Loving Hut, Westfield Mall, SF

When I think of a mall, I think of critical mass for capitalism, consumerism, and commercialism.  But the Loving Hut restaurant chain is trying to bring a new ism to Bay Area malls:  veganism.

Earlier this Spring, this fast-growing restaurant chain launched their newest foray into malldom at the Westfield Mall complex in San Francisco.  This marks their 2nd mall location in the Bay Area, with the original location at San Jose’s Oakridge mall.  With the Westfield mall, they are located in the food court, and offer a set menu plus rotating steam table of lunch items.  With the latter, it’s brown rice plus your choice of two items for $8.25

The menu, mostly Vietnamese-style vegan dishes, is a hybrid of the food available from Golden Lotus/Golden Era/Merit restaurants and the Loving Hut vegan restaurants.  As I’ve blogged before, Merit Vegetarian is one of my favorite restaurants and I’ve eaten at Golden Lotus and Golden Era dozens of times as well.

We visited the Loving Hut restaurant on May 30th, and ordered two “Buffet Combo Specials” . Mine was with sesame eggplant tofu and broccoli “beef” (a synthetic or faux version of our friend the cow).   The sesame eggplant tofu is one of my favorite dishes at Merit, and broccoli is my favorite vegetable.  (I eat broccoli about 4-5 times a week.)

For both combo plates, the food was warm from the steam-table, not as hot as we would have liked it.  It also didn’t have the same flavor it does when cooked fresh to order at the restaurant.  If I had the time, I’d much prefer to dine at one of their restaurant locations (Golden Era is the closest).  But, if I was in the area and hungry, sure, I’d stop by again.

Buffet Combo Special, Loving Hut, Westfield Mall, SF

The second Buffet Combo Special was also a two-item order, but not as generously endowed as the first.

Buffet Combo Special, Loving Hut, Westfield Mall, SF

But that just gave us an excuse to order the fresh spring rolls with peanut sauce and vegan cheesecake.

Vegan Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce

Loving Hut, Westfield Mall, SF

Oh, and they do have the TV.  When we were there it was flashing up the names of celebrities who were veg, and unfortunately it was an outdated list (hopefully by now they’ve updated it and removed Zooey Deschanel).

Vegan Hiking footwear

On the first day of Spring, a group of us hiked the Montara Mountain North Peak, an 8 mile round-trip hike with approximately 1800′ elevation gain, and then relaxed at Montara State Beach afterwards. Here’s a photo of some of the vegan footware modelled that day.

I’m very happy with my Garmont Kiowa vegan hikers.

Personally, I’m waiting for the next model that comes with solar-powered propulsion packs for those big hills.

I might just give up on raw restaurants all together after this.  The last time that I dined at one, Cafe Gratitude in SF, the waiter (who knew I was vegan) felt compelled to tell me that he prefers to dine on animals because he feels closer to them.

I never blogged the entire experience, or contacted the restaurant management about this, I decided I’d quietly vote with my vegan dining dollars and that was the last time I ate at Cafe Gratitude – February, 2006.

Still, the folks at Cafe Gratitude reached out to me with a sincere apology.  And even after they learned this was a historical incident at a location that has since closed, they invited us back to re-experience Cafe Gratitude, or Gracias Madre.

We decided to accept their invitation and visited Cafe Gratitude’s Harrison Street location on a cool spring evening.  While there are raw foods that many people eat in their daily lives (fresh fruit, garden salads, rice paper spring rolls with veggies, etc), a raw foods restaurant like Cafe Gratitude elevates raw food dining to an entirely new level.

This is what we selected:

• I AM INSIGHTFUL  Spring Rolls (using Chard leaves)
• I AM SENSATIONAL Pesto Pizza (envision dehydrated cracker-like crust, pesto spread & sprouts on top!)
• Tamale (cooked dish from Gracias Madre) – Stoneground heirloom masa steamed in the husk filled with butternut squash and green chile.  Served with black beans and pickled vegetables
• I AM RAPTURE   layer cake
• I AM PRAISING  Vanilla Ice Cream with Chocolate Sauce

The food was uniformly excellent.  We particularly loved the simplicity and understated taste of the black beans, and that has inspired us eat more black beans.  We’ve been soaking and cooking them fresh for the last several weeks now.

The desserts were outstanding.  Most of them have coconut, and I’m not a big coconut lover, but I was very happy with my raw ice cream & chocolate sauce.

The spring rolls made with chard leaves were great, and I especially loved the pesto pizza.  In fact, the only food item we ordered that didn’t impress us was one that came as a side on two dishes, the pickled cabbage.  Aside from that, we would happily eat this entire meal, again.

For anyone who hasn’t been to Cafe Gratitude, they have primarily raw foods with some cooked items on the menu.  The seating at this location is communal, meaning there’s a couple of large tables which may be shared with separate dining parties, and I think there was also a table that seats four.  For me, that detracted from the entire experience — I felt crowded being so close to other diners, as I do like boundaries when I’m eating (as in, that’s my half of the pizza, hands-off!).

We were both very impressed with the raw foods at Cafe Gratitude.  We came away with a renewed appreciation for raw foods, a desire to return to Cafe Gratitude (pesto pizza and layer cake), and the notion of a San Francisco Vegan Food Trek in the Mission.  I’ll leave that topic for another day.

Answering the question of how a construction contractor from a tough Brooklyn neighborhood becomes an impassioned animal advocate, in the award-winning documentary THE WITNESS, Eddie Lama explains how he feared and avoided animals for most of his life, until the love of a kitten opened his heart, inspiring him to rescue abandoned animals and bring his message of compassion to the streets of New York. With humor and sincerity, Eddie tells the story of his remarkable change in consciousness.  You can watch a preview below, and see the entire film at the Tribe of Heart website

THE WITNESS
A Tribe of Heart Documentary
43 minutes, 2000

Director: Jenny Stein
Producer: James LaVeck
Photography: Jason Longo
Sound: Jane Greenberg

Menu, Basil Cha Cha Vegetarian Bistro, Foster City

I really shouldn’t complain that we have so many vegetarian Vietnamese and Chinese restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area.  So, let me say instead that we were really happy to learn from the SFBAVEG (San Francisco Bay Area Vegetarians) Yahoogroups list that an all vegetarian Thai restaurant had opened in Foster City, a 35 minute drive from our coastside abode.

Knowing that there was a new vegetarian restaurant in close proximity to us created a state of angst that could only be soothed with a visit.  So, within days we found ourselves hungrily eyeing the menu at the Basil Cha Cha Vegetarian Bistro.

Mango Sticky Rice, Basil Cha Cha Vegetarian Bistro, Foster City

We learned that the owner owns another Thai restaurant called Sweet Basil.  In the veg vernacular, we call this place a “mixed” restaurant since it serves up animals as well as vegetables to its diners.  The owner chose to take the veg food selections from its popular Sweet Basil and create a new all vegetarian bistro, Basil Cha Cha.  The confusing part is that both restaurants are located in the same outdoor strip mall, just a few doors away from each other.

Crispy Spring Rolls, Basil Cha Cha Vegetarian Bistro, Foster City

Food: There are nearly 50 items on the menu — appetizers, salads, soups, fried rice dishes, noodle dishes, curries, and entrees.  The menu clearly marks which dishes are already vegan, and which are vegan optional (meaning, they are vegetarian and can be ordered as vegan).

Now that I’m starting my third decade as a vegan, I often make conscious choices to avoid faux meats.  So I appreciate that Basil Cha Cha offers all its entrees with a choice of veggie chicken, beef, tofu or vegetables.  In essence, this gives diners many more options, as that one entree can be ordered multiple ways.

The dishes can be ordered to your spice preference (slightly hot, medium hot, and hot).  Dishes with nuts are also notated.

Ambience: This restaurant is a step above the typical veg restaurant.  It’s very stylish dishware fits right in with the artful presentation of the dishes themselves (many come with an edible flower) and the lovely decor.  It’s not a large restaurant, so it’s a cozy little place for a quiet dinner for two or perfect setting to share food and conversation with a group.

Seaweed Salad, Basil Cha Cha Vegetarian Bistro, Foster City

Price: The dishes are reasonably priced, with most dishes in the $7.95 category, with a few of the appetizers, salad, and rice dishes coming in at $5.95 or $6.95.

Our Order: The money we saved by not having to pay for the typical parking in SF was spent on food, so we  splurged by ordering food from just about every category on the menu

- appetizer:  Crispy Spring Rolls, shown above
- salad: Seaweed Salad, at right
- soup: Tom Yum Veggie
- entrees:  Yellow Curry, Pad Kee Mow
- dessert:  Mango Sticky Rice, show above

On our first visit, we found alot of the dishes to be spicy, even when we ordered them mild.  When the waiter found out it was our first visit, he gave us a complimentary corn fritter, which we thought was a nice gesture from a new restaurant to new customers (see photo album for photos of all the dishes).  Despite the overly spicy food, we liked it well-enough to return to try some different foods, and this time we brought a group with us.

On our second visit, we ordered the Fresh Salad Rolls (substituting tofu for the veggie shrimp), Massamam Curry (potatoes, onions, and peanuts with tofu and vegetables), Sweet & Sour (tofu/vegetables with pineapple, onion, cucumber and tomatoes), and Mango Sticky Rice.   Again we ordered the entrees as mild, and this time they really were.  The curry was excellent; its base was a delicious blend of coconut milk and peanut butter.

In summary, the new Basil Cha Cha Vegetarian Bistro has both style and substance.  I hope they thrive in Foster City.  I would highly recommend it to anyone who wishes to enjoy delicious vegan food at affordable prices in a pleasant atmosphere.

More information:
Photos of menu and dishes ordered on first visit
Ultimate Guide:  Basil Cha Cha Vegetarian Bistro

Here’s the menu from last week

Steamed Cajun Spiced GARBANZOS~ $ 3.5
Asparaus SOUP w/ Toasted Farofa and Tempura Asparagus Tips  ~$9
Local Snap Pea & Purple Potato POHA $11
OKRA Rasam with Lentil Fritter and Curry Leaf $11
Vegan TAMALES with Pickled Baby Vegetable and Mole Pipian $15
Organic PLATANOS maduros roasted in red palm oil over Mole Manchamantel with Black Beans and Rice  $15
Kefir Lime Merengue Tartlet with Ginger Scented Rhubarb and Thai Basil Scented Strawberry  $9

While I prefer to dine at retaurants that are exclusively veg to avoid any cross-contamination of my plant food, the worry would be reduced since apparently the entire menu is vegan this night at La Victoria Bakery & Kitchen

I spotted this tidbit in the newsletter from the Millennium Restaurant (the one and same iconic San Francisco restaurant).  Thank you to Millennium restaurant for the tip-off!  Below excerpted from their newsletter:

Attention Mission dwelling Vegans!

Well, we found pretty much the same array of vegan convenience foods in the refrigerated section and were delighted to find the Trader Joe brand of vegan cookies.

The biggest surprise, however, was seeing that the Phoenix Trader Joe’s has a vegan cookie flavor that we’ve never seen at the Daly City or South San Francisco Trader Joe’s. Well, of course, we had to go for the cookies we’ve never had … turns out they had coconut, which I’m not crazy about. But Chris like coconut and has declared this the best of all the Trader Joe cookies.  We even brought the packaging home to show our local Trader Joe’s ….

Trader Joe’s has a selection of vegan foods at very competitive prices.  The top three foods that I buy at TJs are:  fresh sliced organic bread, soymilk, and organic frozen broccoli.

Since the economy went south, I’ve been watching my spending more closely than normal.  Trader Joe’s helps me in two ways:  1 – food prices and 2 – easy recycling.

Trader Joe’s prices regularly beat Safeway’s and my nearest natural food stores (NFS) in Pacifica or Half Moon Bay.  Here’s their list of vegan products, and below is my typical “shopping list” for TJs

Fresh:
- organic sliced sprouted barley bread $2.99 (I think this is the repackaged Alvarado bread that sells at my NFS for $3.69)
- vegan chocolate chip cookies (bag of fresh cookies, similar to Uncle Eddie’s, $3.99 )

Shelf-stable products:
- canned organic tomato paste and diced tomatoes
- organic soymilk (64 oz, 2.99)
- canned organic beans (until I get my pressure cooker!)
- Clif Bars (.99 each, versus 1.49 at my NFS)

Refrigerated foods:

-Tofurky slices (1.99 for smoked hickory)
- Earth Balance (organic, vegan spread that we use instead of butter, $3.69)
- tofu (I like the organic “twin pack” Soga at $1.69)

Frozen

- organic broccoli (16 oz for $2.29 – my favorite vegetable – I eat this about 5 times a week!)
- organic corn
- breaded “chicken” nuggets (look for the Trader Joe’s brand; they also carry Morningstar and these aren’t vegan)
- black bean and corn enchiladas

Recycling pays off in different ways.  Obviously, it diverts materials from landfill and can be used to create new products.  We’ve always recycled, and appreciated the curbside recycling that our community conveniently offers.  With a renewed focus on watching where my money goes, I’ve started taking my cans and the occasional bottles to recycling centers for cash.  Just recently I discovered that at the South SF Trader Joe’s, I can bring in cans and bottles and get my recycling cash right at the register.  Very convenient, no special trip needed.

We had a disappointing experience at Planet Raw restaurant in Pleasant Hill recently.   After 90 minutes of driving, we arrive to find Planet Raw tucked away in the corner of this shopping center in the suburbs.  Chris goes inside while I’m outside looking at the menu and taking a photograph of the exterior to help promote them in the Ultimate Guide.

Chris returns before I’ve even finished taking my pictures, as I had to wait while this woman exited, as we prefer pics without people for UG.

And he says they’re closed, I ask why, he says the chef has left.  And then, the woman who was leaving,  interrupts our conversation to identify herself as the chef and just erupts with this litany of reasons why she is leaving, in a very angry fashion, ending with “next time call before you want to eat here”.   Not one word of apology or even acknowledgment that now her restaurant is unable to fulfill its function of serving food to customers, because she is walking out mid-day.

I was totally shocked by her rudeness, and the very anti-customer tirade.   (It almost felt like I was in the wrong for wanting to spend money at her restaurant.)  Anyways, after she stormed off, our curiousity did get the better of us so we went back inside together to ask the staff who that was.  They said it was Valerie, co-owner and chef.  They were very friendly and apologetic, and did offer to try to make us something, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the very un-welcome greeting we just had.   Interestingly enough, Valerie contacted me through yelp (where I also posted a review) and said the staff made a mistake; it was Carol, the other co-owner, who was rude, not her.

Anyways, for anyone else who might be driving a distance to visit them, I just wanted to share our experience that they close unexpectedly, and beware that you may be treated rudely.

Personally, while I do want veg businesses to succeed, I don’t think it does them any favors to hold them to a lesser standard.  For any veg business to succeed, it must have the support of both veg and non-veg customers.

Side note:  This was most definitely our first and last visit to Planet Raw.  I might just give up on raw restaurants all together after this.  The last time that I dined at one, Cafe Gratitude in SF, the waiter (who knew I was vegan) felt compelled to tell me that he prefers to dine on animals because he feels closer to them.

Symphonie Restaurant, Richmond, CA

First impressions go a long way towards making it or breaking it for a restaurant. After all, if a restaurant doesn’t impress or at least show the potential for a good meal, customers won’t return.

The Symphonie Restaurant in Richmond, CA opened in February, 2009. Traveling through that area, we made a spontaneous decision to dine at Symphonie last week.

Inside Symphonie Restaurant

It was approaching dusk, so we couldn’t enjoy what appeared to be a charming and picturesque downtown. One nice point to dining outside of large cities — we did find easy and free parking in Symphonie’s parking lot.

The restaurant is a bit like the Doctor’s Tardis. It looms larger on the inside than it looks on the outside.

The restaurant is tastefully and pleasantly furnished. All the tables were prepared for the dinner crowd, complete with tablecloths, napkins, and place settings.

The only component missing were the customers. At 5 pm on a Sunday, we had our choice of seating in the restaurant.

The waitress seated us in the middle of the dining area, and explained that any items with the faux chicken were unavailable. When she asked, I shared it was our first visit to their restaurant.

Although it was only two pages, the menu was confusing. The first page was appetizers, salads, soups, fried rice, and noodle dishes. The second page was Lunch Specials (with soup, salad, and rice) and Specialties (with soup and salad). However, we could order from the Lunch Specials as a Dinner, but would not get the soup, salad, and rice and it would be a dinner portion.

We decided on an appetizer, Spring Rolls, and two entrees, Red Curry (from the Lunch Specials), and Mongolian Beef (from the Specialties), and brown rice.

Red Curry - Symphonie

The spring rolls were good (being vegan doesn’t mean I’ve lost my appreciation for fried foods), and interestingly, served with 2 dipping sauces. Only one of them appealed to both of us though.

The Red Curry was advertised as a curry and spicy, but neither of us found either of these qualities in the dish. The serving size was about average. The vegetables were well-cooked. I think the dish would have been better with a firmer tofu, rather than the big cubes of silken tofu. Unfortunately I saw potato with a big black spot right on the top. I know it happens with potatoes — it just needs to be cut-out before it’s cooked and served. It was huge, easily visible underneath the sauce. I guess the kitchen, in their haste to prepare 3 dishes for their only diners, missed it. And the sauce, it was about the right color for a curry but otherwise unremarkable.  (In fact, their curry came up lacking compared to a frozen entree dinner with a curry sauce we’d had earlier in that same week.)

As soon as we saw the Mongolian Beef , we realized we’d made a mistake in ordering it. We double-checked the description; it’s one of those dishes that restaurants bundle with rice automatically. So, priced at $11.50, with half the dish being rice, it was very overpriced for what it was. Taste-wise, it was okay but forgettable — nothing outstanding that made either of us crave to return anytime soon.

As for the actual rice that we ordered, not listed on the menu we received, I even have something to say about that. Quantity-wise, it appeared more like a serving of rice for one person, but cost-wise ($2.50) it was priced like rice for two. The rice served with the Mongolian Beef dish was larger than the amount of rice we ordered separately, so we had enough rice.

Vegan Mongolian Beef - Symphonie

Frankly, though, after all that, the food wasn’t the most disappointing part of the meal. Or, maybe that should read instead

Surprisingly, though, after all that, the food wasn’t the most disappointing part of the meal.

It was a combination of the overall service and ambiance. The waitress did a good impression of a bad covert agent throughout our entire meal by fiddling with the existing place settings at the tables next to us — repeatedly adjusting the place settings, moving them back and forth between the same tables, straightening forks, and refolding napkins.

The cloth napkins are folded into a fan shape and decoratively placed on top of the plate. The plate is on a woven mat, on top of the tablecloth. Cutlery is placed directly on the woven mat. On my way to the restroom, while still in the main dining area, I walked by a laundry cart. It was holding a hamper filled with discarded table linens and a package of new ones. I didn’t see any discarded or fresh mats on the laundry cart. Since it’s woven, it’s easier for food particles to get caught within the slats. And it would be too incongruous for a restaurant promoting ‘Go Green’ to be treating them as disposable mats. At that point, I didn’t want to think too hard about how/if they clean the mats between diners.  I just wished they placed clean cutlery on the napkins, as most restaurants do.

The restaurant is nicely furnished inside, and very big. On the main dining floor, there is a separate bar area, as well as another empty counter/bar area. The furniture is all dark wood. When we were there, they had soft music unobtrusively playing in the background. But (you knew it was coming) that was completely drowned out by the lively conversation and light footfalls of two young children affiliated with the restaurant staff. The kids were, well, kids in their playful and creative banter and shouting, which was easily overheard throughout the entire dining area.

The Check - overcharged by 6%

We had already agreed that if the waitress asked us at the end of the meal how it was, we would be truthful with her. But perhaps she had already (over)heard enough, because she didn’t ask when she presented the check.

As we got ready to leave, we noticed we were still the only customers in the entire restaurant.

Interestingly, the saga with the meal didn’t end when we walked out. The next day, after reviewing some of the photographs I’d taken of our dinner there, I discovered Symphonie had overcharged us by $1 on the spring rolls, and there was another unexplained 0.75 charge on the bill. The real total was $32.82 (tax included) but the restaurant charged us $34.74.

I wanted Symphonie to impress me, to be a wonderful vegan restaurant that I could rave about and encourage everyone to visit, but they didn’t. Instead, I left wondering how on earth they’ve managed to stay open for nearly a year.

Menu - Appetizers

Menu - Entrees

Menu - Entrees

Scallion Pancakes

Scallion Pancakes. Just those two words are enough to completely grab my attention.

If you’re veg and live in the San Francisco Bay Area (anywhere not under a rock), you’ll hopefully know exactly what I’m talking about.

Garden Fresh, a popular vegan restaurant in Mountain View, serves scallion pancakes as an appetizer.  It’s a fried pancake (yum) served with a brown sauce on top of another fried pancake (double yum).

One day, I was at my local library and browsing the cookbook section.   Although I have the world wide web at my fingertips, and close to two dozen vegan cookbooks at home, I do like to occasionally check out a vegan cookbook at my local library so that it keeps them in circulation.

While in that general area, I randomly picked up this cookbook called Quick & Easy Chinese. I was flipping through it, looking at the color pictures. When, suddenly, I spotted scallion pancakes!  Okay, so the author calls them “Green Onion Pancakes”. The picture looks exactly like the scallion pancakes at Garden Fresh.

So if you also love the Scallion Pancakes at Garden Fresh, and want to try and make some at home, go look for this cookbook Quick & Easy Chinese.  I took a quick look through the rest of the cookbook, and it didn’t strike me as particularly veg-friendly.  So, you may just want to get it through your local library.