Momocho Mod Mex

Momocho Mod Mex puts the modern spin on Mexican cuisine in the heart of Ohio City. Chef-owner Eric Williams, a two-time James Beard nominee, operates a restaurant that's fun, festive and flavorful.

The menu is chock full of vegetarian dishes, including the ever-popular flavors of guacamole. There is an extensive gluten-free menu. The chef whips up guacamole with traditional ingredients, and offers variations loaded with fresh ingredients that put a spin on the classic dip. Current options include goat cheese and roasted poblano guacamole, and a jicama, pineapple, habanero and mint guacamole.

The decor is fun. The darkly lit venue is covered in black and white photos of luchadors and unnamed figures in a style akin to the Day of the Dead, as well as some amazing looking low-rider bicycles over the kitchen and the entrance.

Servers did a good job handling a large party. There were minor issues with pacing and handling explicit instructions from diners when business picked up. Service was pretty good if short of outstanding.

The taquitos at Momocho are nothing like the ones endlessly spinning under the hot lamp at your local gas station, or buried in the back of your college fridge. Fillings included roasted beets, spinach, spicy peanuts and queso fresco, or roasted butternut squash, goat cheese and salted pepitas, both served with a chunky pico de gallo. The ingredients change with the seasons.

The bar offers excellent margaritas in a different flavors and formulations with an excellent menu of tequila and mezcal. Beers are mostly Mexican with a domestic beer made in a Latin American pilsner style.

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon

L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon is the workshop of the Chef of the Century Joel Robuchon in the MGM Grand Las Vegas. The open kitchen allows diners to see artful modern French cuisine made right before their eyes. It is located next to Joel Robuchon, the chef's top-of-the-line restaurant.

While French restaurants often offer limited options for vegetarian diners, there is a complete vegetarian menu and degustation available nightly at L'Atelier. Vegan diners were out of luck on the menu - dishes were almost always made with cheese and/or eggs - but the talented kitchen is capable of turning out great items for just anybody with advance notice.

The open kitchen concept has been utilized by other chefs to great success - visit The Catbird Seat in Nashville to see the approach absolutely shine. The dining room itself is a show with chefs performing acts of culinary precision in a way that puts every diner at the kitchen table.

The beverage program at L'Atelier shows the same rigorous care as the kitchen. The cocktails were divine, and the wine list was filled with gems. The second wine of Chateau Musar (Jeune), a Lebanese red blend, was a steal by the glass.

The amuse bouche was a vegetable fondant topped with avocado cream. Sweet tomato was fattened up by the whipped avocado, and it displayed a rich palate of green herbs.

The soft boiled egg in a vegetarian spinach veloute with a parmesan tuile makes great use of texture. The sauce is thick, the egg is soft, almost hidden in the dish, and the cheese crisp adds a nice crunch that unifies the dish.

The basil tomato spaghetti is rooted in Italy, but the olives give the dish a slight Mediterranean spin. While the pasta was excellent, it paled in comparison to the similar dish at Scarpetta. 

The gelato was artfully presented. It was a fitting conclusion to a great meal. 

L'Atelier isn't cheap, but it is a great introduction to one of the world's luminary chefs. The Michelin-starred restaurant is a destination worth finding in the Las Vegas desert.

Veritas Tavern

Veritas Tavern is an exciting small plates spot located in practically the last place you would think - Delaware. The fast growing community North of Columbus is home to this exciting restaurant. It is well worth the drive if it is far from you to experience the work of chefs Avishar Barua and Silas Caeton, and it's even better if Delaware is in your back yard.

The menu features great seasonal ingredients. While there are a limited number of vegetarian items on the regular menu, the kitchen is able to accommodate vegetarians with additional dishes if given advance notice.

The dining room has ample bar space, and the bar has a nice selection of wine, beer and great cocktails. Mixed drinks are made with quality ingredients, and show great care. 

The decor is fun with cookbooks adorning the walls as well as menus from the restaurants of renowned chefs Grant Achatz and Thomas Keller. While the dining room is whimsical, it could benefit visually from a greater focus and organization.

The feta dip appeared straightforward with cucumber and flatbread on the plate. The flavor is clean with a subtle richness, and the dish is far more complex than the simple ingredients belie.

The potted blue cheese with chocolate biscuits and port wine in a squeeze dropper is a study in flavor. When combined, the sweetness of the wine tempers the strong cheese, and the chocolate adds layers of roasted notes. Each element can also be removed, changing the flavor profile considerably. 

The Brussels sprouts were roasted and served in a deeply savory sauce that made them irresistible. They were tender, falling apart. The sauce held the essence of tamari soy sauce. I'm not normally a Brussels sprouts fan, but these were good enough to order again.

The grilled asparagus with late harvest peas, maitake mushrooms and ricotta made fantastic use of great ingredients. The mushrooms were seared, and the texture and flavor were as close to bacon as anything I have ever experienced as a vegetarian. The cheese added a creamy background to the dish, and the peas sweetened it up and gave the dish a nice texture.

The white and dark chocolate dessert played with the contrariety of temperature and texture. White chocolate was frozen in liquid nitrogen. The dark chocolate was an ice cream, served with an even-darker hot chocolate fudge. The white chocolate dissolved into a rich frozen smoke. The chocolate was even more rich, and the warm fudge added a great contrast. Drops of Pedro Ximenez sherry add complex oxidized notes to the dish.

Service was exceptional. The staff capably deals with dietary questions. The menu changes often enough that regular visitors would not have to worry about repeating dishes. Interestingly, reservations on the weekend are not taken, and diners are seated first-come, first-served.

Twist by Pierre Gagnaire

Twist by Pierre Gagnaire is the heralded chef's sole North American restaurant. Pierre Gagnaire's technique is firmly rooted in the French tradition, but he adds a modern flair with international influences to his cuisine that makes him more forward-looking than some of his fellow countrymen.

Twist is located in the swanky Mandarin Oriental in City Center on The Strip. The dining room has a great view of The Strip, which makes it a great spot for romantic dining.

The wine list is chock full of interesting lots to pair with the fare coming out of the food-science laboratory kitchen. There are great wines from the Old and New World, and the cocktails and beer are selected with the same care as everything else at Twist.

Service at Twist is as exemplary as the food. The kitchen controls the dining experience, and does a phenomenal job preparing artful food for vegetarian and vegan diners.

The menu changes with the season. Gagnaire typically works in the kitchen for a week or two when the new menu is introduced.

The bread plate and plate of amuse bouche show the careful attention to detail from the kitchen. There were three different risen breads, as well as flavored flatbtreads. They were served with amazing butter and an addictive popcorn foam that adds a sweet, salty backdrop to the baked goods. 

The amuse bouche came in four parts. Many were savory plays on desserts, spicy cookies and cheese marshmallows that were perfectly suited to a one-bite format.

The salad course was made with green and white asparagus, shallot vinaigrette, tomato coulis, avocado and diced mushroom agar. The dressing was augmented by vegetable-gelatin-suspended spices. The plating was almost too pretty to eat.

The next course had cabbage as its centerpiece, and played nicely with sweetness and acidity. Passion fruit adds a nice bite to the crisp, green veggies.

 The carrot fondant was served atop a raspberry and beet reduction. Sliced turnips gave the dish a nice crunch.

The next course was beets in a reduced maple syrup on roasted red pepper and pimento jam. It was topped with graffiti radishes that added a great visual pop.

The sauteed baby potatoes sat in an arugula coulis with enoki and Paris mushrooms. It was a pleasing combination of savory, salty flavors that were completely balanced.

The saffron risotto with baby zucchini, broccoli and corn was as good of a risotto as I have ever tasted. The creamy rice was a perfect vehicle to deliver the lightly roasted vegetable flavor that defines the season.

The dessert tasting consists of six components. They range in order from light and fresh to rich and sweet. They were followed by petit fours.

There are too many great chefs in Las Vegas to count. Vegans and vegetarians looking for fine dining options should take note of Twist when exploring fine dining options. The modern take on meatless cuisine at the restaurant surpasses anything else you are likely to find in Sin City.

DeepWood

DeepWood is a highly-touted Columbus restaurant that I had not yet sampled before yesterday. The lunch menu allowed me an opportunity to experience DeepWood and its vegetarian fare without breaking the bank.

DeepWood is captained by Brian Pawlak, a chef with an impressive pedigree consisting of stints in New Jersey, Boston, New York and Ohio. Pawlak applies his skills to a menu that offers many options for vegetarians.

The dinner menu one-ups my favorite restaurant characteristic: instead of marking vegetarian choices on the menu, DeepWood actually features a separate vegetarian menu! Vegetarian symbols on a menu make me happy; a separate vegetarian menu actually brings a tear to my eye because I get so ecstatic.

My starter was mozzarella-stuffed saffron risotto fritters. They were served with a smoked paprika aioli dip, adding a deep charred flavor that made the cheesy fried puffs sing with flavor. The fritters were absolutely dynamic.

My entree was gnocchi with roasted mushrooms, spinach and pumpkin in a brown butter sage sauce. The gnocchi were soft, and they picked up subtle nuances of the vegetables as well as the herbal undertones of the seasoning. The pumpkin adds an understated sweetness to the pasta. The dish is delicious.

Other vegetarian options on the lunch menu include the house salad and the vegetable sandwich, which is made with mushrooms, roasted peppers, arugala and goat cheese topped with a balsamic reduction. The soup of the day was a vegetarian pumpkin cream soup.

The bread basket was outstanding. The pistachio date bread was more savory than I expected it to be on first inspection. The sesame- and poppy-seed encrusted lavash bread was also delightful.

The staff was attentive and capable. The server was excellent at addressing vegetarian concerns, and he stated that DeepWood was able to cater to diners with vegan and gluten-restricted needs in addition to those who are vegetarians.

In addition to the lunch and dinner menus, DeepWood also offers a tavern menu. The tavern menu is mainly aimed at those dining at the bar or in the lower-key front room.

The by-the-glass wine list features an interesting array of selections from the Old and New World. The bottle selections are not encyclopedic, but the list is made up of enough interesting selections to keep the beverage selection fun. The beer selections are equally interesting, with choice options like J.W. Lee's Lagauvulin Cask Ale in bottles and Founder's Breakfast Stout on tap. There are also numerous cocktail options at DeepWood.

The restaurant's decor is beautiful. The dining room is designed like a forest, with wooded imagery marking the tables, the walls and the ceiling of the restaurant.

Overall, prices at DeepWood are expensive. Considering the quality of the experience, however, the cost is worth it. The lunch and tavern menus are noticeably cheaper than the dinner menu.

The hype about DeepWood is well deserved. Considering its commitment to vegetarianism, DeepWood should give meatless gourmands another destination in Columbus in addition to Dragonfly and Alana's.

Deepwood

Rigsby's Kitchen

Rigsby's Kitchen has been a fixture on the Columbus dining scene since about five years after Columbus discovered the new world. While that sentence might seem like a complete fabrication (they actually opened in 1986), Rigsby's has been a fixture on the Central Ohio dining scene, packing the house for decades.

Rigsby's is definitely a family-helmed operation. Kent Rigsby is the chef/co-proprietor of Rigsby's along with his wife Tasi, whom he met when she was a ballet dancer. Forbes Rigsby, their son, is also the restaurant's sous-chef.

Rigsby's specializes is Italian food, although there are a few items sprinkled on the menu that have a more international flair. The staff was very receptive to my questions about vegetarian dining, and they offer a number of choices for the meatless diner.

The lunch prices are fairly reasonable for an upper-crust eatery. The one downside is that the blue plate lunch special consists of dishes not acceptable for vegetarian diners. However, it's pretty easy for a vegetarian to eat lunch at Rigsby's for about $30 per person, tip included.

I started with the apple, watercress, endive, walnut, and gorgonzola salad. The presentation was great, with the apples, nuts and blue cheese combining to make the whole a whole lot better than the sum of its parts. Unfortunately, the sweetness and acidity of the dressing sometimes overpowered the more delicate elements of the salad. All in all, though, it was a solid dish.

The single biggest winner of the lunch was the bread basket. The Rigsbys' empire includes the Eleni Christina Bakery, where they produce this delicious bread. There was a white bread, a sourdough bread and a darker bread (rye, possibly?) with walnuts flecked into the dough. It was accompanied by a tub of delicious butter, and every slice of bread was better than the next (other fans of Rigsby's cuisine can also sample their wares at the sandwich salad and soup stop Tasi, another part of their empire).

My main course was a whole wheat spaghetti in a tomato eggplant sauce. The pasta provided a rich, grainy backdrop to the vibrantly bright sauce, which was topped with shaved cheese and herbs. It was tasty, looked great, and it followed the number one rule of pleasing me: it was labeled as a vegetarian item on the menu.

There were a couple of other vegetarian items on the menu. There was another salad, as well as a chevre sandwich and the spaghetti d'Angelo. They also offered to make the risotto dish to-order without chicken.

The service at Rigsby's was excellent. The wine list is solid and heavily weighted towards Italian choices.

Lunch at Rigsby's is noticeably cheaper than dinner. Although you would never expect high quality food to come cheap, plan on spending twice as much for dinner, especially if wine is included.

Rigsby's