Jeani "The Vegan Lush" H.'s Profile

Best and cheapest coffee in Union Square. Those two qualities rarely go together in this town! I just started working in the Square, and I've found it difficult to find a soy latte for under $5. Grand Prix delivers a soy latte under $4. Plus it's blue bottle, my favoritest coffee in the whole wide word. Dream come true really. Plus, plus they sell the beans, so I can make it at home and bring it to work if I'm super lazy and don't want to walk the two blocks out of my way in the morning. Plus, plus, plus they're nice. Tada! Go get your coffee Union Square peeps.

I really wanted to like B3, and there are many things to like. First off, they have a great beer and wine selection. I had a delicious stout and my date had some yummy organic beer. Second, the atmosphere is chill but stylish (OK, except for the god awful grape paintings on the wall) with Oak barrels sprinkled here and there and low lighting with many rich browns and blacks. Also, the French fries were crispy and satisfying with their home-made ketchup.

But the kicker (as it is with so many restos in this city) was the mediocre veg selection. The two options sounded delish, and not only were they veg, they were in fact vegan. Yet, they seriously lacked in execution. The beet and black bean veggie burger was flavorless and mushy (was hoping for something resembling the stellar beet burger at the Plant Cafe), and the mushroom sandwich bafflingly managed to taste odd and unappealing. I could seriously eat mushrooms for every meal of every day and be a very happy camper, but this was just somehow funky tasting. Perhaps it was the insane load of limp onions on the sandwich, or the lack of salt or much seasoning of any type on the mushrooms, or perhaps they just weren't the right mushrooms for such a sandwich. No matter what it was, the sandwich and the veggie burger needed some tweaking.

This is an open letter to all omni restaurant owners in the city: just because it's vegetarian doesn't mean vegetarians will enjoy it! Did you put this food in your mouth before you put it on your menu? Did it taste good? If the answer is no, go back to the kitchen and adjust it. If you don't want to put it in your mouth and figure out how to make it good for anyone (not just vegetarians who are forced to eat it), you can hire me to do it! Why isn't this a job!?!? I will gladly go to any restaurant in the city willing to hire me (for a negotiable hourly fee) to taste any veggie options, analyze and offer suggestions for optimum execution. Everybody wins!

The moral of this story is, put it in your mouth! or mine. Everyone will be happier if you do.

Apparently this is my month of giving away beauty secrets. First my stylist and now Thy. She is a fabulous aesthetician. She does quick and precise waxing work. She always remembers who you are and what's going on in your life and she's just a cool lady. I will admit the prices for a bikini and eyebrow wax are fairly steep, but it's worth it not to end up somewhere where the people are rude or don't give you a good wax.

Thy makes waxing as painless as it can be (OK, there's a little pain, but it's definitely minimized, I mean it is waxing!). The décor and atmosphere in the spa is sleek and calming, and the peeps at the front desk always deliver great customer service. Surprisingly, this can be difficult to come by in this city, where you can get a snobby front desk person who acts put out to charge you a hundred bucks for spa services, or worse, one time I tried another waxer, and there was no one at the front desk and a message therapist ran out and was rude to me for trying to get someone to pay attention to me (true story). Anyway, I learned my lesson that time. Just go to spa bar!

I have no idea why I haven't written a review for Brianne yet. There is no excuse, except that she is my secret weapon of the hair world, and I don't want everyone in this city walkin' around looking as good as I do (I'm not vein or anything). Anyway, I have followed Brianne through three different salons, because she is just that awesome. She always gives me a little bit of edge without looking like a crazy, ripped tights and vintage shorts wearing hipster. She's done all kinds of cool things with my highlights, from a little peakaboo chunk underneath my hair to a halo of blond that ran through my bangs. Speaking of, she does magic with bangs. I used to look like a frumpy wannabe rockabilly kid with them in high school, but Brianne manages to make them look classic but still contemporary. Brianne is someone I totally trust with my precious locks. I don't need to have an exact picture and diagram of what I want in order to get something good, like with so many other stylists.

The public barber salon is pretty cool too. It has a chill, no frills vibe (verging on hipsterful). Local art lines the walls. Cuts and colors are very fairly priced, and it's in a convenient location, near Powell station.

If you're looking for a salon where you can get a high-quality cut and color that isn't too pricey, but still gives you character and style, check this place out.

Whenever I move to a new neighborhood or city, part of my ritual is to find a decent café with comfy seating, yummy treats and most importantly good coffee. In London, that place has become Pimlico Fresh for me. I seriously heart Pimlico Fresh so much that I kina wish I could fold it up and take it back to SF in my suitcase, but for now I'll settle for it being my little Pimlico outpost. When I found out the neighborhood we'd be living in was kind of removed from the city center and a bit bougie, I was worried that there wouldn't be great veg options, but Pimlico Fresh has come to the rescue. They fulfill all three of my requirements and then some:

1. Cute communal seating (a great way to have a nice conversation with someone new or just chill and read a book)
2. Delicious fresh food including amazing vegan soups (Thai lentil the other day was rich and tangy), yummy vegan brownies (this is a hard one to perfect, I know I've tried!), and other assorted salads and muffins for veggie peeps.
3. Very good soy lattés (very important for the functionality of my brain).

All that being said it has its quirks. One is that there is no public bathroom, which can be a bit of a pain if you want to settle in for a nice afternoon of reading with a cup of tea. Second, they seriously need some wifi up in there. Is this not a thing in London?

Other than that P-fresh (yah, I said it!) rocks my socks. I definitely recommend it for veggie peeps and omnis alike and it will certainly be missed when I return to the states.

Il y a six ans que J'avais une des meilleure nuits de ma vie à cette restaurant. J'étais en train d'étudier en France, et mes amis ont suggéré cet unique restaurant. Les tables sont communales. Alors, après avoir mangé un peu, on a commencé à parler avec des autres. Il y avait des touristes de Canada et des Françaises. Je ne sais pas comment, mais on a commencé à chanter. Chaque group a chanté son hymne national, même si celui des États-Unis est un peu difficile. On a fait des nouveaux amis, on a ri, on a bu, et on a mangé.

Pour la cuisine, Il faut savoir que je suis végétarienne, et alors, il n'y a beaucoup à manger là. Cependant, la fondue est très bonne, et les olives et cornichons sont bons aussi. Mais, la meilleure raison d'aller là est l'expérience. Vous devez boire du vin dans un biberon une fois dans votre vie !

Like Gratitude sans all the affirmation "you are beauteous" BS, plus cooked food! How can you go wrong? To tell the truth, I am in London right now and have seriously been craving some good Mexican food, so my love for it has only grown more fervent. The tacos and tamales are delicious. I love the grilled mushrooms and the chilies. The rice and beans are also done very well with lots of flavor (no bland questionably vegetarian rice and bean side here, ahem every Mexican place in London). And, even though you may not think of them as Mexican, I had seriously some of the best Brussels sprouts I've ever had in my life here! They were all creamy and gooey and yummy with that wonderful cashew cream that they apparently perfected from Gratitude. Why can't all Mexican places have cashew cream?

Another great aspect of this resto is you can take you non-veggie friends along and not only will they enjoy their food, they won't be scared away by crazy hippies with intense stares (my bf may or may not have made a comment to that extent the first time I took him to Gratitude). The woman who greeted us a couple of times there was super duper enthusiastic, giving us an impression almost as if she knew us "Hi! How are you?!?!," but I kina like that. I felt welcomed into an oasis of all veggie awesome Mexican cuisine (oh, how I miss you Mexican food!!!!!!!)

If I were to have a crush on a restaurant in San Francisco it would definitely be Beretta. I love Beretta so so much, it kind of makes me feel like I'm going to explode... in a good way.  The food is perfectly fresh, balanced and delicious and the service is great. The one drawback is that since it is so damn good, there is always a long wait, and they don't take reservations for six or less. If you can get over that you are well-rewarded!

First, the drinks are fantastic. The first time I went here, the bartender, who, by the way, had awesome chops, lit an orange peel on fire for one of our drinks. I don't know what it is about fire, but it's just a show-stopper. It never fails to impress. The drinks are all nicely balanced between sweet and sour and use high quality ingredients.

Their small plates are also always yumtastic (I have to start making words up to capture their greatness). Creating good eggplant caponata is a delicate art, and theirs is the best I have ever had (that's sayin a lot coming from a vegetarian). I've also had lovely salads at this place (another item it's difficult to impress a veg kid with!)

Moving on to their pizza... it is absolutely to die for! They have vegan cheese (ahem veg kids!), and I don't know what magical things they do with it, but it is consistently fabulous. In particular, I loved their peperoncini pizza that was slightly spicy and very flavorful.

Did I mention I also love their décor and even their bird logo! I am actually obsessed with bird imagery as of late, and this totally feeds into it. The ambiance is cool and lively without being too stuffy. I just heart this place so much, I feel the same way about it as I felt about Jude Law in the 7th grade.

Whenever I am a big vegetarian pain in the booty and a restaurant is super duper nice to me, I feel obligated to write a yelp review and shout it out to the whole world. I almost left Out the Door (suppressing desire to make "out the door" pun) before eating there recently, because the menu changes confused me a bit. Bare with me, the menu has items that can be made vegetarian marked with an asterix, not because they are the only vegetarian dishes, but because they seem as if they might be vegetarian, but are made with fish sauce. Therefore, there are several non-asterixed items that are also vegetarian. I made the mistake of assuming that only the asterix items were vegetarian and was haulin my booty out the door (OK couldn't resist). As I was leaving, a man who I later found out was the manager explained the situation and my date and I returned to our seats. We proceeded to be completely wowed by the service and quality of food.

We started with their scrumptious spring rolls. They are spot on with their fresh veggies and delicious, delicious peanut sauce (I heart peanut sauce!). Then, they brought out (for free!) some daikon rice cakes swimming in a gorgeous savory sauce. These were warm and soft and lightly sweet. They were unusual, something I might not otherwise have ordered, but they were very tasty. We also ordered a noodle dish that wasn't on the menu (our server clued us in when we said we were veg) that was quite yummy and the lemongrass and pressed tofu dish. I really enjoy the firm but silky texture of pressed tofu! Overall, it was a lovely experience, and I really have to thank the Out the Door peeps for being so sweet and dealing with my veg spaz out.

Nothing creates pure joy and happiness quite like a ginormous bowl of noodles on a cold day. Actually, fresh veggie spring rolls with delicious, delicious peanut sauce come pretty close. In fact, so do grilled tofu skewers with barbeque sauce and yet another amazingly yummy peanut sauce that is different from the aforementioned peanut sauce. Vegan kids, you know that Asian food is your friend, I don't have to tell you that, but it's hard to sift through all of the many, many Asian restos in the city to find those that are worth a trip out of your neighborhood.

The Citrus Club is definitely worth it! There are 3 or 4 different vegetarian noodle bowls that are tasty and enough to feed an army or one very very hungry vegan. The appetizers are stellar. I have really high standards for spring rolls and these had a nice selection of good veggies and the peanut sauce was the perfect balance of savory and sweet. The tofu skewers were crispy and meaty and very satisfying. Be sure to get these! Also, I didn't try any of them but the cold noodles sound good too, and there were a few veggie selections. Basically, this place is totally worth a trip up to the Haight and the pain of ignoring Ploy II upstairs and Kan Zaman across the street!