The Vegetarian Gourmand

Zuni Cafe: Great Bread and the Rest of the Food Ain't Bad Either

2011-12-20T18:11:00.000-08:00

Zuni Cafe
1658 Market Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.552.2522

Zuni Cafe is one of those "must" dine at restaurants in San Francisco. It is always packed (reservations a must for dinner and a good idea for lunch). The food is fresh and generally well-prepared (although I have had an over-cooked pasta before), the space is interesting covering two floors in a triangular-shaped building, there are always a few vegetarian choices and the homemade bread is wonderful - so much so that it's one of the rare places where I eat the bread.

I've eaten there several times for dinner - one complaint would be that it is noisy - but made it for lunch this week. The lunch menu is a little lighter, but stays true to the fresh ingredients that are well-prepared ...and there is the bread. The bread is a homemade peasant-style bread. It's crusty, but chewy on the inside.

For starters, I had the wild arugula salad with pomegranate seeds, mint, walnuts and sheep's milk ricotta (above). What I liked about this salad is that the ricotta and pomegranate seeds could have easily been lost in the dish, but they added plenty of both so that the flavor was in every bite.

Polenta is sort of a fancy word for cornmeal, but I like it anyway on a crisp winter day, especially with a cool dollop of mascarpone (above). The texture was good - like a firm porridge.

The tagliatelle with chanterelles, nettles and pistachio picada benefited from the homemade noodles. The flavors of the main ingredients were a bit overwhelmed by butter, but it was still enjoyable and worth ordering again.

Parking can be a bit difficult in the evenings here, but valet parking is available for $10. Any nearby lots are the same price.

ABC Kitchen Simple yet Amazing

2011-11-16T06:14:00.000-08:00

ABC Kitchen
35 East 18th Street
New York, NY 10003
212.475.5829
www.abckitchennyc.com

The latest in Jean Georges' restaurants is undoubtedly my new favorite. The food is sublime - with simple dishes that have outstanding flavor.

The best way to sample the food is by sharing several plates. There are too many wonderful things on the menu to limit oneself. I went back twice over two days and nothing disappointed, quite the opposite.

The best dishes were the ones that I expected the least out of. Pistachio pesto with whole wheat pasta and julienned squash blossoms had outstanding flavor in what could have been such an average dish.

A salad with strawberries and fresh goat cheese (above) blended sweet with slightly bitter for a nice way to start to the meal.

Pizza and house-cut fries from the lunch menu (above).
The bland housemade ricotta ravioli with herbs and tomato sauce (above) was the least appealing dish.
The sundae with salted caramel ice cream, candied peanuts and popcorn and whipped cream was a delightful surprise. The flavors worked perfectly to taste like a cool box of Cracker Jack. This is not to be missed.

Vegetarian entrees run about $25 and appetizers and small plates about $16.

Manresa - Where Veggies Travel Just 13 Miles to Your Plate

2011-05-21T14:58:00.001-07:00

Manresa
320 Village Lane
Los Gatos, CA 95030
408.354.4330
www.manresarestaurant.com

Pick up Bon Appetit this month (August 2011) and you'll find a story about Manresa's David Kinch, who, as the magazine says, takes local "sourcing a step further, chefs who won't call produce local unless its truly their own."

This is a treat for vegetarians who dine at Manresa as Love Apple Farms in Santa Cruz, just 13 miles away, provides all the produce for the restaurant. I was fortunate enough to feast on the vegetarian tasting menu the night Bon Appetit was taking photos at the restaurant.

I lost track of the number of courses - there was no menu and I've just featured a few of the plates here - but most every plate was a delightful surprise both in the vibrant colors and flavors.
Dinner began with bell pepper and black olive madeleines (above). It finished with chocolate madeleines that looked identical to the savory ones. A clever way to "bookend" the meal.
Fried kale with garden beignets (above).
The juniper berry soda with sorrel sorbet was the one offering that didn't work for me. Fortunately, it was a small serving (above).
Mandarin oranges with jasmine tea gelee (above).
Tempura radishes with creamy salsify emulsion and pickled cucumber with dill (above).
Asparagus with rice, and wild rice vinegarette (above).

Mustard cream with vegetable purees and green vegetable veloute and pansies (above).
Polenta with green pickled strawberries (above).
Potato and green garlic fritter with grilled morel mushrooms and roasted radishes (above). Fruit sorbet with rhubarb yogurt ice (above).

Given the nature of the restaurant, with all the produce coming fresh from Kinch's garden, everyday's offerings will be a bit different. The dishes a friend had just a week or two before had the same basic dishes, but with several different fruits and vegetables than I received.

Manresa doesn't get the attention of French Laundry - probably because being in Los Gatos it's not a destination restaurant - but I find it far better and more deserving of acclaim. Service is attentive and the space is warm and relaxing, with tables placed well apart for privacy.

Munich's Tantris - A Blend of the Strange and the Sublime

2011-04-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

Restaurant Tantris
Johann-Fichte-Strasse 7
Munich, Germany
089.36.19.59-0
www.tantris.de

When architect Justus Dahinden set out to build Tantris, he wanted to make it something exotic and strange. He came away with a restaurant that has stood the test of time. And, while still exotic, is not so much strange, but sensual and sublime - and that doesn't just apply to the architectural elements.

The design of the restaurant, which has two Michelin stars and stands at 80 on the San Pelligrino list of the world's top 100 restaurants, has changed little in the 40 years since it opened. There is orange, shag carpet on the ceiling and oversized mushroom-cap-shaped lamps. Metal flowers in bright colors are reminiscent of daisy chain headbands. And the best throwback - the restaurant was designed with intimacy in mind. Although I spotted a few people who didn't remove their cellphones from their ears all evening, tables were spaced far enough apart to insure quiet conversations.
But enough of the design; let's get to the food. A la carte options are available, but the restaurant features tasting menus as well. The vegetarian dinner tasting is five courses, changes daily and features seasonal produce. Dinner began with a flavorful pea ravioli with vegetable and lime-ginger cream (above).
The season's wonderful white marinated asparagus with minced egg and orange hollandaise (above) followed. The flavors were light, with none overwhelming the other.

The artichoke risotto with artichoke stock (above) was nicely prepared with the risotto cooked just to al dente and the stock adding an appreciated extra hint of artichoke.

Flavor-on-flavor combinations proved popular as with the spinach dumpling with fresh morels and spinach (above). This was almost a bit too heavy at the end, but still quite good.

Tantris is still an unexpected treat in Munich, not quite fitting in with the rest of the city, but in a wonderful and creative way.

Dosa Creates Colorful, Festive Meals in San Francisco

2011-04-16T08:41:00.000-07:00

Dosa
1700 Fillmore
San Francisco, CA 94115
415.441.3672
www.dosasf.com

Every time I eat at this South Indian restaurant in San Francisco, it's as though I'm at a festive party with the brightly colored food, lively flavors and snappy spice-infused drinks.

Dosa, which has its original location on Valencia, offers an innovative menu with plenty of options for vegetarians and vegans. Starters are the real appeal and it's easy to make a good meal by sharing a few. And while I don't usually focus on drinks, the drink menu here is not to be ignored. The cocktails feature drinks such as the Peony with gin, hibiscus nectar, coconut, lime and bird's eye chili. I've yet to try one that wasn't only pleasing to the eye, but also the palate.
The colorful, spice-infused cocktails (above and below) are unique and flavorful. This is one of the few places I always order a cocktail.
Dosas are basically a filled crepe that you eat with your hands, dipping it first into the lentil soup or sambar and then add some fresh coconut or mango chutney. One order can make a filling meal or share it will the table in order to sample more from the menu. Fillings range from a blend of potatoes to cheeses and vegetables, such as the paneer and peas dosa (below).

The vada pav or vegetarian sliders (above) have a spiced potato patty, chutneys, caramelized onion and ground chilies and lentils. They're flavorful and the different textures provides a nice balance to the dosas.

Dosa, with its simple yet elegant interior with modern chandeliers, is an excellent choice in San Francisco for dining with those who eat meat and those who are vegetarians as the varied menu offers a good selection for each.

Tough Not to be Sweet on All-Dessert Espaisucre in Barcelona

2011-03-12T14:28:00.000-08:00

Espaisucre
Calle Princesa 53
Barcelona, Spain
34.93.268.16.30
www.espaisucre.com

It would be easy to say Spain's top pastry chef Jordi Butron's all-dessert restaurant, Espaisucre, is a sweet treat, but that's not entirely true. It's also savory.

The restaurant, which features three- and five-course tasting menus, serves up such combinations as raspberries with red pepper and chocolate with tobacco. Every plate is an unusual mix of flavors and textures that neither left me feeling as though I'd overloaded on sweets or needed a more traditional dinner.

While the five-course menus tend to not be vegetarian-friendly, offering dishes such as cod rice with tomato ice cream, there are plenty of other menus for vegetarians, including the chocolate menu and the cheese menu. The chocolate with vinegar, strawberry, mint and pepper (above) shows up on a couple of the menus. This is one of the few dishes I tried where one flavor - the strawberry - overpowered everything else. That's not to say it was bad, but it tasted less creative than perhaps it was on a technical level.

Each flavor in the passion fruit, coffee, lemon cress and mint sorbet with lemon foam (above), on the other hand, stood out well on its own while at the same time complementing the others. The variety of textures, from the coffee-flavored cake to the light foam, was also appealing.

Despite a strange mix of ingredients that included chocolate, prunes, oak, rum and tobacco (above) this blend came out very well. The prunes were oddly moist and there was an occasional hint of tobacco and oak, but it was difficult to tell what part of the dish the flavors came from.

This goat cheesecake (above) with raspberries, red pepper and ginger was an interesting mix of savory and sweet. The cheese was surprisingly strong on its own, but softened with the other ingredients.

The truffle mushroom, butter, hazelnut and chocolate concoction (above) had a strong truffle flavor with a topping the texture of crumbled Oreo cookies.

Each menu concludes with an assortment of petits-fours in flavor combinations such as sesame with licorice and green apple with laurel.

All menus come with a choice of wine pairings or it's possible to order wine by the bottle or glass.
Tasting menus range in price from 30 to 50 euros and wine pairings are from 10 to 18 euros.

Kauai Grill: A Beautiful Place for Beautiful Food

2011-02-27T16:14:00.000-08:00

Kauai Grill
St. Regis Hotel
5520 Ka Haku Road
Princeville, Kauai, Hawaii
808.826.9644
www.stregisprinceville.com/dining/the-kauai-grill

I tend to have a soft spot for several of Jean-Georges' restaurants. A large part of it is no doubt that many of them are vegetarian friendly and the other part is that they're consistently good. Kauai Grill at the St. Regis Hotel in Princeville is no exception.

In an area of Kauai where there's no shortage of restaurants that offer vegetarian fare to cater to the many local vegetarians, Kauai Grill is able to stand up to the best of offerings from nearby restaurants such as Postcards and BarAcuda. The one major downside is the vegetarian menu doesn't change much. In two visits late last year and in looking at what appears to be the current online menu, the two vegetarian entrees haven't changed.

The salads haven't changed either. I don't think they're expecting many frequent repeat guests. The salads are good, fresh and highlight local ingredients. The heart of palm salad (above) has vine-ripened tomatoes, avocado and coconut. The produce was sweet and flavorful. A nice start to dinner.

The watermelon radishes on baby romaine salad (above) with baby arugula, avocado and spicy corn vinagarette does not appear to be a staple of the menu. While not as tasty as the hearts of palm salad the various flavors and textures worked well.

I started this blog, in part, to feature restaurants where vegetarians could get something other than tofu and seitan. I've always felt if I wanted something that took on the flavor of meat, I would eat meat. But I admit the tofu with a nut and seed crust in a sweet and sour sauce (above) can hold its own against most any non-animal-based dish I've ever had. Tofu or not, it's simply good. The tofu has a nice firm texture and the crust provides flavor and texture. I was not at all disappointed to find this to be a staple on the menu, although I would certainly like to see Kauai Grill expand and change its vegetarian offerings over time.

Service is basically what you might expect from waiters who are more accustomed to spending time on a surfboard than in a fine restaurant. They’re pleasant and they get the job done, their skills just aren’t as fine-tuned as one might hope.

Prices are about $26 for entrees and $14 for salads.

2010-12-16T07:19:00.000-08:00

Millennium
580 Geary Street
San Francisco, CA 94102
415.345.3900
www.millenniumrestaurant.com

Millennium, the highly acclaimed gourmet vegan restaurant, has an innovative nightly menu, but also numerous special events. My favorite is their monthly winemaker dinners. Whereas sommeliers generally pair wines to food, chef Eric Tucker takes these opportunities to develop dishes for the wines that are brought to him, generally from small California winemakers. The results are most always enjoyable and sometimes nothing short of perfection.

Tucker uses seasonal ingredients. The November and December dinners focused on mushrooms and and truffles and the November dinner featured Zepaltas wines, a wonderful find as all the wines, especially a very earthy 2006 chardonnay were stellar.
The dinners generally feature six courses and run about $95 with wines. Among the standout pairings were the warm chicories salad (above) with pear poached in chardonnay, vanilla and allspice; seared velvet pioppini mushrooms; and a roasted chestnut-polenta crouton. This was paired with that 2008 chardonnay that was quite unlike any chardonnay I'd had before. Instead of a buttery taste it was more like the earth and the ingredients of the salad were chosen to match.
Linguini with broccoli rabe, fried sage and and shaved white truffles (above) was paired with a 2008 pinot noir from the winery's Suacci Vineyard. The wine was good and the truffles were wonderful. The dish was very light, intending to showcase the truffles.

A baked collard roll (above) with farro and enoki mushroom filling and smoked black lentil ragu was excellent, especially with a bit of mustard-fig mostarda to add sweetness. This was served with a 2007 syrah.I had no idea candied mushrooms could work so well for dessert as these did on top the pistachio-mandarin tartlette with chantrelle scented ice cream and meyer lemon-vanilla bean caramel. This was served with a 2008 late-harvest chardonnay.

The winemaker dinners at Millennium sellout quickly, and there's generally only room for about 35. To learn more about them, sign up for the restaurant's mailing list. Of course, eating in the dining room off of the nightly menu is generally a treat too.

It's Easy to be Grateful for the Food at Gracias Madre

2010-12-08T13:51:00.000-08:00

Gracias Madre
2211 Mission Street
San Francisco, CA 94110-1811
415.683.346
www.gracias-madre.com

Vegan or not, Gracias Madre is possibly the best Mexican cafe in the San Francisco Bay Area. It's somewhat a child of the raw foods Cafe Gratitude, where dishes have names such as "I am Wonderful", but don't let that stop you. Cafe Gratitude serves up amazing Mexican food using organic produce, cashew cheeses and heirloom corn. The textures are so rich and the tastes so flavorful, I can't imagine meat eaters missing the pork or chicken in their sauteed mushroom tacos or mole enchiladas with mushrooms and cashew cheese with sauteed greens and beans (below).

I've yet to have even a mediocre dish here. The guacamole is rich and abundant in flavor. There is a wide selection of salads, such as the persimmon salad with mixed greens, toasted pecans and chipotle vinaigrette with Acme bread and queso blanco, as well as soups and desserts.

The setting is light and comfortable and service is friendly. One of the best deals is to show up between 4 and 7 p.m. Monday through Friday for happy hours when there are $3 cocktails and organic beers on draft. Entrees range from $11 to about $15.

Food at Postcards is Worth Writing Home About

2010-10-26T15:42:00.000-07:00

Postcards Cafe
5-5075 Kuhio Hwy # A
Hanalei, HI 96714
808.826.1191
www.postcardscafe.com

I've eaten at Postcards at least a half a dozen times. Sometimes I'm taken with it, sometimes I'm not and don't return for a while. I decided it had been long enough so went back last night, and I'm glad I did.

Postcards offers a good selection of vegan and vegetarian dishes - most all using organic ingredients that come from the island. The result is fresh, flavorful plates with a local flair.
I began with a portobello mushroom cap (above) filled with spinach, onions, corn and white cheddar cheese. As the server noted, it was kind of like a pizza on a big mushroom. It was a substantial starter. The ingredients melded together into a rich mash of goodness.
I'm not a big tofu eater, but the grilled tofu (above) with garlic potatoes, ginger carrots and broccoli was fabulous. The tofu was firm and dry, which worked perfectly with the sweet peppered pineapple sage sauce. The ginger carrots looked a bit like baby food, but were out-of-this-world. The carrots really just provided a base to carry the ginger.

More traditional fare included the Francesca pasta (above), fussili with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms, and Kalamata olives sauted in a spicy sherry marinara sauce. It was puttanesca with a twist, slightly more tangy and sweeter with less bite.

Postcards sits in a charming cottage. The original building was constructed in the 1860s and once served as the Hanalei Museum, but 1992's Hurricane Iniki did it in. It was carefully rebuilt as an exact replica of the original in 1996 and has been Postcards Cafe ever since.

Postcards is open nightly from 6 to 9 p.m. Reservations are taken only for parties of four or more.

Vic Falls Hotel Needs to Focus Less on Dress, More on Food

2010-10-15T09:15:00.000-07:00

Livingstone Room
Victoria Falls Hotel
2 Mallett Drive
Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe
263.13.44751
www.africansunhotels.com

The Livingstone Room of the Victoria Falls Hotel looks lovely - a grand ballroom decorated in deep red with glorious high ceilings. The diners look good too as the dress-code is strictly enforced. During a late-August visit, the host eyed each guest up and down, checking for collared-shirts, socks, dress shoes, and slacks for men, sending some away from the nearly empty dining room. While the goal may be to preserve the elegance of dining room at this "grand old lady of the Falls," the attention would be better placed elsewhere, such as on the quality of the food.

While the dinner presentation was attractive, the quality left much to be desired. I realize the challenges that Zimbabwe faces and that many people would love to have any food to put on the table, but the expectations are set high here as are the prices. Expect a two-course dinner to run $40 a person without wine. My money would have been better spent grabbing a sandwich and feeding some people outside on the street.
The meal started out well enough, with a cream-based corn soup that was mild in flavor (above).

A tomato and greens salad was rather skimpy and the tomato was bland (above).

The big failure was the risotto entree. It came to the table looking so tasty with garnishes of greens and cheese and as though it had a bounty of flavors, but it needed a good 10 minutes more cooking time. It was simply inedible. The host checked on the entree about five minutes after it was served as it sat on my plate untouched except for one bite. He did little more than say, "Oh," when I mentioned that it was undercooked to the point it was impossible to eat.

Go look at the hotel, marvel at the views and see the Livingstone Room. But don't waste money eating there. If you need an alternative, try the hotel/casino next door that makes a tasty grilled cheese sandwich.

Update: On October 15, I found the following on a booking website for the hotel. "As a result of many requests from visitors, The Victoria Falls Hotel has decided to relax aspects of the long-standing dress code in force in its premier dining venue, The Livingstone Room. This is in recognition of the fact that many travelers do not bring with them the more formal clothes that have until now been mandatory in this restaurant. Smart casual wear is now acceptable in The Livingstone Room at dinner each evening." Unfortunately, fixing the food will be a bit more difficult.

A NICE-Enough Meal at a Culinary School in Namibia

2010-09-05T20:55:00.000-07:00

The Namibian Institute of Culinary Education (NICE)
2 Mozart Street
Windhoek, Namibia
(264) 61-300 710
www.nice.com.na

I like to visit culinary academies. The food may be imperfect, the service may be a bit off, but often you get a good meal for a relatively low cost and the money helps to support students’ education. So when I found the National Institute for Culinary Education (NICE) in Windhoek, Namibia, I was eager to try it out, especially reading that it was operated by Wolwedans, the exceptional safari lodge group in the Namib Desert. The school trains students to work at safari lodges at Wolwedans and at other camps. The host at my hotel, after I gave her a selection of three restaurants in the area I was considering, reaffirmed my selection of NICE without so much as a brief pause.

The restaurant is in a refurbished home. As a result there are several separated dining rooms, with each holding no more than about 20 guests. With all the small rooms, though the restaurant was quite full, there was very little noise and each dining room had an intimate feel to it. All of the dining rooms are warmly decorated and attractive – far moreso than most culinary academies I’d visited, where you might be dining in a classroom.

I had written the restaurant in advance to ask if they could accommodate vegetarians. I received back the menu with a few items marked that they could be modified for vegetarians.

The waiters are not students; only the chefs are. I was far more forgiving of the inattentive service (no checking back on the quality of the food, little attention paid to drink refills) until I found this out. The first dish out of the kitchen was quite tasty - vegetable tempura served on skewers with soy sauce.

The orange-flavored butternut soup did not have any orange flavor that I discerned, but it was good, creamy and baked potato chips were a nice topping.

The tomato-mozzarella ravioli in tomato sauce was the miss as it came out of the kitchen quite bland. Salt and pepper made it more flavorful, but it would have been preferable to have this come out well-seasoned.

The food and service may be a bit hit-and-miss, but overall the National Institute for Culinary Education gets high marks and is a worthwhile stop in Windhoek.

Kajitsu

2010-07-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

Kajitsu
414 E. 9th Street
New York, NY 10009
212.228.4873
www.kajitsunyc.com

I owe this unique find to my friend Rachel who is fortunate enough to live not far from this charming restaurant that offers vegetarian Shojin cuisine in a space that is so peaceful that it is far easier to think you are in Kyoto than Manhattan.

Kajitsu changes its menu just once a month, offering five- and seven-course menus for $50 and $70, respectively. (Sake pairings are available.) Each month's menu is posted on the website on the first day of the month.

When you enter, you are led to a tranquil, quiet space with minimalist Japanese decor. What stands out here are the details - from the few art pieces to the service to each little serving bowl. The website explains you may notice carefully repaired cracks or chips on some of the pieces as many are up to 200 years old. The careful repairs represent respect for the master potters.

My friend and I opted for the seven-course menu, which started with my favorite dish of the evening: chilled tomato aspic with avocado, fresh peas, wasabi and umadashi sauce (below). The combination of flavors played well, with every bite leading to something a bit new.

Noodles (kept chilled with an ice cube buried underneath them) with sesame dipping sauce were a little more ordinary and came before the soup with simmered watermelon, shiso and junsai shoots (below). The soup was another surprising blend of flavors and textures.

Buckwheat risotto with porcini mushrooms (below in cup), fried zucchini blossoms stuffed with corn and an array of fruit made for fun mix of foods, with the fried zucchini blossom a wonderful standout. The fruits were a nice palate cleanser.
The main course was a spaghetti squash stuffed with chilled summer vegetable soup served over mixed tempura. It was good and the presentation was lovely, but it was not outstanding.

After a course of asparagus rice, we finished the evening with a heavenly fresh peach mochi and then some matcha tea.

This is one of the more unique vegetarian restaurants I have visited and I highly recommend a visit. I can't wait to return.

Craigie on Main: What They Lack in Selection is Made up for in Flavor

2010-06-11T15:58:00.001-07:00

Craigie on Main
853 Main Street
Cambridge, MA 02139
617.497.5511
www.craigieonmain.com

I put off going to Craigie on Main for more than a year after it was first recommended to me. Every time I looked at their menu online, it just didn't look like they had much to offer vegetarians. And while that may be somewhat true, what they do offer - which includes a vegetarian tasting menu - is quite good. Now I'm sorry I didn't get there sooner.

The biggest reason it doesn't look like they have much for vegetarians is that most of their offerings are variations on their meat-based dishes. The ragout of forest mushrooms (above) with farro, ramps, herbs and fresh flowers topped with a poached egg is on the menu as being served with sweetbreads. Often, I'm hesitant about a dish that is modified to make it vegetarian as it seems incomplete. That wasn't the case here. The vegetarian version of the dish made for a wonderful blend of flavors with no sense that anything was lacking.

The crispy potato galette (above) is off of the bar menu and is served with a horseradish cream sauce. On the menu it has salmon roe and bacon bits, but again the dish stood on its own, with a crispy outside and tender, flavorful inside.
The four-grain pilaf-stuffed Vidalia onion with spring vegetables (above) was tender and flavorful with the onion not being overbearing.

The surprise of the evening was a dessert I never would have ordered, but it was absolutely fantastic. It was creamy Anson Mills corn grits with a warm strawberry compote. Grits do not sound good to me at any time and especially not for dessert, but this was so sweet and smooth that it was not to be missed. I would stop in just for that.

Service at Craigie on Main is friendly and attentive. Vegetarian prix fixe is $61 and entrees ordered a la carte start at about $21. One drawback is that larger groups - parties of more than four people - can generally only be accommodated at the tables in the bar, where it can be crowded and noisy.

Molecules Fail to Line Up at Chicago's Moto

2010-06-11T15:26:00.000-07:00

Moto
945 W. Fulton Market
Chicago, Illinois 60607
312.491.0058
www.motorestaurant.com

It's like tromp l'oeil, but for the palate. Nothing quite looks like what it is. The savory dishes look sweet; the sweet dishes savory; and the cigar (below) is a veggie dog. Molecular gastronomy takes what you know about food and turns it upside down. When it's done well, the presentation is amazing, but doesn't outshine the food. When it's done poorly, it's all about style over substance. Unfortunately, at Moto it's not done well. It's fun, it's frivolous, but the food suffers terribly. And the service leaves much to be desired as well. At about $500 for two (10-courses each and splitting the wine pairings) that just shouldn't happen.

The evening started out with the night's menu printed on bread, which you consume. The waiter promised to bring another menu out so my guest and I could follow along with the courses, but we had to remind him two more times before this happened. It only took minor revisions to the menu to create a vegetarian menu, but most things fell flat, as they did with my guest's omnivore menu. The vegetarian version of the cannoli (below), made to look sweet, but really a rolled taco, contained little more than avocado.

This dish (below) made to look like fruits and desserts was savory, and unremarkable. A bubble tea was little more than a tiny shot-glass-sized glass filled with cool tea. It counted as one of the courses, but would have made for a weak amuse bouche.

One of the better dishes of the evening was a take-off on the Hostess Sno Ball (below). A great disappointment was that the waiter spoke so softly that it was impossible to hear what he said as he described any of the dishes.
The final course was a root beer float (below). This came with dry ice floating out and an edible 'packing peanut'. There was perhaps a smidgen of rootbeer - or anything edible - to this most dramatic yet severly lacking dish.
Overall, the food was poor and service was just as bad. The wine pairings were consistently brought out at ill-timed intervals. In a nutshell, Moto is expensive and disappointing, and in a city such as Chicago, where there are so many good alternatives - Alinea anyone? - there is no reason to dine here.

The RCC: Where Kitsch, Red Capitalist Ideals and Good Food Come Together

2010-05-24T18:28:00.000-07:00

Red Capital Club
No. 66 Dongsi Jiutiao
Dongcheng District
100007 Beijing, China
+86 10 8401 6152
www.redcapitalclub.com.cn

I won't pretend that this is a place to get the most authentic Chinese food in Beijing. Is it touristy? Yes. Is it expensive by Chinese standards? Of course. Is it fun? You bet! And, of course, they happily accommodate vegetarians.

Tucked in an old hutong alleyway it's easy to miss the Red Capital Club. There's no sign, but there is a vintage limo that used to be used by Chairman Mao's wife parked out front.

You enter into a quaintly preserved courtyard home. The lounge is the first stop. It is filled with 1950-70s kitsch, but also memorabilia such as two sofas that were used by Marshal Lin Biao, who died in a "plane crash" after an apparent failed coup to oust Mao. Drinks are served in the lounge, with the Cuba Libre seeming most appropriate, although there is a large selection of signature and standard cocktails along with a good selection of local and international wines by the glass or bottle. In the lounge, you are presented with the dinner menu and place your order while relaxing and taking in all the trinkets and photos.

Once the first course is ready, you are moved into a dining room, adorned with yet more pieces from the Communist Revolution. Each plate is adorned with figures delicately carved from vegetables. The waiter explained this was how dishes were served to Mao.

The first course (above) was shredded bean curd skins tossed with chili peppers. This was the highlight of the meal, with its subtle, noodle-like flavor, yet just different enough to seem quite unique. I'd not seen this elsewhere.

The winter soup was a nice hot-and-sour soup. There was nothing unusual about it, but it was well prepared. Vegetable spring rolls (below) were nicely done, and obviously house made. They came with a mild soy-based sauce and a mild chili dip.

Asparagus was fanned out on a plate like so many peacock feathers. These were steamed to a nice al dente and garnished with carrots and lotus. These were simple and well-prepared.

The hot-and-sour bean curd (above) was rather unusual. Tofu cubes were flash fried to give a crispy skin and a soft interior, almost like the texture of roasted marshmallows. These were quite tasty.

Overall the food was well prepared, with several of the dishes being unique. All the dishes were artfully presented. Red Capital Club offers good food in a fun and attractive setting. It definitely makes for an enjoyable evening.

Post Ranch Inn's Sierra Mar: Breathtaking Views, Pleasing Food

2010-05-04T21:45:00.000-07:00

Sierra Mar
Post Ranch Inn
Highway 1
Big Sur, CA 93920
831-667-2800
www.postranchinn.com

The views at Sierra Mar restaurant at Post Ranch Inn (below) are so spectacular it's easy to overlook the food, but it's just about as delightful.

The restaurant at the widely acclaimed inn, known for its organic architecture and far-reaching ocean vistas, offers a four-course fixed-price dinner menu for $105 a person. There are about four options for each course, including one or two vegetarian choices. Those with smaller appetites can order a la carte.

Dinner began with a trio of artichoke hearts (above), each uniquely prepared. One was pureed and mousse like; another thinly sliced like pasta ribbons and complemented with morel mushrooms; and the third was in a truffle vinaigrette with garlic crumbs. All three preparations were done very well. Each one flaunted the variation in flavor that creative preparation can showcase, and each was sized to leave you wanting just a bit more, but by the third it was a good sized appetizer.

The soy-braised Shiitake mushroom salad (above) was an interesting melange of ingredients, including mango, water chestnuts and cashews. The individual parts didn't seem to coalesce into a complementary blending of flavors, yet this worked surprisingly well as each ingredient stood on its own and was overall quite tasty.

The mushroom stroganoff (above) featured freshly made noodles with a generous amount of morel mushrooms and fresh-shelled peas, making for rich texture and flavors. The mushrooms soaked up the sauce to give a nice flavor with each bite.

Service was friendly, but relaxed and on the slow side. Courses didn't quite flow as they should have.

The wine list is large with an ample selection in a wide variety of prices.

Overall, Sierra Mar is a delight for dinner. To enjoy the view, be sure to make a reservation prior to sunset.

Fu 1088 Begs: Just How Much of the Meal is About the Food

2010-04-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

Fu 1088
Zhenning Lu 375
Shanghai, China
021.5239.7878

Consistently listed as one of the top restaurants in Shanghai, Fu 1088 takes up three floors of a 1930s mansion, with guests seated in private rooms that can accommodate from two to 12. I had my concierge make the reservation at the fusion-style restaurant, and received word back that accommodating vegetarians was no problem and that the minimum charge per person was about US $40.

Upon arriving, I was immediately taken upstairs to my private room. I saw no other guests, as they were all tucked away behind doors in their own private rooms. Based on the small floral-print Victorian wallpaper and size of the room, I figured it was perhaps a small bedroom in its former life. My server handed me a rather extensive menu, but then gave me a printed sheet indicating they'd already selected the dishes I'd be having. I would have preferred to select my own dishes, and perhaps I could have made some changes, but I figured I'd go with it.

The first plate (above) had an interesting combination of fungus, vegetables and taro. Each item was good, but none worked particularly well with the other. The next knock on the door - the servers always knocked before entering - brought wild mushrooms baked in a bag (above) with truffle sauce and served with mushroom consomme. These were quite tasty and the preparation was interesting as was the presentation.
My favorite course was crispy "monkey head" flavored mushrooms (above) flavored with fried oatmeal. I loved the crispiness the the delicate flavor of the mushrooms.
This bean curd dish had a firm layer over the softer cake of bean curd. Served with asparagus, mushrooms and in a soy sauce, it was quite good.

The restaurant did serve one course that I'm quite confident was vegetable soup in chicken stock. I've grown to expect that some of the foods I get in Asia that are referred to as "vegetarian" often aren't what I consider "vegetarian". I could tell the server wanted to ask why I didn't touch it, but our inability to speak the same language didn't make that possible.

Upon leaving Fu 1088, I did ponder how much of the experience of going out to eat is the meal, and how much of it being around other guests. Somehow, tucked away in a private room left me feeling like I was missing the experience of dining in a restaurant. I enjoy seeing other diners - what they're eating, what they're wearing, who they are.

In any event, Fu 1088 is a fun, novelty restaurant to try in Shanghai and is would be great for small groups looking for privacy, but I honestly can't say my $40 meal there was better than the $4 meal I had later in the week, served outside in a lovely riverside setting. And I did feel something was missing by not eating in a dining room, surrounded by others.

L'Arpege - It Doesn't Get Any Better

2010-01-30T17:27:00.000-08:00

L'Arpege
84 Rue de Varenne
75007 Paris, France
01 45 51 47 33
www.alain-passard.com

I will always be grateful to Alain Passard. Years ago in Paris I asked at a two-star restaurant if I could get the chef to prepare something vegetarian. I was met with disdain. How could I dare to ask such a thing? This was a restaurant gastronomic, not a tofu and sprouts fern bar. And so I found myself later that evening sitting at a fern bar with a plate of pasta and textured vegetable protein, thinking how wrong that picture was. And then came Passard.In 2001, Passard, who five years prior had earned his third Michelin star for L'Arpege, stopped preparing red meat and turned his attention to vegetables. His announcement was met with shock. Some felt he was risking his Michelin stars. But Passard's star shined through it all and today L'Arpege (as well as other of his restaurants) not only turns out wonderful food for vegetarians, but paved the way for other famed chefs to take another look at vegetables, and to accommodate vegetarians. To be clear, Passard does offer pork, fish and plenty of other animal-based dishes for the carnivorous.

A recent nine-course lunch at the quaint and unpretentious restaurant began with a collection of ravioli, each filled with a different vegetable from Passard's five-acre garden outside of Paris.

Then came a most amazing combination of slightly cooked egg yolk, creme fraiche and maple syrup all served inside an egg shell, which was placed in an egg cup. My dining companion couldn't figure out what all my fuss was about about until I explained you had to scoop to the bottom, getting all the ingredients at once, to get the incredible flavor combination. It was a mixture of sweet and slightly bitter that was divine.
That was followed by a very thin layer of onion gratin (above) with black pepper and fresh greens.

After the egg and maple syrup combination, the most surprising dish was the celeriac "risotto" with black truffle (above). It really wasn't risotto at all - there was no arborio in it - but celeriac that had been made into the shape of risotto. Every time I took a bite the creaminess of the sauce fooled my mouth into expecting smooth grains of rice, but instead there was a delightful fresh texture and light crunch. Delightful.

Beets were salt-roasted. The salt allows the beets to slowly cook and develop their flavor while the salt absorbs excess moisture to keep the beets from getting soggy. The beets tasted sweet and were still firm.

Celeriac was again served but this time in the shape of tagliatelle with more slices of fresh black truffle - a benefit of visiting in winter. The "noodles" had just enough crunch to distinguish them from a flour-based pasta.

A wonderful well-aged comte was freshly shaved from a large round that was wheeled throughout the room. The cheese had a melt-in-your-mouth texture like a fresh cheese, yet looked on the plate like a firm, dry cheese.

For dessert, there were sheets of thin chocolate piled up with creme. The dish was very light and flaky, and much too light on the chocolate for me.

To finish off, we received a plate of macaroons in unexpected flavors including beetroot and parsnip.

Passard visited each table during lunch and then came back and chatted some more with me as I was leaving. "My restaurant I made for you," he said when I told him I was a vegetarian. "You come here all the time." I'd go daily if I could, and if I could afford it. Lunch, which is a bargain when compared to dinner, was 130 euros per person. The wine pairings were another 70 euros per person. It is well worth the splurge.

Jean-Georges' JoJo a Vegetarian-Friendly Spot in New York

2010-01-24T17:21:00.000-08:00

Jo Jo
160 East 64th Street
New York, NY 10021
212.223.5656
www.jean-georges.com

Star chef Jean-Georges Vingerichten opened his first New York restaurant almost 10 years ago in a cozy townhouse on the Upper East Side. When that elegant restaurant opened, Ruth Reichl wrote that the food, "took my breath away." That restaurant, Jo Jo, is still cozy and elegant and serves food that delights. Best of all, it's possibly the most vegetarian-friendly of Jean-Georges' restaurants, offering a vegetable menu and, in general, food prepared with light vegetable stocks and herbal vinaigrettes.

During a recent dinner, while the four-course vegetable menu sounded wonderful and was tempting at just $45, I opted for three courses from the a la carte menu. I started with a butternut squash soup that was surprisingly light yet very flavorful. I continued with the beet green ravioli with ricotta cheese and marjoram brown butter (below).

My beet ravioli was an appetizer-sized portion, but yet with the soup and dessert to come was perfectly sized to be my entree. The ravioli were fulfilling while the beets on top were fresh and flavorful. The sauce was very light, allowing the other flavors to take center stage.

Dessert was the only mild disappointment as the chocolate mini-cake with soft chocolate filling seemed a tad overcooked.

Overall, Jo Jo is a wonderful choice for an intimate and well-prepared vegetarian dinner that's easy on the wallet.

Commis Delivers on Food, Misses on Ambiance

2010-01-07T21:49:00.000-08:00

Commis
3859 Piedmont Ave.
Oakland, CA 94611
510.653.3902
www.commisrestaurant.com

Commis may be the latest restaurant in the San Francisco East Bay to have a Michelin star, but that doesn't mean it's worth visiting. Yes, the food is good - sometimes outstanding - but it's so noisy it's tough to enjoy the meal.

The restaurant is in a long, narrow space that seats just 31 people, with seven of those being at the counter around the open kitchen. Every surface in this restaurant is hard and the noise is overwhelming as diners try to yell over the music and then over each other. A relaxing spot for dinner this is not.

Dinner started with a small, refreshing glass of lemon grass soda followed by a firm boiled egg yolk in onion soup with buckwheat and chives. This opened the evening with an interesting visual and a surprisingly rich and luscious taste.

The three-course menu is small and vegetarian entrees are generally made from what the chef finds at the produce market that day. We were offered an entree featuring a variety of mushrooms or the option of selecting from various ingredients on the menu. (While I was told in two separate phone calls that the restaurant can easily accommodate vegetarians, it seemed somewhat more of a challenge than expected when I was there and told to design my own meal.)

We began with the cauliflower soup with cardoon (above) and the winter roots salad with crispy kale (below). The soup was excellent, very creamy and with the cardoon providing more texture than flavor. The salad was rather ordinary with the exception of the kale. Paper thin and crispy, it was a bit like crunchy nori.

The mushroom entree (below) came with dollops of black bean and bourbon sauce and atop black barley. This dish was very flavorful with the bourbon sauce providing the sweetness and thickness of a very well-aged balsamic. The second entree of root vegetables did not work nearly as well. It was a jumble of mostly bland flavors.

The thin slice of pumpkin pie custard was a heavy ending to an already rich meal. Other options included a cheese plate and an apple and huckleberry tart.

The fixed-price menu is $59 and $29 more for wine pairings. There is an extensive selection of wines by the bottle in the $40-$50 range.

Overall, Commis provides a wonderful dinner, but in an uninviting environment and not really with vegetarians in mind.

Medellin's Herbario Worth the Trip

2009-11-19T09:28:00.000-08:00

Herbario
Carrera 43D 10-30
Medellin, Colombia
+57.4.311.2537
www.elherbario.com

Colombia was the last place I expected to find one of the better vegetarian meals I've had. South America is traditionally known for its beef, not its ways with produce. But Herbario in Medellin proved to be a phenomenal restaurant that offered a varied menu, primarily focused on chicken, fish and beef, but with a few vegetarian gems.
Among the starters, goat cheese served with apple and merlot-soaked pear (above) was light and flavorful. The cheese had a smooth and creamy texture that perfectly complemented the pear. A medley of mushrooms covered in gruyere (below) with pesto and fresh herbed goat cheese was a hearty appetizer that had the texture of a savory stuffing. The sharp and cool herbed goat cheese provided a nice contrast.
Tofu (below) with sweet red pepper, tomato and potatoes in a mild bean sauce was an incredible combination of flavors.
Mushroom risotto (below) in mushroom sauce with crispy fried cheese was rich and savory. While one would expect a mushroom overload, the dish was mild and well-balanced, with the sauce coming across as a mild mole.
The restaurant is warm and comfortable and the staff is very friendly and attentive. There is an adjoining shop to purchase a variety of restaurant-prepared sauces. There is also a full bar and wine list. Entrees are about US $13 and appetizers are about $7.

Los Angeles' Cru Offers World Tour of Raw Foods

2009-11-16T14:09:00.001-08:00

Cru
1521 Griffith Park Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026
323.667.1551
www.crusilverlake.com

This vegan, (mostly) raw foods restaurant in Los Angeles' trendy Silver Lake offers a varied and eclectic menu that takes inspiration from cuisines from around the world. Offerings range from Asian noodle bowls to curried squash soup to ravioli and pizza.

Dinner began with spring rolls (above) wrapped in thinly sliced cucumbers and filled with sprouts, cabbage, shiitake mushrooms and avocado served with a sweet chili sauce. This could have used more avocado and mushroom and fewer greens. The sauce overcame the blandness and added some flavor, but, in general, this dish did nothing to dispel the stereotype weeds-and-seeds vegan fare.

The jicama ravioli (above) filled with cashew nut cheese and topped with pumpkin seed pesto had a good combination of bold flavors. It's understandably the restaurant's signature dish.

The spicy raw vegan chorizo tostada (above) was flavorful, but not overly innovative. The shell was difficult to cut and overly chewy. The chorizo had a nice texture and a zesty bite.

The desserts were among the standouts at Cru. The coconut chocolate pie (below) was light and fluffy, yet had the perfect chocolate flavor. The orange zest on top was a great accent.

The chocolate truffle cake (below) was like cutting into a candy bar. It was seriously rich, thick and firm. The flavor was pure chocolate. I would guess it had 75 to 80 percent dark chocolate, just a hint of bitterness coming on the finish.

Service is friendly and efficient, but you may need to ask for information about the dishes as it's unlikely to be offered otherwise.

Cru does not offer wine, but you can bring your own and there is no corkage fee.

The restaurant does not take reservations, except for parties of six or more, and it does fill up quickly. It opens for dinner at 5:30 p.m. daily, and by 6 p.m. there are people waiting. The restaurant is quite small - it seats about 20 - and there is no entry way separate from the restaurant. Those who chose to wait inside to be seated can be a distraction and can negatively impact the otherwise easy-going atmosphere.

Entrees run about $13-$15, with starters and desserts about $8.

Horizons Heats Up James Beard House With Vegan Dinner

2009-11-06T20:13:00.000-08:00

Horizons
611 S. 7th Street
Philadelphia, PA
215.923.6117
www.horizonsphiladelphia.com

James Beard Foundation
167 W. 12th St.
New York, NY
212.627.1064
www.jamesbeard.org

No sooner did the notice from Vegetarian Times hit my Facebook page than I picked up the phone and made a reservation. For the first time in 23 years, the James Beard Foundation was having a vegan dinner – a vegan dinner prepared by Rich Landau and Kate Jacoby of the highly acclaimed Horizons vegan restaurant in Pennsylvania at Beard’s Greenwich Village townhouse. This was an opportunity I couldn’t miss.

Beard’s townhouse was left to Reed College, but chefs such as Julia Child thought the place needed to be preserved for food events. So with help from folks like Wolfgang Puck, they put on fundraisers and managed to buy it and create the foundation. Now there are food events there about 250 days a year.

When I arrived, the place was already packed. Guests walk through the living room, into the kitchen and in the back to the atrium, where hors d’oeuvres and sparkling wine are served.Some of the wines for the evening (above).

Hors d'oeuvres included:
Oyster mushroom fritters with aguardiente creamed spinach Black olive blini with truffle cream, golden beet relish and seaweed caviar (above)

Edamame purée with crispy sushi rice, gochujang, daikon and nori dust

Grilled seitan with crispy tortillas, whipped avocado, cilantro and green olive relish

Dinner began with portobello carpaccio (above) with crispy capers, rosemary mustard and spaghetti squash latke. It was served with a 2007 Sella & Mosca La Cala Vermentino. The mushroom on this was sliced incredibly thin, giving it a very different texture. It was excellent.

The next course was saffron–cauliflower bisque with fennel confit crostini and oloroso sherry cream. It was served with a 2008 A to Z Pinot Gris from Pennsylvania, which was a very pleasant surprise. All of us at our table were completely taken with it.

The caramelized celery root ravioli with charred brussels sprouts, smoked royal trumpet mushrooms, and sage-grain mustard emulsion was the one dish that didn't quite work for me, although the brussels sprouts were very tasty and nicely cooked. This was served with Chaddsford Winery 2007 pinot "NoPinot" noir.Peppercorn-seared tofu (above) with creamed leek and truffled parsnip purée, salt-roasted golden beets, hazelnuts, and apple cider vinegar reduction was outstanding. I generally don't eat tofu, preferring vegetables instead of substitutions for animals, but this was so tasty and nicely flavored and had a wonderful rich texture. It was another of the standout dishes of the evening.

The heirloom pumpkin cheesecake with chestnut candy and quince jam was made with tofu and was so rich, smooth and creamy, I never would have known had I not been told.

Chef Landau mingled with guests after dinner, and it was truly a lot of fun to eat at the Beard house with so many mementos throughout the house.

There were likely 80-100 guests at dinner. Cost was $100 for members and $125 for non-members. I was told this was a bigger turnout than at most dinners. I was thrilled as this would seem to bode well for future vegan and vegetarian dinners at the Beard house.

Ten Tables May Just Be Ten (or Twenty) Too Many

2009-10-27T15:22:00.000-07:00

Ten Tables
5 Craigie Circle
Cambridge, MA
617.576.5444
www.tentables.net

The Boston area, seafood mecca that it is, is tough for vegetarians. So I was excited when this well-regarded Jamaica Plain restaurant opened in Cambridge, and that it had a vegetarian menu. I wasn't so excited after eating there.

The restaurant, which has just ten tables in Jamaica Plain but about 20 in Cambridge, offers a "surprise" vegetarian menu for $28 most nights of the week. (Call first to find out which nights.) It must be ordered by the whole table. My companion and I went for it.For our first courses we each received a different salad - a roasted beet salad with maytag blue cheese and frisee, and mesculun greens with marcona almonds and shaved manchego. Both were delicious, and I was thrilled to think we might each receive different dishes through each course, giving us the opportunity to try twice the number of plates. Unfortunately, this started and ended with the salads, causing my companion to suggest it appeared more likely they ran out of the blue cheese to make two of the same.

The next course was squash soup (above). Tasty, although a bit bland. The soup was followed by ricotta cavatelli with delicata squash, sage, porcini broth, and Parmesan (below). Overall the dish was good and flavorful (pasta was a bit too firm), but with the squash soup proved to be too much emphasis on one vegetable. Again, we wondered if this was a thought-out vegetarian menu, or something pulled together from what was on hand.
Our final course was a chocolate terrine with "Thai basil" (actually regular basil) ice cream and sea salt. The basil overwhelmed the ice cream and did not complement the chocolate. I enjoy sea salt in chocolate, but it has to be done in the right amount so it does not overpower the chocolate. In this case, all I tasted was salt.

Service was less than stellar. The sparkling water we ordered never arrived. The check was delivered face up with the dessert.

By the reviews I've read of Ten Tables, it seems to delight a lot of people, but a good place for vegetarians it's not.

Radio Africa & Kitchen: Such a Great Find It's Hard to Share

2009-10-21T10:45:00.000-07:00

Radio Africa & Kitchen
at The Coffee Bar on Thursdays and Fridays, 6-10 p.m.
1890 Bryant Street
San Francisco, CA
415.420.2486
www.radioafricakitchen.com

It really is hard to share this wonderful nomadic restaurant in San Francisco. Serving dinner just two nights a week from a coffee house, Radio Africa & Kitchen feels like your own special, secret find that you want to keep that way. But the chef is so terrific and his story so wonderful that it would really be a crime not to spread the word.
Self-taught chef Eskender Aseged fled his native Ethiopia in 1971 at age 19 with only the clothes on his back. He eventually made it to the US, working as a busboy and waiter by day and going home at night to recreate flavors in his kitchen. He left his last job at Campton Place to work on the nomadic Radio Africa and Kitchen. He started serving a group of friends around a picnic table and eventually found places where he could offer his food to the public two nights a week. He doesn't advertise, but he's gradually gained customers primarily through word-of-mouth. Eskender focuses on authentic, healthy meals served while listening to a variety of African music.

The menu changes weekly. You can call ahead or check the website to find out the vegetarian offerings. I started with heirloom tomato gazpacho with fennel pollen and creme fraiche (above). It was wonderful, with smooth tomato flavor. The edamame hummus with green olive oil and tartine bread was also a great starter.

For the main course, I had the Ethiopian mushroom wot with vegetable alicha and goat cheese-stuffed squash blossoms (above). It was perfect with the cheese providing a wonderful complement to the lightly cooked and flavorful vegetables.

Dessert was an over-the-top (and I mean this in the best possible way) chocolate decadence with mixed berries and organic vanilla ice cream.

Reasonably priced wine pairings ($7-8 a glass and about $26 a bottle) are offered with each dish.

The total bill for two, with two glasses of wine each, was $98. Waitstaff is relaxed, casual and very good.

Radio Africa and Kitchen is truly a wonderful find ...if you know where to find it, hiding out (there's no sign) two nights a week at a coffee bar. Make reservations as seating is limited.

Shanghai's M on the Bund Brings Glamour Back

2009-10-03T04:15:00.000-07:00

M on the Bund
6/F, No.5 The Bund (Enter on Guangdong Lu)
Shanghai 200002 China
www.m-restaurantgroup.com
(86 -21) 6350.9988

Undoubtedly the most well-known restaurant in Shanghai, M on the Bund has played host to a staggering list of gliteratti. To name a few: Prince Andrew, Dolce and Gabbana, Helmut Kohl, Gore Vidal, Richard Branson ...and now, me. (Surely, I'll be added to their list of notable diners any day now. ;-) )

This fun and unpretentious restaurant isn't simply about being seen or hobnobbing with the well-to-do, but takes its food seriously. M has been on Meile's top 20 restaurants in Asia list for two years, and was named one of the 50 best restaurants in the world by Conde Nast Traveler.

Before dinner, I went to the M's Glamour Bar one floor down to watch the lights of Pudong come alive as the sun went down. It's a great place to sit and enjoy a martini while staring out at the modern architecture across the river. The interior of the Glamour Bar hails back to days of salons, art deco and jazz. The spaces are comfortable and the mismatched cut-crystal glasses are exquisite. Later, the space comes alive with readings, music and the unexpected. Call for a reservation to get a window table.

The restaurant is warm an inviting, a mix of contemporary and classic design - whimsical yet sophisticated. The main focus is the food, fresh ingredients with European influences. Our starters were the red, green and yellow tomato soup - a very nice blend of flavors - and eggplant served three ways (above) - rolled with red peppers; charred with tahini and mint; diced with olives, almonds and parsley - and served with thin wafers. The eggplant dish would have been well-suited as a shared appetizer for the table as it was too much for one person.
For the mains, the risotto with green, spring vegetables (above) was excellent. The risotto had a nice firm texture and the vegetables were at the peak of flavor.

The tagliatelle with zucchini, lemon zest, fresh herbs, pine nuts and parmesan (above) was strong on the lemon. My dinner companion liked that the chef was not afraid to make a flavor dominate. I tend to go for more balanced plates.

For dessert, a chocolate bomb had a hard chocolate shell with an airy almost ice cream-like filling. It wasn't excellent, but good and refreshing, and plenty large enough to share.

There was a reasonable selection of wines from all over, with a good selection of wines by the glass. Service is good and friendly. Expect to spend about $50 a person before wine.

Make reservations early to get the choice tables at the windows.

Comfort Food Proves the Winner at Chicago's Boka

2009-09-24T11:30:00.000-07:00

Boka
1729 N. Halsted St.
Chicago, IL 60614
312.337.6070
www.bokachicago.com

The last thing I expected to find myself fawning over at Boka was the macaroni and cheese. After all, the restaurant's executive chef is Guiuseppe Tentori, an alum of Charlie Trotter's, where making beautiful vegetable meals is a given.

But at this trendy Lincoln Park restaurant, it was the humble mac 'n' cheese (below) that stole the show. Granted it's not your box of Kraft. The dish includes a mix of fontina and sharp and medium cheddar cheeses as well as edamame. Two orders (it's a side at $7) and a dark beer and I would have been set.Alas, I didn't go to Boka for comfort food. My main dish was the herbed risotto tart with roasted portobello thinly sliced on top, baby turnips, ricotta and beet puree. The dish didn't disappoint. The turnips were fresh and nicely cooked; the tart was an interesting way to present risotto. And the portion was just right so as not to be overly filling.Boka's food is good, and the restaurant is unquestionably popular. Reservations are necessary. The downsides are it is loud and service is not up to par. The two tables next to me and I each had to inquire about ordered items that did not show up when they should have.

The wine list has a lot of offerings in the $45 range, which is nice to see. On the other hand, expect to get a wine that retails for less than $15. I found their markups to be outrageous - about 200 percent.

San Francisco's Plant Cafe: A Triumph of Style Over Substance

2009-09-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

Plant Cafe
Pier 3
San Francisco, CA 94111
415.984.1973
www.theplantcafe.com

This mostly organic restaurant in San Francisco boasts a peaceful location on the waterfront at pier 3, near the Ferry Building, and an executive chef with a resume that will make any Bay Area vegetarian drool -- Sascha Weiss was pastry chef at vegetarian restaurant Millennium and worked at the sorely missed raw foods restaurant Roxanne's in Marin County.

Despite that, Plant Cafe is a triumph of style over substance. It's not that the food is bad, but that nothing is exceptional, although with a little tweaking it could be. The setting, with the relaxing tables on the water's edge (the outside tables are heated), makes for a delightful place to spend a leisurely lunch break. And while the food is fine, with a good mix of items for vegans, vegetarians and carnivores alike, you are likely to come away satisfied but not overwhelmed by the taste combinations.

The menu is a mixture of several salads, small plates (most with mussels, scallops or crabs), a pasta, several pizzas, the vegetarian Plant Burger (above), and large plates, which are split about half-and-half between vegan items such as pumpkin seed and cornmeal-encrusted tempeh and animal-based dishes such as duck breast in plum puree.

The signature Plant Burger patty is a mixture of lentils, mushrooms, bulgur, beets and cashews. It comes topped with avocado, cheese, aioli and onions and, for inexplicable reasons, is served on wheat bread. The heavy, mushy mixture of ingredients overwhelms the bread making a soggy mess. While it’s good, a whole wheat bun would be a better choice here.

The walnut pizza (above) with goat cheese in a balsamic reduction was probably the best choice, although slightly bland.

The fresh herb pasta (above) with corn, cherry tomatoes, arugula, garlic and pecorino was also not a bad choice.

Entrees range from about $13 to $20.

Perhaps the best way to enjoy Plant Cage is sitting out on the back deck on the water enjoying the patatas bravas, bowl of mixed olives and a beer or glass of wine from their extensive list of beverages.

Blouet Offers Masterful Culinary Strokes at Cafe des Artistes in Puerto Vallarta

2009-09-13T09:47:00.000-07:00

Cafe des Artistes
Guadalupe Sanchez 740, Centro
Puerto Vallarta, Mexico
www.cafedesartistes.com
+52 (322) 222.3228

Chef Thierry Blouet has worked in some of the most prestigious kitchens in the world, from Le Fouquet's de Paris and Le Moulin de Mougins near Cannes to the Ritz in Chicago. Along the way, he earned Maîtres Cuisiniers de France award, being one of only 340 French chefs to do so.

He now has his own restaurants in Mexico, the star of which is Cafe des Artistes in Puerto Vallarta, where he merges his French training and skills with Mexican ingredients. The result is that his restaurant is considered one of the top in Latin America.

While Blouet offers a three-course menu that may or may not offer vegetarian dishes for about 350 pesos a person, the kitchen is also eager to prepare dishes for vegetarian diners.

On a recent meal an appetizer included an artfully prepared trio of gazpachos - cucumber, tomato and beet (below).A poblano pepper stuffed with cheese was certainly not out-of-the-ordinary, but nonetheless very well prepared.The surprise vegetarian dish from the kitchen featured five thinly sliced pieces of eggplant wrapped around fresh goat cheese (above). While I generally dislike the texture of eggplant, this was excellent, leaving none of the spongy eggplant texture, but lots of wonderful flavor.

My guests and I passed on dessert, but the kitchen delivered some small pieces of multi-layered, fondant-filled chocolate cake.

Service is top-notch, and the restaurant offers probably the most extensive wine list in all of Puerto Vallarta, with an excellent selection of wines priced under 500 pesos. With cocktails, a bottle of wine, and two courses each, I'm not sure where you can get a better meal for about $35 US per person.

Michael Mina Delivers on Food, Misses a Bit on Service

2009-08-22T17:27:00.000-07:00

Michael Mina
335 Powell St
San Francisco, CA
415.397.9222
www.michaelmina.net

There are restaurants that offer vegetarian menus just to round out their offerings - Alex at Wynn, for example. And then there are those that understand that vegetarian cooking can be innovative, delicious and fulfilling. Michael Mina falls into the latter group.

The San Francisco restaurant offers a full vegetarian menu filled with creative and tasty offerings.

A recent dinner included the heirloom beet chop salad (above) with spiced filberts, fromage blanc fritters and Belgian endive. The combination of the sweet beets and bitter greens made for a nice balance, especially with the warm nuggets of cheese.

The chickpea soup (below) was set off with sweet bites of onion.The soft-boiled hen egg with green asparagus, chanterelle mushrooms and bernaise sauce made for a wonderful entree. The warm egg was cooked for 40 minutes so that it came out nice and warm with a perfectly viscous yolk. If only more places that made eggs Benedict took the time to make their eggs like this. The egg was atop asparagus that had been thinly sliced lengthwise, so they were almost like noodles.

The German chocolate torte with pressed coconut and candied pecans was rich and flavorful.

While the food at Michael Mina is quite good, the service is somewhat lacking. Dishes were not cleared immediately between courses, it often took a reminder to get water glasses refilled, and instead of replacing a lint-covered napkin the waiter shrugged it off. The linens were wrinkled and the arm of my chair was coming apart. The restaurant could use some attention. To their credit, the kitchen did send out an extra course - a squash salad - to fill time while waiting for the egg to cook.

Michael Mina is not the most cozy of restaurants as it's situated in a large room just off the lobby of the Westin St. Francis. The restaurant does have a nice deal right now - a three-course pre-theater menu offered before 6 p.m. for $55 a person.

Napa's Ubuntu Offers Vegetarian Eats and Yoga

2009-08-19T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu
1140 Main Street
Napa, CA 94558
707.251.5656
www.ubuntunapa.com

Ubuntu, the two-year-old vegetarian restaurant in Napa, has become a media darling. The New York Times wrote about it as though they had no clue vegetarian restaurants served anything other than tofu and wheat gluten. It was odd given that New York has a rather nice share of quality vegetarian restaurants that focus on what comes out of the garden.

Perhaps it's that Ubuntu is not just a restaurant but also a yoga studio that helps with the fascination. While I like the restaurant and have eaten there about a half a dozen times, vegetarians used to eating quality meals might find it doesn't quite live up to the hype. In any event, Ubuntu is good.

One of the staples of the menu, and a great little pre-meal snack, are the marcona almonds in sea salt and lavender sugar. During a recent meal, those preceded a nasturtium, brioche and pear salad (above). Although it had a little too much bread, it was definitely a visual treat.
The strawberry pizza margherita (below) with hand-pulled mozzarella, three-day Napa strawberry soffrito, basils and saba was good, but nothing special. The strawberry soffrito was so light as to not add any flavor.
A much better choice was the creamy gnocchi with truffle oil (below).
For dessert, their vanilla bean cheesecake in a jar (below) is wonderful. During this meal it came with strawberries, at other times it's come with different fruits. It's nice and creamy and not at all dense and rich like most cheesecake.
Ubuntu serves quality ingredients, many from the restaurant's organic garden. It may not surprise vegetarians, but if the press is any indication, your carnivore friends may be amazed at what a vegetarian restaurant can be.

Guerrilla Dining: A Moveable Feast

2009-08-08T11:06:00.000-07:00

graffEats
Guerrilla Dining
San Francisco Bay Area
graffEats@gmail.com

The hottest places to eat are no longer restaurants, but warehouses, fields, parking lots, even on a platform dangling from a crane. Guerrilla dining, as it's called, is to food what raves were to parties - an event held in a location revealed just prior to the event. Some are revealed through underground networks, while others are more out in the open, available for anyone to join.

graffEats has put on guerrilla dining events in castles and farmer's fields in the San Francisco Bay Area. Blair Warsham, former chef/owner of the Tinderbox in San Francisco, creates the meals. With 72-hours notice, he can accommodate vegetarians. On a recent night in Healdsburg, graffEats celebrated the start of tomato season with a tomato dinner near the basil fields (below) of Dan "The Tomato Man" Magnuson, who grows about 40 varities of heirloom tomatoes that are sold to restaurants in the area and at the local farmer's market.
The five-course menu included a fun but messy tomato popcorn (below). I'm kind of eager to see if I can do this myself by covering popcorn in finely crumbled, dried tomatoes.

That was followed by chilled watermelon and heirloom tomato soup, and a peach and purple Cherokee tomato salad with opal basil walnut pesto and aged California white cheddar (below). This was a wonderful, low-fat twist on a caprese salad. Friends I mentioned it to commented that peaches and tomatoes seemed a strange combination, but it worked. In fact, it worked extremely well. The tomatoes were so wonderful they served as a nice reminder in this dish that they are indeed fruits.
The main course was grits with fried green tomatoes (non-vegetarians had theirs with bacon and white shrimp). I was prepared to not care for this, but the grits were smooth and flavorful and the tomatoes maintained their sweetness for a well-balanced combination.

The final course was Humboldt Fog goat cheese with strawberries.

Diners ate family-style at one long table. Talking and getting to know the diverse group was a big part of the fun. Dan talked tomatoes (store them stem down) and shared some of his favorites. Each diner also left with a plastic bag of different varieties of tomatoes. The owner of the Cheese Shop of Healdsburg was on hand to talk cheese, and a local diner brought his homemade port to share.

Dinner was $45 a person and included music, and a donation to St. Anthony's Dining Hall. Wine pairings were $25 a person. The one negative was that the pours were small and no one was on hand to discuss the wines chosen for the dinner. The dinner was a bargain though, especially when compared to OutstandingintheField.com, which charges about $200 a person for their farm-to-table dinners.

Write to Blair at graffeats@gmail.com to get on his mailing list for upcoming dinners.

Finding Vegetarian Gems in Meat and Seafood Country - Araxi, Whistler

2009-08-01T09:24:00.000-07:00

Araxi
4222 Village Square
Whistler, BC Canada
604.932.4540
www.araxi.com

There's no question - Whistler is largely a meat-eating kind of place. Vegetarians know the types of restaurants here well. Menus have every variety of animal on the planet and then a token "vegetable platter" just in case a vegetarian should walk through the door and still have the courage to order.

At first glance, Araxi is no exception. The menu is heavy on veal, steak, and fish. And then there's the sole vegetarian entree of spinach gnocchi. But if you're looking for good food in Whistler, well, Araxi is pretty much the place to go. (Barefoot Bistro is the other top-rated restaurant in Whistler, but finding vegetarian items there is like finding a carnivore at a PETA gathering.)

I called in advance and asked if the chef could prepare a vegetarian tasting menu. I was told it would be no problem. When I arrived, the menu had just changed. I found enough interesting items on the small plates menu to keep me happy. So I made my own tasting menu. I started with an heirloom tomato and buffalo mozzarella salad (above) with arugula, basil sorbet, olive oil and tomato chips. I'm a bit fussy about my mozzarella and this was among the best I've had, competing well with mozzarella made same day.

The white cheese souffle (above) with red sorrel, fresh laurel and lemon thyme cream toasted almonds and grilled almond oil, though slightly less cheesy than I'd hoped, was good. Others will probably appreciate that it is not overly rich.

The ricotta stuffed Pemberton squash blossoms with local vegetable ratatouille and gazpacho vinaigrette, globe eggplant and roasted garlic puree were nicely done and had a balanced flavor.

I did try the spinach gnocchi. It was nothing special and somewhat bland, so making a meal of small plates was definitely the way to go.

Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper called Araxi's executive chef James Walt one of the top seven chefs shaping Canada's cuisine. One can hope he can shape it a bit more toward vegetables, especially given the produce that grows in nearby Pemberton.

Araxi is well known for its extensive wine cellar. And the cocktails aren't bad either. Cheers!

Oakland's Popular Pizzaiollo: Worth the Wait

2009-07-17T15:05:00.001-07:00

Pizzaiollo
5008 Telegraph Ave.
Oakland, CA 94609
510.652.4888
www.pizzaiolooakland.com

I held off on going to Pizzaiollo for months. The reviews were outstanding, but the crowds of people who came to savor Charlie Hallowell's food were also spending lots of time out standing on the sidewalk waiting for tables.

A friend called at precisely 3 p.m. one day last week (they will take same-day reservations beginning at 3 p.m.), stayed on hold for 15 minutes, but scored a reservation for a time we knew we couldn't make. We took it anyway. And, after a few phone calls to update on our progress, the kind host promised we would have a table when we got there. And we did.

Hallowell is a disciple of Alice Water's, having worked at Chez Panisse before going out on his own. He lives above the restaurant and seems to sincerely see it as a mission to cook fresh foods for his community, his friends and his family-like staff.

Hallowell makes use of what's fresh and local, and the menu changes daily. You can generally count on several wood-fired pizzas, several antipasti, a few larger meat/animal dishes and a few pastas. Plenty of options are vegetarian or can easily be made vegetarian.

My wild nettles and pecorino pizza (above) had an excellent thin crust. The pecorino didn't quite hold up to the flavor of the nettles, but it was good nonetheless.

My antipasti of fried squash blossoms stuffed with cherry tomatoes, basil and cukes were fantastic. I really could have made a meal out of those ...maybe two orders, especially as friends also couldn't resist them.

The restaurant is casual. The kitchen (below) is open. Waiters wear what they want. Despite its success, there's no pretense.

Do check out the drink list - some interesting house specials. Dinner for four - with a drink each, a bottle of moderately priced wine, appetizers, pizzas and a couple of desserts to share came to something over $200.

Dirt Candy Delivers Treats from the Earth

2009-07-16T14:30:00.000-07:00

Dirt Candy
430 E. 9th Street
New York, NY
212.228.7732
www.dirtcandynyc.com

Dirt Candy fills a tiny space in the East Village. The restaurant is not much bigger than my hallway, but what is it they say about good things and small packages?

Amanda Cohen, chef and owner of Dirt Candy, has worked in just about every vegetarian restaurant in Manhattan. She opened Dirt Candy last fall do one thing - cook vegetables (candy from the dirt) and cook them well.

She's honest when she says in her blog, "I don't care about your health." That's apparent by her use of the deep fryer. The house specialty is jalapeno hush puppies with maple butter served as a snack for $6. They didn't do much for me, tasting rather bland, though the maple butter was nice. Soups were more flavorful.

Other dishes were more satisfying. The crispy tofu in kaffir lime buerre blanc (below) was worth the $17.

Any dish at Dirt Candy can be made vegan. The wine list is short, reasonably priced (most bottles from $20-$40), and somewhat interesting.

There are certainly better vegetarian restaurants in New York, but when you need a change from Candle 79 or Pure Food and Wine, Dirt Candy's not a bad choice.

Bali's TeraZo: Good Food and a Lovely Place to Linger

2009-07-12T18:26:00.000-07:00

TeraZo
Suweta Street
Ubud, Bali, Indonesia
www.baligoodfood.com/terazo.asp

This comfortable open-air restaurant is near the center of Ubud, yet just far enough removed from what hustle and bustle there is to make for a nice respite. Located close to the town's main temple, during the dinner hours the beautiful Balinese women in their colorful sarongs and lacy blouses often walk by with their lofty offerings of fruit and flower pyramids elegantly balanced on their heads. There are few better ways to pass time than sitting in TeraZo, drink in hand, watching the world go by.

Well, there is one way to make it even better ... by enjoying lunch or dinner there. While the restaurant has several vegetarian items on the menu from polenta with ratatouille and basil pesto or fresh pappardelle with mushroom cream, they make the most incredible twice-baked goat cheese soufflé (below). On my first visit to Ubud, I ordered it three times in seven days. I could have lived on it.
Vegetarian pot stickers (below) are another good appetizer choice.

For dessert, the Temple of Chocolate, made with European chocolates, is worth a sacrifice or two.

Prices are a little high by Balinese standards. Expect to pay about $50 for dinner for two.
TeraZo does have a wine list and a full bar. Alcohol taxes in Bali are quite high (somewhere around 200 percent), so be prepared. Do skip the local Hatten wine. It's among the worst wines I've ever sampled.

Students do the Cooking at Vegetarian Chef's School

2009-07-05T14:34:00.000-07:00

Natural Gourmet Institute
48 W 21st St, Second Floor
New York, NY 10010
212.645.5170

www.naturalgourmetschool.com

Graduating students at this vegetarian cooking school prepare dinner on Friday nights. For $40, diners get a four-course themed dinner. The dining rooms are candle-lit classrooms. Diners sit at communal tables of six to eight, with views of commercial kitchens.

A recent Spanish-themed dinner included tapas - minted eggplant, patatas bravas with rosemary aioli and mushroom ragout (below) - and a salad of roasted fennel, oranges and citrus vinaigrette.

The main course was roasted vegetable paella with haricot vert served on a black bean and leek puree (below).

Dessert was a moist and flavorful tres leches cake.

The food can be quite good, as it was when I was there, but don't expect much in the way of service since other students work as the waitstaff. (One student during my dinner perfected the art of looking without seeing. She would wander the room with a water pitcher, while keeping her eyes well above the level of any glass. Never did I see her pour any water.)

Make reservations as far in advance as possible. Friends and relatives of graduating students often take most of the spots. Also don't forget to bring a bottle of wine as it's BYOB for no extra charge.

Vermilion's Exotic Latin-Indian Cuisine Keeps Things Spicy

2009-06-27T02:14:00.000-07:00

The Vermilion Room
10 West Hubbard
Chicago, Illinois
312.527.4060
www.thevermilionrestaurant.com

Second location:
480 Lexington Ave.
New York, New York
212.871.6600
Latin-Indian cuisine may sound like some bizarre fusion food fad, but at The Vermilion Room in Chicago (and New York) the unusual combination not only works, but works well.

The fashionable restaurant in Chicago's River North blends ingredients from diverse regions to produce dishes that include artichoke pakoras with eggplant-chili-coconut sauce (top) and the spicy but luscious Indian cheese, Mexican 'truffle' crepe with Inca red quinoa and papadum (above). Dishes are hot, but ask for a little coconut milk to calm any overly fiery sensations.

The menu offers a choice of small plates and entrees. There is a separate vegetarian menu as well as a $70 vegetarian tasting menu. (There are plenty of items on the main menu for die-hard carnivore companions.)

While plenty of experimental cuisines come and go, this is one that should have staying power.

Seattle's Carmelita Abounds With Creativity

2009-06-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

Carmelita
7314 Greenwood Ave. North
Seattle, WA
206.706.7703
www.carmelita.net

Many restaurants have their own gardens to deliver the freshest food possible to the table. But Camelita not only delivers fresh from its garden, but does so with original and unique combinations that surprise and delight. It's not every restaurant that has on its menu wild nettle spaetzle or almond-bamboo rice bon-bons or wild ramps on pizza. But Carmelita does so, and does it very well.

The wild nettle spaetzle (below) with sun-dried tomatoes, morels, sunchoke slivers and truffle oil was a flavorful pasta combination. The wild nettle pasta would have held up well all on its own, but was enhanced with the harmonious incorporation of the other ingredients.

Yakima Valley asparagus risotto (below) was tasty and cooked well, but overwhelmed the toasted cumin-pumpkin seed pesto.
Desserts are given as much attention here as the entrees. A molten chocolate cake was rich and moist with a perfect creamy center. Chocolate mousse with first-of-the-season cherries (below) was so rich and flavorful, it was difficult to believe it was vegan. (It was made with semi-sweet and dark chocolate, tofu and soy milk.)

Carmelita is all-vegetarian, with many offerings being vegan. Starters run about $12, entrees are about $18 and desserts are about $8. Wine and beer are available.

Carmelita's menu is creative and original, but the focus on good-tasting food is not overshadowed by the chef's desire to showcase his own skills or unusual recipe combinations. Quite the opposite. Carmelita is a vegetarian restaurant not to be missed.

Lumiere's Star Shines Brightly

2009-06-13T21:19:00.000-07:00

Lumiere
2551 Broadway West
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada
604.739.8185
www.lumiere.ca

I first ate at Lumiere a few years ago, and found it good though not great. Well, much can change in a few years. Now remodeled and under the direction of celebrated chef Daniel Boulud and executive chef Dale MacKay, the restaurant shines like a brilliant gem.

Although situated on busy Broadway, Lumiere has a contemporary yet romantic dining room warmly decorated in shades of brown with music from Buddha Bar CDs playing in the background. The restaurant offers a six-course vegetarian menu for $135 or an early (before 7 p.m.) three-course menu for $55.

While I often find a tasting menu to have one or two dishes that seem a bit experimental and to not quite work, every morsel I had at Lumiere proved to be excellent, from the sweet pea soup with mint foam offered as an amuse bouche to the post-dessert madeleines.

My standout course was a sweet pea ravioli with champagne foam. Each little bite produced a sweet and wonderful explosion of flavor.

For dessert, the hot and cold Black Forest sundae was presented with a thin disc of chocolate covering a bowl. When hot, dark chocolate sauce was poured over the disc, it melted through, exposing vanilla ice cream and cherries underneath. The taste combination was sublime.

It's no surprise Lumiere has received a lengthy list of awards and is often referred to in reviews as the best restaurant in Vancouver. It definitely offers an unparalleled feast for vegetarians.

And Sometimes a Meal Goes Sideways - Alex, Las Vegas

2009-06-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

Alex
Wynn Hotel
3131 Las Vegas Boulevard S.
Las Vegas, Nevada
www.wynn.com
As it seems all the U.S.'s top chefs have a restaurant in Las Vegas, selecting one took a bit of thought. I wanted a restaurant where providing a vegetarian menu was not an afterthought, but something well planned and done on a nightly basis. Alex at the Wynn seemed to fit what I was looking for.

The reviews for Alex can't seem to get any better. The restaurant has twice been awarded two stars from Michelin, and chef Alessandro Stratta has been recognized as the best chef in the Southwest by the James Beard Foundation. People I know who've eaten there, including vegetarians, give it high praise.

Amid such high acclaim, I was expecting great things. Unfortunately, I was disappointed.

I had the seven-course vegetable tasting menu at $130. While some dishes were wonderful - the fava bean and spinach lasagne with sweet pea emulsion and wild mushrooms (below), in particular - some felt like a thrown together hodge-podge. The roasted purple cauliflower with black truffles, ginger-poached rhubarb and endive marmalade (above) simply didn't work. The flavors didn't coalesce and complement, they stood apart. And while there may have been a couple of flakes of black truffles, there certainly wasn't enough to impart any flavor.

The first course - a 1" square of thinly sliced watermelon with a few leaves of arugula and a drizzle of balsamic - had a decent flavor, but was so simplistic it belonged as an amuse bouche at a raw foods restaurant, but not on the tasting menu at Alex.

A bright spot were the wine pairings. The sommelier did a great a job delivering innovative vintages that worked well with each course. At $60, the pairings were a stunning bargain.

There is so much competition for top-level vegetarian dining experiences that Alex needs to raise their bar if they wish to remain a player.

Alice in Wonderland or Sheri in Harvard Square?

2009-05-17T11:44:00.000-07:00

Upstairs on the Square
91 Winthrop Street
Cambridge, MA
617.864.1933
www.upstairsonthesquare.com

Upstairs on the Square is a rare find in Cambridge, MA in that it offers not only a wide selection of vegetarian and vegan entrees on its regular menu, but five- and seven-course vegetarian/vegan tasting menus.

The restaurant itself can make you feel like you're Alice in Wonderland, only instead of falling into a hole, you just fell into a fanciful wedding cake. The Soiree Room, where the tasting menus are served, is a visual delight of funky, fun and, well, the feminine, which is not entirely surprising since the restaurant is owned by two women. There are beads, baubles, bubbles (of the champagne variety - both in glasses and painted on the walls), lots of pink and gold, electric candles, and plenty of mirrors all around to reflect it all.

But it's not about style over substance. Executive chef Steven Brand works to offer seasonal ingredients in simple artisanal dishes.

On a recent dinner there, I had the five-course vegetarian tasting menu for $55. (The seven-course, which would have added turnip soup and a cheese course, was $70. Wine pairings were additional $32 or $45 depending on the number.)

Dinner started with an amuse bouche of warm asparagus soup, served in small cylindrical vodka glasses. The first course was roasted baby beets with horseradish panna cotta, passionfruit and arugula (below). The mix of tastes - from the mildly tangy horseradish to the sweetness of the beets and passionfruit - worked well.
Cheese ravioli in lovage butter with slivers of green apple (below) marked the tastiest of the courses. It was a small sample, but with the amount of butter I wouldn't have wanted much more. Each ravioli was wrapped up like a hard peppermint candy, with the pasta twisted at each end.Warm artichokes and haricots verts in black truffle vinaigrette (top photo) were mild yet enjoyable. I can't say I tasted the truffle oil in the vinagrette and the artichoke flavor was subtle, but the texture was nice, and the dish out of the norm.

The spring vegetables with tiny ricotta gnocchi was the only true disappointment of the evening. It seemed to be a mish-mash of leftovers from previous menus. There were no outstanding flavors - in fact it was almost flavorless.

I'm a big chocolate fan, but I must say the tiny slices of lemon-pistachio cake with Greek frozen yogurt were excellent and made for a delightful end to the meal.

Upstairs on the Square certainly doesn't offer the best vegetarian tasting menu you will ever find, but it may just be the best you will get in the Boston area.

If you travel to Boston often, it may be worth getting on their email list as they frequently have special dinners, including the upcoming chocolate dinner and another featuring asparagus.

Also, the more casual downstairs dining room - the Monday Club Bar - has some great comfort foods on the menu. I love making a lunch of the creamy tomato soup and farm house cheddar grilled cheese sandwich.

Alan Wong's - a Gem in Honolulu

2009-05-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

Alan Wong's
1857 S. King St. Third Floor
Honolulu, Hawaii
808.949.2526
www.alanwongs.com

A visit to Alan Wong's cozy Honolulu restaurant quickly makes it clear why Gourmet magazine (America's Top 50 Restaurants, October 2006) ranks Wong right up there with Joel Robuchon and Daniel Boulud. The food is fabulous and, best of all, with one day's notice the restaurant will prepare a five-course vegetarian tasting menu that features local produce prepared in an East-meets-West fusion style. At just $75 it's a bargain. With wine pairings, it's just $105.

A recent meal featured a cold vine-ripened Hamakau Springs tomato soup with a a flat cheese crisp, a mini grilled cheese "sandwich" like no other - fresh mozarella and shiitake mushrooms between thin slices of sourdough, a spicy goat cheese and radicchio salad with picholine olives and chili lemongrass vinaigrette, and a wonderful piece of ginger-crusted tofu over fresh corn kernels surrounded by a miso sesame vinagrette. A medley of vegetables with a wheatberry cake finished out the savory side of the menu. Dessert featured a crispy dense chocolate torte and coconut tapioca pudding with island fruits.

Hands down, Alan Wong's has the best vegetarian menu selection in the Hawaiian islands.

No Stockholm isn't all About Pickeled Fish and Meatballs

2009-05-09T17:17:00.000-07:00

Just a brief round-up of some casual vegetarian spots in Stockholm.

Primo Ciao Ciao on Bondegatan is obviously Italian, and generally packed for dinner. They serve good pizzas and pastas for about $30 a person. It's veg friendly, but there is plenty for the carnivore.

Chutney on Katarina Bangata is a very casual vegetarian restaurant - you order at the counter and they bring you your food. The baked chevre is quite good. It’s cheap by Stockholm standards – about $20 per person.

Hermans is on Södermalm, but not in SoFo. It’s a vegetarian buffet and there are wonderful views if you eat outside. It’s at Fjällgatan 23A. It's also about $20 per person.

Grezzo - "Alive" and Well in Boston

2009-03-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

Grezzo
69 Prince Street
Boston, MA
857.362.7288
www.grezzorestaurant.com

When my son moved to Cambridge for school, finding a good vegetarian restaurant seemed impossible. Boston, it appeared, was all about seafood. Period. I was a bit surprised then when a friend told me about Grezzo, a vegan raw or "living foods" restaurant in Boston's North End. My favorite raw restaurant in the Bay Area, Roxanne's, had closed a while back and I missed it terribly.

The concept is that nothing is heated to above 112 degrees F to preserve nutrients that cooking destroys. Being vegan, the cheeses are made with nuts. I love cheeses and must say the nut cheeses can certainly rival some of my favorites from Cow Girl Creamery and other premium cheese makers. Some people swear a raw foods diet has given them more energy, cured ills, made them look younger. I just know that when done well, it tastes good.

Grezzo is a cozy restaurant with just two rows of tables on either side of the walk way. All the dishes are organic, vegan and raw or "living", yet, amusingly, some of the offerings have names such as Land and Sea and Lobster Thermidor. You can take the seafood out of the Boston restaurant, but apparently you must keep the names.

I ordered the Lobster Thermidor ($22), which consisted of tarragon and mustard seed "cashew" cheese, black grapes and baby vegetables over papaya (pictured above). I don't usually care for papaya, but this combination worked. The items tasted fresh, the cheese was wonderful and the flavors were balanced and worked well together.

My son's tomato ravioli ($19) didn't work nearly as well. The tomatoes tasted bitter and overripe. I asked the waiter where they got tomatoes in March and received an evasive answer.

It has to be a challenge to have a raw foods restaurant where you can't grow produce most of the year. (Although Pure Food and Wine in New York City seems to have figured out how to do it well.) I would guess my papaya came from Central or South America. While it's worth trying, I would definitely recommend sticking to produce that is in season, and really quizzing the staff on where the produce in entrees came from before making a selection.

The specialty drinks list is interesting. I tried the green apple and ginger "saketini" ($12), which was enjoyable.

Grezzo also offers a chef's tasting menu at $59.

Other casual dining options when in Boston: Trident Booksellers and Cafe at 338 Newbury Street is both a great little independent bookshop and a cafe, with a good selection of vegan abd vegetarian options. From the breakfast omelettes to the handmade butternut squash ravioli and the momos (vegetarian dumplings), there's little there I wouldn't order again and again.

Tealuxe, on Newbury Street in Boston and also in Harvard Square, offers a selection of sandwiches and salads to go with their wide variety of teas. Sandwiches include a portobello mushroom and a caprese. At the shop in Boston, the downstairs eating area is a nice respite from the crowds on Newbury.

Bangkok Offers Many Options for Vegetarians

2009-03-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

Bangkok offers a tremendous variety of food options, from street vendors to elegant restaurants perched well above the city. While it's easy enough to find vegetarian Thai food, here are a few restaurants that offer other choices for vegetarians.

Vanilla Brasserie in Siam Paragon has a good selection of pastas, crepes, salads and sandwiches. The food quality is good for the price. The mozzarella and tomato salad is a good bet as are the spinach ravioli.

Le Notre in Siam Paragon has good desserts, and they provide neat dry ice boxes for take-away. A mini cake is about $3. They also have gourmet sandwiches (of which few are vegetarian) and tarts (such as a spinach tart or sundried tomato tart). The tomato tart was a bit flavorless, but most tomatoes in Thailand are.

Often hailed as one of the best Italian restaurants in Thailand, Bel Guardo restaurant and wine bar in Siam Paragon has moderately priced ($10-20) dishes, including risotto, pastas, appetizers and salads. The black truffle gnocchi was bland, but the tomato Carpaccio was good, although monotonous by the end of the large serving. Before the meal, there is warm bread with good olive oil for dipping.

The restaurants at The Dome, on the 64th -67th floors of the State Tower offer striking views of the city, and sometimes good food to match. Sirocco is quite good but expensive: a 75 cl bottle of San Pelligrino is upward of $10, and a vegetarian main course is likely upward of $30. When they wash their two story-tall windows, you get a nice view of the outdoor bar and the city. A small string ensemble performs nightly. Mezzaluna is another restaurant in the collection with vegetarian food. Since the tower has become more popular, the service and food quality has decreased a fair amount, but it is still worth the trip.

Salathip at the Shangri La has moderately priced Thai food (about 300 baht), but the environment is lacking. At dusk the mosquitoes visit even the indoor tables. The dancers and Thai orchestra could be entertaining for some, but are somewhat tacky otherwise. Their wine doesn’t seem to be stored perfectly, leaving many of their reds with a watery taste. The wines also have a very high markup.

Crepes and Co serves a good array of crepes, although they are far better for dessert than for dinner as the savory crepes are a bit lacking in sustenance.

To Die For. This place serves many small dishes in a cool setting. And they have a separate vegetarian menu. http://www.todieforbangkok.com/menu.php

One Surprise After Another at Pierre Gagnaire in Paris

2009-03-12T16:42:00.000-07:00

Pierre Gagnaire
6, rue Balzac
75008 Paris, France
(33) 01 58 36 12 50
www.pierre-gagnaire.com

Probably 15 years ago, I was in Paris and dared to ask a concierge at my hotel if the chef at the Michelin two-star restaurant there could prepare a vegetarian meal for me. Oh, I'll never forget the look on his face. This was about fine dining, le menu gastronomie, how could I think of asking such a thing, he responded in French. I quietly scooted away and spent that evening eating gluten sausage atop noodles in a vegetarian restaurant that looked like a '70s fern bar.

Thank goodness times have changed. And thank goodness for chefs such as Pierre Gagnaire who have shown Paris and the world that fine food and vegetarian menus can go hand-in-hand.

You won't find the vegetarian menu on Gagnaire's website, but with advance notice when you make your reservation, when you arrive you should find yourself treated to a vegetarian feast like no other.

I went for lunch - the restaurant is a bit more relaxed then, the menu slightly cheaper. I didn't get a menu, but what followed was a feast to die for – or at least worth robbing a bank for, which at $550 for two with wine (and it's probably more now) is about what it required. I can’t begin to remember all the courses, the meal began with some chips served up in a mixture of spices like so many sand dollars standing in a bed of sand. There was then a green tomato soup that was wonderful and an artichoke heart salad. It was really one amazing course after the other. There was risotto with pumpkin and a leek dish with the leek leaves all woven together.

Service was really spectacular. At one point in the meal I turned to look behind me for the bottle to refill my water glass and three servers literally ran to beat me to it. Early on in the meal Pierre came by each table and said hello.

We must have had eight courses before dessert, which involved another six plates. There were two chocolate concoctions, one dish of ice cream with edible pansies and some miniature strawberries inside a little crispy cone.

Lunch at Pierre Gagnaire lasted 4.5 hours and was probably the best meal I’ve had.

Stockholm's F12 is Filled With Pleasant Surprises

2009-02-10T13:50:00.000-08:00

Restaurant Fredsgatan 12
Fredsgatan 12
Stockholm
+46.0.8.24.80.52
www.f12.se

F12's chefs and sommelier have won a slew of awards and it's no surprise. They turn out wonderful dishes with excellent wine pairings. The restaurant is in a comfortable space in the center of Stockholm, just opposite the House of Parliament. The decor is simple and unfussy, leaving the food to take center stage. The vegetarian menu takes advantage of local seasonal produce. The last meal I had there took advantage of the fresh asparagus and presented in unique ways, such as wrapped in a shell like little ice cream cones. It's clear the vegetarian menu is not an after thought here. By all means, do not skip on the "mystery" wine pairings. It was quite a treat to sample well-paired wines without knowing until after the meal what I was drinking. Expect to pay about 995 kroner per person without the pairings.

Why Couldn't Wrenkh be Around the Corner Instead of in Vienna?

2009-01-27T17:33:00.000-08:00

Wrenkh
Bauernmarkt 10
01.533.1526
www.wrenkh.atThe first time I was in Vienna, I felt as though I'd stepped inside a giant sausage and there was no way out. With sausage or Wurselstands on every street and corner of the city, there's no escaping the smell of sausage.

It was a great surprise then to discover that not only is vegetarian food readily available in Vienna, but that there are some pretty good choices. And Wrenkh has to be the best. This is the type of comfortable, attractive cafe that I'd eat at weekly if it was in my neighborhood. The furnishings are light and contemporary, the diners are interesting, the staff is friendly, and the food is terrific. I went back twice for the goat cheese and tomato confit over quinoa. It was simply perfect, with flavors perfectly balanced. The pumpkin tortellini with honey apple was tasty as well. Wrenkh generally offers about six vegetarian entrees at about 10 to 14 euros per.
Other vegetarian eats in Vienna: The Hotel Bristol even has a small vegetarian section on the menu, and the vegetarian lasagne isn't half bad.

Maceo Proves Paris is Not All About Fois Gras and Pate

2009-01-10T15:41:00.000-08:00

Maceo
15, Rue Petits Champs
Paris, France
+33.1.42.96.37.86
www.maceorestaurant.com

It's no longer too tough to find a vegetarian menu in Paris - think Guy Savoy, Pierre Gagnaire, Alain Passard. What can be a little more difficult to find is a vegetarian menu that will get two people out the door for less than 500 euros. Maceo, from the owners of Willie's Wine Bar next door, is a hit with vegetarians in Paris for precisely that reason. While there are a la carte offerings and seasonal menus for omnivores, the "Menu Au Vert" is not only the best value, but often has the most interesting offerings. It's so appealing, my meat-eating friends often go with the green selections.

A winter menu offered preserved baby vegetables with goat cheese and parsley with a creamy veloute of chesnuts with truffle juice. The was followed by wild mushrooms and polenta with pear and fourme d'Ambert served with winter vegetables in curry sauce (above photo). A choice of cheese of dessert concludes the meal. And all for 32 euros.

The upstairs dining room at Maceo is a historical monument. The ceilings are 12' high and have beautiful moulded plasterwork. Tables are well spaced for intimate conversations. Maceo is definitely worth a visit.

Kauai Loses a Treasure

2009-01-10T13:39:00.000-08:00

Sadly, Blossoming Lotus, the wonderful little vegan restaurant in Kapa'a on Kauai closed Dec. 31, 2008. It will be missed, but there is another Blossoming Lotus in Portland, Oregon. I've not been to the Oregon location, but the menu looks just as good, with plenty of raw food options as well. Here's the website. Check it out when you're in Oregon and let me know how it is. http://www.blpdx.com/cafe.php

Hanoi's Bobby Chin: Fun for Cocktails, Skip the Food

2008-07-24T08:27:00.000-07:00

Restaurant Bobby Chinn
Ba Trieu St
Q. Hai Bà Trưng
Hà Nội, Viet Nam
+84.4.934.8577
www.bobbychinn.com

Bobby Chinn worked with Hubert Keller at Fleur de Lys in San Francisco as well as with Gary Danko, and ran Carmargue in Saigon before opening his own place. He now does kind of a modern Vietnamese-French-fusion cuisine, and offers a vegetarian menu.

I wasn’t too impressed with the food (rather bland), but the décor was fun with red silk curtains hanging throughout, dim lighting, rose petals scattered on the tables. In other spaces there were comfy chairs and sofas for more relaxed parties. It's definitely a matter of style over substance. A good place for a drink and dessert or appetizers – although beware the mixed drinks as my chocolate martini was deadly.

The place is a visual delight and lots of fun, but the food leaves something to be desired.