Jeani "The Vegan Lush" H.'s Profile

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!

My last experience at Absinthe was spent trying to be discreet in front of a group of wine writers who probably wouldn't touch a vegan with a ten foot pole. Luckily, our waitress didn't freak when I ordered the veggie sammich sans chevre, plus mustard. For the creative vegan there are plenty of options at this trendy French bistro. First and most importantly are the friend chickpeas! For the love of god, get the fried chickpeas. They are the shiz! Get at least two orders. Trust me. Second, the fries are fantastic, and they come in a huge portion in one of those cone doodas. Third, there are olives, a butter lettuce salad, fabulous drinks and a great wine list. Veggie peeps, don't be afraid, you too can eat la cuisine Française! Bon appetite!

Guess what? Salt House is totally veganable! Bet you didn't think so, eh? I just had a very nice and fresh lunch there. We started off with some lovely cured Mediterranean olives. I adore olives. They're such a wonderful fatty rich food for us veggie peeps. They also had other veggie snackies (nuts and pickled veggies). Then, we enjoyed some delicious bread. It was the kind with the little points on it that I fondly remember from France! Extra points in my book for pointed bread! When I told the server I didn't eat dairy or meat, he got it right away. He served me the minestrone sans pesto and a big green salad with red wine vinaigrette. I left feeling stuffed and satisfied. For drinks, the mint lemonade was very refreshing and a nice touch to the menu.

I would love to see a veggie main at a place like this. I spotted green beans and lentils on the sides of some of the meaty dishes. It would be so easy to take some of those and some of the grains from underneath the chunks of meat and create a beautiful veggie dish. If only all these bougie restos with their fresh seasonal foods would just add one dish made of these sides to their menus, it would be revolutionary for SF cuisine. Plenty of SFers would probably eat a vegan lunch given the opportunity to have an elegant plate at their favorite trendy restaurant, and there is nothing more green than giving up meat in a few meals a week (or uh, yunno, all of them.) Plus, and most importantly, I would be a seriously happy (and probably broke, but worth it) little vegan camper.

First I must warn you, if you aren't prepared for some serious cheese, then don't go here! (No, not cow cheese!!) By cheese I mean terrible Roman art, funny little busts, and cute Italian waiters that call you "Bella." With a name like Mona Lisa, how could it not be incredibly corny? Although I tend to run in horror at anything too touristy in this city (I think this has something to do with the fact that I am forced to take the cable car with many slightly inebriated, overly enthusiastic and often overweight tourists to get up the hill to my apt.), this restaurant always leaves me with the warm and fuzzy feeling of being treated to some true Italian hospitality.

No one can argue that the food itself isn't authentically Italian. Being a vegan and having been to Italy, I have tried many MANY different restaurants' versions of penne arrabiata, and this place makes a lovely one. The sauce is spicy and rich and flavorful. I like to add mushrooms to give myself a little protein, and they are very nice about this and add big juicy sautéed brown mushrooms. They also have a nice bruschetta. I should mention that the menu is ginormous, as in it has every classic Italian dish and its dog, so creative vegans could probably find many choices. I remember one time they made me a very pleasant Italian bean soup as an appetizer, and I've also had a pasta with eggplant that was yummy.  

Mona Lisa has been my go-to North Beach place for several years, because it's cute and comfy, and there's usually not a long wait. If you temporary let go of your fears of touristy places and enjoy the waiters' adorable Italian accents, you'll surely have a nice time.

My life is now complete. I can have dosa delivered to my door! Since my 'hood can kind of be a wasteland of good, cheap vegan grub, I was super excited to find this out! I was also, like many peeps, very skeptical of an Indian resto housed inside an Irish pub, but hey, it seems to work for them. Besides, South Indian food and drinks are two of my favorite things!

The dosa itself is quite good. There is only one veggie variety, the marsala, which is flavorful and satisfying. One important aspect of a South Indian resto is its coconut sauce, and people, this place does deliver some fine coconut sauce. They even have a daal coconut sauce that is so fantastic you will want to slather it on everything, I mean everything! They should bottle that stuff. Oh, another marker of a good South Indian resto is it's sambar, and this place has nice spicy rich daal soup that automatically comes with your dosa. That means if you order the marsala dosa, you have a totally complete meal for under $10 bucks. Not many places in the city you can do that. Anyway, Uddupam is also nice. It's ginormous, as are all portions here. The curries are pretty good, not amazing, but some do use tofu, which is kind of fun. If you're a veggie kid and live in the Nob Hill/Russian Hill/North Beach area, you will want this resto in your bag of vegan tricks! With their help, you too can achieve the dream that is dosa delivered to your door!

I want to marry and have the babies of the vegan frittata Florentine at Counter! I also want to dip myself in a pool of the vegan hollandaise that comes on top. If I have any energy left after all that, I want to make out with the French toast and banana flambé!

Counter is a great example of something we're missing here in SF; a cute, comfortable vegetarian brunch spot with hip and elegant atmosphere and wonderful (make-outable) food. The frittata is fantastic with its fluffy eggy tofu, perfectly toasted English muffin and delicious, delicious sauce. The French toast is also delightful and decadent with its crumbly crust and yummy bananas. They also have some nice vegan pancakes. If you are vegan and you are going to NYC, don't miss this spot! Trust me, you will fall in love with the frittata too, and soon there will be frittata babies all over the place... I mean, um, just go there!

The Cafe at Cafe du Nord is just one of those places where they do things the right way. First off, all lattes come double. This is clearly the most appropriate way to do them, unlike effing Starbucks and Pete's where a medium just has more freakin milk and syrup. So, basically they're just adding fat and sugar and none of the most important and essential ingredient; caffeine!  

Secondly, their food is yummy and mostly home made. These dudes make their own tofu bacon and their own hummus. The tofu bacon is smoky and salty and delicious on a sandwich (although if you don't eat honey, you will be pressed for sauces, since there's honey in their mustard). However, if, like me, you go with someone who orders the hummus plate, then you can put that on the sandwich. I have to say this would be totally killer with some veganaise. So, veggie peeps, patronize this place and ask them to carry veganaise, because that would totally rock my socks. Anyway, the hummus plate is a serious meal with a big dome of home-made hummus that is a little nuttier and more sesame-tasting than most. It also comes with delicious grilled veggies, a big pile of sliced cherry tomatoes and pita. Yum! They know how to make veggie peeps happy.

Lastly, and most importantly, they carry people's donuts (fantastic vegan donuts from Berkeley)! And they have cute window seating with a big open window on nice days. Plus, they have really good ginger beer and they have actual beer too! And the people who work here are nice and chatty but not too chatty. Basically, you could easily spend all day here, especially if it's nice out.

I get super excited about trying new restaurants, and I get even more excited about new restaurants that use the word "vegan" in the menu. Yes, I am a huge vegan nerd! I had big expectations for Metro Katmandu, because it was a new find, and they use the word "vegan" in their menu several times! I mean, I read about the place in Tablehopper for the love of god. That woman has good taste! Anyway, I wanted to start my meal with the momos, because another person on yelp had mentioned that she had shared the vegetarian momos with her vegan husband. I love dumpling-like foods: Gyoza, veggie dumplings, empanadas, etc. So, when a place has vegan dumplings of any sort, I am sure to order it up! However, upon further inspection, the vegetarian momos had cheese! Booo! That was my first disappointment, and to be fair, the restaurant never claimed they were vegan.

Next disappointment; both veggie curries we ordered were somewhat bland. Their flavors just weren't coming together in an appealing manner. I also wasn't into the sour bamboo, but even the regular old veggie curry was just so so. I give them points for having a few vegan options, but dudes, spice it up a bit! Give me some flavor! In the end, a veggie curry should be one of the staples of a Nepalese restaurant, and this just wasn't delivering for me. Maybe the chef was having an off day, and perhaps I will be back the next time I'm in the lower Haight to give them another chance. But for now, I'm gonna have to say Metro Katmandu left me a little disenchanted.