restaurant Archives - Page 6 of 8

Vegan Lunch Group at Harmony Vegetarian

This Sunday was the monthly gathering for our Atlanta Vegan Activity Group. Sometimes we have potlucks and sometimes we go to restaurants. This month we headed to Harmony Vegetarian for Chinese food. It’s on Buford Highway, so if you’re not normally in the area it’s a good time to hit up the ethnic groceries for specialized ingredients.

I knew when I got up Saturday morning and it was finally feeling like Fall that I was going to be all about getting soup at Harmony. The craving stayed with me until Sunday, so I got the Ham Noodle Soup. And it was exactly what I wanted. Nice broth, pink hammy chunks, veggies and oodles of noodles.

Kevin can’t get out of there without a Chinese Pizza. Here he’s finishing it up with his General Tso’s Chicken in the background. The nice thing about our main vegan/vegan-friendly Chinese restaurants, Harmony, Green Sprout and Chinese Buddha, is that they all offer brown rice as an option. Also for Atlanta folks, Ashley has put together a new website for Atlanta vegans: veganatlanta.com. Check it out for information on the upcoming picnic in the park.

Another vegan option in Atlanta

Kasan Red in East Atlanta now has a vegan special every Tuesday night 5-10pm. And it’s not a typical veggie burger, portobello mushroom, etc. that most non-veg restaurants offer you. Last week it was seitan stroganoff. I think tonight is going to be sandwiches of some sort. And yeah, they’re even going to make sure the bread is vegan, so they really are trying to do it right. So if you’re getting burned out on our typical options like I am, you should check it out. Oh, and I heard a rumor they might have vegan desserts too. 😉

Millennium

millennium menu Thursday night we went to Millennium for dinner. And yeah, it is all that and a bag of chips. Unfortunately, all the pics are crappy. It was all candle lit and I wasn’t going to be rude and use a flash.We started off with some fried potatoes that were absolutely perfect. Big planks that had a thin and crispy outside and perfectly soft inside. I have no idea what was in the dipping sauce that came with them, but it was brown and yummy. The thing about Millennium is that the food is all crazy complicated. Sometimes, you just can’t figure it out.I also got these Vietnamese inspired dolmas. They were crusted in sesame seeds, had a thai coconut curry sauce and there was a salad with avocado. Amazing with a sharp bite of lemongrass. I’ve never had such a light and lovely thai coconut curry.Kevin got the black bean torte. It was as if that mole tortilla stack I made a while back went to an Ivy League school rather than tech school. Smokey wonderful black beans and several sauces & salsas. Crap we could have stopped here. But no….I had these edamame shiitake cakes with brown rice and coconut sauce, greens, and then there were a bunch of vegetables up under the greens, mostly asparagus and sugar snap peas. So good! I did have to walk away from some brown rice though. I mean, had to squeeze dessert in somehow.Kevin had a chard roulade stuffed with tofu cheese. It had tiny black beans and asparagus on the side.The dessert picture didn’t come out well enough to consider posting. We let the waitress pick and she brought a small orange bundt cake soaked in more orange, covered in caramel sauce and with mint sorbet on the side. How many times can I say “holy crap that was good?” I ate my half, but I may have lost a few years off my life for finishing it. It may well have been worth it.

Breakfast at Herbivore

tofu scramble at herbivore

Kevin is going to be soooo mad that I went to Herbivore for breakfast this morning while he had to sit in his class. Hey, I had to eat, right? I chose to go to the one on Valencia, since I spent a lot of time in the Mission when I lived here. It was nice to see some familiar landmarks like that big ‘ol prison looking building, the Bombay Market and Munroe Motors where I threw away a lot of money trying to keep my Triumph running.

It was kind of hard to decide, but I ultimately went with the tofu scramble with spinach, tomatoes and mushrooms. The scramble was nice and moist from the tomatoes, but not soggy. Nutritional yeast was used, but not with a heavy hand, not that that’s a bad thing. And it was crumbled up really tiny. I don’t care, but some people like it chunky better.

The potatoes were partially mashed redskins. It was almost like they used a panini press on the grill to get the creamy & chunky inside and crisp and brown outside effect. They may have been slightly salty, but overall amazing. Although I really can’t tell you why they were yellow.

The toast was a nice artisan bread with lots of holes and a crisp and chewy crust. It came with a jam that was tart and might have been made in house.

Anyway, no real complaints here. Maybe Kevin and I will try the Divisadero location.

Mexican Food at Across the Street

Doesn’t a Mexican restaurant with a number of choices for vegans sound great? Of course it does! A week or so ago Matt and I checked out Across the Street over on Highland by Cosmo’s.

across the street margarita chips salsa guac

Inside it’s cosy and vibrant. We were there pretty early, so I don’t know how loud it gets in there. It wasn’t an issue at all for us. Warm crispy chips & a nice red salsa arrived. We went ahead and got some guacamole as well. And margaritas. All of the above were excellent. Matt ordered carnitas (he’s not veg, der) and I got the tacos with one tvp and one tofu. He didn’t like his carnitas. Thought it was too tough and dry. My tacos were pretty good. The tvp was clearly made by a non-veg person. It tasted like they reconstituted the tvp in plain water then just kind of cooked it with some taco seasoning. So, they need to figure out that tvp needs to be soaked in something flavorful before cooking. The tofu was great though. If I remember right it had a light dusting of seasoned cornmeal and was fried. Pan-fried, I think. The rice seemed slightly mushy, but tasted good. The beans seemed slightly bland at first but I found that I appreciated them more as I ate them, so I think they were fine. There are more vegan options on the menu, so I’m all for going back and checking out something else.

across the street tvp and tofu tacos rice beans