Restaurants

Dining Locally: Duino! (Duende)

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This past weekend the Hubz and I decided to have an afternoon date at Dunio! (Duende) in downtown Burlington, VT. This small restaurant is part of Radio Bean a local cafe known for it’s weekly musical performances and off beat atmosphere. Since Duino! (Duende) is off the main street in downtown Burlington we always forget about it but after our revisit this past weekend I think we will be frequenting it more often.

The theme behind the menu at Dunio! (Duende) is unique and different from other restaurants in the area since its focus is on international street food.  The menu is small but provides enough inexpensive vegan friendly dishes that you won’t be disappointed.  They also have an extensive drink menu with wines, beers and specialty drinks as well.

I started with a Manhattan

And the Hubz had a Five Dollar Shake: Stout, espresso, and maple syrup

For my meal the Hubz and I shared the soup of the day which was a creamy squash soup with thai spices it was really yummy and came with grilled bread.

And we shared the Mujadara: Lentils & rice cooked with onions served in a pita with tahini, hot sauce, lettuce & tomato & tabouleh salad- this was really tasty!

Overall we really enjoyed the laid back atmosphere, delicious (inexpensive) food and we will be back again soon.

Ratings:
Value: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4/5

Dining Locally & Holiday Traditions

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The Hubz and I spent Saturday morning doing a little last minute Christmas shopping and stopped in at Healthy Living to pick up a few groceries and for lunch. Healthy Living is one of my favorite places to eat because they have a great salad bar, hot bar and really great vegan sandwiches.  We decided to get sandwiches for lunch I went with roasted tempeh, with all the veggies (too many to list), vegan mayo, roasted garlic jam all on a panini.  The hubz went with the roasted tempeh, some veggies, garlic mayo also on a panini.

After lunch we did a little more holiday shopping at the mall.

Every year the Hubz and I head out to the mall and pick a child from the gift tree and head out to do a little shopping to pick up things on their card.  This year we decided to pick 2 children a 1 year old boy who was in need of clothes and trucks or learning toys and a 10 month old girl who was in need of clothes.  We picked up a few cute things for them.

Do you have a holiday tradition?

After Christmas shopping we went to visit some of the Humane Society Kittens which I just wanted to take home with me. I hope someone adopts these furry friends soon.

Dining Locally: Penny Cluse

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Occasionally the Hubz and I like to have an early morning breakfast date during the week; yesterday just happened to be one of those days.  Lately our favorite spot has been Penny Cluse Cafe in Burlington because of it’s early hours, delicious coffee and tasty tofu scramble. Yesterday morning we stopped in and had settled on the Pesto Tofu Scramble, a griddled tomato and dry rye toast, oh and of course coffee.  Well come to find out the pesto which we had asked about on our last visit and were told was vegan actually is not vegan. So we decided on the peanut-ginger sauce instead.  The waitress feeling bad about our last waitress misinforming us  brought us each over a complimentary glass of tangerine juice.

My Trio of Beverages

Peanut-Ginger Tofu, Griddled Tomato and Dry Rye Toast

The Peanut-Ginger Tofu is really delicious.  The sauce coats the tofu perfectly and you get great flavor with every bite.  Also the ginger is really a mild flavor and balanced perfectly with the peanut. “I really like how the sauce is kind of crispy too and the ginger, well you can tell it’s real ginger not just a flavor” – Quote by The Hubz

The Griddled Tomato is my new favorite breakfast item.  Cooking the tomato locks in all the juices and just creates a whole new depth of flavor; place it on top of the rye toast and you’ve got a winner.

As for the beverages I would say they have one of the best cups of coffee in town.  The water was refreshing.  The tangerine juice was surprisingly not overly sweet and I really enjoyed it- I may even order it next visit!

Just a heads up to vegans interested in eating here the homefries are not vegan.

Ratings:
Value: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 3/5- all though not a ton of vegan options the ones they do have are delicious.
Atmosphere: 4/5

DC Recap- Day 3

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Day 3 started off seeming like it was going to be good with breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien but boy were we wrong. First off our waiter was a bit of a condescending jerk.  Then when the food came it was mediocre- the salad was overly vinegary and the tofu scramble was extremely oily.  We were disappointed with the meal and then we waited for almost 30 minutes to get the bill …while the waiter passed by us over and over and over. Oh well one bad EXTREMELY overpriced meal over our entire vacation that’s not too bad. Ratings:
Value: 0/5
Food: 2/5
Vegan Friendly: 2/5
Atmosphere: 0/5

Amazing teas from Baked & Wired

After our disappointing breakfast we walked to Georgetown where we spent most of the morning enjoying the weather, the sites, and the shops.  I indulged in a sale at Lululemon and then we had lunch at Chipotle and loved it.
After enjoying our morning/early afternoon in Georgetown we headed to the Museum of Natural History.  Once the museum closed we headed to RFD for a drink before our dinner at Zaytinya one of Jose Andres restaurants.

We had the most amazing dinner at Zaytinya!  The concept around the restaurant is small plates that come out in waves.  We let our server know we were vegan and she let us know the vegan options (there were a good number).  We ordered 6 items as well as a yummy drink and turkish coffee.  I would go back here in a heart beat.

Warning these photos below are lacking in quality because they are from my iphone but the food was amazing.

Ratings:
Value: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 3/5
Atmosphere: 4/5

DC Recap- Day 2

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The Hubz and I loved our meal at Cafe Green so we were excited to try Java Green for breakfast the next morning before heading out to The Holocaust Memorial Museum. The Hubz and I split the So-Che and the Eggcentricity as well as a bottled iced tea.  They both were really delicious and I would go with the Eggcentricity again next time for breakfast as it was delicious.  Java Green also also has as tasty lunch menu that I would love to try.  The only down falls with this place is that it is only open Monday through Friday and that there is limited seating.

So-Che: tofu egg, soy sausage & vegan cheese

Eggcentricity: tofu egg, soy chicken & vegan cheese

Ratings:
Value: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 4/5
Atmosphere: 2/5

After breakfast we were off to be tourist around the city and ended up spending 4 hours at the Holocaust Memorial Museum.           I don’t have any photos to show you as you are not permitted to take photos in the museum.  We had planned on doing lunch at Rasika but our time at the museum went longer than intended and we missed our 12:30pm reservation by an hour and half.  We also had intended on visiting another museum after lunch  but we were drained from the Holocaust Memorial Museum and decided that we would just walk back to the hotel and find something to eat along the way.  To our delight we passed right by Maoz where I had another Groupon for $5 for $10 worth of food and we decided to use it on 2 junior meals which came with fries and a drink (I had iced tea and Neil an Arnold Palmer.)

We really enjoyed the food at Maoz and loved how things were marked vegan.  The salad bar area was the best and really bulked up the falafel sandwich.  The hubz and I even debated going back again during our trip but decided we should branch out and try new places, oh well there is always next time!
Ratings:
Value: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5

We headed back to the hotel for a little down time before our big walking tour of the monuments later in the evening and later decided to partake in the complimentary wine and olive feast while we waited for our friend Aaron to meet us for our tour. When he arrived we decided to have another glass with him, why not it was free and we were on vacation. Then it was time to make the loop around the monuments starting at the Jefferson Memorial and ending at the World War II memorial.

After walking around for hours we finally made it back to Dupont Circle and just a block from the hotel was a great pizza and beer place that I had read about Pizzeria Paradiso.  We decided to stop in and have pizza and beer.  We started with complimentary olives; I swear I ate more olives this vacation than I have this entire year. We then decided on our pizzas which Neil and I had with vegan mozza on a white crust with Tomato, Mushrooms, Spinach, Red Onion (note the whole wheat crust has honey in it).  Aaron had the same thing but a smaller one for him and with regular mozza.  We also shared a salad which we had with oil and vinegar because the dressing has parm in it but it was still yummy.

Overall we loved this place- the food was great, the beer selection was good and the service was top notch!

Ratings:
Value: 4/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 4/5
Atmosphere: 4/5

DC Recap- Day 1

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After an early start to the morning we finally made it to Dulles and then eventually caught the Metrobus and then the Metro to our hotel at Dupont Circle.  We stayed at the Palomar DC, it is located right off Dupont Circle and is in a great location.  The hotel is kind of funky and youthful; a great spot for us.

Our Hotel Room

We checked in and then headed out to lunch at Cafe Green where we cleaned our plates and then headed down to the National Mall to visit the National Air and Space Museum.

After spending a few hours looking at airplanes and spaceships we decided to catch at metro back to the hotel so that we could sit down and relax a minute before we headed to the Adams Morgan area for dinner. On our walk back from the metro stop we checked the time and realized we were just in time for the complimentary wine and appetizer hour that the hotel hosts from 5-6pm. So we decided to enjoy a glass…or 2 of wine as well as some marinated olives and flatbreads.

Poor quality iPhone photo but you get the idea

After drinks and a quick change we made the 20 minute walk up to the Adams Morgan area for dinner at Meskerem an Ethiopian place that I had seen on Groupon and had purchased $15 for $30 worth of food.  Our initial thoughts upon arrival that it was very bright, the staff seemed bored and overall not a great atmosphere at all.  We were hopeful that the food would at least be good.  We decided to start with the Sambusas both the collards and cabbage one.  We enjoyed both but the collards was our favorite.
Following the Sambusas we had one of our favorite Ethiopian dishes the tomato salad which is simply onions, tomato, chili and an acid (lemon juice maybe or vinegar?).

For our main event we got the vegetarian platter with more tomato salad instead of the Meskerem salad which has cheese in it.  We really enjoyed all of the food however we were slightly put off by them not bringing warm wet towels to wipe our hands of prior to digging in like other Ethiopian restaurants we have visited.  Overall we enjoyed the food but we wouldn’t return based on the service and atmosphere – I hear there are a number of other really delicious Ethiopian Restaurants in DC.

Ratings:
Value: 3/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 3/5
Atmosphere: 0/5

Dining in DC: Cafe Green

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We started our DC trip off with a visit to Cafe Green, a vegan restaurant near Dupont Circle. I lucked out and got a a great deal on Groupon. The lunch menu has a great selection of salads, sandwiches and raw entrees. We had a really hard time deciding on what we wanted but eventually decided to go with Cheeseburger and Raw California Pizza Platter. The Cheeseburger was really delicious however the slaw was really the star of the plate. The Raw California Pizza Platter was so delicious however unfortunately they were all out of kale chips so I had the kimchi instead and it was amazing.  The Hubz and I were overall very impressed with our meal, the location, the service and it also had a great drink list.

Cheeseburger Soy patty on a wheat bun, topped w/ cheese, lettuce & tomato, sautéed pepper, and onion

Raw California Pizza Platter (GF) Our raw pizza with guacamole and raw cheese topped with tomato, cucumber, carrot onion and peppers. Served with Kale Chips and a petite spinach salad

Ratings:
Value: 3/5
Food: 4/5
Vegan Friendly: 5/5
Atmosphere: 4/5