Café Bamboo

Daniele prefaces her latest contribution to NOLA-Eats.com with this: “What kind of a blogger about New Orleans vegetarian food would I be if I didn’t dedicate a post to our city’s one and only exclusively vegetarian restaurant?” I concur. Veg*n visitors and new transplants might be surprised that the city only has one restaurant that caters to their dietary preferences. Today, Daniele gives us her opinion. -Leslie

Like most vegetarians/vegans/etc. in New Orleans, I was thrilled when I heard that we would be getting a vegetarian restaurant in town again. I moved here just after Old Dog, New Trick closed, so having a veggie restaurant option in New Orleans is a novel thing for me and oh so very welcome. I can’t describe what it’s like to finally be able to go to a restaurant where I can have anything on the menu. Usually I consider myself lucky to have two or three things to choose from, so it can get down right overwhelming when the whole menu is open to me. Being a Gemini doesn’t help in the decision making process either. Heh. I’m glad that my dining companions have been patient with me.

So, is Café Bamboo the best vegetarian restaurant that I’ve ever been to? No, probably not. But is it a good restaurant? Yes, definitely. I know that this place has gotten mixed reviews on various social networking food websites, but most of the things that others have complained about were things that I either did not experience or that did not bother me. I know that Café Bamboo had a change of chefs in recent months, so I’ll just talk about my most recent experience there.

My friends and I braved the cold and the rain to have dinner there last Friday. I had the Bourbon Chick’n, which was phenomenal. I am not sure if the “chicken” was made of soy or gluten. What I am sure is that it was crispy on the outside, chewy on the inside, and slathered with a great sweet and spicy sauce. The sides that it came with were good for the most part as well: wilted spinach cooked with plenty of garlic and amazing mashed sweet potatoes that had coconut milk in them. The super-dry cornbread wasn’t as impressive, but it served its purpose as a conduit for the extra sauce left on my plate.

So, if you are a vegetarian or a vegan, you should definitely check out Café Bamboo. And if you are the friend of a vegetarian or vegan, humor them by tagging along. They (We) put up with the paltry veggie offerings at your favorite meat restaurants all the time. I am going to go out on a limb here and recommend that even if you are a meat-eater and all of your friends are meat-eaters you might enjoy a visit to Café Bamboo when you are in an adventurous mood.