Greens

As you know, I'd been looking forward to this meal for a while. I adore Greens, but with all the other choices in San Francisco, I don't find myself there nearly often enough. Right on the bay, and with views of the bridge and sailboats through the floor-to-ceiling windows, the beauty of the space alone is enough to warrant a visit from you and your others. Speaking of which, it should be mentioned that Greens is only somewhat other-friendly, which is to say that it's a vegetarian restaurant. Last night, I dined with an omnivore, and I'm sure there were many more like her, all enjoying the scrumptious food with gusto. In fact, my dining companion is good friends with the head chef, Annie Somerville, so I had the great pleasure of meeting the woman in charge of this San Francisco institution. Upon discovering I was vegan, she told me that she was disappointed that Greens has a reputation for being not so vegan-friendly. This was after the waiter explained to me that all but one entree on the menu could be made vegan. Seems quite friendly to me and, indeed, after Annie headed back to the kitchen, I dug into some of the best vegan food SF has to offer.

For starters, we split the wilted spinach salad. This pile of spinach with warm olive oil, onions, olives, and crostini was the perfect start to our meal. So enamored with my surroundings, I totally forgot the name of my entree. It was essentially two skewers of veggies, tofu, and even corn, in a sweet and savory sauce that slightly resembled red curry. They were so delicious, but the side of rice with pistachios and cherries stole the show. My technique was to mix everything together, and I think it was a good call. Yum!
We were content and satisfied, but when the dessert menu came, I knew I must make room. The one vegan dessert was a banana chocolate layer cake.* Considering my recent cravings, I went for it, and was so happy I did. It was the perfect combination of the two flavors, neither one overpowering the other, and the dusting of cocoa powder, along with the two scoops of banana sorbet, made this vegan treat the perfect ending to our lovely meal. Greens, I will be back, and hopefully more often.
Vegans, bring your others, preferably around sunset, and watch them forget their meal is meatless.


*Technically, if you ordered the sorbets without the cookies, that dessert would be vegan too, which makes for another option.