by hazelrah » Wed Jul 01, 2015 5:03 pm
We were in Atlanta in April and found two restaurants that I thought were very good. Both are listed on Happy Cow, but I think they would have been a bit of a trouble to get to from Downtown without a car.
Cafe Sunflower compared favorably to Millennium to me, although I think my wife was less impressed with it. They made an appetizer of cut rounds from the stem of a king trumpet mushroom (Pleurotus eryngii). It was intended to simulate scallops and I thought it did very well. It did not seem greasy but I doubt it was made without any oil. The atmosphere was nice enough but did not have that sort of fine dining experience that I sensed from eating at Millennium or the expensive now illegal restaurants of my pre McDougall years. But I liked the food better.
The other was Green Sprout, an unusual little Chinese vegan restaurant in the middle of a strip mall. We both really liked the food. When the chef came out (it was not that busy), we told him how much we liked the food. My wife was not convinced it could be vegan because of the flavor and we asked him how he made some of the dishes so flavorful. He went into a few details of the ingredients he used. Even tough I'm not sure the communication was perfect, he quelled any doubts my wife had. After we got back to the Bay Area, one of the first things I tried to do was to imitate the wonton soup there. I wasn't successful, but the resulting slop was edible. I remember at the restaurant us remarking how much flavor there was in the clear broth of the soup. It didn't seem to be all tamari. I don't know how you could get that much flavor into a clear broth using no animal products, but I felt pretty sure he had done it. It also was not greasy at all. It reminded me of California Thai in Santa Rosa that had a McDougall menu. You'd leave feeling like you got a delicious meal that was very healthy relative to other restaurants. At the last ASW I attended I asked Mary about California Thai. I commiserated with her when she told me that it had closed. It's a shame that this type of food isn't readily available through the country. It would solve many problems.
Bottom line is that there are several good restaurant choices in Atlanta, but getting anywhere out of downtown without a car seemed like it would be an effort.If there were a Green Sprout near in the San Francisco area we'd be patronizing it frequently. Both restaurants were oddly situated so neither felt like someplace you dress up for specifically, but, for me at least, the food made them worth the effort.
Seems like that part of the country does some unnatural things with sweet potatoes. We had a mashed sweet potato side dish at the restaurant in the hotel that was very good, but was not really on plan. Still, when I think of the cheesecake factories that were foisted on me during business travel when I was contracting, I think you have a fair shot at getting away without too much damage in Atlanta.
Good luck on the trip.
Mark
...the process that creates this boredom that we see in the world now may very well be a self-perpetuating, unconscious form of brainwashing, created by a world totalitarian government based on money, ... Wallace Shawn
http://www.anginamonologues.net