friend and I decided to meet up and try it out. The cafe is tucked in a residential neighborhood, and is a cute place with colorful stools at high tables.

The vegan menu includes a vegan seafood basket, veggie burger, a fish platter, a few raw items and lots more. I decided to go with the shrimp basket, and Meghan ordered the fish platter, and was given a choice of tofu or vegan salmon, so she decided to go with the salmon since that’s something you don’t see very often. My basket came with vegan shrimp, battered cauliflower, and fries. Meghan ordered grilled veggies and fries with hers, and it came out with potato salad and coleslaw, but they threw in the grilled veggies and fries anyway, and a few minutes later a chef came out with an extra little cup of more veggies!

I don’t eat a lot of fried food, but every once in a while, I indulge, and I’m glad I did. The shrimp and cauliflower were seasoned well, with lots of black pepper, lightly battered, and fried to non-greasy perfection. The fries were also nicely seasoned. Meghan was nice enough to share some grilled veggies with me, and they were fresh and crisp-tender, a nice foil against all the fried food.

I also got an oatmeal raisin cookie to go. It was definitely freshly baked. I didn’t ask if they made the desserts in-house, but the cookie tasted like it came out of the oven that day.

Definitely check out Brookland Cafe. The service was super friendly, and the woman working there told us that the cafe is also considering adding a weekday breakfast menu, with some vegan items. If you’re interested let them know, and definitely stop by on Wednesdays so they keep the night going!!

Vegan MoFo – Zen Vegetarian, Wichita, KS

October 7, 2009 in Restaurants, Travel, VeganMoFo 2009 | 3 comments

largeveganmofo

My husband surprised me with a plane ticket to see my dad in Kansas for my birthday this year. I can usually get something in most restaurants, even if it’s just a plate of fries or some steamed vegetables. I also knew there were a few health food stores where I’d be able to pick up a few things, so I knew I wouldn’t starve.

Like anyone obsessed with food, though, before any trip, I always check happycow.net and google around for places I can eat. I was excited to find Zen Vegetarian, a fairly new restaurant in Wichita. My dad is a pretty adventurous eater, so he was happy to indulge me. He isn’t a vegan, but he absolutely cannot have milk products, so he’s always happy to visit restaurants where he knows he’ll be able to eat something that won’t make him sick.

The atmosphere in Zen was nice and quiet, and the service was friendly. While the entire menu isn’t vegan, vegan dishes are clearly marked. My dad ordered a rice dish, his wife ordered some soup, and I got a Papaya Passion Salad and Sesame Soy Nuggets. Since it was lunch time, it came as a Bento box with soup, tempura vegetables, a spring roll, wonton, and rice. I had to skip the cream cheese wonton and soup, but there was plenty to eat, and I had leftovers, so while it would have been nice to have a vegan wonton and vegan soup, I certainly had enough food.

The salad was really tasty. It was spiced with chilis, but wasn’t too hot, and was nice and refreshing. The sesame soy was really good too, with nice, fresh broccoli, and the tempura was crispy without being overly battered or greasy. I’ll definitely go again the next time I’m visiting my dad.

We also went to a restaurant where I had a nice falafel platter, hummus, tabbouleh, and a fattoush salad. So, you don’t have to live in a large metropolitan area to enjoy vegan food at a restaurant!

Vegan MoFo – Vegadeli, St. Louis, MO

October 5, 2009 in Restaurants, Travel, VeganMoFo 2009 | 1 comment

largeveganmofo

My husband and I recently attended a wedding in St. Louis, and decided to see if there were any vegan-friendly restaurants in the area. We were lucky to have family that made a nice lunch for us, but were a little worried that we wouldn’t have much to eat at the reception. So, we were excited when we found an all-vegan cafe. It was about 10 miles away from our hotel, but since we had plenty of time between the ceremony and reception, we decided to check it out.

Vegadeli is tucked in a shopping center in Chesterfield, a suburb of St. Louis. If you weren’t looking for it, you could easily miss it. As soon as we walked in, we were greeted with a friendly hello, and an impressively huge menu of completely vegan food, including a couple of raw dishes. There were salads, burgers, pasta, lots of comfort food, smoothies, and a small selection of desserts in a bakery case.

After some contemplation, I decided on the chili cheese burger with a side of macaroni and cheese, Carl picked a spicy Jerk-style burger and a side of nachos. I also got a peach smoothie.

The food was really filling and I especially liked the nachos and mac & cheese. I think the cheese sauce for the nachos was made in-house, and the mac & cheese was nice and rich, but not greasy. It even tasted good cold, on the plane ride home, the next day. The burgers were okay, but I thought mine could have used a little more chili flavor. I finished the whole thing, though, so I guess it wasn’t too bad!

I apologize in advance for the phone-quality photos and poor lighting, but you get the idea!

We also decided to get a few things to go–carrot cake, a wrap, and a large order of mac and cheese. The carrot cake was moist, perfectly spiced, and had a wonderful cream cheese icing. The wrap was filled with brown rice, and veggies. It was basic, but tasty.

Vegadeli is definitely worth checking out if you’re ever in the St. Louis area and in need of some good vegan food.

Asheville Road Trip

June 28, 2009 in Restaurants, Travel | 4 comments

I’m still here, although I don’t know if anyone is still reading! I’m planning a new strategy to post more often. We’ll see how long it lasts!

In any case, the husband and I rented a house for an extra-long weekend in Asheville at the end of June. We visited the Biltmore Estate, which really has to be seen in person to be fully appreciated. Their servants lived in better conditions than some disadvantaged people in this country. We also hiked, shopped, saw some great live music, and of course, we ate and ate.

Asheville is a small town in southwestern North Carolina, near the borders of Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee, and they have a big concentration of vegetarian and vegan food, a vibrant music and arts scene, and the entire community seems to really be focused on sustainable living. There are quite a few all-veg restaurants, and most of the non-veg restaurants have a veg-friendly option or two that isn’t just a bread sandwich or iceberg lettuce salad. Since we were only there for five days and four nights, it wasn’t possible to eat everything, but we tried.

We ate at the Laughing Seed Cafe for several of our meals, but everything there was so tasty we had to stop ourselves from going for every meal. We were also kind of worried that the waitstaff would start to recognize us and think we were strange…not worried enough to stop us from going three times, though.

In addition to the meals pictured below, we also stopped at Rosetta’s Kitchen, the Mellow Mushroom for an amazing pizza with Cheezly, and a picked up a few things to eat at our rental house from the local health food stores. I was excited just to see Earth Balance available for bagels and such, but there was free Earth Balance in one store’s cafe to put on items purchased in the bakery. Whole Foods, take notice!

One day for lunch, Carl had a tempeh sandwich with black bean spread and I had the Mercury Not Rising–a really deliciously seasoned seitan sandwich with dill sauce. We both ordered the fries which came with onions and jalapenos mixed in:

We went for dinner another day, and Carl had a random assortment of fries, salad, and sloppy joe tofu, and I had the pasta of the day – Korean barbecued tempeh and Asian slaw over udon noodles in a garlic scape pesto. It was as good as it sounds.

Then, we went for Sunday brunch and I had the brunch platter which was biscuits and gravy, homemade seitan sausage, homefries, and tofu scramble, and Carl had a lentil flour omelet stuffed with asparagus and almond cheese, in a red pepper sauce.

Horizons in Philadelphia

April 20, 2009 in Restaurants | 2 comments

Well, our oven is broken, I have a nasty cold, and it’s the time of year where I’m tired of winter food, but it isn’t quite time for spring and summer produce yet, so meals have consisted of a lot of packaged food and soup. I have tested a couple of recipes, but I only have a photo for one of them. I know, so many excuses.

My husband, C* and I took a trip up for Philadelphia a few weeks ago to see a Death Cab for Cutie show, and eat at a couple of restaurants. Our first stop, the night of the show was Horizons. I’ve wanted to eat there for a while, since I’ve heard lots of good reviews. It’s nice to be able to order anything off of the menu, and not worry about whether the ingredients are vegan. I suppose I can’t really complain too much because the DC are has a nice (and ever-expanding) variety of vegetarian restaurants, and restaurants that offer vegan options. Horizons is nice, though, because everything on the menu is vegan, and it’s a little more upscale, so it’s a rare treat.

I had a mojito, to start, and yes, it really was that big. While we were waiting for our appetizers, the server brought us some focaccia and herbed olive oil. I had to stop myself from eating too much bread because I wanted to save room for the meal, but it had a wonderful flavor and texture. I didn’t want to lug my DSLR along, and all I have are camera phone photos, so sorry for the lack of quality. I took photos of everything, but some of the photos are just too blurry to share.

Giant Mojito!

Focaccia and Herbed Olive Oil!

We ordered two appetizers, the Jamaican BBQ Seitan, and the Vietnamese Bruschetta. They were both really good, but everything about the seitan was amazing. I don’t know how they create seitan that has the texture of pulled [not-vegan] barbeque, but if I could have taken a bucket of the stuff home with me, I definitely would have. It was cooked perfectly, with little charred bits here and there, and the sauce was incredible. We wished we’d gotten another order to go. I wish I was eating it right now. The seitan didn’t arrive with the big smear of sauce, C* was just a little too excited and grabbed some before I could snap a photo.

Amazing Seitan!

Delicious Bruschetta!

I ordered the Pacific Rim Grilled Tofu, which came with edamame mashed potatoes and trumpet mushrooms in a miso broth, and C* ordered the Pan-Seared Peppercorn Tofu, which came with creamed leeks and mushrooms, and some sort of Israeli couscous pilaf with tiny seared tomatoes. Both of our dishes were just indescribably delicious. Everything tasted very fresh, and was well-prepared, and perfectly cooked. The meal was rich and satisfying without being overly greasy. My tofu tasted like it had been prepared on a charcoal grill, but I didn’t think to ask at the time because I was too busy eating. I usually avoid mushrooms at all costs, but I had some of the creamed mushrooms and leeks from C’s plate, and could have eaten a lot more. We also ordered a side of sauteed spinach with a lemon-garlic aioli, which was also cooked perfectly, and I’m picky about spinach. There is nothing worse than a pile of overcooked, grassy tasting, mushy greens.

We were in a hurry to get to the show, so I ordered the Cherry Pie Cheesecake to go, and didn’t get a photo of it, but it was one of the best vegan cheesecakes I’ve had. The crust was tasty, it was creamy, tangy, just firm enough, and topped with lots of sweet, dark cherries. I can’t wait to go back.

I’m back!!

December 11, 2008 in Breakfast, Restaurants | 2 comments

Apparently, there is a Worpress application on iPhone, which will make it much easier to blog on the go. In fact, I composed this while speeding through the streets of DC. Just kidding!! I’ve also decided that every post doesn’t need to contain a recipe, and every photo doesn’t need to be composed and perfect. As much as it kills me, it’s the only way I know I’ll actually blog on a regular basis.

This blog is about food. Good, vegan food. I started this to start writing more, and to connect with my fellow foodies, vegan and not. To show, like so many others out there, that vegans eat more than tofu and wheatgrass.

Speaking of which, these little babies are cinnamon rolls from Great Sage in all their gooey, sugary glory. Carl and I brunch there so often that the staff now know who we are. Pretty soon, we’ll be on a first name basis because we will definitely continue to eat there a lot.

What you don’t see is the zucchini and spinach quiche, roasted potatoes, and salad I consumed before this photo was taken. Burp…

DC PPK Meet-up: Vegan MoFo Edition

October 5, 2008 in Meet-Ups, People, Restaurants | 6 comments

The good thing about committing to a month of writing (even though I missed a couple of days, there) is that I force myself to post pictures and write about things that usually get neglected. I tend to take pictures at parties and restaurant meetings and plan to post them or share them, I really do. Then, a week or two goes by, and it just becomes embarrassing at that point to bother. So they go into my permanent collection, never to be seen by anyone except for me.

I’m hoping that starting this food blog will encourage me to post those photos more often. Even though I love to cook, the DC area is full of vegan and vegan-friendly restaurants. Vegetate has amazing sliders and Happy Hour specials, Great Sage has a wonderful brunch and delicious desserts, and there are a number of other restaurants where it is easy for a vegan to find a great meal.

Last night, I went to Soul Vegetarian Cafe with friends Meghan, Karyn, Carolyn, and Laura. With the exception of honey in some of the desserts, the cafe is all vegan. Food is mostly served up cafeteria style, with several entrèes, carbs, and vegetables. They are famous for their mac and cheeze, though. Until last night, it had been several years since I’d been to Soul Veg, but I still remembered their creamy, tasty macaroni casserole.

After Soul Veg, we enjoyed Sticky Fingers for dessert. I was able to pick some goodies up earlier on my way to our meet-up. I may also have accidentally consumed a large quantity of homemade candy corn that Meghan and Carolyn made. Oops. No wonder I wasn’t hungry for most of today.