When you want to share your vegan lifestyle with your friends, you typically want to do it via a fun boutique or a good meal.
Arcadia, an eco-boutique in Philly, was a hit both for me and the friends I brought. Imagine how disappointed I was when another recent attempt via a good meal was totally miserable--even for me!
I was in Boston with two college friends, and I had made dinner reservations for us at Grezzo, a vegan restaurant in the North End. Grezzo was the only vegan restaurant I could find in Boston. Not only was it vegan, it was raw vegan. Never had it, but thought I'd give it a shot. With only two granola bars and a martini in my stomach, I was really looking forward to a good dinner.
Not so with Grezzo! My friends and I sat down to a meal full of tasteless food and poor service. First, the menu was very limited. Nothing like what I found on their
website.
We started out with a first course of mushroom tea, which was a soup. Lukewarm of course, since raw food is never above 112 degrees, but still mildly tasty.
I had a seaweed salad, topped with slices of lotus root. It was a bit spicy, and the dressing was a bit watery and bland, but I do have to say it was kind of tasty, perhaps because seaweed salad isn't on many menus. It was a new flavor, a new dish, a new taste. Lots of different kinds of seaweed comprised the salad, so the textures were diverse and interesting.
While the first course was fairly good, it was the second course that really disappointed. We ordered two "pasta" dishes, and one called "land and sea," which was mushroom-based.
This is a zucchini pasta. Hard to tell exactly what the sauce was, but it was not bad. However, the contrast between the thinly sliced zucchini pasta and the greens on the plate was rough and seemed mismatched.
We also ordered a gnocchi dish. First, the gnocchis were very bland (again, the raw greens seemed to disagree with the softer pasta), but the real problem with this meal wasn't necessarily the food but the way it was served. Originally it was an appetizer on the menu, and my friend asked if it was enough for a dinner. The waitress said she could make a dinner portion. Little did we know she was doubling the price.
The third entree we ordered was called "land and sea." It was a plate full of mushrooms, representing the consistency of two different meats through an interesting blend of mushrooms propped on a bit of vegan cheese.
Again, it was edible, but not flavorful.
The worst part of the experience, however, was the service. An interminable amount of time seemed to stretch between our first and second courses. Did our waitress forget to place our order? Did they forget to make our food? Who knows, but what made the situation worse was when our waitress came over to our table while we were waiting for our entrees and asked us if we were ready to order dessert! Obviously completely unaware of the progress of our meal and completely inattentive.
Given the misunderstanding and our long wait, I asked if she wouldn't mind offering us a dessert. She offered a round of drinks instead, but since one of my friends was already nearly passed out, I figured more food would be better. However, the waitress retorted, "Sorry, our manager doesn't want to provide dessert because the nut products we use in our desserts are our highest margin [or lowest margin...it was unclear] products, so we can only offer you drinks."
Now how does that work? A bottle of wine vs. one dessert to share? Awful. Just awful. Not only was the waitress rude and the manager unaccommodating, our original waitress never returned to our table after making that mistake. Instead, she sent the other waitress!
I was craving a dessert, hoping it would improve the meal. I figured I would just pay for it despite my previously lost battle. About 10 minutes earlier, a table near us had ordered a few brownie sundaes, which looked delicious. When I tried to order one, the kitchen just happened to be out. We ordered a "super cookie" with icing instead, which, when described as composed of algae and grains, became a lot less appealing. Next time I recommend keeping the ingredients to yourself, and let the flavors speak. I ate half the cookie and tossed it. I will say that at the last minute the restaurant covered the cost of the cookie, but only after I ordered it on my own with full intentions to pay.
All in all, I was obviously not impressed. My desire to try more raw vegan is shot. I know Pure Food and Wine in NYC is supposed to be delicious, but I hesitate to take friends there for fear of turning them off to veganism. Plus, my first raw vegan experience was very bland and unsatisfying. Quite a shame. Maybe in a few months I will give it another try, but in the meantime, I want to actually enjoy my food.
Even though I was disappointed, I will definitely go back. I always appreciate a chef who is willing to experiment in the kitchen and consider special requests. Veg option #2 was actually very, very good, just not what I had hoped to eat that night. Delicious, but not as memorable as I would expect the Milho Frito to be. 
