I’ve been an east coast vegan for almost ten years now, but had never been to Angelica Kitchen before this past weekend. Too bad I didn’t realize that I wasn’t missing anything.
The place is cute enough and their menu options seem inviting. Unfortunately, the waitstaff is obviously hit or miss and we invariably missed: bigtime. While one waitress greeted everyone warmly and smiled as she interacted with the people seated at her tables, our waitress made no attempt to hide her boredom, disinterest, and overall apathy. She could offer no recommendations, responded to menu questions with one word, monotone answers, and avoided us until it was time to pay. I’ve never had a server place a meal in front of me in silence: without so much as murmuring, “enjoy”.
The food: I don’t know what all the fuss is about their reuben. It consisted of a dry, tasteless slab of tempeh, sauerkraut, lettuce (on a reuben!?), and a thimbleful of “russian dressing”. Not only wasn’t it a good sandwich, it didn’t taste anything like a reuben! After waiting ten minutes- to no avail- for our waitress to check in, I got up from my table and went to ask another waiter for additional dressing. He promptly brought it over and the added moisture (though not much taste) made it edible. Note: it was an additional charge of $1.75 for a dixie cup amount of additional dressing.
The Angelica cornbread was absolutely disgusting. I’m not sure what they put in it (rice?), but it seems neither corn nor bread, and is completely devoid of moisture as well. The Southern style cornbread was meh at best: not very tasty and also terribly dry. I’m not sure I would have pegged either as cornbread were it not for the fact that they were yellow. Neither is served with spread (butter, jam, etc.). This would be okay if it weren’t so damn dry! Blech.
The soup of the day (yukon gold potato) was forgettable: nothing you couldn’t whip up in your vita-mix…better. I’m all about potato soup: rich, thick, creamy, chunky, steaming bowls of potato soup. This tasted like potato flavored water; the garnish had more taste than the soup.
The best item we ordered was the wrapsody, which was a nice mélange of taste, textures, and flavors. Unfortunately, as with the reuben, it was served with no accompaniment- making it pretty pricey for the tiny, lonely sandwich.
With so many vegan options within walking distance I wouldn’t bother stepping foot in here again.
agreed, the food there was totally sub par. honestly, one of the best vegetarian spots (with vegan options) i've been to on the east coast is this place called Blue Sage Vegetarian Grille in Southampton, PA. if you're ever in the area you seriously need to check it out: http://www.bluesagegrille.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip. I've heard about this place but have been hesitant to try a vegetarian restaurant when there are so many outstanding options in the tri-state area that are completely vegan. Thanks for reminding me to check out their online menu again; it looks very enticing (and easily veganizable) so it's back on my list! And no, it is not lost on me that vegans have come such a long way to be able to be so picky about "only" vegetarian restaurants.
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