Your Favorite Vegetarian Restaurants? (+New Vegan Restaurant near Berkeley)

[Brandon]

Hello all:

Do you have any favorite vegetarian restaurants in and around the
greater San Francisco Bay Area? If so, would you be so kind as to
share them with us? I'm always on the lookout for good vegetarian
restaurants.

I generally rely on this vegetarian restaurant search tool to find
such restaurants, but it is not always up to date:

http://www.vegdining.com/

Thank you in advance for your contributions. Now, here's MY
contribution!

There is a new Vegan restaurant in Albany, right next door to
Berkeley. It's called "Mother Nature Vegetarian":

Mother Nature Vegetarian Restaurant
843 San Pablo Ave (at Solano Ave)
Albany, CA 94706
Phone: [phone]

This restaurant is right around the corner from the Albany Twin
theaters, a member of the Landmark Theatres group:

http://www.ambrosiagarden.com/cinema.htm

This restaurant replaces "Ambrosia Garden", the wonderful vegetarian
restaurant that occupied this location for many years. (The chef
finally retired.) But since the location is the same, much of the
information at the old Ambrosia Garden website (location, phone, etc.)
still applies:

http://www.ambrosiagarden.com/Legacy.htm

However the menu is entirely new (and the hours may be different?)
I've been to the new restaurant three times, and so far, my favorite
dishes are the "Pine Nuts and Seaweed Fried Rice" and the "Kung Pao
Unchicken". The cuisine is vegetarian Chinese and very flavorful.

I do miss the old Ambrosia Garden! I nearly cried when I discovered
they were closing! The people were so friendly and the food was so
good. But I'm happy to see that Mother Nature Vegetarian is picking up
where they left off. I encourage you to give it a try!

By the way, the old Ambrosia Garden site has a list of vegetarian
websites that is worth a bookmark:

http://www.ambrosiagarden.com/links.htm

Also, here is an earlier Google Groups thread we developed on this
subject, if you're interested:

http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&edition=us&frame=right&th=57230bf3afe2e97f&seekm=3124c149.0405060830.751c8fbd%40posting.google.com#link10

Be well!

Brett
http://www.100bestwebsites.org/
"The best sites on the Web, all in one place!"

[Paul Russell]

Post by Brandon
Do you have any favorite vegetarian restaurants in and around the
greater San Francisco Bay Area? If so, would you be so kind as to
share them with us? I'm always on the lookout for good vegetarian
restaurants.

I don't know how new this restaurant is, but I'd bever heard of it until
today:

New Ganges Indian Vegetarian Restaurant
775 Frederick St
San Francisco

Apparently it's across from Kezar Stadium.

I hope to get up to SF and check it out fairly soon as I have been
having bad cravings for Indian food lately.

Paul

[Brandon]

Hi Paul:

I used to dine at this restaurant when it was merely "The Ganges". I
wonder if the word "new" suggests a change in ownership?

It was all vegetarian when I used to visit, and really quite
wonderful. Yes, it is across from Kezar Stadium. My favorite dish
there was "Asparagus Curry", though they did not have it every night
of the week: so I would call ahead to check!

If you happen to be in Berkeley any time soon, you might check out
Udupi Palace Indian Vegetarian:

UDUPI
1901 University Ave.
Berkeley, CA USA
Phone: [phone]

It's really quite good.

Thanks!

Brandon
http://www.100bestwebsites.org/
"The best sites on the Web, all in one place!"

Post by Paul Russell
I don't know how new this restaurant is, but I'd bever heard of it until
New Ganges Indian Vegetarian Restaurant
775 Frederick St
San Francisco
Apparently it's across from Kezar Stadium.
I hope to get up to SF and check it out fairly soon as I have been
having bad cravings for Indian food lately.
Paul

[Steve Pope]

Post by Brandon
If you happen to be in Berkeley any time soon, you might check out
UDUPI
1901 University Ave.
Berkeley, CA USA
Phone: [phone]
It's really quite good.

They have an appetizer which is a garbanzo (or is it lentil)
doughnut. Sounds like a gimmick, but it really is tasty.
Reminiscent of a traditional cake doughnut yet south
Indian tasting.

Oddly though, Udupi does not have much for chaat. Only dosas,
mostly.

Steve

[Paul Russell]

Post by Brandon
I used to dine at this restaurant when it was merely "The Ganges". I
wonder if the word "new" suggests a change in ownership?
It was all vegetarian when I used to visit, and really quite
wonderful. Yes, it is across from Kezar Stadium. My favorite dish
there was "Asparagus Curry", though they did not have it every night
of the week: so I would call ahead to check!

Thanks for the tip - I'd never heard of the place before, but I just saw
an ad today in the latest issue of VegNews (shameless plug: check it out
at www.vegnews.com or pick up a copy at any good health food store).

Post by Brandon
If you happen to be in Berkeley any time soon, you might check out
UDUPI
1901 University Ave.
Berkeley, CA USA
Phone: [phone]

Thanks - I think there are several Udupi Palaces these days - I've been
going to the one on ECR for some time but I gather they are also in
Fremont and now Berkeley.

Much as I enjoy the dosas and all that good southern Indian food I was
hoping that for the sake of variety the Ganges might be more northern
influenced ?

Paul

[Rajan P. Parrikar]

Post by Paul Russell
Much as I enjoy the dosas and all that good southern Indian food I was
hoping that for the sake of variety the Ganges might be more northern
influenced ?

The last time I was at The Ganges in San
Francisco was in 1996. I remember the
cuisine as Gujarat-based (western India).
Several offerings on the menu were
idiosyncratic, outside the ambit of your
run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant and more
in line with what you would find in an
Indian home. You also had the option of
sitting down on the floor (traditional
Indian-style) for the meal. All in all,
a superb restaurant.

Warm regards,


r

[Paul Russell]

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar
The last time I was at The Ganges in San
Francisco was in 1996. I remember the
cuisine as Gujarat-based (western India).
Several offerings on the menu were
idiosyncratic, outside the ambit of your
run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant and more
in line with what you would find in an
Indian home. You also had the option of
sitting down on the floor (traditional
Indian-style) for the meal. All in all,
a superb restaurant.

Sounds great - I don't think my knees would cope with sitting on the
floor but I'll definitely go for the food.

Cheers,

Paul

[ll]

I was hoping that for the sake of variety the Ganges might be
more northern influenced?

I remember the cuisine as Gujarat-based (western India).

That's what I vaguely remember. The owner is/was Malvi Doshi.
Herself took a cooking lesson from her, and we have her cookbook.

I wonder if the slight name change means that the restaurant
was sold.

[Tim May]

Post by ll

I was hoping that for the sake of variety the Ganges might be
more northern influenced?

I remember the cuisine as Gujarat-based (western India).

That's what I vaguely remember. The owner is/was Malvi Doshi.
Herself took a cooking lesson from her, and we have her cookbook.
I wonder if the slight name change means that the restaurant
was sold.

Being Indian, a 50% mortality rate is not too surprising.

(At least we don't have half the restaurants washed away every few
years, along with 300,000 bodies.)

BTW, what's with the "herself" construction? What's wrong with "my
wife" or "my girlfriend"? "Herself" is almost as silly as "SWMBOOBCU"
sorts of cuteness.

--Tim May

[Rajan P. Parrikar]

Post by Tim May
Being Indian, a 50% mortality rate is not too surprising.

Not at all surprising, true.

Post by Tim May
(At least we don't have half the restaurants washed away every few
years, along with 300,000 bodies.)

Washed away, indeed. Nevertheless, the brownies
are comin' bigtime.

You know the homeland is in trouble when you
see (like I did some months ago) a gaggle of
hardcore Texas bikers, reared on slabs of
brisket, troop into Saravana Bhavan in
Mountain View and shoot the breeze over
masala "dowsaa" and mango "laaasi." I
lingered around for a while just to savour
the surreal sight.

Warm regards,


r

[Tim May]

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar
You know the homeland is in trouble when you
see (like I did some months ago) a gaggle of
hardcore Texas bikers, reared on slabs of
brisket, troop into Saravana Bhavan in
Mountain View and shoot the breeze over
masala "dowsaa" and mango "laaasi." I
lingered around for a while just to savour
the surreal sight.

They are the vanguard of multiculturalism, apparently.

I hadn't been back very often to where I went to high school, in
Northern Virginia, near the Beltway, in a bunch of years. At my 30th
high school reunion, held in 2000, the changes in the area were
striking. Just about every small shopping center had at least a couple
of Vietnamese, Indian, Thai, or Chinese restaurants. A few Chinese
restaurants, mostly American-style, existed 30-35 years ago in NoVa,
but certainly few if any of the other styles. This all changed big-time
in the late 70s.

The changes are similar here in California, of course, but seeing the
changes in Virginia, because of not being there in the past 20-30
years, was more striking.

Even in more rural Virginia, e.g., Frederiksburg, there were these
kinds of ethnic places.

(I wonder if the "Stuckey's--Home of Peanut Brittle" ramshackle place
on the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains is now a pho hut?)

--Tim May

[notbob]

Post by Tim May
(I wonder if the "Stuckey's--Home of Peanut Brittle" ramshackle place
on the way to the Blue Ridge Mountains is now a pho hut?)

We can only hope.

nb

[Carlito Milano]

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar

Post by Paul Russell
Much as I enjoy the dosas and all that good southern Indian food I was
hoping that for the sake of variety the Ganges might be more northern
influenced ?

The last time I was at The Ganges in San
Francisco was in 1996. I remember the
cuisine as Gujarat-based (western India).
Several offerings on the menu were
idiosyncratic, outside the ambit of your
run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant and more
in line with what you would find in an
Indian home. You also had the option of
sitting down on the floor (traditional
Indian-style) for the meal. All in all,
a superb restaurant.
Warm regards,
r

Yes, Malvi Doshi and her husband Arun had a nice run at that place.
Malvi produced a cookbook or two (one is "A Surti Touch", Strawberry
Hill Press, 1980 - ISBN 0-89407-042-8), and had cooking classes at the
restaurant. She produced Vaishnavite cuisine which meant no Onions or
Garlic, but she was creative with hing and similar substitutes. I, too,
remember the asparagus curry, but my favorites were the delicate kofta
dishes and the complex carrot achar....and the dhokla preparations were
just perfect to start your meal and the saffron/cardomom kulfi was an
apt ending!

They were getting up in the years - I wish them the best.

[Icono Clast]

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar
outside the ambit of your
run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant and more in line with
what you would find in an Indian home.

Address, please.
______________________________________________________________
A San Francisco glutton who says: "You serve it, I'll eat it!"
http://geocities.com/dancefest/ http://geocities.com/iconoc/
ICQ: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/19098103 IClast at SFbay Net

[Rajan P. Parrikar]

Post by Icono Clast

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar
outside the ambit of your
run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant and more in line with
what you would find in an Indian home.

Address, please.

Hint: Use Google.

http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/review/11344434?ulink=profile_2_memberreviewfooter_1___review__1

Scroll down to reviews. Apparently the Doshis
no longer own it.

Warm regards,


r

[Icono Clast]

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar

Post by Icono Clast

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar
outside the ambit of your
run-of-the-mill Indian restaurant and more in line with
what you would find in an Indian home.

Address, please.

Gee, thanks.

775 Frederick St
San Francisco, CA 94117
Cross Street: Arguello Street, behind Kezar Stadium
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]

Problem is there ain't no Arguello Street in San Francisco. There is,
however, an Arguello Boulevard. I cannot recall having ever seen an
error-free listing during my rare forays into CitySearch. It appears
to be extremely unreliable.

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar
Hint: Use Google.

Hint to you:
As a courtesy to the rest of us, include the address. You obviously
know where it is. If you don't know the address, you can look it up
once for all of us who might be interested rather than making each of
us look it up for ourselves.

Post by Rajan P. Parrikar
http://sanfrancisco.citysearch.com/review/11344434?ulink=profile_2_memberreviewfooter_1___review__1
Scroll down to reviews. Apparently the Doshis
no longer own it.
Warm regards,
r

[Paul Russell]

Post by Icono Clast
As a courtesy to the rest of us, include the address. You obviously
know where it is. If you don't know the address, you can look it up
once for all of us who might be interested rather than making each of
us look it up for ourselves.

Hint to you: as a courtesy to the rest of us, read the thread. I had
already posted the address of this restaurant a few posts earlier.

Paul

ObFood: Soli's "New York Style" bagels (poppy seed) - call me a rube but
I've ony just discovered these - they are simply the best pre-packaged
bagel.

[Icono Clast]

Post by Paul Russell

Post by Icono Clast
As a courtesy to the rest of us, include the address. You obviously
know where it is. If you don't know the address, you can look it up
once for all of us who might be interested rather than making each of
us look it up for ourselves.

Hint to you: as a courtesy to the rest of us, read the thread. I had
already posted the address of this restaurant a few posts earlier.

Really? I looked before saying what I did and again before writing
this. If it's there, I couldn't find it. You might have intended to
include it but that's not good enough.

On the other hand, I might be suffering a visual block.
______________________________________________________________
A San Francisco glutton who says: "You serve it, I'll eat it!"
http://geocities.com/dancefest/ http://geocities.com/iconoc/
ICQ: http://wwp.mirabilis.com/19098103 IClast at SFbay Net

[Paul Russell]

Post by Icono Clast
Really? I looked before saying what I did and again before writing
this. If it's there, I couldn't find it. You might have intended to
include it but that's not good enough.

<http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&selm=%25mVHc.1517%2454.18585%40typhoon.sonic.net>

Paul