Rosetta's Kitchen & The Buchi Bar

I randomly picked a vegan restaurant as I was passing through on my way from South Carolina to Tennessee and I am so thankful I stumbled upon this hidden gem.  Loved the ambiance!

It is everything I love in a vegan restaurant in a city.  Eclectic with a good vibe.  People were just friendly and enjoying themselves over some good food.  If you sit at the ledge that overlooks the street there is a nice little succulent garden right in front of your table.

The menu has a nice variety.  I ordered the Buffalo cauliflower and a side a mashed potatoes with gravy.  My hubby ordered the yellow coconut curry.  The food was generously portioned as we did have a little leftover.

I will say it was a little tricky to figure out where to sit and how to order.  The bar downstairs is separate from the upstairs restaurant.  The upstairs is more of a hip cafe.  You can get cocktail upstairs, but they are just single liquor added to kombucha.  It is also counter service for ordering, but the food is brought to you.

The downstairs is more of a bar.  You sit wherever you want and then somebody will wait on you.  They have a handcrafted looking bar and they get the food from upstairs for you.  There was only one server so we decided just to go upstairs since we wanted to grab a quick meal before getting back on the road.

Wanted so much to like Rosetta's. While not a vegan myself, my lady is and this was a vegan restaurant that looked promising. A number of items had descriptions that seemed like they would have a lot of flavor. Unfortunately, while they clearly swung for the fences, they also clearly struck out.

First, location was hard to get to. GPS directed me to turn onto a highway entrance ramp but then an immediate turn off of the ramp to a row of local restaurants, bars, etc under the highway overpass and entrance. Thankfully, Melissa was able to follow the map but if you're not familiar with the streets, this could be hard to find. Not taking stars away for that-just giving a bit of forewarning.

My issues were with the food and service. Let me start with the service. The entire restaurant, though not big, had one server and the bartender. The server was clearly having a bad night-maybe because she had the whole floor, or maybe something happened that put her in a sour mood. Point is, she couldn't have looked and acted more unhappy to be there. I know what it's like to have a bad night serving and you hate to get a bad review for an off night, but you have to know (especially in this day and age) anyone you serve could be a blogger, yelper or whatever. It sucks, but it is what it is and if you can't fake it, then it's going to come back on you. So service was unfriendly. At most though, this is minus 1/2 to 1 star since our waters were refilled and she was efficient.

My biggest issue was the food. I got the Korean bbq entree. Tempeh and veggies (maybe rice?  I don't remember) in a Korean bbq sauce with a tahini base. Typically I don't like tahini but it's a bbq sauce and Korean style so it was worth the risk.

Or, it should have been worth the risk. How they can call this bbq sauce or Korean is beyond me as it didn't taste like either. It tasted like someone attempted to make a Carolina bbq sauce, but used tahini instead of mustard and then stopped caring. All I tasted was tahini. It just failed on every level.

We had good to excellent vegan meals in Asheville. This was not one of them.

Don't overthink it! Go and order I promise you won't be let down. Food and servers are awesome. Their food is seasoned really well, well portioned and filling. It's home cooked/comfort food with fresh ingredients. Greens and corn bread was delicious, the bellyful plate was amazing, their sweet potato fries with Cajun spice have the perfect kick and not saturated in grease or salt, the mountain is a mountain! Nice music and plants inside too! Please visit them and have a good time!

This is one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants. I can't pass through Asheville without a stop at Rosetta's. The food is always superb and in the middle of a long road trip, I love that we can relax with our pup at the Buchi bar. Lucy gave the sweet potato fries 4 out of 4 paws!

We ordered the Family Favorite, the Tempelo Wings and a side of chili.  The wings were by far the favorite.  The kale in the Family Favorite was also quite good.  Kale.  Never thought I'd say it could be delicious but it was. The service was super friendly and the food was delivered fast.

With so many great options in Asheville it was a very tough decision on where to do dinner tonight. Winner, winner, veggie dinner!

Right now they are doing a walk up window. Apparently they do have upstairs seating. The menu of this vegetarian restaurant is posted and while extensive isn't really overwhelming. The choice for me was easy, I always love a vegetarian Reuben, I forget what sides come standard but for a slight upcharge I subbed sweet potato fries. We also got a Buddha bowl and a cup of chili and a bowl of today's soup- hot and sour mushroom. Our eyes were bigger than our stomachs, the portions are large and the additions were unwarranted but definitely not unappreciated. OMG, both the chili and the soup were truly outstanding. But things only got better from there! All vegetarian, I believe all can be made vegan. I also think all the desserts of which there were 8-10 to choose from are vegan.

Also, we walked about 10 minutes back to our hotel with the food and it traveled well, tasted every bit as good as eating in.

Perfect place for vegan and vegetarian dinning! In very close proximity to college street with in door & outdoor seating that was aesthetically pleasing as well. Try their wings & curry! They were our favorite!

Oh my goodness! Loved loved our food from here! Although many restaurants are allowing seating in Asheville, I'm honestly glad that these guys aren't yet.  I kinda went crazy and ordered 2 entrees, one appetizer with the veggie nuggets and the housemade kombucha x2. The Buddha was ridiculously good....like every little part of it.  The coconut curry was my husband's choice and poor him, as I ate more than half! I was curious about the veggie nuggets.  Like they seem like a kids app right? Ok..kids will love them but I loved them too and that DIP? Goodness me.  My husband is not a vegan fan in general but he was very happy with this dinner choice.  Bravo! I can't wait to come back!

This place's mission is really incredible. Founded on water and food as a human right, this place is wildly affordable and a wonderful environment. Food took fairly long, but totally worth the wait with very kind service.

Such tasty food. Simple dishes with complex flavors and vegetarian treats galore! My kids loved the food too- two thumbs up from vegetarian kids!