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.
Earlier this Spring, I was on a day trip through Berkeley with a friend. We had trekked across the Bay on BART, and were on a quest for vegan pizza at Bobby G’s. Everything else in between that and home was by random chance or grumbling “feed me” messages from our stomachs.
Smart Alec’s was one of those stops. We happened to be across the street, realized we were hungry, and thus decided to refuel on the most delicious vegan “air baked fries”.
Fresh Garlic on Air-Baked Fries
Catering toward Cal Berkeley students, Smart Alec’s is cafeteria-style food (burgers and soups), with many vegetarian and a few vegan options. There are still a few folks who are long-time members of the veg community in the SF Bay Area that begrudge Smart Alec’s decision to stray away from being an entirely vegetarian restaurant.
The order shown here was a large, all for the princely sum of $1.99. Fresh garlic is an optional choice, and is a must-have for those of you who like garlic, or are worried about vampires. Side note, Saturn Cafe, a veg restaurant open until the wee hours in Santa Cruz, also serves fries with fresh garlic.
In all honestly, and hindsight, I should have gotten a small, or split an order. But sometimes those “feed me” messages from my tummy overwhelm the rational part of my brain that should be responsible for making decisions like portion control.
Asian Rose was a restaurant in Santa Cruz, popular for its delicious and rich Sri Lankan cuisine. It’s just over an hour’s drive for us, down beautiful and scenic Highway 1. We made it a point to visit at least once or twice a year.
Over the recent Labor Day holiday weekend, little did we know that it would be our last trip. The food has always been entirely vegetarian, with many vegan choices. For example, all of the curries on the menu were vegan, and the prices were incredibly reasonable: one item was $6, two items $6.50, 3 items $7, and 4 items $7.50.
Another three Item Curry - Asian Rose
The first two photos shows two typical plates of three item curries – a deal at $7, including rice and a papadam. I opted for the Mixed Vegetables Curry, Spinach Yam Curry, and Basil Eggplant Curry shown in the first photo.
My biggest regret, every single time I’ve eaten at Asian Rose, is that there is a finite amount of food on the plate and I eventually reach the end.
As dire as my title sounds, Farewell Asian Rose, it’s really not that grim. We are not facing the end of vegan Sri Lankan food (yea!!)
Sri Lankan Spicy Potatoes
It’s sister restaurant, Malabar Cafe in Santa Cruz, remains open for dinner only, serving much of the same delicious cuisine. They’re now open daily from 5 pm to 9 m, and to 9:30 pm on Friday and Saturday evenings. And when I talked to the owner/chef during my most recent visit, he was going to be adding crepes. When we told him we were vegan, he assured us there would be vegan ones available, too.
So, whether it was Asian Rose or the remaining Malabar Cafe, it’s well-worth the journey to Santa Cruz for vegan Sri Lankan food.
Have a yen for vegan pizza? Well, it’s easier than you think thank to some widely available vegan products that have become staples in my household.
Pizza Dough: Don’t feel like making pizza dough from scratch, or even kneading the premade pizza dough available from Trader Joe’s? A very easy and delicious alternative is the cornmeal pizza crust from Vicolo’s. They’re sold as a two-pack in the refrigerated or frozen section of natural food stores. The last time I checked, New Leaf in Half Moon Bay priced it at $5.09.
Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet
Vegan Cheese: This isn’t entirely necessary for a vegan pizza, but it does provide another flavor dimension. There are quite a few commercial vegan cheeses now available as well as potentially making your own tofu ricotta style cheesey sauce.
The Follow Your Heart “Vegan Gourmet” cheese alternatives are the most widely available, even in small towns on the San Francisco mid-Peninsula. With this brand, the trick is to broil the pizza for the last few minutes of cooking to help the “cheese alternative” melt. (Hey, that’s what they call it on their website; cheese alternative photo courtesy of Follow Your Heart)
Vegan Pizza with Broccoli, Pineapple, and Olives
Sauce: I’m rather simple in this manner. I take a can of tomato paste (Trader Joe’s house brand), and add some water and herbs to it and use that as my sauce base. For herbs, I use a generic mix called “Italian Seasoning” that I’ve bought from the herb & spices bulk section at Rainbow Grocery. Another alternative is equally simple – instead of the dried herbs, I’ll use freshly crushed garlic. Or maybe both. Then a pinch of salt.
Toppings: Everything tastes good on pizza. My favorites are: bell pepper, onions, olives, pineapple, corn kernels, and broccoli.
I grew up eating Ramen noodles. Now I buy a more expensive brand by Koyo ($1.09 when it’s on sale at New Leaf) that’s organic and vegan, but to me it’s still the Ramen noodles of my childhood.
I’m a fan of easy one-pot stovetop meals, so I enjoy using Ramen noodles as a base for a complete meal; dicing up slivers of tofu and diced vegetables to make it a hearty dinner.
1. Koyo Organic Ramen Noodles
2. Open package, empty into bowl
I’m such a Ramen fan, that the McDougall ramen noodle soup cups are the emergency food that I keep in my desk drawer at work.
One day, while thinking I wanted Ramen noodles but was too lazy to boil water in the pot, I decided to microwave it all.
Voila! This breakthrough has now become my new default Ramen noodle method. And no pot to clean-up, so I’m saving water, too. Here’s a basic version where I just added the seasoning packet, ramen noodles, water, and frozen broccoli to make a deliciously light meal. Happily, it look me longer to eat it then it did to prepare it.
3. Add water
4. Not too much water
5. Top with organic frozen broccoli
Because I’m really enjoying my relatively new camera, I’ll share the step-by-step photographic instruction on how you, too, can enjoy Ramen noodles. Microwave not included.
Note – If you want to get fancy, you can spice up the broth mix by adding tahini, peanut butter, or perhaps a dash of hot sauce.
And, of course, you can use any frozen vegetable you like. Broccoli just happens to be my favorite.
The last step is to microwave for 3-4 minutes. Well, actually, the really last step is to eat it!
Many years ago I did the Ohlone Wilderness Trail, 28 miles of mountains and canyons in 3 days. I wish I would have had my Garmont Kiowa Vegan hiking boots back then! I remember how my feet ached and how my knees hurt after that hike. Sometimes I think my right knee still aches from that hike.
Now that I’ve worn the Kiowa boots several times now, I thought I would post an update about how I like them. The first time I put them on, after just a couple of steps, I was impressed that I could actually feel the cushion of the shoe when I walked.
This last weekend my Kiowa vegan boots and I hiked the Montara Mountain trail, a 4.5 mile hike between San Pedro and Montara mountains, and then to Montara State Beach.
It was perfect weather for hiking — mild temperature, and slightly foggy, so we stayed cool. And, apparently many others shared our opinion. We saw about 20-25 hikers and bikers and 1 dog on the trail.
View of Pacifica (Montara Mtn Trail)
As we gained elevation, we said good-bye to the eucalyptus trees and instead greeted some beautiful ocean views.
At the end of our trek, while my feet were tired from walking on them steadily for 3 hours, I did not have any blisters or sore knees. And, of course, the perfect way to end any hike in Montara is a picnic lunch on our beautiful beach. My current favorite sandwich combination is slices of bread, tofurky deli slices (hickory smoked) with a layer of cucumber with Nayonaise.
I feel so lucky to call Montara home, even if the views are sometimes foggy
To the envy of all the people who live in San Francisco, the best vegan pizza is in the East Bay.
First, of the two entirely vegetarian pizzerias in the Bay Area, one of them is in the East Bay. Oakland’s Pizza Plaza became an all-veg pizzeria a few years back and has a wide selection of vegan pizzas on its menu, or you can entirely create your own vegan combo. They use Follow Your Heart vegan cheese and offer a wide selection of faux meats, too. Tony Tutto Pizza opened more recently in Mill Valley. However, while it is entirely vegetarian, it does not (yet) offer a vegan cheese.
Second, while there are a couple of mixed restaurants in SF that offer vegan pizza, I think for ease and choice of vegan pizza, East Bay wins the prize with 4 restaurants offering excellent vegan pizza choices:
After hearing favorable feedback about Bobby G’s, the newest in the preceding list to offer vegan pizza, I had to make a trip to the East Bay to try it out for myself. And I was not disappointed. It was scrummy!
Amazingly:
1) You can order vegan pizza by the slice, and each slice can be like a mini pizza (i.e. you can have whatever toppings you want on each slice!)
2) Vegan pizza is available in their lunch special, how cool is that. I always hate going to restaurants and feeling left out when they don’t have any vegan lunch specials.
Anyways, provided with the first-in-my-lifetime opportunity to have vegan pizza by the slice with whatever toppings I wanted, I could not refuse. I chose to have different toppings on each of my three slices: first, olive and pineapples; then spinach (I figured this was in lieu of ordering a salad ); and being the fungi lover I am, mushrooms.
Overall, the proprietary tofu ricotta was yummy, and just the right balance of toppings too. Let me repeat myself again: totally scrummy!
You can also make your own mini combination, as my fellow pizza lover did, and they offer a vegan salad, too. Note, while the combo pizza slices may look more festive, my singular topping slices were excellent and in no way lacking. I think all 3 slices cost me about $10 + tax/tip.
I would definitely return again, and bring a large to-go container with me
Trader Joe’s is a great place to shop, for vegans and non-vegans. First, they have great prices on staples, a large selection of which are organic, including tofu, jams/jellies, nut and seed butters, canned beans, bread products, frozen vegetables, and non-dairy milks, including soy-, nut-, and rice-based flavors. (Hmm, now I’m stumped trying to think back to the basics of high school English to remember if that is the appropriate use of hyphens. I think it is, but it’s been so long .. )
Recently I spotted a fairly new arrival at the Daly City location – a quadruplet of house brand faux meat products. I’m not necessarily a big fan of buying faux meat products to prepare and eat at home, but they looked so darn appealing on the shelf.
Having a vague recollection of having brunch at Herbivore’s a few months back with friends, and hearing a rave review about stuffed cutlets purchased at Trader Joe’s in SF, I went for the fake meat in box number four. Upon reaching home, it joined my other collection of vegan-foods-to-be-eaten-later in cold storage.
Flash forward to about a week later .. I’ve just been for a gorgeous hike on a late spring Sunday, didn’t feel like cooking, and so out came my home-frozen rice and O Organics broccoli, and my new stuffed cutlets. Interestingly, the two cutlets were individually packaged, which is nice if you don’t want to eat both at the same time.
Well, I followed the instructions on the box and microwaved the cutlets (yes, in my tired and lazy state of mind, I microwaved them in the plastic bags). It was simple to prepare, and when combined with the brown rice and broccoli, it made a decent meal. The cutlets were good — the sauce had an enjoyable slightly spicy undertone, the fake meat tasted fine, the stuffing was okay. I thought the cutlet on the package box looked more appealing than my actual cutlet though.
On a scale of one (low) to five (high), the average reviews from the two vegans in the household was a solid 3.0, which reflects our thoughts that while it was good enough to eat again, it seemed a bit pricey for what it actually was.
Anyways, if you’re looking for other ideas of what to eat vegan at Trader Joe’s, cheaply, check out Michelle’s recent video blog at Vegan Break.
Brunch is one of my favorite meals. Maybe it’s because so often during the week I’m rushing to work and my default breakfast staple is toasted whole wheat bread. And on the weekends, it’s nice to have a more leisurely breakfast — especially when there’s no shopping, cooking or cleaning up required.
Living on the mid-coast Peninsula, if it’s not vegan brunch at home, then I have to travel further abroad, like the East Bay. Brunch at Fellini’s in Berkeley makes that very easy, since it’s only a couple of blocks from North Berkeley BART.
Fellini offers 7 different vegan/vegetarian brunch items, ranging from french toast at $7 to scrambles to florentine or benedict at $9. And, as a nod to the concerns of veg*ns, the veg*n dishes are prepared in pans dedicated to their veg*n food.
On past brunch visits to Fellini’s I’ve alternately enjoyed the florentine or benedict. This time I decided to try the Tofu Veggie Scramble. I would not make that choice again. I found the scramble pretty boring, and a tad on the salty side, too. It wasn’t a total disappointment, though, as the accompanying house potatoes were delicious.
I decided I need some new shoes (vegan, of course) but wanted more variety than I might find at local Pacifica stores selling vinyl or canvas shoes. I also didn’t feel like running around the Bay Area for a wider range of stores and shoe selection and playing twenty questions.
I’d heard the online retailer Zappos had a good selection, and that others had positive experiences ordering from them. So, I decided to shop online from my little coastside corner of the Bay Area.
It took a little bit of exploring, then I finally found my category — “vegetarian shoes“. It was a pretty big selection, in a wide range of styles and prices. The big downside to ordering shoes without trying them on is the uncertainty of whether they will fit, and then having to pay postage to return them. I’d had a bad experience with this a few years ago. Zappos, however, offers free return shipping. I know this is factored into their selling price, but it is still a nice feature.
Zappos Earth Lazer Vegan
Zappos Simple Satire
It was actually quite interesting to spend a few days reviewing all the shoes, reading the comments, comparing prices. The Zappos website has excellent photos of the shoes, and shows different angles for them. The shoe photos shown here are from the Zappos website.
When I finally narrowed down my selections then I had figure out what size would be my size.
In the end, I ordered two pairs of shoes — the Earth Lazer – Vegan and a Converse-style tennis, the Simple Satire – Hemp . I decided to order the Earth Lazer shoes in two sizes to increase the likelihood of getting the right size on the first order.
The increasingly beautiful weather on the mid-Peninsula coastside and my current lack of hiking boots reminded me to look online at Zappos. Within hours, I had placed my second order with Zappos for Garmont Kiowa Vegan hiking boots.
Zappos Garmont Kiowa Vegan
The ordering process through the Zappos website was very easy. I could log-in to check the status of my order, and also get the tracking number for the packages.
My orders arrived quickly, and it was a bit like Christmas come early. My decision to order two different sizes of the Earth Vegan shoes was the right decision to get the right size. However, I didn’t like the way the shoe looked. For the Simple Satire, the shoe was cute but didn’t fit right on my foot. For my second box, the hiking boots fit well and I decided to keep them.
The return process was as simple as Zappos said it would be. Log into my account, print off a (free) return shipping label, then drop it off. Once Zappos received and processed my return, they posted a credit to my credit card.
Now to inaugurate my new boots and take them out hiking!
