Herbivore
Categories: Vegan, Vegetarian [Edit]
Neighborhood: Mission983 Valencia Street
(between 21st St & Liberty St)
San Francisco, CA 94110 (415) 826-5657
- Hours:
Mon-Thu 9:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m.
Fri-Sat 9:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m.
Sun 9:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. - Price Range: $$
- Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
- Parking: Street
- Attire: Casual
- Good for Groups: Yes
- Good for Kids: Yes
- Takes Reservations: Yes
- Delivers: No
- Take-out: Yes
- Waiter Service: Yes
- Wheelchair Accessible: Yes
- Outdoor Seating: Yes
- Good for: Lunch, Dinner
- Alcohol: Beer & Wine Only
142 reviews
Neighborhood: Castro
"So I'm supposed to be getting ready for the day, and I promised my friend I would only write my review of the Castro Theatre, but…" read more »
336 Reviews for Herbivore
I've been twice, and I've enjoyed my meal each visit. I can't beat the feeling that I am a chump for spending so much dough on food I can make just as well at home, but I like being able to splurge and be lazy. First time I went, I got the BBQ tempeh sandwich - love the aioli. Second time, my first pick of mushroom polenta was OUT, so I quit crying and got some potato pie thing with mushroom gravy and greens. The gravy was awesome, and the presentation was cutesy. It tasted pretty lard-ass, which is right up my alley. This place gets shitty reviews, but I've been pleased with my eats. I also like the little green salad that comes with entrees.
I'm definitely a carnivore but I enjoyed my meal at Herbivore. I had an eggplant sandwich and spicy coconut noodle soup. The soup was a little sour but the sandwich was fantastic. And this is from the girl who still says, much like a six year old, "I don't like vegetables".
I just ate something, not quite sure what it was, it was tasty
I then had a burning desire to throw red paint on a lady wearing fur and driving an SUV
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Even prior to actually becomming vegan, I enjoyed the great food Herbivore has to offer. With a variety of cuisines, its great for an app or a great lunch/dinner. I have yet to get bored with it.
Mediocre at best. This is the perfect example of 'vegetarian fare'. Everything vegan from all over the world, none of it very good.
I imagine it stays in business because of the following three types of people:
1. New vegetarians who are yet to figure out that they can make all of this at home and it will taste better.
2. Ultra-strict vegans who won't eat anywhere that serves meat.
3. Non-vegetarians who take out-town-vegetarians here because they figure that any vegetarian will like any place that is all vegetarian.
If you want Thai go to a Thai restaurant. If you want Mexican go to a Mexican restaurant. In this neighborhood every place has vegan options.
I love that everything is vegan. Really, I do. It is such a comfort to know that I'm "safe" ordering pretty much anything my little heart desires.
However, I have tried four dishes here (ceviche, kung pao dish, coconut noodle soup, and portobello sandwich), and everything except the sandwich had something off with the flavoring... an odd residual healthy lime taste... and lack of flavor at the same time. It's hard to put into words, but every time I come I am just not satisfied by the depth or combination of flavors. I don't know what it is, but it cannot merit more than 3 stars.
The portobello sandwich, however, is definitely order-worthy, and I would come back for that again and again. I also want to try the Maggie Mudd ice cream I keep hearing about!
To be continued....
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Man. Herbivore's BBQ "chicken" sandwich is like, really really really good. Generally, I get anxiety from making definitive statements, but I think I can safely say that it's my favorite vegan meal in the city. Mmmmm...
Then why only the 3-star rating you ask? Because although the meal deserves about 4 1/2 stars for casual vegan dining, the service is mediocre and everything else I've tried on the menu is not very tasty. Its actually quite taste-less.
In fact, I first gleaned my BBQ "chicken" knowledge from a total stranger who leaned over to my table and said, "get the BBQ 'chicken' sandwich; it's phenomenal and everything else is just meh... okay." Totally true -- thank you stranger! And so I try and pass this knowledge on... but apparently my friends aren't as keen on dining advice as I am. They branch out and order some other delicious sounding item on the menu and are always disappointed. Stick with the BBQ "chicken" sandwich. It's the bomb, kids.
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I've been here a number of times and you really have to know what to order. This place tries to be all things to all people with their pan-global menu Asian, Italian, American, Mediterranean, Spanish and in doing so, has the tendency to fall flat when trying to be everyone's best friend.
Stick with what they do best. Mediterranean and standards.
I came here with meat eaters, hard core vegans, vegetarians and the universal consensus is stick with the Mediterranean dishes. They are the most flavorful and consistent. Asian = bland, Italian = bland with an acidic tomato aftertaste in everything.
This place is a go to place if I want delicious Schwarma or a rock solid salad with the Tahini dressing. Stay away from the lasagna, all 3 people in my group tried it on several occasions and it we agreed it was just not well executed.
SOOO good! vegan paradise! my gf ordered the tropical smoothie which was pretty good, not the best, but not bad at all..she also got the chili which was delicious! nice and spicy! and it came with cornbread. the corn on the cob was really good too! i had the soup & 1/2 sandwich combo. the coconut noodle soup was actually pretty good...it was pretty sour but that might have been because of all the lemon juice i squirted into it. the bbq chicken sandwich is AMAZING and the bread that they serve it on is soooooo goood!!! the best part of the meal: DESERT! get the chocolate cupcake with a side of vanilla bean ice cream. it looks small but its more than enough for two people and it is DELICIOUS!! you won't regret it! i didn't think the staff was overly friendly but they did check up on us multiple times and i had no complaints with them what so ever. they were very approachable. i can't wait to come back here!!
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I don't even know how people can give this place a bad rating. The food is cheap and yummy! The soy chicken is de-lish, the salads are scrumptious, and everything is affordable.
The only qualm I have with this place is the service. Can be great, but when it is bad, the service is really bad. Patience is not one of my virtues and unfortunately you often need it if you eat here during busy times.
The best advice: order to go. You'll get delicious food in half the time.
P.s.They don't technically take reservations, but if you call ahead and say you are bring x amount of people, they will take care of you.
I'll be back to try everything on the menu. Everything we ordered today was incredible. I've had a much better mojito, but hey, this place doesn't specialize in drinks. I loved everything except the random musician who started playing flamenco in the place.
Everywhere else in the mish was packed, with a 25-minute wait, so we were surprised to find this place half-full! ... service was fine to me.
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The dishes are ok. The smoothies and shakes are very good. I would imagine the deserts are also good.
Their fake-chicken shawarma is to DIE for. I had a garlic lemon seitan sandwich the last time I went that was also really tasty, and came with a massive side salad. I'd say their fake meat is where it's at. As someone else pointed out, obviously they're not going to have BETTER tacos than an actual Mexican restaurant, for example, but in terms of coverage I thought they had a huge menu of many different cuisines to choose from.
Vegan macaroni and cheese? Vegan chocolate ice cream? If only I hadn't tipped that guitar-playing, singing eight year-old ...
The one place that didn't have a too-long wait for those without reservations, I was a little iffy walking in. I'll admit, it was a little offing to have to ask the waitress whether it was self-seated or not --we didn't want to just kick some poor soul out of their seat -- but the friendly, relaxed atmosphere made up for it (until the Spanish guitar player came in)
Our coconut curry udon entree was presented well (and don't deny it, we all judge things by their appearance) and tasted just as good, if not better. And cheap, relatively, compared to everywhere else around.
The chocolate soy ice cream brought me to heaven, and back again. The serving size was a little big for two people -- at almost three full scoops -- but perfect for the two of us, sharing a meal and the decently priced bill.
In the words of that ... er ... famous man, "I'll be back."
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The food is pretty much just ok, surprising for being all vegan. The pad thai did not have too much flavor. The price wasn't bad, but I definitely like my meat. Good if you like a vegan option.
I HATE THIS PLACE - My carnivorous friends don't understand it. They seem to think that someone that's been meat free since '83 should live for a place like this but honestly the two times I've been here the service was excruciating and the food was either under cooked or cold.
DEFINITELY NOT WORTH THE HOUR LONG WAIT TO GET A SEAT ON THE BENCH SO WE COULD WAIT ANOTHER TWENTY MINUTES BEFORE OUR TABLE WAS READY.
Maybe if the staff wasn't stoned they would get orders correct the first time and they could turn over their tables properly. The restaurant was so loud both times I was here that by the time we left I was hoarse from having to shout over the din...
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UPDATE:
They have a Herbivore on Divisadero that's really nice - good service and great food at that one. I'm bummed that my bad experiences at the Valencia outlet put me off trying that one sooner...
I LOVE this place!
Sunday morning was our last day in SF and we wanted an awesome brunch. We did our homework and found an awesome vegetarian restaurant right off Valencia. When we arrived at the cross streets and looked around, we quickly came to realize that the cute little place with about 30 people out in front with a wait list 3 pages deep was to be our destination.. Damn!
Sooo.. Where does that leave us, you ask?
We decided to walk down the street a bit to see what we could find and we stumbled upon Herbivore. The menu looked to be Vegan- which is great since I'm 'non dairy' and he's a veggie. We decided we'd try it out.
I'm SO glad we did!
The place felt a little like a swank cafeteria upon entry, but then after receiving some awesome service from the 'get go' and a stellar menu, I had a feeling it was going be good.
I had the Southwest Tofu Scramble, which came with black beans, vegan cornbread, pico de gallo, and guacamole. He had the breakfast burrito with tempeh. Both were excellent, extremely flavorful, and superstar fresh.
We ended breakfast with the chocolate vegan doughnut, which while it was not Mighty O, was still delish.
Excellent food and service and 100% vegan. It's a chain (I think there's 2 or 3). I long for them to set up shop in Seattle..
Come to Seattle!
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Very unnecessarily surly wait staff. I think they were tired and stuff (it was a busy weekend) and we had a large group so their gratuity was guaranteed, but come ON. I'll never go back to this location, although the food was pretty good, especially the appetizers.
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Nothing at all inspiring here. Just a BIG menu, BIG food and not a lot in the flavor category. This restaurant will tell non vegetarians that veggie fair is salty, flavorless and unimaginative. Save you time and money. If you want amazing vegetarian go a few blocks east to Cafe Gratitude and you'll find people that are passionate about flavorful veggie fair.
The only thing that sucks about this place is the waiting.
Everything else is awesome. I loooooooove the veg bloody mary. I hate having to turn down bloody marys because they're not veg. And it is totally delicious!!!!!!!!
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They know what they have and it's good. Good vegan eats at a decent menu price. Breakfast was a scramble that was served with sides of veg. sour cream and guacamole. Coffee was a little so so. My oj was tart and past due, oops-
As a reformed carnivore I would like to thank Herbivore for making my transition into vegetarianism a wee bit less painful. Being raised in a German-Hungarian household where the dinner time motto was "it's not a meal without meat", the thought of grilled seitan or a portabella mushroom burger was not only unappetizing, it was almost sacreligious. I use to be the kind of gal that fried sausages in butter and tossed bacon in anything that had vegetables in it, you know, to cover up the flavor. So thankfully when I made the switch, I had the delicious food from Herbivore to reassure me that yes, vegetarian fare could be delicious and satisfying. But I swear I'm going to throw a baby whale at the next musclehead who asks me if I get enough protein.
Back to Herbivore: The Valencia location is nice, and I love their outdoor seating area. I've always had great service and the waitstaff are friendly, fast and usually pretty cute. It's also nice to be in a vegetarian restaurant that isn't draped in Tibetan peace flags or pictures of the Dalai Lama. Being a veg does not a Buddhist make and I appreciate Herbivore's unpretentious setting.
I've found most of their food really flavorful, and I'm a huge fan of their seitan tacos, salads, and most of their pasta. I found their pesto sauce a bit lacking, kind of runny with bland flavor. Some of their food is hit or miss, but for the most part it's tasty stuff and comes in nice portions. They serve some decent cocktails too, which can be hard to find at vegetarian restaurants that often cater to the obsessively healthy.
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Not sure how it is that I never wrote a review of this place before. Not only am I vegetarian, but this is probably my favorite veggie place in the city. Sure, it lacks the view of the GG bridge that Greens has (and the upscale atmosphere). Yes, it lacks the elegance (and pretentiousness) of Millennium. Um, did I mention it's not *overpriced* like the aforementioned two veggie restaurants? Anyway, as other reviewers have mentioned, I'm not fond of their pad thai, nor of the other Asian dishes I've tried in the past. However, their fake meat dishes, their salads, pastas, pies, etc. are all phenomenal. The best part? Two people can eat dinner, WITH wine for around 30 bucks. Where else are you going to do that in this city?
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Ok so I'm not a vegetarian by any means, but...
I know what good food tastes like, and the food here is just bland. It really is only second rate, and the service is just ok. There really isn't much here that makes me want to keep coming back, which I might say is sad, because I don't think there are enough GOOD veg restaurants in the city. Hmph..
Herbivore pisses me off.
I have every reason to like it. I'm vegetarian, it's not that expensive, there's one a few blocks away from my apartment.
And it has every reason to be good. There SHOULD be more tasty vegan restaurants, especially in San Francisco.
But dude. The service blows; I don't think they've ever NOT fucked up our order in some way (at all three locations!). The food tastes like dirt. Literally, like soil gathered from the potted plant next to the bathroom. And the sauces and desserts taste like nothing. Soy milk is great or whatever, but I want my vegan food to taste like FOOD, not like fucking soy milk. With one exception: the sandwiches are decent (thus the two stars). The desserts are dry and fresh out of the refrigerator. Actually, all of the food is always mysteriously cold, even when they're not busy at all.
I know that this isn't exactly fine dining, but it just... sucks.
I feel like anyone who gave Herbivore five stars has been vegan so long they've forgotten what good food tastes like. It doesn't have to be this way, man.
Bleh!
I'm not a vegan or vegetarian but can still appreciate good food. I've been here several times and the flavors ALWAYS seem off.... like inedible-OFF.
never going back. It's a waste of a meal out and of money.
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Ok the food is decent, But the service is soooooooo terrible everytime I go there that I dont think I will ever go back even though I live close by. No one ever greats you there were tables open and they made me and my friend sign up on a waiting list and wait like 20 minutes for a table that was avalaible the whole time then took there time taking our order like another 20 minutes than i ordered a small salad while my friend got a Big one and when they came out they were the exact same size and the watress belittled us telling us one was the big one and the other was the small one like we were stupid. And then we had to wait forever for our check. I am so over that place can someone please open up an inexpensive nice place to get soem healthy food in the mission!!!
I visited Herbivore for the first time in years with a vegetarian friend visiting from Turkey. It was late afternoon and the place was nearly empty so we got a seat on the tiny patio out back. She ordered the Shish Kebab featuring corn on the cob, potatoes, red peppers tomatoes & onions with Peanut-Orange Miso Sauce, Tofu and Quinoa. I had the curry -coconut udon noodles featuring roasted red pepper, spinach, sesame seeds, grilled oyster mushrooms, green onions, cilantro and shredded coconut. This plate had potential but failed to deliver with a savory but far too mild curry for my taste. Serviceable but far from fine.
I did enjoy the tall glass of fresh mint tea and the vegan oatmeal cookie we shared was a wholesome finisher.
Neither of us had any high praise for a memorable meal, though the conversation was, as always, worth the price of admission.
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How come it only has 3 stars? I've been here a lot. I owed a friend a belated birthday dinner, so I most recently went yesterday. I've had about everything on the menu, and in spite of being a huge fan of carrot juice, I never had it from here before, and it was amazing. Vitamin A is good for your skin.
While I'm neither vegetarian nor vegan, I am an eater. I've been to this Herbivore several times for two reasons. First and foremost, it's a spot close to a friends I have lunch with periodically, and he knew someone working there. Second, the seitan shawarma is pretty good, with pickles and potatoes. Other than that, there's no reason to go here. The rest of the food is mostly boring, and somewhat overpriced. I've taken vegetarian friends from out of town here a couple times, and had to stop because they were pretty disappointed. It's kind of overpriced, for what you get. And every time I've ever gone, even when we knew our server, the service was ridiculously, painfully slow, and not always with a smile.
I am a red meat junkie. This said, I have nothing about skipping beef or lamb from time to time: the savory crepes with roasted red pepper sauce were pretty good and my friend enjoyed the scrambled tofu.
On the bad side, the service was very slow and the restrooms were kinda ewwww...
the breakfast/brunch menu is the highlight here for me. everything i've ordered in that regard has been great! vegan blueberry pancakes anyone?
the regular menu is hit or miss. just use common sense..... if you want a burrito go to the taqueria on the corner. if you want pad thai go to a thai place. their specialties are pretty good and reasonably priced. the smoothies and drinks are delightful, and the carrot cake is off the charts!
the location on divisadero has the same food, but i swear it's better for some reason.....
The food was really good, but the service was just so-so. When my friend and I showed up for breakfast there were maybe a total of 5 other people there. It still took 10 minutes to get menu's. Then we had to almost trip our waitress to get her attention long enough to get our order taken. The funny thing is, that as it got busier the service got better. Not a whole lot better, but there was still an improvement. The food was good and it's always nice not to have to ask if stuff has dairy in it. I'd probably try the other location before I went back to this one.
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Every body's just beatin' up on poor little Herbivore over here, what the heck? I love this place. This is first SF restaurant that I can remember loving. I've had a birthday here, I mean, this is good stuff!
I love the pasta with capers and lemon cream sauce, i love the spring rolls, i love the raviolis, the gnocchi, the pomegranate cosmo. The only reason that I don't go here constantly is that I would feel lame not exploring other options (what would I yelp about?). Herbivore is definitely a favorite.
Stacey and I had planned to dine at the famous Spork, but after walking 16 miles through San Francisco, when we finally reached Valencia and 20th, we were extremely disappointed to find a bum sleeping outside the entrance door, and a very unfortunate closed sign in the window. But perhaps this was a blessing in disguise, as we had been eating nonstop all weekend and thought maybe a salad would be better in the long run. Lucky for us, right across the street we found Herbivore, a Vegan's delight. While neither of us were vegan (or even vegetarian for that matter), we decided to give it a go. Outside there are two tables, but since it was a bit on the chilly side, we opted to sit inside, which was filled with the local Mission Hipsters, and on this particular night we were lucky to spot an entire family of Hipsters, their children decked out in the latest fashions from nearby Buffalo Exchange. As we waited for our meal, we had the lovely opportunity to listen to some random guy bolting out his rendition of Manu Chao's Clandestino, and the subsequent joy of watching the Hipster dad hand the Hipster child a dollar to support the budding musician. Our food finally arrived, we each ordered salads, mine being of the more tropical inspired variety (green papaya with cabbage and other greens with a sweet and spicy tamarind sauce) while Stacey opted for the basic green salad in all it's avocado and beety glory. A bread basket came with the salad, but unfortunately as this restaurant is vegan, no butter was available. The salad dressings were quite creative, Stacey trying two, the balsamic and the tahini. The salads were decent, and I recommend this restaurant for anyone traveling with a vegan friend (or if you yourself happen to be vegan), however I doubt the food quality surpasses that of Green's. But, if you want a true Mission experience, and some prime Hipster viewing, this is definitely a perfect spot to try.
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Not my favourite Herbivore location, it's smaller, the door is always letting in cold air, and the wait staff is consistently poorer than the other locations - but their menus are all the same. I've got a lot of vegan friends who seem to hate on this place too, and frankly I have to disagree. That said, what are they good at?
Herbivore is amazing at breakfast - IMNSHO they make some of the best vegan scrambles you can get anywhere. This was the first place I ever found vegan french toast, and their BLT thing is good I wish they had it as a lunch item. Oh, and their yerba mate latte is also quite good, plus their one of the rare places that still serves fresh squeezed OJ.
Other meals though... you have to be really picky with what you get for lunch or dinner I find. It's either hit or miss. Things like the vegan mac 'n cheese are abysmal and should be taken off the menu. Meanwhile, their in-house burger is actually really respectable (and I'm burnt out on burgers since that's often the only thing you can find at a non-veg friendly place), but pretty much all their wraps and sandwiches are worth going for - many of their other entre's not so much. Still, this is one of the few places in SF to get a vegan burger and shake. As near as I can tell they don't make any of their desserts in-house either, the donuts are from People's Donuts, the cakes are from Black China Bakery and their ice cream is from Maggie Mudd's. Save your money and get more variety by buying those things directly instead of here. Same goes for their drinks, they gratuitously overcharge for Lambics (I can get a bottle over double the size at trader joe's for what they charge for a Lindeman's here).
Anyway, play to their strengths - like breakfast, and sandwiches, and you probably won't be disappointed. Stray from the path and you'll find reasons to hate I guess.
Why the incredible disparity in reviews? Because of the incredible disparity in the food. Some things are good, a couple of things are great, and the rest is absolutely miserable. I'm still figuring out the rules, but in general the sandwiches and burritos are good and the noodles and salads are awful. Please, please, future reviewers, include a specific list of which food is good and which is bad and save me a lot of bad meals.
Fries: AMAZING! Baked in olive oil, the best ever
Marinated tofu sandwich: Good, esp. with fries
Faux chicken sandwich: Yummy
Breakfast burrito: All right
Hash browns: Tolerable
Pad thai: Bleah
Green papaya salad: Awful
It's so sad - Herbivore could be so great and instead it's just mediocre. But at least there's never a line for brunch, so if the line at Boogaloo's is too long (and it is), you can go get a nice egg-free breakfast at Herbivore.
I really wanted to like this place more. I am vegan and there are not to many places that you can have anything on the menu. We went two days in a row. The first day we had the soft tacos and chocolate milkshake - both very good, and my meat-eatin' boyfriend liked both items to.
The second day I orderd the "sausage" biscuit and my boyfriend ordered the bbq tofu sandwhich. My breakfast was decent, nothing I was to wowed by, the homefries were decent. My boyfriend's bbq tofu sandwich got a OK. He said one side was dry. I took a bite and I really enjoyed the bread and the tofu was nice and thick, you could tatste everything together. We also ordered another milkshake to go, agin the shakes are really good.
Why so little stars? The service SUCKS. There were times when we had to get up and refill our own water, the wait staff were rude, the woman behind the register left in mid convo, the time to be seated and get a menu was long and the place was not packed...The attitude really made me feel unwelcomed.
I would go back for a takeout order or to grab a shake but not for a sit down meal. This was a treat to celebrate our 2 year and I really wanted my boyfriend to be like 'wow' to a vegan meal not made by me.
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Came here on a Saturday morning for brunch...and it was pretty dead...the service was a tad bit on the slow side considering there were only about five occupied tables and two servers, but I came with my friend Naomi...aka, the bad-service-bringer so ::shrug:: what can you do? My main complaint was that it was so effing cold inside! Very chilly and I wanted to beat down the hipster scum that kept leaving the door open!
Okay, enough with the gripes though, on with the food. I had delish, fresh squeezed orange juice, with so much pulp, I could CHEW it! One hyphenated word: freaking-YUM. The menu had a sourdough option for French toast, which I never see in restaurants...and I love sourdough, so that was awesome too. I liked the variety of the menu; normally, I don't see that in a vegan restaurant. I would totally come here again...if I lived in the state
i love love love you herbivore !!!
this is totally my comfort food. a range of palettes (amerikan, italian, mediterranean, asian), all organic, local, vegan! yippee! tasty, well-made, guilt-free!
cool décor, small outdoor seating, good wait service, quick, affordable, good location. what's not to love?
just don't get the lasagne. vegan lasagne is an oxymoron.
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