Review Mon Mar 12 2007

Amitubul puts the vegetables back in vegetarian

Save for a very few places, I have a general distaste for restaurants that serve explicitly vegetarian and/or vegan foods. It's not that I dislike this kind of food; it's quite the opposite. I can count on one hand the amount of times I've bought meat in the past year. What I don't like about these establishments is how oxymoronic the food they tend to serve is. Vegan ribs and vegetarian "meat" loaf send me running in the opposite direction.

When my husband suggested we go to a Korean vegan restaurant last week, I was hesitant, but I was hungry and indecisive, so I agreed. The way Amitubul could put the vegetables in back in vegetarian with dishes such as the Tibetan High Noon (a vegetable medley "steam stir-fried" with noodles and an interesting curry sauce) and Chop Chae Bop (sweet potato noodles with assorted mushrooms and mixed veggies), and a cup of ginger tea with a kick that nearly knocked me out of my diner-style booth, I soon forgot the odd décor and thanked Buddha for the omition on the menu of any kind of vegetable protein smothered in barbecue sauce.

Despite claims that no oil is used in the preparation of their food (the steam stir-fry), the amount of sodium in Amitubul's "all-organic homemade sauces" is questionable (there has got to be a catch with vegetables so extraordinarily fulfilling), the food is so fresh and vibrant and colorful that I'm convinced it cancels out any adverse effects. Seriously, my food was so delicious that I began to crave my leftovers no more than 15 minutes after we left the restaurant, leaving me to wonder what kind of addictive substances are used in "Zen meditation cooking energy." No matter. As long as Amitubul keeps serving food this tasty, I'll ignore my skepticism and use my normal old mental energy to plan my next visit.

— Meghan Murphy Gill / Comments (2)