Weekend Disappointments

It was a beautiful weekend here by the bay, and I had a great one. As I told you, we went down to San Jose on Saturday for the NCAA March Madness games, but because they were earlier in the day, we didn't end up staying for dinner. Sadly, this means I didn't get to try San Jose's Vegetarian House as I'd planned. Oh well, next time. I did, however, have two dining out experiences, both of which were mediocre at best.

The first was the most disappointing because it was at a restaurant that I love - The Plant. I went on Friday and the place was packed. The staff all seemed a bit frazzled and the host, in particular, was decidedly standoffish. We had a reservation but still had to wait, and he wasn't exactly friendly about it. Still, I was in a good mood, and about to have good food.... or so I thought. The Napa Cabbage Salad is something I've had at Plant before and I love it. However, when it arrived on my table on Friday it was half the size it used to be and with less peanuts and WAY less tofu. I pay the extra to add baked tofu to the salad, and I got two thin strips. To prove my point, here are two pics. The first is the salad in January when I last had it, and the second is my salad from Friday:











Look at all that tofu on the left! And the peanuts! Can you even see the few measly tofu strips in the salad on the right? Sigh. Anyway, the one good thing was that my dining companion's company more than made up for the salad, and it would appear that her order - the Plant Burger - remains amazing.

I'll have to order that next time!

Moving on, the husband and I had a Groupon to Zuppa to use so we went there Sunday evening. I had called earlier in the day and talked to a lovely woman who assured me that all the pasta was vegan (except the stuffed pasta, like ravioli, obviously) and that they'd happily make a vegan sauce, or that I could do one of the pizzas with no cheese. She also let me know that the table bread was vegan and that the salads were all easily veganizable. Yay!

However, when we arrived, that magical woman from the phone was nowhere in sight. Instead there was a staff with very little knowledge about veganism who were more interested in talking to each other than serving us. Still, I managed to convey my needs and got some decent grub:













On the left is a green salad sans cheese. On the right is rigatoni with veggies and marinara. Both were ok - but just ok. Nothing to write home about, and in a city with such amazing Italian food, we will not be back. At least we didn't have to pay full price thanks to Groupon!

Sub par food aside, it really was a great weekend. Now I only have a few more days until my trip to Austin but I'll check back in later in the week to let you know about a restaurant I'm trying out Wednesday evening. Until then, enjoy the week!