Tom and Chee

Tom and Chee is Cincinnati's fast casual grilled cheese-ery. The small chain has three central Ohio locations - one in Pickerington, one in Hilliard and another in the University District.

The concept exists in other restaurants like Melt and Gooeyz. Tom and Chee focuses on the traditional grilled cheese and tomato soup with a few extra bells and whistles.

There are vegan and gluten-free options available. Sides include soup, salad and mac & cheese.

Sandwiches were passably better than what could be made at home. Junk-food add-ons like donut grilled cheese put a few interesting spins on the dish.

There are three tomato soups. The classic tomato and chunky tomato basil are vegan. The creamy tomato is a vegetarian dish.

The decor is bright and fun. Service is relatively brisk.

AJ's Cafe

AJ's Cafe is a fast-casual spot Downtown that offers soup, salads and sandwiches. It is located in the spot that formerly held C-Town Market and Deli.

The owner, Ajay Kumar, owned the Taj Mahal on campus. It was sold to relatives and reopened as Mughal Darbar. While Kumar didn't bring the menu with him from his old restaurant, he definitely brought the Indian flavor profile to a number of the dishes at AJ's.

There are many vegetarian and vegan dishes on the menu. The restaurant is open Monday through Friday for breakfast and lunch, and Saturday for lunch.

Soups include an outstanding vegan lentil and spinach, as well as broccoli cheese. There is a vegetarian green salad and a vegan lentil salad. There are a variety of baked goods in the morning as well as a vegan breakfast wrap.

The spiced chickpea wrap hints at dal makhani, and the tamarind chutney adds another layer of sweet Indian flavor. It makes a filling lunch with a side dish.

Prices at AJ's are reasonable, and service is quick. It is another strong option for the Downtown dining landscape.

Gia Lai

Gia Lai is a Vietnamese restaurant in the Legacy Village shopping center in Lyndhurst near Cleveland. The decor is modern, and the menu offers fresh takes on Vietnamese classics with a large number of vegetarian dishes. One whole page of the dinner menu consists of all vegetarian dishes.

The vegetarian pho should help Cleveland residents embrace the winter chill. The rich, clear mushroom broth has citrus accents, and it is a perfect backdrop for the mountains of soft and crispy tofu, rice noodles, veggies including pea pods, hot peppers, carrots, bean sprouts, leafy greens, baby corn, mushrooms, green onions, cauliflower and peppers, alongside Sriracha sauce, a sweet hoisin and fresh garnishes. The bowl is the size of a hot tub, and it could feed a small army.

The vegetable spring rolls were fresh, and they were served with a spicy peanut sauce that added a rich note to the noodles and sauteed veggies inside the cold roll. 

The menu also offers a number of Chinese dishes. The cuisine is modern with fusion accents more so that a by-the-book traditional Vietnamese restaurant. Those willing to overlook some of these characteristics should be pleased by the fresh, flavorful fare.  

Joe Davola's

Joe Davola's is a low-key Louisville deli located in the Germantown neighborhood. House-made ingredients star at the restaurant, which makes excellent accommodations for vegetarian and vegan diners.

The staff was friendly and helpful. Prices are inexpensive. The decor has subtle Seinfeld elements throughout, and the television shows Seinfeld episodes.

Sandwiches are prepared on wheatberry bread or in a spinach wrap. The thick slices of bread do a great job containing the violent veggie meatloaf, a vegan patty made with textured vegetable protein and sauteed veggies with a texture good enough to feel meat eaters into ordering it. The sandwich is topped with lettuce, tomato, onion, tomato sauce and horseradish mayo. It tastes like grandma's meatloaf if grandma was a granola-eating hippie from Berkeley.

Joe Davola's has a vegetarian soup daily. It was cream of cauliflower when I visited. The soup was a little too course, and it lacked a little seasoning. The house croutons add a nice crunch and flavor to the soup.

There are plenty of salads available in small and large sizes, and as part of a combo. One of the more clever names was I-Art-i-choke-ya, an artichoke salad with plenty of Greek accents.

The chocolate chip cookies were warm and chewy right out of the oven, and they became more crunchy as they cooled. I was a nice conclusion to the meal.

Zoup

Zoup is a Downtown lunch spot for soups, salads and sandwiches. The chain has about 50 locations in the Midwest, the East and Colorado, and it has a variety of vegan and vegetarian soups that rotate regularly.

Customers can sample soup at the right end of the counter, and they order to the left of the sample station. The setup for the Downtown storefront is confusing for all but the regular customers.

The soups have a reconstituted character. Most have as much depth as Progresso. Vegan and vegetarian options are clearly marked.

The broccoli and cheese soup was milky nacho cheese with flaccid, lifeless broccoli florets drowning in its essence. The macaroni and cheese soup has a similar base with gummy elbow macaroni replacing the broccoli.

The vegan chili is made with kidney beans and textured soy protein. It was remarkably average chili.

The Cali Veg sandwich comes on a multigrain flatbread wrap stuffed with cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, provolone cheese, guacamole and tzatziki. It is essentially a salad in a tortilla.

The Greek salad was traditional with the exception of the balsamic dressing.

Combo orders are served with bread. The portions are adequate, but upsizing the soup is a good idea considering the portion size and price.

Although Zoup provides choices for vegetarians, the cookie cutter soups and middling fare are not worth the effort.

Bistronomic

Bistronomic is Chef Martial Noguier's foray into bistronomy. The One Sixtyblue and Pump Room alum whips up flavorful fare at reasonable rates in a stylish setting.

French food is notoriously vegetarian unfriendly. Bistronomic's menu does not have a ton of options for vegetarians. However, the kitchen was more than accommodating when given advance notice of dietary restrictions.

The menu is tailor made for turophiles with cheese flights and warm cheese plates. The flights are split into local (less than 300 miles away from Wisconsin and Indiana dairies) and more-than-300-mile selections.

Diners order small, medium and large plates, an experience that is akin to a tapas bistro. Sharing orders allows you to try a variety of different dishes.

Bistronomic features a grilled cheese sandwich du jour. The Bohemian Blue grilled cheese was made with a Roquefort-style sheep milk blue cheese from Wisconsin, a brighly sharp yet refreshingly clean blue cheese with an intensely rich finish that lingered on the palate. It was not a traditional grilled cheese, but it was truly an elevated take on a humble classic.

The kitchen was also able to prepare a vegetarian version of the parmesan tarragon gnocchi. The pillowy pasta picked up the fresh flavor of the green herbs and the delicate umami of the cheese.

The truffle soup was a revelation of nuanced flavor. It builds mushroom aromas from a creamy base. The flavor never stops. This would be delightful in cold weather (hint hint).

Desserts are also fantastic at Bistronomic. The chocolate and hazelnut mousse candy bars were crispy yet melted in your mouth. It is like a Nutella candy bar with a crispy praline layer served in a subtle orange sauce.

The wine list is heavy on selections from the classic French appellations with some cool options by-the-glass. Service is capable and attentive without being intrusive.

Even though the menu is light on vegetarian options, the talent on display at the restaurant is an excellent experience for vegetarian diners. Noguier is a talent producing great food at a fair price, a hallmark of bistronomy that shines through at his aptly named Bistronomic.

The Wine Bistro

The Wine Bistro is, of course, a bistro with wine. There are locations in Upper Arlington and Worthington.

The menu at the Wine Bistro consists of sandwiches, soups, salads, flatbread pizzas and a variety of other items that pair well with wine. There are a substantial number of meatless entrees and appetizers at the Wine Bistro.

The dining room at the Upper Arlington location is tastefully appointed with wood. There is a decent amount of patio seating in addition to a small bar.

Vegetarian first courses include hummus and pita, seasoned olives, toasted mixed nuts, fondue, cheese plates, tomato basil soup and a few salads. It would be fairly simple to create a meal out of vegetarian tapas at the Wine Bistro.

The seasonal soup was a watermelon gazpacho. The bright fruit flavor added a sweet punch to an explosively flavorful summer classic.

Vegetarian main courses include a veggie wrap, pomodoro spaghetti and a couple of flatbread pizzas. The Juliette flatbread is topped with brie, pears, onions, garlic cream sauce and parmesan cheese. The thin, crispy crust adds a delightful crunch to the perfect pairing of double-cream cheese and tree fruit.

The veggie wrap is stuffed with green olives, mushrooms, tomatoes, onions and greens with a garlic hummus. The flavor is bright and fresh.

The wine list has some nice by-the-glass selections. There are options from the new and old world, and prices are marked up fairly.

Service at the Wine Bistro is friendly and capable. The staff was easily able to address vegetarian dining concerns.

Wine Bistro

Commonwealth Sandwich Bar

Commonwealthis a new deli located in the No Man's Land between the Short North and South Campus. The menu features sandwiches, salads, soup and fries.

There are a number of house-made accoutrements, like garlic jalapeño pickles, that add an extra kick to the salads and sandwiches at Commonwealth. The kegged sodas by Boylan were awesome, with diet cola that had a sweet fruity finish. Other flavors include root beer, cola and grape soda.

There are three meatless sandwiches at Commonwealth. The (Young) Elvis Lives is made with spicy coconut peanut butter, cream cheese and bananas. The classic cheese and tomato sandwich comes alone or accompanied by tomato bisque.

I sampled A Few of My Favorite Things. Thinly sliced pickles, tomatoes and red onions are paired with Swiss and Gorgonzola cheese, drizzled in a tangy balsamic vinaigrette and served on a subtle yet stout Italian-style bread.

Although the fries come as a 1-pound order, they are also available in half-pound size when added to a sandwich and a drink combination for $4. The sweet potato fries were good. The chipotle aioli didn't pack the punch expected from a condiment with this fiery nomenclature.

There are vegan options at Commonwealth. The best plan is to take cheese out of one of the sandwiches, order salads or alert the staff to your dining needs and see if they have any better ideas.

The storefront at Commonwealth is small. Business is designed mostly for take-out or dine-in at the adjacent Village Idiot.

Commonwealth Sandwich Bar

Market 65

Market 65 is a Chipotle-esque take on salad, soup and sandwiches in the old San Francisco Oven spot Downtown. It opened for business February 28. Most ingredients are Ohio sourced, giving Market 65 a cool local focus.

Salads and wraps can be customized. The two vegetarian signature choices are the Hungry Vegan (spinach, spring greens, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, zucchini, tomatoes and sesame seeds) and the 65 (arugula, roasted vegetables, grilled portobello mushroom, fingerling potatoes and parmesan crisps). There are a wide variety of dressings and a rotating soup du jour.

Much like Chipotle, Market 65 fare is prepared in an assembly line fashion. The veggies were chopped with a mezzaluna behind the counter in view of the customers.

The Hungry Vegan wrap is a classic tossed salad in a thin flour wrap. It is about the size of a medium burrito.

The cream of red pepper soup had a sweet flavor with a bright basil and garlic notes. It was served with whole grain bread.

Prices at Market 65 are inexpensive. There is seating for 50+ in the colorful dining room. Market 65 should be appealing to calorie conscious diners.

Market 65

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

The Pickle

The Pickle is a deli in Downtown Columbus. The place generates a feeling of deja vu in that it formerly was a Quiznos, and now it operates as a sort of bizarro renegade Quiznos.

There are subtle differences between the menus at Quiznos and the menu at the Pickle. The Pickle doesn't have the Torpedos and Bullets that Quiznos does, but both offer toasted subs in three sizes. The Pickle offers pita sandwiches, The salad and soup options are similar.

The ingredient list for the veggie sub at the Pickle is identical to that from Quiznos. The Pickle also offers a plain cheese sandwich that Quiznos does not.

The veggie sub pairs well with the tomato basil soup, which is also vegetarian. The veggies on the sub are cut a little thicker than its Quiznos doppelganger. The wheat bread is not as pleasant as its white counterpart. The cup of soup was pleasant. Overall, the Pickle is a decent lunch option that is a little more expensive that typical fast food, and maybe it's a little better. If you like Quiznos, I'm sure you'd also like the Pickle.

For pescatarians, there are a few items like the lobster club at Pickles that are not a Quiznos menu item. Prices are comparable to Quiznos, with plenty of combo options for chips, salads, soups and drinks. The Pickle also makes open-faced breakfast sandwiches, including an egg and cheese sandwich and an egg and veggie sandwich.

The Pickle

Bagels by Captain Cream Cheese

Bagels by Captain Cream Cheese shares the same space as the recently opened Late Night Slice in the Short North. It is open during lunch and dinner, and it features many flavors of bagels in addition to soup and sandwiches.

The bagel flavors of the day included plain, egg, salt, poppy, garlic, gouda, edam, onion, Italian, apricot, spinach and three cheese. Topping options were butter, peanut butter, plain cream cheese, garlic cream cheese, jalapeño cream cheese and a hummus that was described by the proprietor as "way too garlicky" hummus. I considered myself warned and ordered a salt bagel with jalapeño cream cheese.

The bagel was soft, and the granules of sea salt that speckled the top of the bagel added a delicious crunch to the bread. The jalapeño cream cheese was creamy, rich and possessed an understated spice.

The soup was lentil ditalini. The chunky vegan soup was made with brown lentils, tomatoes, chard, onions, carrots, celery and short pasta tubes. The soup rests somewhere between a dal makhani and pasta fagioli. It is very good.

Bagels by Captain Cream Cheese also makes egg sandwiches on a bagel. All I can say to the ovo-vegetarians is that if the egg sandwich is half as good as the bagel and soup, it will be delicious.

BbCCC has a limited drink menu. Prices are very cheap. It is open until Mikey's Late Night Slice opens at about 8:30 pm.

Bagels by Captain Cream Cheese

The Lucky Ladle

This isn't a review since I haven't gotten a chance to sample the wares yet, but the Lucky Ladle is definitely on my vegetarian radar. The restaurant, located in Kickstart, features a vegan and a lacto-vegetarian soup daily, and they deliver. Meatless soups include a curried chickpea stew, dal lentil soup and vegan chili. If you don't feel like tipping for delivery, you can cruise over to Kickstart on your bike (or your Segway or your gyrocopter) and save yourself a few bucks.

Zuppa Downtown

Nestled between the hustle and the bustle of Downtown is Zuppa. The menu is made up of salad, sandwiches, pizza and of course soup (since zuppa is Italian for soup, it would be hard to operate the place without it).

The vegetarian options on the menu are somewhat limited. Zuppa typically offers one vegetarian soup per day. Check with the staff for vegetarian options.

Other veggie-friendly options include pizza and the veggie Philly sandwich, which consists of griddled veggies with cheese on a ciabatta roll.

According to the rumor mill that is the internet, Zuppa stores their meatballs with their marinara sauce, so the provenance of the marinara pasta's vegetarian appearance is debatable.

I ordered the special, which is a Southwestern veggie quesadilla. Corn, black beans, tomatoes, onions and zucchini are griddled and then stuffed into a grilled tortilla with salsa, melted cheese and sour cream. The flavor was great and the portion was filling.

I was far less impressed with the cream of mushroom soup. It was bland and lacked character. For a restaurant that has soup in the name, I expected far more.

The soup is served with a side of fresh baked bread with a whipped garlic butter. The bread is very tasty, and the garlic butter allows the slices to shine.

Despite the lack of vegetarian options, Zuppa does have a few good choices for those who eschew meat. The prices are moderately expensive based upon the quality of the food.

Zuppa Downtown

Skillet

Skillet is a new spot in Schumacher Place that describes its concept with the whimsical yet seemingly contrary banner "rustic urban food." It is located in the old Schumacher Place Banana Bean location.

Essentially, Skillet takes orders at a window a la the neighborhood diner. Much of the menu is designed to be eaten as carry-out, although there is a bit of seating available inside the restaurant.

The menu is mainly sandwiches and soups with a limited array of pasta dishes. Vegetarian options on the soft opening menu included truffled grilled cheese, a potato and cheese pierogi sandwich, and vegan pumpkin soup.

The grilled cheese was delicately delicious. The brioche and mushroom accents added extra layers of flavor complexity to a dish that is a comfort food staple. The pumpkin soup was prepared with pepitas, or toasted pumpkin seeds, and black beans. The soup had a Southwestern character to it, and it worked very well in the chilly weather.

For the soft opening period, Skillet is serving lunch only, although later plans call for brunch and dinner menus following the official grand opening. Prices are reasonable. Since I can walk to Skillet in a minute, I'll be excited to see how the rest of the menu looks when the place gets running at a full head of steam.

Skillet

No Soupman for You

It's looking grim for the Soup Man. According to a report by Business First of Columbus, the owner of the Seinfeld-inspired chain's Central Ohio franchise allegedly has not paid rent in almost a year.

I reviewed the place a while ago. It seemed like a decent lunch spot that was a little bit too expensive based upon the portions. Unless a few other people disagree with me very soon, the Soup Nazi may be saying, "auf Wiedersehen," to the Columbus market.

Original Soup Man

I was confronted by a series of contradictions when I visited the Original Soup Man in Downtown Columbus. I half expected to be refused service by a curt New Yorker for not following his strict rules for ordering (see Billy Goat Tavern). I figured I would sulk off to the corner after being shot down, complaining alongside my dejected compatriot George Costanza about our collective misfortune. Luckily, my phobic expectations ended up being far from the truth.

It came out of left field when the staff was polite and helpful. I was expecting the rude "Soup Nazi" approach to customer service since the restaurant is rooted in the same place as the Seinfeld character. However, the staff helped me pick out a vegetarian combo and didn't cut me off for breaking any of the rules, which was a giant relief to my aching neuroses.

The combo was also a good buy. Although it was $10, I got a soup, a banana, a piece of bread, a bowl of soup and a sandwich. It was a nicely portioned lunch option for Downtown.

The soup, as the main attraction, was a bit of a surprise, but in a different way from the friendly staff. I was expecting the best soup ever from a place that specialized in soup. The vegetable soup was good but hardly otherworldly. The variety of vegetables in the soup was great, but I expected a better soup from an establishment that has soup in the name. I'll have to revisit and see if the other options are as good as their reputation (there's a minimum of one, and more typically two, vegetarian soup options per day).

The sandwich, on the other hand, was tremendous. It was a grilled cheese panini, made from cheddar, Swiss and an unidentified grated cheese. The Swiss cheese gave the sandwich enough of a different taste to stand out from the cookie cutter grilled cheeses that most places offer. There is also a grilled garden vegetable panini sandwich, a portabella sandwich, a tomato mozzarella sandwich (both grilled and cold) as well as a build your own sandwich option. There are salads, smoothies and a variety of other options for vegetarians as well.

The Original Soup Man is located in the NBC4 building (neon eyesore) in Downtown Columbus. They keep traditional Downtown hours (which means don't plan on going on Sunday).

Original Soup Man

Benevolence Cafe

There isn't enough good will in the world. People are fast to complain about anything and everything. The world needs more kindness, more (dare I say it?) benevolence. While spite and misfortune will endure in the world, at least there is an oasis of respite in the city that goes by the name of Benevolence.

Benevolence is a vegan bakery that makes numerous vegetarian dishes. It is located on West Swan Street in the Short North, and if you didn't know exactly where to look, you might walk right past this cozy little cafe on your way to the doctor's office. This place is worth locating because they have excellent lunch specials that allow you to group soup, salads and/or sandwiches into the combo of your choice. Benevolence is open for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I couldn't refuse the falafel sandwich (pictured above), which came with tahini dressing and was served with cucumbers, lettuce and onions on a whole grain bread. As a special side note, all breads in Benevolence are vegan, although some other items are prepared in a less strict vegetarian manner. There is the option of soup or salad along with a sandwich, and the soups change daily. I tried an East Indian stew, which was a medium spicy ginger and coconut broth loaded with green beans, potatoes, peas, lentils and mushrooms.

Other soups included curried ginger cous cous, gazpacho, tomato and carrot bisque, Samdhar curried lentil and cream of mushroom. Other sandwiches include the veggie sloppy joe and the baked tofu sandwich. Dinner specials also include lasagna and tofu stroganoff, both of which are served with a free side salad or cup of soup.

The cafe/bakery is also a green establishment. They recycle all take out items, clean with environmentally sound materials and stick to the basic philosophy of reduce, reuse and recycle.

Spread good will and try out Benevolence. Enjoy my benevolence in posting the photos of Benevolence below.

Benevolence