Place: Eden (Shadyside)
Date:6/13/12
BYO'd:  1 bottle "Cabernet Franc" from Chappellet
Corkage Fee:  nada!

BYO Buzz: WOW!  The food was incredible.  Makes us see why all those Hollywood stars are raw/vegans! If I could take this chef home with me to prepare everything his way, I'd definitely think about changing my lifestyle.

Atmosphere: We sat outside on a tiny patio just below street level.  Super cute, perfect night with just a tiny chill in the air.

Service:  Theo, perhaps our new BFF, was a wonderful server!  Readily explained each dish's unique ingredients and preparation and had many useful tips when we were ordering.


This was definitely quite the departure from our last meat-filled adventure, and while both good in their own way, trying something new was really fun!

$15 Sampler

Per Theo's recommendation, we started off with the raw sampler.  The Sampler included a bite size portion (well, actually, a few bites! Each "sample" was definitely large enough to share between 2 people) of each of the Raw items on the menu.
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From Top to Bottom: Ginger Slaw Stuffed Avocado, Ruby Vegetable Cake, Bruschetta
Our first dive into the raw/vegan world!
Everything tasted extremely fresh.  We started with the veggie cake in the middle, made of beets, celery, walnuts and red pepper.  The celery gave the dish a nice crunch and the taste of the red pepper stood out well.  The  spinach and lemon drizzle also added to it's freshness.

Next was the stuffed avocado. This was A's favorite.  The crunchy slaw, cilantro and ginger flavors combined with the perfectly ripe avocado were a match made in heaven.

Our last bite on this sampler was the bruschetta. Theo mentioned they roast down the "bread" at a low oven temp for something like 16 hours!  (see what we mean with all the great info!) Again, very fresh tasting with a really great toast-like crunch, ALMOST cracker like, but better.
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From Top to Bottom: "Manicotti", "Mac 'n Cheese w/ Bacon", "General Tso's Chicken"
On to Round 2 of the Sampler.  We started with the "mac 'n cheese" as it definitely sparked the most interest.  With "noodles" made from zucchini and a "cheese" sauce from cashews and red pepper, it didn't exactly taste like your old Kraft stand-by, but the tang of the red pepper and consistency of the cashew puree might fool you a little.  Very tasty.

Next we tried the Manicotti (Zucchini "pasta" filled with another nut cheese and spinach and fresh marina.).  The marina had chunks of fresh tomato and a bright flavor.  All together this was a lighter dish.

The "General Tso's" (Mushrooms, flax, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds) rounded out the raw sampler. This was another very intriguing dish from the start, but neither of us listed it as the favorite.  The mushroom mix item was a bit dry and strange in consistency, but we both loved the spice level!

Daily Raw Special: "Ravioli

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Daily Special "Ravioli"
Just when you thought we had tried everything from the cold dishes, we ordered the daily special "ravioli." I think we could have polished off another 3 plates of this one! It was just plain delicious.  Zucchini "pasta" again, filled with a creamy walnut/pesto and a red pepper sauce drizzle.  Light, but packed a punch of flavor.  We were so surprised at the similarity the nut pesto had to a cheese.  Highly recommend this one if they have it on special!

Hot (Cooked) Dish: Eden's Tempeh Mole

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Eden's Tempeh Mole
Half because we were still a little hungry, half because we wanted to give a little love to the "HOT" dishes side of the menu, we added the Tempeh Mole to our order. The tempeh was like a meatier, firmer tofu, with a nuttier taste, and the mole sauce had a perfect smokey flavor. Theo's great recommendation to add the avocado straight into the sauce put us in the clean plate club.

Dessert Portion from the Sampler

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From Left to Right: Chocolate Cake, Seasonal Fruit with Honey, Vanilla Ice Cream Cake
Finally, dessert. Yum, Yum, Yum.  The "ice cream cake" was delicious - and almost made you think it was ice cream with a consistency similar to cheesecake.  Theo said it is made with coconut oil which is why it gets melty. The strawberry sauce on top was amazing as well - we would love to bottle that up and pour over some pancakes at brunch!

Fresh fruit with perhaps the best honey in the world.  A+.

And of course, we saved the chocolate for last.  A great ending to a great meal!

The Booze

BYOB: Chappellet. I don't know if we could have picked a better pairing if we'd tried!  Since we headed over right after yoga, a bottle of red made the most sense logistically (keeping a cold bottle of white in a heated yoga studio didn't really seem fair to the wine).  A's collection is currently made of quite a few cab sauv's, but we took a chance on  this cab franc and we couldn't have been happier.  Dark in color, tons of flavor, just the right amount of dryness, all while somehow staying really light, the wine matched our raw/vegan dishes perfectly.
Eden
7/6/2012 09:15:07 am

Headed here for lunch tomorrow! Can't wait and thanks for the reco, ladies!!

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