Vegetarian in Vegas

Las Vegas is a city where money can by just about any pleasure that a person can imagine. The food, in particular, is an extraordinary array of international flavors prepared by some of the world's most talented chefs. Vegetarian dining, though, can sometimes be a little tougher than average when considering the hedonistic reputation of Sin City.

Luckily, when you know where to look, vegetarian and vegan diners can find meatless breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks that can easily fuel whatever type of bender is underway (check out other Las Vegas reviews here). While most places will be able to cater to dietary restrictions, these places go above and beyond with their fare, or are just too good to otherwise pass by.

Breakfast - hands down, the one place that vegetarian diners must stop is 
Ronald's Donuts. The small doughnut shop tucked into Chinatown makes delicious fried breakfast pastries, two-thirds of which are vegan.  

Most of the non-cake doughnuts are vegan, including the heralded apple fritter. A dozen costs $7.50. Save money on the Strip resort breakfast and eat vegan doughnuts for a few mornings. 

Chinatown is a great area for vegetarians who are adventurous eaters. There is a wide range of Asian cuisines in the neighborhood, and some places are exclusively vegetarian.

In Chinatown, the other most famous item is the house-made tofu at Raku. It was on an episode of the Food Network's Best Thing I Ever Ate. Every visiting chef talks about it. It is part of why Raku is one of the most talked about restaurants in Las Vegas.

The tofu is set in a round basket, and it carries visible basket ridges on its faces. Diners should be careful because some of the dishes are prepared with bonito fish flakes.

Lotus of Siam is one of the nation's premiere Thai restaurants. Its flavors are deeply authentic, and they take care with vegetarian dining requests.

Chef/owner Saipin Chutima prepares traditional recipes that have been passed down in her family for 100 years. It is a worthwhile stop for lunch or dinner seven days a week.

Go Raw Cafe is Las Vegas' resident old-fashioned hippie vegan restaurant. It has two locations, and offers raw, vegan fare.

Luv-It Frozen Custard is not vegan-friendly, but it is a good old-fashioned way to cool yourself in the hot desert sun. The favorite sundae is the Western, topped with hot fudge, caramel, pecans and a cherry. It is located North of the Stratosphere near The Strip.

I also had a great experience at Ferraro's, an Italian restaurant on the city's East Side. It was a great environment and the staff took great care of a large party. It offers pretty traditional Italian vegetarian options, but it's fresh and carefully prepared. The Italian singers are an added bonus.

Those that want to make their meat-eating friends jealous can also get a grilled cheese from In-N-Out Burger. This is the West Coast retro burger operation with a rabid fan base. The menu is minimal, augmented by a secret menu that allows for full order customization.

The grilled cheese is essentially a cheeseburger without the burger. Accompanied by greasy animal fries, thin fries topped with melted cheese, grilled onions and Thousand Island dressing. If it is washed down by a milkshake, a vegetarian diner can be provided with a vegetarian (in the loosest sense of the word) artery-stopping unhealthy calorie bomb from 10 in the morning until after midnight.

Papaya Street Grill

Papaya Street Grill is a fast-casual restaurant with a global menu located in Dublin. Dishes and sauces travel the globe from Thailand to Bali to Minnesota and beyond.

While the menu listed plenty of options for vegan and vegetarian diners, the counter staff was flummoxed by questions about the ingredients in particular sauces. Diners with allergies might want to contact Papaya Street Grill ahead of time. Nervous vegetarian diners could also order only vegan items from the menu if they are unable to confirm what ingredients are in particular dishes.

The build-your-own bowl entree can be built on salad, rice or noodles. Tofu can be added and a sauce can be chosen. The vegetables were limp and needed sauce to cover up the imperfections. 

While the concept of Papaya Street Grill is interesting, getting answers to dietary concerns is difficult. The food isn't good enough to make the struggle worthwhile. 

Section 8 Yakitorium

Section 8 Yakitorium is another concept from Kenny Kim and Misaka Ohba, the folks who brought you Fresh Street. It is the kitchen of a Brewery District bar called Double Happiness, and although the focus of the restaurant is grilled meat skewers, Section 8 Yakitorium has great options for vegans and vegetarians alike.

Skewers are grilled over a special Japanese charcoal. Vegetarian skewers include green onions, okra, tomatoes and enoki mushrooms.

The green onions had a fresh, sweet flavor. The okra picks up layers of nuanced smoke, and the grill eliminates any slimy characteristics that sometimes plague the vegetable.

The mushrooms have a subtle flavor. They ended up crispy on the corners and soft and moist in the middle.

The cabbage pancakes, called okonokiyaki, can be prepared for vegetarians, but it must be requested this way as they traditionally contain fish sauce. This was easily the best thing I tasted. The texture was perfectly crunchy, and the sweet soy marinade shines on this delicious dish.

The pickled vegetable rice dish was a nice winter warmer. This was a special item, and seasonal menu choices could change regularly.

There is an understated decor at Double Happiness. The bar serves a limited selection of drafts and about 20 bottled beers, sake and sake cocktails, and liquor, including cool labels like the Suntory Yamazaki 12 year Japanese whisky.

The staff did a great job with vegan and vegetarian concerns. Section 8 Yakitorium is open Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 6:30 p.m. to 1:30 or 2 a.m.

Fresh 50

Fresh 50 is a new fast-casual Asian spot Downtown in the the recently vacated Spinelli's Deli location. It offers build-your-own rice and noodle dishes as well as salads and wraps with a variety of sauces and dressings.

The interior of Fresh 50 is mostly unchanged from the layout at Spinelli's. Orders take less than 10 minutes to prepare.

Vegetarian dishes are essentially veggie stir fries with the exception of the salad and sandwich. It might be nice to offer a vegetarian protein like tofu, which would pair nicely with Asian sauces.

The choice of vegetables includes traditional salad and sandwich standards, as well as cooked zucchini and squash or broccoli and mushrooms. Sauces include a sweet soy, teriyaki and salad dressings like ranch and Asian balsamic vinaigrette.

Portions are fairly priced. Everything is less than $7. Sauces can be applied individually or combined to make interesting hybrids.

The concept of fast-casual Asian for lunch is strong. Additional tweaks to service combined with a vegetarian protein source would give Fresh 50 some staying power.

Loving Hut

Loving Hut, a large vegan restaurant chain, opened its first Central Ohio location in Reynoldsburg today. The menu is being finalized, and a grand opening is scheduled sometime in the next month.

Upon first examination, Loving Hut's affiliation with spirituality made me a bit apprehensive. It is part of the Ching Hai empire, and she is called the Supreme Master.

When I think of the master, I was somewhat certain that "Bruce" Leroy Green was the master, and he proved this by taking down Sho'nuff, the Shogun of Harlem near the end of Last Dragon.

Luckily enough, the Loving Hut Supreme Master was not obtrusive (unlike Sho'nuff in the video link in the last paragraph). Sure, Supreme Master TV was playing on the flat screen (it is channel 8067 on DirecTV, I would imagine). From the parts of the programming I caught, the Supreme Master is a big fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber-style love ballads, many of which she wrote herself. When the barely noticeable proselytizing was combined with my not-so-secret devotion to show tunes, it all made the experience interesting yet inoffensive.

The decor at Loving Hut highlights vegetarians in history and pop culture. Vegetarian cookbooks fill the dining rooms. The restaurant is much bigger than it appears from the parking lot with two rooms folded into an L-shaped portion of Blacklick Plaza in Reynoldsburg.

While the menu is still rounding into shape, it will feature Pan-Asian dishes as well as American comfort food classics like the veggie burger and a BBQ sandwich. Many items on the menu are made with TVP or other kinds of faux meat products. There are salads and other items made without these ingredients for diners filled with veggie meat trepidation. I possess little fear of TVP.

Prices at Loving Hut are fairly inexpensive. $10 is probably an average order. $15 means you're taking food home.

What I ate: The spring rolls were stuffed with cabbage, carrots and mushrooms, fried crispy and served with sweet and sour sauce. Cilantro adds a fresh touch to this take-out staple.

The pho was a great veggie approximation of the Vietnamese wintertime staple. A mushroom broth is flecked with green onions, cilantro and basil as well as a heaping helping of textured protein, noodles and bean sprouts. The citrus garnish is textbook, and the vegan pho should be a great relief for cold weather as long as it lasts this year.

The BBQ sandwich was awesome. The creamy coleslaw was a great foil to the sweet sauce-covered TVP. The fries were thick and of passable quality.

The smoothies are thick. The blueberry banana smoothie was redolent of both fruits. Loving Hut serves smoothies, teas, coffee, water and no alcoholic beverages.

Loving Hut adds an interesting option to East and Southeast side residents that don't have a go-to vegan or vegetarian restaurant that comes to mind. Residents of other parts of the city will have to visit the international vegan fast casual restaurant on a destination trip or while passing through town.

Loving Hut

Urban Belly

Urban Belly is Bill Kim's flagship establishment. It is a Pan-Asian restaurant with communal dining arrangement specializing in dumplings and noodles. It is a cool spot in a strip mall on Chicago's Northwest side.

I spent a good deal of space singing Chef Kim's praises in my review of his latest operation, Belly Shack. He generates a great deal of buzz because his restaurants are fun and offer a lot of bang for the buck.

The chairs at the long tables are built from wood from salvaged Indonesian ships. The decor is minimal, understated and inviting. There is a fairly brisk turnover of the seats.

While there are no vegetarian dumplings listed on the menu, Urban Belly offers the squash dumplings prepared without bacon. The dumplings were garnished with daikon, green onions and tangerines. They were stuffed with squash that had a spicy accent. The veggie squash dumplings were a subtly sweet and absolutely sublime.

The Asian egg noodles consisted of a bathtub-sized bowl of delicious noodles, fried crispy on the ends and soft in the middle, in a chili garlic broth with eggplant and tofu cubes. The massive portion provided plenty of satisfying flavors the run the gamut from spicy to vegetal to savory.

The Szechwan wrinkled green beans were a delightful take on a Chinese classic. The rich, spicy sauce was accented with crunchy almonds that add another layer of texture to a dish that already possesses a pile of flavor.

Prices are reasonable, and although there are limited choices for vegetarians, the options are good enough to make Urban Belly a foodie destination.

Urban Belly

Nida's Thai on High

Nida's Thai is a gem of a restaurant that is more vegetarian-minded than many other of its Thai brethren. The flavorful fare and abundance of meatless options make Nida's a destination for those with a taste for the food from a land once called Siam.

Many Thai restaurants utilize fish sauce as an ingredient in curries as well as in the form of a condiment. Fish sauce is used to bring umami to a dish in much the same way that soy sauce does, and it's a common ingredient in Southeast Asian cuisine. Luckily, the curries at Nida's are completely vegan, and the menu indicates which dishes contain fish sauce. It saves the trouble of having to ask about fish sauce, and I'm a sucker for convenience. The menu is also excellent at pointing out other vegetarian-unfriendly ingredients like shrimp and chicken broth.

Vegetarian starters include veggie spring rolls, fried tofu with sweet and sour sauce, and fried tofu with peanut sauce and cucumber salad. I ordered the peanut sauce tofu, which was a perfectly-fried, savory delight. The texture of the tofu was firm, the peanut sauce adds a rich character to the dish, and the clean flavor of the cucumber salad provides a delightful palate cleanser that wraps the whole thing up in a bow.

There are a variety of curries and noodle dishes on the menu at Nida's. I was most interested in the curries, which showcase a variety of interesting spices and vegetables. Instead of limiting the choices to red, green, yellow and massaman curry, Nida's features six different curries that can all be made with tofu.

I chose the gang kua, a spicy red curry flavored with tamarind and basil with cherry tomatoes, peppers and small pieces of pineapple. The tomatoes and pineapple add a bright, sweet layer to a sauce that is already exploding with flavor.

The lunch menu does not offer the range of choices for vegetarians that the dinner menu does. The dinner menu also has a section of vegetarian specialties that are not on the lunch menu. In addition to catering to vegetarians, Nida's also offers many dishes that are safe for diners that avoid gluten.

Nida's offers a good selection of flavorful cocktails. Service is prompt, friendly and capable. My server did an excellent job addressing questions about vegetarian items on the menu.

Prices at Nida's were fair. Although the menu prices seem low for food of this quality, the portions were a little small. It is advisable to order an appetizer (or even many appetizers to share with the table) along with the entree in order to experience a fully satisfying meal.

Nida's makes great Thai, and it does a tremendous job catering to diners of all shapes, sizes and dietary requirements. The food will appeal to the novice diner, and it's adventurous enough to offer new and exciting options for the seasoned pro.

Nida's Thai

NYTimes op-ed: Eat more dog (or less pig)

A New York Times op-ed piece examined the logical problems of Westerners viewing some animals as food while viewing others as pets. The article hardly figures the whole tangled mess out (the author ends up eating a dog, so don't say I didn't warn you). However, it is one of those puzzles that makes you think.

Read more

NoJa

NoJa is the shorthand name for North Jackson, the location of Downtown Mobile's finest restaurant. NoJa is a fusion spot right in the heart of the city.

Both the location and the boss have an interesting history. The space was formerly a private residence, a taxi station and a popular bar. The Ethiopian-born ower and chef Chakli Diggs formerly ran the popular Bienville Bistro. He uses his international upbringing as an influence on his multicultural menu.

The beautiful dining room is upstaged only by the more dynamic courtyard. The staff is as knowledgeable as they are courteous and attentive. Fernando was an excellent server.

The menu at NoJa is slanted in favor of the carnivorous consumer. However, the staff was very accommodating when I called ahead with my vegetarian concerns.

The tomato and sunchoke cream soup was vegetarian safe. The creamy tomato was offset by a rich, earthy sunchoke finish. Fresh pepper created a beautiful spiciness that rounded out the flavors.

The Mediterranean pasta dish was vegetarian when prepared without chorizo. Pepardelle pasta was tossed with spinach and grape tomatoes in a citrusy olive oil and cheese sauce flecked with pine nuts, peppercorns and green onions.

The wine list contains a number of esoteric selections. The beer and cocktails are equally colorful.

Noja

Blue Ginger

Blue Ginger is the latest pan-Asian hot spot to spring up in Columbus during the last year. Blue Ginger features a multinational menu that jumps all over the Asian continent. There are Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese and Thai dishes on the menu.

The restaurant decor is modern and relatively formal. Blue Ginger serves beer, wine and sake. They have a liquor license pending. The mango saketini was delicious, making me not miss the hard liquor license at all.

I tried the edamame as an appetizer. The simple soybean becomes an addictive treat when it's boiled in sea salt. They call edamame Japanese peanuts for a reason. They are really that good and really that addictive.

The vegetarian sushi plate is one of the best I've ever had. There are a wide variety of different vegetable combinations wrapped with rice and seaweed. There were avocado rolls, carrot rolls, a number of rolls made with pickled vegetables, as well as a lightly fried rice dumpling and a mountain of ginger and wasabi. The presentation made the rolls almost too beautiful to eat. Luckily I closed my eyes, and they went down just fine (picture me smiling, fat and sarcastic).

There are also a number of noodle dishes that can be made with tofu on the menu. Overall, Blue Ginger has a wide variety of vegetarian options, and the food, service and experience are excellent.

Blue Ginger

Columbus Asian Festival

If a vegetarian had to get stuck in one continent for the rest of their life, I would recommend being banished to Asia. I'm not sure if they invented vegetarianism in the Far East, but they definitely perfected it. This is clearly on display at the Columbus Asian Festival, where visitors have the opportunity to sample food from all parts of the continent, with plenty of art, music and martial arts to wash down the veggie-friendly eats enjoyed picnic-style in the park.

There was food from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Indonesia, India, and a number of less than Asian nations like Jamaica and Mexico. I saw a Filipino dance and sumo wrestling. Mostly (as you can tell from my gut), I went for the food.

One of my favorite Indian joints Bayleaf offered $5 vegetarian sampler plates with two items and a side of saffron rice. I went with the chana masala and the breaded cauliflower. The chick peas (the main ingredient in chana) were rich and blazing hot. I was sweating so profusely I needed to go get a drink. The cauliflower was milder, with a crisp breading that intensified the vegetal and slightly citrus-oriented flavors of the cauliflower florets. Bayleaf offered three other vegetarian items (You can also read a previous entry on Bayleaf here).

I grabbed an egg roll from a place called Healthy Gourmet Vegetarian Food. While it was indeed a vegetarian item, the terminology "healthy" and "gourmet" did not apply to the grease torpedo that coated my flesh in a thin layer of fat. They served a side egg roll with their large order of grease. The egg roll was so fatty, it was Oprah back in her hey-day. Whatever poor attempts at humor I craft to describe how greasy this egg roll was will fail to do this thing justice. To be fair, I originally ordered veggie pot stickers, but they were no longer available. I can't comment on the entrees, but if they're anything like the egg roll, you'll gain five pounds just ordering.

I also sampled a spring roll from Muong Lao, a Laotian restaurant. Their take on the spring roll was cold, not the crispy fried version that comes from Thailand, but rather a soft rice wrapper surrounding lettuce, rice noodles and cilantro with a side of deceptively spicy sweet and sour sauce. It was the only vegetarian item on their festival menu, but it was absolutely delicious. I'll have to check out the real restaurant and see if they like vegetarians...I forgot to write down the address.

There were other places with vegetarian eats that I didn't try during the fest. Bento Go-Go on campus always has a few well made vegetarian options. There's nothing wrong with Flavors of India (and aside from their average samosa, there's quite a bit they do right, too). There was more kimchi then you could shake a stick at. Many other places offered a range of vegetarian choices, and they are too numerous to credit. You'll just have to find out next year, or try all the places individually during the year.



Filipino Dance from the Columbus Asian Festival

Asian Fest

Bistro 86

Located in the midst of a desolate stretch of industry in Grandview, Bistro 86 offers a plethora of vegetarian options for the vegetarian diner (e.g. you). They offer traditional favorites alongside a few more adventurous offerings, and Bistro 86 is well worth tracking down if you're in the mood for carefully prepared Asian meals.

Bistro 86 has been the recipient of some fairly good reviews, both of the realm of newspapers and the blogosphere. Bistro 86 was also recognized as one of the area's top 10 new restaurants in Columbus Monthly.

The reason for this is that they make great food. The menu is laden with vegetarian choices. I started with the Vietnamese basil rolls, which use a rice wrapper filled with sprouts, cabbage, vermicelli, carrots and mixed greens with a heaping helping of basil that comes through beautifully on the finish. They are light and sublimely delicious, served with a side of peanut-sprinkled hoisin sauce.

Personally, as a vegetarian I have an aversion to vegetarian versions of carnivorous dishes. I have no need for a veggie burger, nor do I want a vegetarian chicken kabob or any of the other million dishes you can name in this vein. Sometimes I'll eat a veggie burger, for sure, but I have never seen the reason for a restaurant to undertake these useless endeavors.

The exception to this rule was found in Bistro 86's General Tso's tofu. This is a simple, classic dish that screams for the dead bird to be replaced with tofu. The cubes are breaded and fried, served in a slightly sweet but sneaky hot red/brown sauce with an abundance of Szechwaun peppers. It is flavorful enough to make chicken lovers bag the bird for good (On a side note, Maxim magazine did a feature on the mysterious origins of General Tso's chicken, which can be found here).

These are just two of the many vegetarian and vegan items on the menu. There is vegetable tempura, two vegetarian tofu stir fries as well as a vegan dish prepared with macadamia nuts in addition to other items too numerous to mention.

The staff is friendly and very helpful. The server spent time helping me pick her favorite vegetarian items from the menu. The one shortcoming (or benefit, depending on how you look at it) is that Bistro 86 has no liquor license. This means you can't order drinks with your dinner, but you can bring your own bottle and save the restaurant markup.

Bistro 86 is as good as advertised. Stop in if you're tooling around Grandview after checking out the pictures below.

Bistro 86

Noodles & Company

Lunch. It's the middle of the sandwich that is the three meals of the day. While you have to eat a good breakfast in order to start the day off right, you need an equally healthy lunch in order to keep moving along through the day. After two days worth of lunch at Noodles & Company, I'm grooving along strong enough to review it in a blog entry.

Noodles and Co. is an amalgamation of cuisines that rely on noodles to starch up their daily intake of calories. Obviously, Italy and other nations that surround the Mediterranean Sea eat more than their share of pasta. However, history has demonstrated that noodles were a part of the Chinese diet as early as 3000 B.C.E. These two cultures came to the mixing pot that is America, and Americans of course created their own particular noodle delicacies.

Noodles & Company prepares Asian, Mediterranean and American food, and they are careful to be able to make just about anything according to specific dietary restrictions. Any of the dishes can be made with organic tofu to increase protein in your meal, and meals can also come with side salads or soups.

I sampled the Wisconsin mac and cheese (pictured above), made with traditional elbow pasta, creamy cheese sauce and cheddar jack cheese. The full size bowl plus drink and roll cost about $8 and was well made and filling.

I also tried a trio of Indonesian peanut sautee, tofu and green salad. The trio is lighter eating than a full bowl of food, but the variety is excellent.

The staff is very helpful selecting vegetarian choices for you, and the menu is available for takeout. Check out the pictures below.

Noodles & Company

Pei Wei Asian Bistro

Pei Wei Asian Diner is a newer concept from the P.F. Chang's folks that is popping up like weeds (or Starbucks) all across the United States. This is basically a Pan-Asian noodle shop with counter service that makes for a decent power lunch option.

There are a number of vegetarian options marked by the lovely hippie leaf logo on the menu, making the items easy to spot by vegetarians who are incapable of reading (although, come to think of it, illiterate vegetarians wouldn't be able to read the text at the bottom of the menu explaining the veggie symbol's meaning. It is a useful gesture for saving my time, nonetheless.).

The spring rolls were good if uninspiring. The noodle and rice dishes are fairly big portions, and none of the dishes cost more than $9. I tried the blazing noodles, a chow fun noodle dish (a fettuccine-like rice pasta) made with tomato black pepper sauce, broccoli, carrots, scallions, pea pods and cilantro with tofu. The sauce was flavorful and medium spicy, but I definitely would have liked the five inch broccoli stalks and the tofu slabs to have been cut more finely while I was eating with chop sticks. I do possess mad chop stick skillz, but the pieces were so large that I ended up eating in installments off of the sticks or taking down a whole piece in one ridiculous bite.

Then again, it was all made up for by my fascination with people who can't eat with chop sticks. I love watching people labor with the Asian cutlery, and I love it even more when they tap out and have to ask for silverware. In retrospect, maybe they figured something out with these four-inch tofu blocks and broccoli trunks that I hadn't. Maybe I'm really the dummy.

Regardless of my personal shortcomings, Pei Wei is fairly priced and should be attractive to those with a limited amount of time for lunch that want to eat vegetables for lunch and not deep fried animal goop from Kentuckyfriedbellkingmcdonalds. It is a decent option that isn't nearly as quality control driven as some of the swankier Asian bistros, but probably is economic enough to churn out a consistent business all the same. Check out the pictures below.

Pei Wei

Day 2 Dining--Himalayan and Simon Lin's

I spent my second day in Illinois checking out the area around the resort I was staying in and the surrounding communities by the resort. All of the exploring made me hungry, and hunger made me eat.

Lunch was at Himalayan Restaurant in Niles. They offer a ridiculous $7.95 lunch buffet that has eight or more vegetarian options as well as dessert. Indian food is conducive to vegetarian dining, but the cuisine also provides carnivorous options. The buffet at Himalayan is shaped like the letter 'L', with the long portion of the L being vegetarian and the short part having the veggie-hater entrees and veggie-friendly desserts. The buffet comes with free naan, while drinks are extra.

The buffet consists of about four staples and four rotating items that change at least daily. Chana masala, the traditional chickpea dish, is a regular item, alongside palak paneer (cubed cheese in spinach) and other items. The specials this day included a divine mushroom curry with multicolored peppers, and a creamy dumpling with earthy vegetables and a mildly sweet finish. The chana, the creamy dumpling and the mushroom curry are visible in my photographs.

Rice pudding and the Indian doughnuts are on the after dinner options list. The sauces and chutneys are rich and flavorful, and the super cheap price makes the meal a steal.

Dinner was at Simon Lin's (pictured above), about six or eight golf strokes from the resort. The restaurant offers some interesting tropical drinks including one made with candied pineapple garnishes, as well as the more adventurous Saketini. My starting appetizer (vegetarian pot stickers) had a great presentation, both in my photograph and on the Web site for Simon Lin's.

My entree was the chef's spicy tofu, which is the photograph that tops this post. It is served with your choice of basmati and brown rice. The menu also has 80 million sushi options that are served in large portions and do include a vegi-roll. The chef of the Asian Bistro being reviewed in this post also owns Little Szechwan, an everyday takeout Chinese place. Simon Lin's displays a greater Pan-Asian flair than does Little Szechwan.

I'll post the Picasa slideshow link below. You can scroll through and find the pictures linked in the article and more in the gallery.

Last Trip

I need to get a foodlife

While careening around the Magnificent Mile yesterday, I stumbled upon a new restaurant in the Water Tower mall. I came in today with the intention of dining there.

The first picture snapped drew an adamant chew out from the staff. It was so rude that I was turned off and decided not to order from Wow Bao. Wow Bao serves hot stuffed Asian buns. It also seems to be an extension of the foodlife court upstairs.

I did order a pomegranate ginger tea from Wow Bao. I decided that their decision to disallow my photography would send my business upstairs to foodlife (which is owned by the same people--Lettuce Entertain You). The staff was equally opposed to my camera work.

Granted, it is perfectly within the rights of an establishment to ban photography, even if it is in the middle of a tourist tar pit. Shutterbug tourists might in fact have annoyed a past Lettuce Entertain You customer. Protecting your property is well within your legal rights.

Of course, I am perfectly within my rights to call foodlife the World's Most Expensive and Overblown Shopping Mall Food Court. Writing that sentence is protected by the First Amendment. I am also protected by the privilege of fair comment. Libel would also be a bit of a stretch, as calling foodlife overpriced mall food is a completely true statement. The total cost was $12 for a stir fry and small drink.

The court features numerous different cuisines and food items like any other mall eatery outpost. The staff was very helpful minus the cameraphobic management. The Thai stand worker told me the tofu pad Thai is not vegetarian and suggested the stir fry joint. The stir fry was big and relatively good if slightly overpriced. You choose the vegetables and sauces, which include a rich vegan mushroom broth.

Enjoy the pictures in the link below and steer clear of foodlife and Bow Wow Wow if you have a camera or are located next to a Subway or other fast food joint that might save you a couple of bucks.

foodlife

Thai Lagoon

Hidden in an off-the-beaten-path Quality Inn in the funky smelling Anheuser Bush polluted section of Columbus is Thai Lagoon. Despite the less than Riviera-esque surroundings, the restaurant produces quality Thai food as well as selections from a variety of other Asian cuisines, more than enough of which are vegetarian and vegan friendly.


The staff is very friendly. Vegetarian selections are clearly marked. My dinner was a vegetable tempura that consisted of breaded green beans, cauliflower, zucchini, onions and other assorted vegetables served with sweet and sour sauce. The entree was green curry tofu with broccoli, carrots, cauliflower served over a bed of jasmine rice. The sauces are intense and deeply flavorful.

There is also a selection of beer, wine and mixed drinks, including a pomegranate martini that is so big, it comes with a second side container to hold the overflow. The place is great once you find it, and well worth the trip through the Anheuser fog.

















A few local publications have covered the restaurant in such a way that this review will stop here. Columbus Alive and This Week Papers reviewed them. In their mass media machine zeal, they failed to address the wonderful, fish sauce free items that the Lagoon offers.


















Enjoy the wonderful Picasa Web gallery linked in the photograph below.

Lagoon