Saturday, January 22, 2011

Salt Lake City's Ever Green House & City Cakes

As a traveling vegetarian, one of the most coveted attractions in any city is that city's vegetarian restaurants. On my recent visit to Utah, even though we were only in Salt Lake City for a single evening, we stumbled upon two delectable treats: Ever Green House and City Cakes.

Ever Green House is a little hole in the wall. You can park on the street or behind the building. The first thing that amazed us at Ever Green House was the service. We were greeted by a young woman who was happy to see that it was our first time to Salt Lake City, and was determined to give us a wonderful dining experience. The next thing that amazed us was the menu. In a typical Chinese-American restaurant, vegetarians are often limited to a couple of tofu dishes, vegetables in brown sauce, and vegetable egg foo young. But here, we had a multitude of choices. They were also having vegetarian sushi night and the things listed on the special menu were types of fish I didn't even know someone could make a vegetarian equivalent of! Our server was happy to explain what they were and the first thing we wanted were spring wraps. I opted for sweet and sour soy, and my husband selected the curry potato with soybean. When the food came, we were not only surprised at the portions, but also that the food looked like it had been hand chopped (instead of coming out of a bag). The sauces were slightly sweet and earthy, and I left the remainder on the table when we left with a sigh. If only our hotel had a fridge so I could dine on the rest in the morning... Our server gave us a printout that she had made of all of the vegetarian and vegetarian friendly restaurants in Salt Lake City if ever we came back. I definitely plan on holding on to it.

Several blocks away, and a nice walking distance after a lovely dinner, is City Cakes. This is a coffeehouse/cafe that is completely vegetarian. They serve vegan mac & cheese, sandwiches and pastries. I had heard many things about Salt Lake City's scones, and grabbed a lemon blueberry one. The lemon flavor was perfectly done and the scone just about melted in my mouth. This is definitely one of the places I will come back to and try the next time we visit this beautiful city.

So if you're a vegetarian, or just looking for a healthier meal, try one of these two local places in Salt Lake City. You won't be disappointed.

The menu for Ever Green House can be found by searching, and click here to take you to the City Cakes website.

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