Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Best vegetarian places to eat in St. Louis

Yeah, it's been months. I have been telling myself this blog was over. Then some nice person just commented to me that she enjoyed this blog, and requested more. That feels kind of nice. I have some time on my hands, so what the hell.

I have been struggling with depression over the past year. It's been really difficult for me to function in my day to day life. Frankly, life has really sucked for me lately, and that is more than anything why I have not been blogging. It simply got overwhelming. I think I might be pulling out of it, but I hesitate to say that as every time I think things are going better life drops another anvil on my head. Meh, okay -- enough whining.

First off, I did end up winning that chili contest. I think I deserved to as well. I have been making the same chili for about twelve or so years, so I pretty much have the process down pat. Perhaps I will provide a recipe or something sometime when I am feeling recipe-ey. But I don't now. So deal.

Over the past few months I have been pestering vegetarians in St. Louis to tell me their favorite places to eat in the area. I had them do a top five ranking and awarded "points" accordingly. There were a lot of places that were mentioned, but the winner by a pretty wide margin was Meskerem.

Meskerem is an Ethiopian place on South Grand, and their food is quite simply wonderful. If you go I strongly suggest you get the vegetarian combo. On their menu they specify that it feeds one person. This is wrong -- this thing easily feeds two hungry people. I have taken a lot of dates here, and they have all been impressed with the food, and it's pretty damn cheap for a large dinner for too -- talk about a win-win! Don't ask me to tell you anything about what they serve -- I just remember various colors, consistencies and flavors, and that should be all that is expected of Mississippi trailer trash like me.

So there you are. I am pretty comfortable in saying that Meskerem is one of the best places to eat if you are vegetarian in St. Louis, and from the sample I have it's rated the best by far. I think they are deserving of this. The service is also good -- they have this nice and cute waitress that looks like Joan Cusack. She's a sweetheart, not to mention a great server. Be sure to tip her well if you go!

Second on the list was Lemon Grass. This is a Vietnamese place, also on South Grand. They have this one dish there that I think is simply amazing: sesame tofu. It's very delicious, and certainly very bad for you -- battered and deep fried tofu covered in a thick, calorie laden brown sesame sauce, garlic, and a little broccoli (so you can pretend it's not as bad for you as it is).


Battered and deep fried tofu. Mmmmm*gargle*gargle*drool*

Any drawbacks? Yeah. The service sucks. And I don't mean a little. It's bad. Every time I have eaten there the service is as slow as it is rude. Fairly recently I took a date there, and she had leftovers. She asked the server for a little rice to take home with her. He said, "no." Now this server KNEW I was a regular; I go there and get sesame tofu take out all the time. (I like to go right to sleep after eating it -- it helps me keep my girlish figure.) Well, safe to say his tip suffered after that -- I am usually a good tipper but that shit is uncalled for. If you won't take care of your regular customers -- well that's just bad business.

Other honorable mentions in my little poll: Pi -- the pizza place on the Delmar Loop. I once had a take out vegan pizza from there. In my opinion it was okay, but generally speaking vegan cheese sucks. Sweet Art was also a favorite among StL veggies.I have never actually been here, but I probably should have been. They have a lot of vegan stuff, from sandwiches to pastries. Finally, rounding out the places I will mention is Foundation Grounds. They usually have a few vegan items in display. They cupcakes are usually wonderful. The pastries are hit or miss. The coffee is fantastic, and the people that work there are great.

So there you have it. A post. I did it. Take that life.

5 comments:

  1. I haven't been to Sweet Art yet either. Sorry to hear about your bad experience at Lemongrass - from my experience the wait staff are NOT friendly, but I've never been denied a go box and they've always gotten my food out quickly.

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  2. let's go to sweet art! it's delicious!

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  3. Perhaps someone needs to organize a meet-up event or something.

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  4. I love Ethiopian food! I've never been to Meskerem but I'll have to try it. I've not been to the other places you listed, either, but I'll have to as well!

    Ever been to VegaDeli? I'm itchin' to go there but I never seem to make it out to C'Field. (I live in Illinois.)

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  5. I personally think Vegadeli is overrated, and so did the vegetarians I sampled. I mean the food is good, but they don't have much consistency with the menu, and it's also pretty expensive for the amount of food they give you.

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