Located just 17 minutes by car from Emory College, Cafe Sunflower offers a stellar vegan cuisine with a wide array of foods from all all around the planet. No matter whether you’re a plant-centered eater, wanting to dip your toes into veganism or are just hoping to accommodate your vegan or vegetarian buddies, this cafe is the excellent place to go for a unforgettable eating encounter.
I went to Cafe Sunflower with my dad on Feb. 23, a birthday custom that started out a couple of months just before the pandemic commenced in 2020. For a Wednesday evening, the cafe was remarkably crowded, with nearly just about every desk occupied. The dining space itself was informal and calm, with very simple wood decor. The hanging lights and modern day artwork all over the restaurant brightened the inside considerably, offering it a charming atmosphere.
(Krithika Shrinivas / The Emory Wheel.)
For our appetizers, we purchased the Buffalo Lollipops and Steamed Dumplings. The lollipops were my preferred component of this meal. These soy rooster drumsticks have been coated in a wealthy buffalo sauce with a vegan blue cheese dip on the side along with a number of refreshing sticks of celery.
The drumsticks have been so tender and succulent, and their bold flavors have been complemented properly by the gentle and creamy dip. My only criticism was that there weren’t adequate of them!
The steamed dumplings have been very flavorful, as effectively, loaded with a colorful blend of Asian cabbage, carrots, tofu, black mushrooms and spinach and accompanied by a piquant soy-ginger dipping sauce. This appetizer is a fantastic preference for any individual who enjoys Asian food but prefers a milder spice amount.
(Krithika Shrinivas / The Emory Wheel.)
From shrimp tacos to orzo eggplant lasagna, Cafe Sunflower presents delectable principal programs from various global cuisines. We determined to get the Pesto Pasta and Spicy Pad Thai Noodles, aged favorites of ours that we wished to expertise at the Cafe Sunflower.
The pesto pasta was mouthwatering, with a walnut pesto sauce that could conveniently pass for standard pesto. The dish was topped with broccoli, spinach, mushrooms, artichoke and capers, with two parts of garlic bread on the facet to make for a perfectly-balanced and filling meal.
Whilst the pesto pasta was a handle, the spicy pad thai noodles ended up a little bit disappointing. Not due to the fact the dish was not tasty, but instead since the noodles were a really Americanized model of this vibrant, zesty Thai dish, coming throughout far more as a bowl of pasta than noodles due to the fact of the creamy sauce.
(Krithika Shrinivas / The Emory Wheel.)
A fantastic choice for all those who follow a gluten-absolutely free diet, these rice noodles were garnished with zucchini, inexperienced beans, crimson bell peppers, mushrooms, baked tofu, kale, carrots and crushed peanuts with a prosperous coconut-tahini sauce. The sauce reminded me of alfredo sauce, besides that it was strongly infused with coconut essence.
It was a considerably cry from conventional pad thai, which is sweet, savory and tangy, and it did not are living up to its spicy ad. Even so, this entree was comforting and the assortment of vegetables designed it healthy and eye-catching.
We chose to skip dessert, as the cafe only presents a assortment of vegan cakes that we did not want at the instant. From preceding encounters, the cakes are scrumptious, with my favored getting their carrot cake.
Skipping dessert gave us time to look at the numerous plaques at the entrance of the cafe that are devoted to Lin and Edward Sunlight, the cooks and owners of this nationally recognized and award-winning restaurant.
Though their Sandy Springs restaurant, started in 1994, shut immediately after 25 decades of currently being in business enterprise, the Buckhead restaurant, established 3 yrs afterwards, is open up and thriving. The cooks launched Cafe Sunflower just after finding out about holistic health and getting to be vegetarians in the early 1990s.
Currently in the restaurant enterprise, the entrepreneurs bought their present eating places to located Cafe Sunflower, hoping to make vegetarianism extra obtainable and to change a prevalent notion of vegetarian fare as flavorless and uninteresting.
The cooks accomplished this mission, as the world cuisine offered at this restaurant is delectable. Cafe Sunflower has revolutionized the plant-centered culinary scene in Atlanta, and I would hugely advise it to all people, vegan or usually!
Total: 4.5/5
