Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant - Chamblee Atlanta Georgia

You can find Harmony Vegetarian Restaurant at 4897 Buford Hwy Ste 109, Atlanta, GA 30341 in a shopping center just south of the crux of Buford Highway and Chamblee Tucker Rd, Southeastern quadrant. This shopping center is anchored by the venerable Hoa Binh Supermarket that contains a handful of restaurants worth trying, including Pho Bac, Penang and J's Mini Hot Pot. There's quite a bit of available parking, but these restaurants (and the market) do get quite busy so you may have to walk a bit.

Harmony is a vegan Chinese restaurant that features flavors that are a bit more authentic than you typical swag Amer-Chinese Panda Express - what makes it interesting is that most of the dishes are made using flavored tofu with beef, chicken and fish options. The food here is pretty good and offers up an alternative to eating meat-filled dishes so you don't feel so bad bringing your vegan friends and finding out there's not much on the menu they can eat. At Harmony it's all at least vegetarian and mostly vegan.

As for why your vegan friends would want dishes that taste like meat, that's more a question around why they are vegan. For instance, I have many friends that are culturally vegetarian where meat just isn't part of their diet - these meat-flavored tofu dishes for the most part just don't taste good to them. I always find it interesting when I come here with American vegans who just rave about the flavors and wolf down Harmony's dishes - seems a bit hypocritical, but who am I to judge? Eat what you like, I say.

On this occasion I showed up with friends from my weekly Buford Highway Crawl group - quite a few who don't normally attend showed up (several vegans in the group) so this was a treat for them. Some of the dishes we tried:

* Curry Pockets - these are fried dumplings that approximate samosas

* Steamed Shanghai Dumplings - these are a veggie version of a soup dumpling

* Beef with Broccoli - we ordered this spiced up which helped a lot

* Sliced Pork Szechuan Style - the flavors were good but the texture didn't quite make it for me.

* Ma Po Tofu - I ordered this dish extra spicy - it was hot but not super hot. I liked it quite a bit.

* Beef with Mixed Veggies - this was one of my favorite dishes and approximated beef the most

* Sesame Chicken - others liked this quite a bit but I thought it too sweet.

 

Service is very good here - it's obvious the restaurant has been open a long time and the owners really care about the dining experience. Everyone for the most part enjoyed the food and had a good time.

(also posted to Yelp)

Loving Hut - Sandy Springs - Atlanta Georgia

You can find this location of Loving Hut at 220 Hammond Drive, Sandy Springs, GA 30328 - this is a row of buildings that climb up the hill to the City Walk Sandy Springs shopping center anchored by Kroger and across Hammond from Whole Foods. Parking is all long the row of buildings or in a pinch you can park in the main lot up the hill and walk down.

When you enter Loving Hut you'll be on the second floor - you order on the ground floor at a counter and find tables where you can upstairs. Ambiance is modernist and playful, more like a bakery than a restaurant. Specials seem to change frequently and are on chalkboards leading to the counter.

Loving Hut is a vegan restaurant, which appealed to the handful of Indian vegetarians where I work and who wanted to share a lunch with us (they usually bring in their own food). 

As a sidebar, I think it's hard for most Americans who are used to eating meat to understand the food needs of most vegetarian Indians - first there are varying degrees of vegetarianism - for instance, those in the South may be more apt to being vegetarian yet they occasionally eat fish if they're along the coast. Others will eat eggs but abstain from any forms of meat (eggatarians? ovatarians?) and all do dairy, mostly milk, clarified butter (ghee) and paneer (fresh milk cheese). Second, foods in India tend to be very well cooked as a practical matter, to extract the most nutrients as possible to feed the most people (and secondary to this it prevents bacterial illness due to bad water or food handling). Culturally, giving an Indian vegetarian a salad and thinking they will be satisfied is rather obtuse based on these two facts but there's a third. Most Indian foods tend to be cooked with herbs and spices that are very distinctive, especially the coriander, cumin, cardamon, ginger and tumeric (this last is what provides the distinctive flavor and color of what Americans know as "curry"). Meals that don't include these spices are very bland to most Indian people and just doesn't taste good to them, I've found.

In any case, I came with a group that included a handful of Indians about half are vegetarians so Loving Hut was an ideal restaurant to try. Personally I've eaten at many vegetarian restaurants and the best I've found are over by the Patel Bros - Chat Patti is one of my favorites. Most American vegetarian restaurants I've found to be very bland - across the street from Loving Hut is Sunflower Cafe which I've visited a handful of times over the years and every time I've been very hopeful and every time I've been very disappointed. So where am I going with this? I found the food that I tired at Loving Hut to be exceptional - I ordered the Basil Lasagna and the dish was superb, more like what you would receive in a good Italian restaurant instead of a vegetarian one. I think the secret was the sauce which was well above par.

We started with some spring rolls that I thought were OK, but nothing special. Other items ordered included a Felafal Wrap, a Black Bean Burger, Chow Mein, a House Stir-Fry, the House Curry, and of course the Lazagna Special. From the comments and small bites of each I tried, everything was quite good. I'm not sure if my Indian friends liked it much, the opinions seemed to vary. In all, the food to me was above par compared to other veggie restaurants.

The service was good but nothing special - since you order at the counter it's basically a drop-delivery to your table. No complaints but nothing to report here. This is now my go to place for vegan.

-- John

(also posted to Yelp)

Cafe Sunflower - Sandy Springs GA

This location of Cafe Sunflower can be found at 5975 Roswell Rd NE, STE 353, Atlanta GA 30328 in the South-Eastern side of Roswell Rd and Hammond Dr. It's located in the inside of an elbow formed by the building in the lower lot, close to Ship and Anchor Pub. There's a second location that I know about in Buckhead with a similar menu. Cafe Sunflower makes up one of the anchor points to Atlanta vegetarians due to its great success and longevity. I've eaten at this location several times as I have several friends that are vegan or vegan+

The interior is nicely decorated and well maintained - the restaurant seemed very clean had had just a touch of patchouli aroma (but that may have been the dirty hippies at the next table - actually I'm joking about the hippies but not about the scent - leftovers from prior diners, perhaps?). As with most vegetarian restaurants, there were a few hipsters scattered about the place, otherwise it was all locals.

Specials can be found on a blackboard - I'll try the organic kale next time I think. The menu is fairly extensive with many options and different styles of cooking. I do like the use of tofu rather than some meat-flavored substitute. I've never understood why anyone would eat vegetarian and order something that tastes like chicken instead of chicken, but that's a subject to explore another day.

I'm no stranger to veggies and for the most part I think Sunflower does a good job, however I think there are much better vegetarian restaurants nearby. Please don't take this the wrong way, but for an established omnivore like myself, I want my veg-only meals to be a bit special - this usually translates into foods that are heavily seasoned and probably why I'm so fond of Asian and Indian cuisine. Alas, for the most part my vegetarian friends like this place so I'm sure I'll visit again - heck those guys put up with my explorations into heavy-meat-content restaurants so I'm willing to make concessions.

First a bit about my own eating habits. You would think that as a former professional cook I would make fancy meals at home - in reality I cook very simply, making most of our meals using the grill for meats and the occasional veggie, and simple steamed vegetables as an accompaniment. I use almost no salt at home favoring fresh ground black pepper, spices and herbs. So when I eat at restaurants, I gravitate towards very strong flavors and spices, especially when eating vegetarian. For the most part, when I eat at vegan or vegetarian restaurants I look for the spicier items on the menu - and for some reason everything I order at Cafe Sunflower tastes bland. I don't know if it's a failing of my expectations or if I'm being unreasonable, but with the exception of the salads the food here tastes very under-seasoned. Give me a nice veggie biryani any day over this stuff or a hot veggie vindaloo.

As I've already mentioned, I've eaten at this location several times. Most recently, I had the veggie stir-fry with tofu on brown rice. It was filling if nothing else.

My dining companion ordered the veggie chili (which was offered up for a taste) - even this dish seemed vapid.

Perhaps the next time I order I'll specifically ask for the food "extra spicy" - not sure if they'll make it thus, but it's worth a try.

Service was very good and the lunch crowd was busy. I think this is a good meeting location as it's fairly laid-back.

(shorter review also posted to Yelp).

Cafe Sababa Mediterranean Grill - Dunwoody GA

(A shorter review was also posted to Yelp)
Cafe Sababa Mediterranean Grill is located on 4639-D N Shallowford Rd, Dunwoody, GA 30338- it's about in the middle of a shopping center on the Eastern side of N Shallowford Rd (to the right if you're traveling North) that also contains Bay Leaf and Indian Bazaar grocery. This is a neighborhood eatery that features near-Kosher Mediterranean foods with fresh flavors, good portions and reasonable prices. I call it near-Kosher as the owner, Doni Tamli previously owned Cafe Ofi at the MJCCA in Dunwoody. From what I've seen the food and ingredients would be Kosher but not labeled as such publicly, indicating the use of some but not all Kosher ingredients, but be assured that the quality is quite superb. The menu is also plainly marked vegan (V) and/or gluten free (GF) for those of you who care (obviously not me!).

I've been a bit hesitant writing about Sababa - I've been coming here for many years and it's become one of my favorites for lunch - call me selfish but I did not want to spoil my great experiences there by bringing too much attention to the place, however over the years word has gotten out. The restaurant is family owned and run with a small staff and limited seating (they do quite a bit of take out). The simple dining room has padded benches along the walls and a few tables to either side of the path from the door to the counter. You can sit and and eat inside or at the tables outside under the awning that stretches across the shopping center. Parking is a bit limited, especially during lunch so I try to go early, around 11:30 AM or so to ensure a spot both in the lot and in the restaurant.

The menu is fairly simple, broken into a handful of categories. I usually go for the plates over the wraps but everything I've had has been very good. For lunch each of the plates have more than enough food for one to get very full. For dinner, do try some of the starters - I'm a big fan of the lentil soup and the Appetizer Combo These are my favorites:

Appetizer Combo - with falafel, hummus, babaganoush, tabouleh, chopped salad and pita, there's plenty to go around. You'll find the tabouleh very fresh and the falafel very well prepared, with a fresh-parsley flavor that is quite good.

Appetizer Combo

Falafel platter - this well-organized platter is similar to the Appetizer Combo above - actually if you're hungry I'd recommend the combo over the platter since you git a bit more for a dollar more. My vegan friends like this quite a bit and I'm very fond of it myself.

Shawarma Platter -  seasoned chicken "strips" with babaganoush, shopped salad, hummus and tehina - this is one of my "go to" dishes.

Schnitzel Platter - breaded chicken breast cutlet, pan fried served with rice and grilled veggies. I've only had this once and honestly, there are better things on the menu. I'm sure fans of fried food will like it, but it seemed a bit dry and uninspired to me.

Gyro Platter

Gyro Platter - I have this quite often and if asked they will admit that the gyro meat comes pre-packaged. No rotisserie of succulent meat spinning in the background at this restaurant, so you're not getting that full-Greek effect. However the quality of the meat is quite good and the supporting ingredients - cucumber-tomato salad, and the side romaine salad are both also very good. The Platter comes with quartered pita but you can ask for whole if you want to assemble a wrap. The tzatziki sauce is thicker than what I'm used to but I still like it quite a bit - I believe they make then pre-package to refrigerate to keep it fresh. It's certainly not the heavy-mayo sauce found at other gyro restaurants.

Gyro Wrap with Salad

Gyro Wrap - similar to the above except with one side and served in the wrap.

Lamb Burger - this is my recommendation if you're "iffy" about Mediterranean food in general - I can't remember anyone to whom I've recommended this succulent sandwich to who hasn't raved about it. Served on ciabatta bread with choice of side. I especially like this for take-out.

Roasted Leg of Lamb with Lentil Soup

Roasted Leg of Lamb with Salad

Roasted Leg of Lamb with Tabouleh

Roasted Leg of Lamb sandwich - as good as the lamb burger is, if they have the roasted leg of lamb as a special, go for this instead. It's unusually flavorful and quite inspired.

Service is quite good and usually handled by Doni's son (it's been fun watching him grow up a bit over the years). For drinks there are a few house-wines (and if you check in you'll usually receive a "free glass of wine" offer. Beers include Mythos Greek Lagar, Peroni, Blue Moon and Sweetwater Blue (not that I'm drinking during lunch). Cafe Sababa also does a fantastic job catering - we've had them supply food for several events at work and the food is always fresh, well proportioned and delivered on time.


-- John