what did i expect???

i had dinner with my fellow foodie (and friend) allie last thursday. besides wanting to catch up and listen to her college stories to vicariously live through her, i particularly like going out to dinner with her because she is always up for eating any type of food. initially we planned on going for indian, which is very vegetarian friendly. but at the last minute, i changed my mind and decided that i wanted to go to a vegetarian specific restaurant.

not knowing many vegetarians to suggest a restaurant, i consulted the time out new york 2009 eating and drinking guide that james got me. broken down by neighborhood and food genre, i came across blossom in the vegetarian/organic restaurant section. besides the fact that it won the best vegetarian restaurant award last year at the eat out awards, i guess what really sold me was time out new york saying, "the mock meats actually taste pretty good". it's no big secret that i am dying not eating meat during lent, so i thought this was a good place to take the edge off.

we ordered these crostini bread things as an appetizer, which came with 3 different types of toppings: hummus, tomatoes and onions (a bruchetta basically), and some green thing that could have been either really fine spinach, or pesto. whatever the case may be, it was very good, so no complaints on the unknown.

allie ordered the sweet potato gnocchi, that came with a very light creamy sauce (again, no idea what the sauce was but it didn't matter because it was good), and broccoli rabe.

i got the soy bacon cheeseburger. i guess because i had such high hopes for the faux-meat tasting like real meat, i was a little disappointed. but helloooo? what did i expect? it's not real meat!

the funny thing is, after i looked back at the time out new york review, the last sentence of the review said, "carnivores may feel compelled to eat the real thing elsewhere, but vegetarians have indeed found a great new date place".

i couldn't agree more. i guess because i am not a die hard vegetarian (or maybe i should say a real one), i wasn't so convinced on the faux-meat ordeal. however, everything else was really great (including the restaurant space and the super nice waitstaff) so yes, i could see how this place was voted best vegetarian restaurant last year. but for now, i'll just wait out the 27 more days to eat the real thing, instead of trying to take the edge off with the fake stuff.