Airport quality at airport prices. There are so many amazing vegan restaurants in Philadelphia, this place should be last on your list of vegan restaurants to try. Absolutely revolting.
We started with the buffalo wings and mozzarella sticks. The buffalo wings had a decent flavor, but the wings had the texture of a microwaved sponge. The buffalo wings were served on a bed of lettuce, and it was honestly the oldest, droopiest, flimsy lettuce I've ever seen come out of a restaurant kitchen. The blue cheese sauce, however, was spot on. As for the mozzarella sticks, the texture of the inside could only be described as phlegmy. We couldn't finish either dish.
Our main course was a Nashville chicken sandwich and a breakfast burrito. The sandwich was truly grotesque. It was thickly covered in what I could only describe as a chipotle aioli. I've honestly never seen this much sauce on a sandwich before. The chicken replacement was just like the wings, chewy, not crispy, and soggy. The sandwich came with the same extremely old lettuce that was served with the wings. Honestly, this lettuce was like wet toilet paper. It also had an extremely mealy tomato, and was clearly not-fresh. There was also something on this sandwich that really made it taste bad. I don’t know what the flavor was, but it really didn’t work in this sandwich.
As for the breakfast burrito, it was fine. The flavor was decent, but not very complex. Again, the texture wasn’t pleasant. It was a uniform texture with the consistency of soft scrambled eggs. It’s a breakfast burrito, add something with some crunch in there like a jalapeno or radish or something. It was also served with potatoes. The potatoes were obviously pre-prepared frozen potatoes that the restaurant just warmed up. They were devoid of any suggestion of flavor. They’re potatoes—how in the world does a vegan restaurant screw up potatoes?
Again, we didn’t finish either dish, and didn’t ask for a box. There was definitely a theme with all of these: nary a fresh ingredient to be found. I don’t understand how someone can run a vegan restaurant and not serve fresh ingredients. Mind boggling.
I think the server sensed we were less than thrilled with the experience since we ordered a lot of food, didn't finish a single dish, and didn't ask for it to be boxed up. She sent out a birthday-cake cheesecake. That was actually pretty good and a nice gesture, but didn’t really make up for an otherwise foul dining experience.
During the meal we also got a pistachio milkshake and cherry tea. The cherry tea was great. The pistachio milkshake was fine, except it overwhelming tasted like artificial coconut. Personally, that flavor isn’t for me, so I wish they gave a heads up that the base component of the milkshake is coconut flavored. But that’s more personal preference than a quality issue.
Service was great. Staff was warm and friendly without being overbearing. But let’s talk about those prices. The prices are ridiculous. $20+ for a mediocre sandwich? I don’t even understand how this is possible considering there are no fresh ingredients, and everything was warmed-up prepacked food.
There are so many excellent vegan options in Philadelphia, this ain’t one of em.
Edit: I'm limited in space so I'll keep it brief. Sorry chef, but hard work doesn't automatically mean good results. Maybe the restaurant had an off day, but if that's the case you really need to beef up your quality control. As for not saying something, what am I supposed to say to the sever, "Excuse me ma'am, everything here has been disgusting so far?" I'm not going to put a server in an impossible situation like that. You were there, we could hear you talking about us after she relayed she didn't think we liked the food. Based on what we heard you say, obviously any feedback was going to be met with hostility. And your response shows that.
One more edit: The owner has sanitized their original response, which was much more hostile and aggressive than what is currently reflected. Sorry chef, it's truly nothing personal, just...
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