Gulu Gulu Cafe

 

With October just around the corner, Salem MA, is one of the most popular places to visit for some good Halloween fun. Gulu Gulu cafe is located on Essex St in Salem MA and is a cute cafe that has a lot of good vegetarian friendly options.  In addition to great food and drinks, the restaurant, depending on the night, features live music that makes for a fun night out. 

I found myself at Gulu Gulu Cafe and I had their Lyon Vegetarian panini ($8), also available as a wrap.  This is a delicious grilled Panini made with provolone cheese, roasted red peppers, tomatoes and artichokes.  The panini is also served with chips and a side salad.  It was perfect for the fall weather, the cheese melted in my mouth. In additon to the Lyon Vegetarian panini, I had a cup of the Hungry Mushroom soup, $(3), a lightly creamed soup filled with fresh mushrooms. I liked the fact the soup was not too heavy like most mushroom soups that are available.

Overall I thoroughly enjoyed my meal and what I consider to be the perfect vegetarian comfort food ( hot soup, and a warm Panini) for the fall weather.  The staff is friendly and the ambiance is  reminiscent of a European style cafe with couches, paintings and wooden tables. Other vegetarian items include a variety of , crepes,wraps, salads and grape leaves.  The free wireless internet and the outdoor patio are nice touches.

Parking is on the street and the prices are same for lunch or dinner. I wish they had a half soup and sandwich option as the I could not finish my panini.  However if you find yourself in the Salem MA area, Gulu Gulu Cafe is nice place to relax and unwind with some good food.

Veggie Cheap Eat: Ten Tables

Restaurant week maybe over, but there are still plenty of places to get a delicious 3,4 and 5 course meal.  Ten Tables, located in Centre Street in Jamaica Plain, serves new age American food in a cozy romantic setting. There is also a new location in Harvard Square that has opened in the past month.

I was very excited that I finally made it to to Ten Tables. With a four  courses for only $28, Ten Tables offers the most affordable vegetarian tasting menu in the Boston area.

My first course was a creamy roasted garlic soup that was outstanding. The soup was rich and creamy and evoked flavors of roasted garlic. It was so delicious that I could have licked the bowl clean.

The second course was a Greek salad dressed in a lemon balsamic dressing. The feta in the salad was fresh and soft, contributing to the creamy texture of the salad. The lemon balsamic was light and was a nice change from the standard Greek dressing ( which sometimes contains anchovies).

The third course, the main dish was a cavatelli pasta dish with roasted pine nuts and vegetables. The pasta tasted fresh and homemade and different than the usual spaghetti or penne.

The fourth course, the dessert, consisted of puffed pastries stuffed with banana ice cream topped with chocolate sauce. The dessert was not too heavy but enough to satisfy a sweet tooth like mine.

Overall I enjoyed my experience at Ten Tables and I look forward to my next visit. The food was splendid and quite affordable. My dining companion ordered the regular tasting menu for $40 but in hindsight would have gone with the vegetarian tasting menu.

Since there is only 10 tables in the Jamaica Plain location, it can be tough to get a reservation. I enjoyed my time at Ten Tables and look forward to my next visit.

Veggie Cheap Eat: Vegetarian Friendly Happy Hour at Noir

Noir is located in the Charles Hotel in Harvard square and is a cozy but trendy bar that has an affordable happy hour with great vegetarian options. The happy hour is offered Monday through Thursday, from 5-9pm.

In the Boston area, it can be difficult to find happy hours that cater to vegetarians. Most places just serve the standard nachos or mozzarella sticks. Noir has a "5-4-3-2-1-0" happy hour menu, which means flatbreads for $5, $4 for sandwiches, $3 for snacks, $2 for salads, $1 for sweets, and $0 for nuts. Its a great deal, but you have to come during happy hour to get these savings.

The best option for vegetarians is the grilled flat bread with roasted tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, arugula and grilled eggplant. To compliment your flatbread try the frisee salad made with feta cheese, shaved fennel served in a blood orange vinaigrette.

Check out their menu, for more veggie cheap eats.

Veggie Cheap Eat: Spring Rolls at Porter Square Book Store

Where can you go to get delicious, yet affordable Vietnamese spring rolls in the Boston area? A Chinese restaurant? A Vietnamese restaurant? The answer is in the Porter Square book store located in Cambridge MA on 25 White street. Inside the book store, lies a small cafe called Cafe Zing that serves these yummy soft spring rolls. Catered from a place called Indochine, these soft spring rolls are made with lettuce, tofu, mint, carrots and vermicelli noodles and are served with a sweet and tangy peanut sauce. For around $5 you can have three of these delicious rolls which makes for a perfect light lunch or a nice veggie snack. Call ahead or get to the cafe before the evening, these rolls are very popular and tend to sell out early in the day.

In addition to these addictive spring rolls, Cafe Zing also sells coffee, tea, and gluten free desserts. Their gluten free toffee almond cookie is quite tasty. Seating is limited and service is friendly. Definitely a nice place to come for quick veggie bite.

Veggie Cheap Eat: Shanghai Cafe in NYC

It can be difficult to find good vegetarian options in Chinatown. After a long day of shopping in Soho, Chinatown was the closest place to grab a bite. My carnivore friend insisted that we venture into Chinatown for dinner. I was a bit hesitant because I’ll admit I am a bit skeptical of the true vegetarianess of Chinese food in Chinatown. Except for Penang in Boston, my limited experiences with Chinese food in Chinatown have not always been the best. Since we were hungry, we did not want to travel too far to have dinner so we went to a restaurant called Shanghai Café.
Shanghai café located on 100 Mott St between Canal and Hester St serves Shanghainese food in a casual relaxed setting.

The ambiance, with its fluorescent lighting and eighties décor, differs from the standard Chinese restaurants in Chinatown. The meal started out with a complimentary green tea. I ordered the Black Mushroom Noodles with soup for $3.50 and the Vegetable pan fried Noodles for $6.25. For only $3.50, the Black Mushroom Noodles is quite large and is a meal on its own. The soup was tasty; I loved the thick dark mushrooms in the flavorful vegetable broth. The noodles however were plentiful but a bit too thick for my liking. The waitress ensured me that the broth was vegetarian, but as always double check. The pan fried noodles with vegetables were made with a thick sweet flavorful soy sauce. I am generally not a fan of crunchy noodles but I really did enjoy the taste of this dish.

Overall I enjoyed myself at Shanghai café. The service here is a bit slow and some of the servers are friendlier than others. My experience at Shanghai café was positive and I will now keep an open mind about trying restaurants in Chinatown. The food was good, and for the price you really can’t complain. I know there is a vegan restaurant in Chinatown Boston, called My Thai Vegan Café but I have not had a chance to try it yet. Do you know any other Chinese restaurants in Boston that have good vegetarian options?

Veggie Cheap Eat: Creations Cafe

Creations cafe, located on 400 Main St in Wakefield, is a small cafe that serves healthy and affordable lunch options in a casual relaxed setting. With wraps, smoothies, salads, soups there are plenty of great eats for vegetarians. I went to Creations Cafe for lunch yesterday and ordered their Main Street salad ($4.95) made with romaine lettuce, bell peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, onions and feta cheese. Instead of the usual Greek dressing, (generally made with anchovies), the salad was served with a garlic balsamic vinaigrette. To my surprise the portion size of the salad was quite large and the large wooden bowl the salad was served in was a nice touch.

Other vegetarian options include a garlic hummus wrap, miso noodle soup bowl and an eggplant balsamic panini. Customers at Creations cafe can also enjoy free wireless Internet. Service is very friendly and the owner always greets you with a smile. The place is quite cozy with just 5 or 6 tables, but you will generally not have a problem finding a seat. Definitely worth checking out if you are looking for a healthy affordable lunch in the Wakefield area.

Veggie Deal at Vee Vee's

Vee Vee's in Jamaica Plain is offering a great vegetarian deal. On Sundays and Tuesdays they are offering an appetizer and an entree for $19. Their menu features vegetarian entrees such as buttersquash enchiladas served with salsa verde, black beans, jack cheese, and ricotta dumplings with herbed spaghetti squash, tomato sauce and shaved fennel.

Here is the information from their website:

Sunday & Tuesday Night Prix Fixe:

$19 vegetarian or $24 non-vegetarian

Select any appetizer from our regular menu*, then choose your entree. The price is determined by your entree selection.

Special prix fixe for dining in only.

*lobster sausage appetizer an additional $4

Veggie Cheap Eat:Bamboo

2008 BAMBOO, INC.


In and around Boston, it can be difficult at times to find upscale Chinese restaurants that cater to vegetarians. Located next to Flatbread in Bedford Ma, Bamboo serves Chinese food and sushi in a sleek modern setting and offers plenty of vegetarian and vegan options. With bamboo shoots, dimmed lighting and quilted wall hangings, the ambiance of Bamboo is quite elegant.

My two favorite dishes at Bamboo are the Eggplant in garlic sauce ($9.50) and the Singapore Rice noodles ($8.95).The Singapore rice noodles is a delicious curried noodle dish made with onions and green and red peppers. The eggplant in garlic sauce is good, but pretty standard. Since Bamboo also serves Sushi, you can order an avocado roll or a miso soup as an appetizer. The portions are plentiful, and the prices for vegetarian entrees are under $10, making it a great veggie cheap eat. They offer an eclectic drink menu and their lychee martini is a must. Service is friendly and they were patient with all of my vegetarian questions.

Bamboo has three other locations; Westford, Dedham and the Mandarin in Reading. They also have a daily lunch buffet and a dinner buffet on Sunday nights. Definitely a good place for a veggie cheap eat if you are in the area.

Veggie Cheap Eat:Cafe Algiers

Looking to escape with a cup of coffee and a good book, Café Algiers is the perfect place. It is a sit down restaurant located on Brattle Street in Harvard Square and serves Middle Eastern food in a charming relaxed setting. The eclectic ambiance, with yellow and red walls, high ceilings and ethnic wall hangings is why patrons can’t get enough of this place. The restaurant is not upscale and even though the tables are wobbly and close together it ironically adds to the character of the restaurant. It is one of the few restaurants in the Boston area where you can spend hours relaxing with a cup of coffee or have an intimate conversation with someone, without the staff disturbing you. There is also a nice outdoor patio, perfect for the warm months.




Café Algiers has a few different healthy vegetarian/vegan offerings for $10 and under. I had the soup of the day, a vegetarian lentil soup ($4.95) and the Tabbouli salad ($9.95). The lentil soup is thick and simple, a great source of protein for us vegetarians, but it lacked salt and maybe was a bit too bland for my liking. The Tabbouli salad also needed a bit of salt and lemon juice to give it more flavor.



They offer a wide selection of hot beverages including a mint coffee and tea which are both very popular. I ended the evening with a hot chocolate which was delicious but I was disappointed that they only made it with whole milk. The only con is that the service is slow and I had to wait a while after being seated to place an order.

Café Algiers is a great place to relax and unwind with its cozy and charming ambiance. The food is good, not excellent, but it is healthy and inexpensive and they offer a unique selection of coffees and desserts.

Chipotle

Filled with beans, salsa and veggies, burritos make for a great inexpensive vegetarian meal. Strolling around Davis Square, I was in search of a quick snack to tie me over before dinner. I decided to check out Chipotle in Davis Square for a bite. To my surprise, for a chain restaurant Chipotle was actually quite tasty. As a vegetarian, the nice thing about getting a burrito at a chain restaurant is that you know for sure if the rice and beans are vegetarian. Since I was looking for a snack, I ordered a soft taco for ($2) for a quick bite. Although Chipotle may not be authentic, I love their salsa choices and the sautéed vegetables were filled with flavor. The cheese was freshly shredded unlike the cheese slices other burrito places use. In my soft taco, I had the the corn salsa, (medium spice) and the fresh salsa, (mild spice), the combination of the two is delicious. The rice is vegetarian, made with cilantro and lime. Similar to most places, they offer black or pinto beans. The service at the Chipotle in Davis Square was friendly and they have an outdoor patio which is nice during the summertime. The fillings were overflowing in the soft taco, so if you are looking to roll up your soft taco than ask for less toppings, but I always say the more veggies, the better. Definitely a good place for a cheap veggie bite.

Yoma

Have you ever been to a restaurant and enjoyed it so much that you could not wait to go back? I went to Yoma in Allston about a month ago and loved my meal and finally went back yesterday and it was just as good as I had remembered. Yoma is a Burmese restaurant and is the only restaurant that I have been to that has a separate vegetarian menu. In addition to having a vegetarian menu, all of their vegetarian dishes are cooked on a separate pan. Needless to say I was ecstatic when the owner had mentioned this to me.

But the good news does not end here. The food at Yoma is actually very tasty. Burmese food is cross between, Indian, Thai, Vietnamese and Chinese food, in my opinion it is most similar to Tibetan food. For an appetizer I had the OhnNoteKhotSwe, ($6.75) a coconut milk tofu soup with wheat flour noodles, shredded shallots, scallions and crispy fried rice noodles on top. This dish tasted like a mild yellow curry soup with thick noodles, it was delicious! For an appetizer this dish is enough for two people.

For a main entrée, I had the AaThotSone ($8.95), a noodle dish with three different types of noodles. The dish is made with vermicelli, somen and wheat flour noodles with shredded cabbage, fried tofu, steam bean sprout, potato, grounded peanut, roasted chili flakes, scallions and crispy noodles on top. This dish is very tasty as I have never had anything quite like it. The noodles are soft and tender, but it is mixed with grounded peanuts and crispy rice noodles that give it a nice crunchy taste. The potatoes and cucumbers add a nice touch, something I have never seen before in a noodle dish. Even though I asked the dish to be made mild to medium it was still a bit spicy for my liking. The sweet palm juice candy that they bring out with your bill is yum! It reminded me of sugar cane juice that I used to have as a kid when I visited India.

The only con of my meal, unlike my last visit, is the dish was actually a bit cold. I had to ask the server to warm it up which she gladly did. My friend dined with me said she has been coming to Yoma for a while and she thought the portion sizes had gotten a lot bigger.



The ambiance is simple it is a quite cozy restaurant with a casual feel. Yoma’s strength may not be its ambiance but its food. Yoma is a great place to get takeout if you live in the area. The service is very friendly and depending on the server, they will gladly explain any dish to you. I will keep going back to Yoma for their unique tasty food at inexpensive prices.