Sunday, March 01, 2009

New Vegetarian Restaurant in Ottawa!

We heard the news and had to check it out. Last night we dined at the new Green Earth Vegetarian Cuisine restaurant on Preston. We especially wanted to scope it out before taking the girls there since on one of our recent excursions downtown to the organic pizza place rumoured to have vegan cheese, we walked down Kent in the freezing cold only to learn that it had recently gone belly-up.

Green Earth is a refreshing place - bright in a happy way, with two dining levels. There are no curtains on the front window, so we instinctively wanted to eat near the back. I noticed that most people that came in after us felt the same way. There are two flat screen TVs tuned into SupremeMaster TV, which was an interesting channel piping continuous world peace and vegetarian messages subtitled in at least six languages.

The menu is puzzling. It is mostly Chinese/Asian, but with a section of six different veggie burgers, and burritos, fajitas and tacos, and another section of spaghetti and fettuccine alfredo. "Brushetta" is an appetizer alongside spring rolls and crispy wontons, and if you are so inspired you can order "fresh fries". There are only a couple of items that are not vegan and they are marked on the menu. The word "aulacese" is used several times. Not sure what that means. Internet searches imply that it is a synonym for Vietnamese.

The staff was very friendly and we were promptly served a pot of hot tea. We decided on an appetizer of Crispy Wontons, followed by soup - for me, Hot & Sour Soup and Petey ordered Rainbow Soup. The wontons were tasty, but there wasn't much filling, so we'll pass on those next time. Both of the soups were very good. This is now my go-to place for Hot & Sour Soup - loved it! We ordered dishes called "Three Flavours" and "Asparagus with Crescent" as our entrees. They were served as individual plates with a small pile of brown rice on each plate, so we had to kind of divvy up the plate in order to share both dishes. The "Three Flavours" - pumpkin, eggplant, tofu, onions and sweet basil was reminiscent of a Thai dish and very tasty. "Crescents" was asparagus and vegan prawn made from yam which was garlicky, salty and tasty. The asparagus was fresh and cooked perfectly and I think the prawn are funny. It was supposed to be served with chili sauce but I never saw any of that.

I thought we would be full by the end but we decided to try the vegan cheesecake. It was to die for. Slightly lemony and creamy on a graham cracker crust. Again, a repeat order next time we go there, and we may not be sharing.

It took a while to get our bill and we ended up having to ask for it. I wonder if it is a cultural thing, because I have noticed this at the Barrhaven Vietnamese Restaurant and a few reviews of that restaurant have alluded to this. If you are in a hurry, just ask politely for it or head to the cash.

Ottawa veggies, check it out! Let's keep our local vegetarian restaurants in business.

Green Earth Vegetarian Cuisine
354A Preston St
Ottawa, ON
(613) 56-EARTH
Mon-Sat 11am-9pm
Sun 12pm-8pm

8 comments:

knittyknatty said...

Thanks for sharing that great find!

Anonymous said...

I had a burger from there the other night and had heard great things about the cheesecake too - unfortunately for me and my very strange severe allergy to kiwi it did not bode well. Even telling them I was deathly allergic to kiwi I was given a slice that turned out to be just a slice of cheesecake with the kiwi picked off. That night turned into one of a severe allergic reaction as a result. Though the food was good, I doubt I'll be going back. Glad you had a pleasant experience. :)

Tracy said...

Skyla - Oh no! Now that you mention it, our cheesecake had a strawberry and a kiwi slice on it. I'm not a big kiwi fan so I didn't eat it. I hope you are feeling better.

Anonymous said...

I highly recommend the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet. It comes to $10.12 with taxes and they serve a wonderful array of dishes. It is only from 11-2 weekdays.

vaalea said...

Check out http://zenkitchen.ca/ and May 31 will be the first Ottawa Veg Fest! All information is linked at this page: http://OttawaVeg.com

Pamela said...

Hey, would you ladies consider blogging about Veg Fest which is coming up this weekend? All event info is here: http://www.ncva.ca/Home/ottawa-vegfest-2009/

samnooz said...

Just thought I would let you all know that Green Earth takes your tips and donates them to the Supreme Master - that is, a lady who lives in Vietnam and who wants people to go vegetarian to save the world. No portion of your tips go to the servers. None of the people in the kitchen get paid, they all work for free and they work all day every day and every single penny you pay goes to the Supreme Master. I know this because I used to work there but I got the hell out of there when they told me I was not allowed to keep my tips and I found out that some of them were actually LIVING IN THE RESTAURANT.

Unknown said...

I would like to counter act the last comment about the tips and the ppl. living in the resaurant. I currently work at Green earth, the tips get split between the hard working wait and kitchen staff and we get to take them home each night, as well the family does not live there. The resruant is run by a hard working plesant woman who goes home each day and works so hard to keep her cutomers happy.