Lotus Vegetarian,

From Vegan Gastrobot

After the super disappointing Sunflower restaurant I was a little iffy on trying Lotus Vegetarian. It was close to my friend’s house though and we needed a place to eat the last night of our visit so Lotus Vegetarian it was. We tried the radish cake and it was super good. It was a tad greasy, but in a good way. The flavor was light, but really good unlike some other ones we have had. The plumb sauce that was served with it complimented it well.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We tried the Curry Deluxe – Chunks of soy protein stewed with potato, zucchini, sugar peas, carrots, and cauliflower in a Japanese curry sauce. I love Japanese curry and this did not disappoint – the veggies were crisp, the sauce tasty, the mock meat were sliced and delicious.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We then tried the Vege Beef & Snow Peas – marinated soy beef sautéed with snow peas, carrots, jicama and lotus root in brown sauce. I don’t know that I have ever had lotus root before and it was quite good. This overall was really tasty – the beef was chewy like my favorite mock meats and all of the veggies were crisp.

Overall – if you are in the area and need someplace to eat definitely check out Lotus Vegetarian. It is in a strip mall, but the food is really tasty.

Dama Pastry & Cafe, Arlington VA

From Vegan Gastrobot

When searching for vegan treats in and near Washington DC I found Dama Pastry and Cafe  listed as having vegan desserts. I put it on my list and it was a little bit out of the way, but also near the Pentagon and Air Force Memorial so why not? I had never been over on that side of the river site seeing so it would be fun to explore. Well we got off at the Pentagon subway station and walked out past the Air Force Memorial to Dama. We were walking and I just kept thinking is this right? It doesn’t look like there is anything out here…then we came upon it – there are really four different stores on the same lot – a bread shop, a restaurant, a grocery store and the bakery/coffee shop. The parking lot is completely full of taxis – I don’t think there was a non-taxi parked anywhere near here. We walked in and everyone was hanging out watching Ethiopian tv and drinking coffee – It was just full of Ethiopian taxi drivers. I take that as a good sign as it must be somewhat authentic if all the people from that country are eating there! So they have a half case of vegan cakes to choose from – coffee, chocolate, fruit, etc. We went with the fruit cake even though I was a little worried it would be lemon flavor. The lady working however told us the fruit was just on top so we tried it. It was sooooo moist, not too sweet and completely delicious! There was a light lemon flavor, but not too bad. The cream was super good, like whipped cream, just light and fluffy and delicious. The jellied fruits on top added a nice sweetness.

Overall - Really amazing and if I am in the area again I would go back for more (and try the restaurant out as it smelled really good). The chocolate cake it probably incredible!

Bakeshop, Arlington VA

From Vegan Gastrobot

Bakeshop is a cute little bakery in Arlington VA (off of the orange at the Clarendon Station stop). We walked in and I was really excited as they had tons of unique flavors of cupcakes like nerds and sprite...but they were not vegan. Unfortunately the vegan cake flavors were just chocolate and vanilla  - that is my one complain about this bakery and every other bakery in the area - why can you not add different flavors to the vegan batter like you do with the non-vegan ones? It makes no sense to me....however they did have other tasty treats and I really loved it. Bakeshop is run by a cute couple with a few employees and everyone was super super friendly.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We did try one of their chocolate peanut butter cupcakes and it was delicious! WAY better than the Sticky Fingers one we had. The cake was really moist and the frosting was light and whipped and very peanut buttery and amazing. So much better than the dry lackluster Sticky Finger peanut butter cupcake we had....

From Vegan Gastrobot

They also had a vegan Oreo Chocolate Chip Bar. This was soooo good! It was cookie dough sandwiching Oreo cookie layers....it was not like they just wrapped the cookie dough around the Oreo - they were too big for that and no round Oreo edges. Somehow they made a layer of Oreo in between the layers of cookie dough. Amazing. And really really tasty. The chocolate chip cookie tasted a lot like the ones  I make which I love so it was good. I am definitely going to have to make this at home! They were so good that on our last day we stop just to get more (and bought them out!) so we had some once we got home.

Overall - definitely stop in at Bakeshop and pick up an Oreo Chocolate Chip Bar!

Sunflower, Vienna VA

From Vegan Gastrobot

We spent a few days in Northern Virginia for a friends wedding recently. We arrived in the evening and were super hungry so our first stop was Sunflower Vegetarian Resaturant. We ordered the cold basil roll (Jicama, carrot, lettuce, dry spiced tofu, vegi-ham, basil and rice paper wrapper). This sounded like it would be really good, but...for all of the flavorful sounding ingredients there wasn't much flavor to be had. I really like fresh rolls, and this was good, but not the best.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We also ordered the Ianani Sushi (Stuffed w. brown rice, sesame seeds, crispy bean curd, seacress & shiso condiment served with edemame). I have never had this before since I only just recently ventured into eating sushi, but I really enjoyed this. The tofu skin was chewy and the filling was delicious, a little bit salty a little bit sweet. This was the best thing we ordered here.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We also ordered some Daikon Cake. I keep thinking this is the same thing we ordered in Philadelphia once, but that was a turnip cake which I loved. This had...no flavor. Just mushy greasy not very good. The sauce that came with it was not very good either, but at least it had some flavor.

From Vegan Gastrobot

For our entrees we ordered the Golden Nugget (Marinated yuba (bean curd skin) wrapped with shredded shiitake mushrooms, soy protein and bamboo shoots in house brown sauce. Garnished with sauteed napa cabbage, broccoli, bean thread noodles and carrots). This was interesting. VERY chewy and hard to eat. To cut it into pieces you need to use a fork and knife. The sauce was not that good and the noodles were just not tasty (and I love noodles, but I didn't eat most of them). The broccoli was cooked well and out of the two entrees we ordered I liked this one more. The nuggets were not the worst thing I have ever had, they just were not the best either. I definitely wouldn't order it again.

From Vegan Gastrobot

The second of our two entrees was the Asparagus Roll (Baked stuffed wheat gluten roll with vegi-ham, asparagus in house special sauce and vegan cheese). Raymond picked this one out and wanted to try it as it sounded different. Well it was....it reminded us of those really old cookbooks where they have gross meat dishes and like chicken in jello and such. I have no idea why they would put cheese on this - the special sauce had an odd flavor that I could not figure out. It tasted like a bunch of familiar tastes combined, but not in a good way and I couldn't pin point any of them. The sauce also did not go with cheese at all so it was really disgusting. The roll itself was just like a very chewy wheat gluten piece with a piece of asparagus in the middle. The wheat gluten was not prepared well and was so chewy and the texture was just not good. It did come with some broccoli and a drumstick for some reason and edemame which were all good. I would order the Golden Nuggets any day over this as it was just bad. We did not finish this dish as neither of us liked it.

From Vegan Gastrobot

And finally dessert! Chocolate cake with mousse and glaze (Contain unsweetened chocolate & cocoa). This should have been decent. I mean it is chocolate cake! But it had a very strange flavor that I couldn't put my finger on. The mousse...was not very good. It was not chocolaty and the glaze was some berry and was the strongest flavor, though that wasn't very strong either. Overall skip on the cake. It is...odd. I wish I could pin point what it tasted like....I just can't figure out what the flavor was.

Overall - I would skip Sunflower Vegetarian Restaurant. Most of the food was just not good. The flavors were off...it was just not a place I will go back to ever.