Thursday, October 29, 2009

blue nile ethopian cafe

★★★★ (4 stars)

blue nile is located down in the kansas city river market area, right near the huge farmer's market that is hot spot on weekend mornings. the market area is definitely something that most food-lovin' kansas citians enjoy. besides all the great produce, there are a number great places to eat down there, including blue nile.


i never had ethopian food before this visit, but i had wanted to try this cafe for a while. it's a quaint and unassuming little restaurant, and known for being vegan-friendly. i had been under the impression that ethopian is similar to indian food, but i'm not sure i'm totally convinced of that now. this spices were different, and a lot of the entrees weren't always in the form of a sauce base like you would find with a dahl or curry. our server was very polite in teaching us that you typically order a entree, and then scoop up the food with a spongy injera bread. we ordered the vegetarian combo, so we got to try a little sample of each eight veggie entrees (all are vegan).


to start with, i really loved almost all of the veggie options. each one had a distinctive taste - some were more vinegary, and others were more savory. none of them were extremely spicy, and admittedly, i would have like to have one or two with a little more kick. but in general, each one was unique with out being to extreme. now, for the bad news. i didn't like the injera bread. at first, i was kind of giddy about trying the spongy bread - i tend to get excited when i try something for the first time. but after about one roll of the bread, the texture started getting to me. i found myself using tiny scraps of bread and huge helpings of the dishes. i know this isn't blue nile's fault - i'm sure everything was as it should be. however, since this is a personal review, i feel i have to add that in there for anyone trying ethopian for the first time. honestly, if i were eating it with naan or pita bread, i think i would have loved every last bite.


i almost forgot - we ordered the veggie sambusa appetizers, and they rocked! unfortunately, there were only two to an order... but so worth it. the flavor was right on.

also, be sure and go when you have some time, because it isn't exactly the speediest place to catch a bite. i'm giving blue nile 4 stars because the service was good, the dishes were good in general, and they definitely have a nice selection of vegan options. the combo platter is especially nice for a group of 2 or 3.

website:
blue nile cafe

location:
20 e 5th street
kansas city, mo

816.283.0990

Saturday, October 10, 2009

czar bar

★★½ (2½ stars - see last paragraph)

kansas city has a handful of hip music venues with veggie fare on their menu. i had never been to the czar bar, but i was excited to try their menu - especially when i saw their veggie burger was "served on a vegan friendly bun." there are a couple of other veggie friendly options, including hummus, crispy eggplant strips and the unexciting house salad.

i met my friend kim for dinner one night and as usual, double checked with the server about the vegan veggie burger. to my surprise, the veggie patty contains egg and isn't vegan. i'm not sure i get it - to me, promoting the vegan friendly bun sort of implies that the patty itself is vegan. what am i going to do, just order a bun? strike one. slightly dissuaded, i thought i'd go with the crispy eggplant strips instead. nope - they use an egg wash to bread them. i asked if they could not use the egg wash for mine, but no dice - they are pre-breaded. strike two. it was a really cold and rainy day, and salad just didn't sound comforting, so i went with hummus.


the hummus itself was okay, but nothing to write home about. i'm glad i got it at the happy hour price or i would have been really disappointed. i usually don't have high expectations for bar food, but kansas city has quite a few vegan friendly places with great food. (mccoy's, record bar, etc. - i'll be sure to get reviews up soon.) basically, czar bar isn't very vegan friendly, but an ovo-lacto vegetarian has a couple options. the food and prices are just mediocre, so i can't really think of anything veg-food-wise that would put czar bar at three stars. therefore, i'm giving it two stars, with an extra half star for the staff member that kept going back to the kitchen to check on ingredients for me. thanks guy.


website:
czar bar

location:
1531 grand boulevard
kansas city, mo

816.221.2244