Thrown for a Loop

The prices are a bit higher, so now I can't go as often, but when I do go -- wow. I don't need to eat for the next two days. Thanks for spreading the joy to a new generation.

Stephanie Hart
Houston

Meaty matters:Many of the entrées in these vegetarian (and vegan) restaurants are essentially using vegetables (and other nonmeat products) to try to approximate or imitate the real thing: meat! So, what do these people know about what the real dish should taste like, especially if prepared by a true culinary master?

Just comparing the boring offerings of one vegetarian restaurant to another is not helpful to anyone. We all know that any soy-based food product is about as bland as food gets and is only mildly interesting if one uses prodigious amounts of spices, and that vegan desserts are about as insipid as any food product ever devised. Gee, what revelations! Try comparing the food offerings in the vegan restaurant to those generally found in mainstream restaurants in taste, quality, freshness, creativity, etc., and then it may be of some use to your readers, unless your intended audience is limited to vegetarians and vegans alone.

Vegetarians are always lamenting (as in this "review") the woeful lack of vegetarian restaurants in the western hemisphere. Here's a news flash: It's called free-market forces. If there were sufficient demand for this product, there would be a vegan restaurant on every corner. If you think there is some vast conspiracy to limit the dining options of vegetarians, why don't you just try the old "build it and they will come" theory? By the way, any decent omnivore restaurant will prepare vegetarian and often even vegan dishes, if you just ask. In addition, in most cases, such food will be much better than anything that could possibly be found in a vegan restaurant because the chefs are generally not as limited in their creativity and experience as those found in vegan restaurants.

Robert Searle
Houston