beXnlog

3 Quick Reviews

1) Almaz Cafe on 20th at Sansom. We must've walked past this place a billion times on our way to the 20th St Capogiro location and always thought it was just a cafe/sandwich shop! If you read the menu closely you'll see that they have meat and vegetarian Ethiopian dishes. We shared the vegetarian sampler which was more than enough food for the two of us. All five dishes were very tasty (and the servings were super generous), the injera was delicious and the service was ultra friendly. My only complaint was that the spicy dishes could've been much hotter, but according to be it's because i'm insane. Definitely going back to have more vegetarian dishes here. I would love to compare it to the much-loved Dahlak in West Philly but we've only been there once with a group with picky eaters, so our choices were limited.

2) Mustard Greens on 2nd btwn South and Bainbridge. We've been meaning to try this place for the longest time! The menu isn't huge at this neighborhood-institution Chinese restaurant, nor are there many vegetarian options, but the service is knowledgeable and friendly. Our waiter asked us to clarify if eggs were okay when we inquired about a noodle dish being vegetarian -- so this isn't a place where the answer is automatically "yes" and i like that! We had the sauteed Chinese broccoli and the noodles with vegetables. Both dishes were amazingly simple and delicious; we finished both quickly and contemplated ordering a tofu dish just to try something else. The noodle dish was one of the best i'd had in a years! Definitely going back to check out more!

3) Cedars on 2nd btwn South and Bainbridge. Again, we'd been meaning to check this place out for the longest time. Too bad we were the only ones there that night because the food was great. We shared the vegetarian plate (hommus, falafel, baba gannouj and grape leaves), spanakopita, tabouli salad and two desserts. Everything we had was delicious but the tabouli salad was out of this world -- crazy fragrant abundant parsley in a perfect lemony tomatoey juicy dressing with barely any bulghur (cracked wheat) at all. We both agreed that the tabouli was the best dish of the evening. Next time, we might try the $25 sampler of everything they serve, depending on whether that's worth it for vegetarians or not. Otherwise, we'd probably order the same but each get our own order of tabouli salad.

And for the record, our two blueberry bushes (Saul Tigh on the right and Lucy Lawless on the left) [don't ask us to explain the names] made approximately 112 and 30 more berries since the first major pickings from early summer.

posted by beXn @ 5:03 PM