Restaurant Review - Cafe Gratitude

You'll probably notice that most places where I eat are pretty good. You could say that it's because I'll eat anything. Or it could be that I get really good recommendations from friends with exceedingly good taste. It should be pretty obvious what I think.

(By the way, I'm about to watch an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Hell yeah. Ooh, the episode is called The Vengeance Factor and is about "The Gatherers." What I would give to have Patrick Stewart narrate my life.)

On Friday last week (January 22), Hoodie and I had made plans to meet up for lunch. He suggested Cafe Gratitude, a mostly raw vegan restaurant on the corner of 20th and Harrison. Now you may be thinking, "Raw vegan? WTF?" I'll eat anything and after the enormous volume of food I had eaten during the holidays, raw vegan sounded like a very healthy change.

I'll be honest, the place is a tiny bit hippie. Each of the menu items is entitled "I am x" with x being some positive adjective. For example, I ordered "I Am Whole" and a bowl of "I Am Glorious." The server repeated my order as "You are whole and you are glorious." That was nice. And not wholly necessary, but when in rome...

It was delicious. I Am Whole is a grain bowl (I got it with quinoa) with kale, sea vegetables, garlic tahini sauce, homemade kim chee and sprouts. The tea wasn't bad, but I was blown away by the grain bowl. So blown away, in fact, that I returned there Friday night on a roommate night out with Leslie A. This time, we got the I Am Graceful (quinoa bowl with veggies, basil, cilantro, mint, and cashews) and I Am Giving (kale and sea vegetable salad with cucumbers, shiitakes, cilantro, scallions, sesame seeds, and teriyaki almonds).

The portions are large. You can get by with a half bowl (even though the full bowl is a better value). And you will be paying a little bit extra for the quality of the food - keeping it vegan and local and sustainable.

One last thing, they have a board game they created called "The Abounding River." If ever there was a game that went completely against any game that my family would play, this is it. For example, there are Sage cards and Reflection cards. When you get a Sage cards, one player is supposed to read the card aloud and everyone is supposed to sit and contemplate. This would NOT fly with my family. We would want to know who had the best Sage card or who could get the most of them which runs completely counter to the intent of the game. I didn't notice the game when I was there with Hoodie. I did when Leslie and I were there. I could see her both playing the game and mocking it (and feeling bad about mocking it).

All in all, Cafe Gratitude works great for lunch and for dinner. This isn't a great first or second date place unless you know he/she is vegan and you want to impress him/her with your knowledge of those places. The atmosphere is very cafe-like, so if you are looking for romance, this isn't your place.