Local Love: Harlow Restaurant

I’m not going to sugarcoat it people – being a vegan in Portland is exactly like being a kid in a candy store. The possibilities are endless and there are very few restaurants that don’t want to cater to you.  This city has spoiled me rotten.

If I could, I would eat out 5 times a week and share all of my delicious food experiences with you. Maybe in the future I’ll make restaurant reviews more of a regular thing, but cost and time kind of get in the way of that at the moment. Oh, real life…

The good news is that I had an absolutely delicious meal at Harlow this weekend and I wanted to share my experience.

Harlow is located at 3632 SE Hawthorne Blvd. Rustic tables, mason jars and shiny chandeliers give the space a welcoming yet chic ambience that I just loved. With a completely vegetarian and vegan menu, their focus is on clean and nutritious food for every meal. They serve breakfast, lunch and dinner and everything sounds amazing!

That’s the one thing about being a vegan who is so used to having just one or two options when going into most restaurants – indecisiveness rears its ugly head when I’m overwhelmed with choices. One of everything, please!

I started off with their Super Green Lemonade. Harlow starts off with fresh, house-made lemonade and adds in a healthy twist: cucumbers, spinach, kale and chlorophyll, giving this beauty its vibrant green color.

Look at that ombre effect! This was so refreshing and delicious and it gave me a great energy boost. This was so much better than a plain ol’ cup of joe.

For my main course, I decided to go raw and try out The Lone Star salad: shredded collards and spinach topped with dehydrated tomatoes, chili lime walnuts, guacamole, house-made jalapeno cashew cheese, almond  parmesan and chipotle hot sauce.

Oh. My. Yes. This was of one of the best salads I’ve ever had. Like ever. Filled with so much flavor and texture, I could have devoured two of these entrees. Even though I’m not a raw vegan by any stretch, I absolutely love trying raw dishes at home as well as when they’re offered at restaurants. As a foodie, nothing is more exciting than realizing how much you can do with bare bones, all-natural ingredients. This salad was a great testament that raw food is anything but boring.

Keeping it classy, as always.

I cannot recommend this restaurant enough. Vegan/vegetarian or not, I guarantee you’ll enjoy yourself. I can’t wait to go back to try one of their breakfast entrees!

Would you like to see more restaurant/food reviews? I love trying new places and products and sharing them with everyone – let me know what you think!

(Sorta) Local Love: Angeline’s Bakery in Sisters, OR

While we were away on vacation, we ate some delicious food. There were plenty of veggies burgers gobbled up, craft beers sipped, and lots of vegan sweets devoured.

One of my favorite little corners of heaven was Angeline’s Bakery in Sisters, OR. I loved it so much that we stopped there on our way home for more sweets and enormous bagel sandwiches. Even though this isn’t technically in our neighborhood, I still wanted to give some love to a local cafe doing their thing.

While Angeline’s food was delicious, it was the ambience that made me swoon. Full of bright colors and kitschy decorations, the vibe was childlike and carefree. So perfect for a cafe full of treats.

What we tried:
Marionberry Coffeecake (pictured above)
Gluten-free Strawberry Almond Muffin (pictured below)
Vegan bagel sandwiches (below)
Vegan and gluten-free brownie with nuts
Ginger & molasses cookie

Everything was great, but I would say our favorite was definitely the marionberry coffee cake. Oozing with fresh berries that gave the cake a natural sweetness, it accompanied my morning coffee perfectly. Our least favorite? The strawberry muffin above. The texture was great but it was a little on the bland side. It was still good, just not as good as everything else.

The sandwiches were simple and tasty and the homemade bagels really made them special – chewy on the outside and soft on the inside, like any respectable bagel should be.

There were so many choices in their display case and on the menu board, I can’t imagine anyone not being able to find something they like. If you’re in the area or just passing through, I highly recommend stopping in for something sweet.

Local Love: DC Vegetarian Food Cart

I have been following the DC Vegetarian food cart online since moving out to the Portland area two years ago. For a variety of reasons, they always seemed to be closed when we were downtown. We just couldn’t catch a break.

There’s nothing more devastating to a foodie than seeing those metal shutters closed on your favorite food truck. Ugh…heartbreaking, I tell you.

Luckily the curse was broken on Wednesday! The boyfriend and I went downtown to get some produce from the farmer’s market and realized we were a short walk away from that mystical food truck. And guess what? The shutters were wide open. It was a fantastic moment.

In short, DC Vegetarian is an all-vegetarian and mostly vegan food cart. They serve very “food cart-y” food: sloppy, messy, greasy and delicious.

Alex got the vegan BLT: vegan tempeh bacon, lettuce, tomato and vegan mayo (basic but so tasty).

I decided to venture out of my comfort zone and go for the EXTRA MESSY vegan steak & cheese sub.

My sandwich was full of sauteed and seasoned seitan, grilled peppers and onions, vegan cheese by Follow Your Heart (one of my favorites!), “special sauce” and Vegenaise. The bread was a simple whole grain hoagie but it soaked up all of the juices wonderfully. I think I got through about 1/3 until I passed it over to my expert eater. He’s a pro at finishing my leftovers.

Messy? Yes. Tasty as hell? Oh very yes.

If you’re ever in the area, check this little cart out. They also serve breakfast, which we still have to try. Let’s hope that doesn’t taken another two years…