Tallulas, Chapel Hill

Variety
Quality

Tallula's (which really has nothing to do with Tallulah Gorge) is a Turkish restaurant in Chapel Hill's restaurant heartland and is quite bountiful in it's vegetarian yield. Like most mediterranean restaurants, the starters are almost all vegetarian friendly but it thins down a bit when you hit the main course.

There were four of us so it was a perfect excuse to start off with the cold mezze plate served with fresh turkish bread - this is not pita bread. Everyone liked the majority of the selections. The standout dishes for us were the eggplant dip (Patlican Ezmesi), spicy red pepper spread (Acili Ezme) and the stuffed grape leaves (Yaprak Dolmasi). The rest weren't remarkable but disappeared pretty quickly anyway.

Tallula's serves some unique drinks worth trying. Ayran - a yoghurt drink with fresh mint - tasted very similar to a lassi. I thought it came with too much ice but its a great summer drink. My fellow diners enjoyed the pomegranate juice and turkish coffee. Be warned, the pomegranate juice is not diluted - and the tartness may put you off.

For the main course we decided on a two-pronged approach. On one hand, the main course was a bit thin on vegetarian dishes that appealed to us. On the other hand, they were quite expensive too. So we decided to order a couple of the hot mezze (appetizers) options and went with one of the recommended main dishes - Sebzeli Musakka, an oven baked dish heavy in vegetables and topped with a special seasoned sauce (bechamel) and cheese. To be honest, we were a bit skeptic about the latter because it sounded very similar to a vegetable lasagna. The "same-old, same-old" factor was influencing us but we decided to order it anyway. It turned out to be a good call. The dish was quite unlike any lasagna we tasted. First off, there was no heavy cheese to chew thru. The vegetables were quite rich and flavorful and the sauce added to the experience. Be mindful. It's good to feed two - don't get ambitious unless you are really ravenous.

The other two hot mezze appetizers we chose included the usual suspect - falafel - and a really tempting dish - sabzeli manti - featuring stuffed dumplings in a yoghurt sauce. Unfortunately, both were disappointments. The falafel wasn't any better than a store bought one. The sabzeli manti had a rubbery texture, felt undercooked, the yoghurt sauce was overwhelming and stuffing was barely recognizable. We do feel that if executed well, this would be a great dish - but for our visit, we didn't feel it measured up.

One great thing about mediterranean food is that one doesn't feel quite weighed down by the appetizers and main courses. There is a healthy, light, not so greasy aspect which is a big sell for mediterranean food. That also means, someone like me isn't going to miss out on dessert. Tallulas scored full marks on the desserts. The baklava was perfect - freshly baked, juicy, nutty and flavorful. The Creme Chocolate is a dark-chocolate lover's dream come true. The accompanying home-made whipped cream - it seemed to too sweet to me but can serve to counter the bitterness of the chocolate for some others - is best ignored. Aparna ordered a milk pudding (Kazan Dibi) but didn't seem very impressed. I was a bit too caught up sampling the Creme Chocolate which my friend ordered and absolutely devouring the baklava .. I don't have photos to show for them.

All in all, Tallulas is an easy shoo-in for top veggie-friendly restaurants in the triangle. It's a highly recommended joint in our book and has a winner in each category - drinks, appetizers, main course and desserts.

Lime & Basil, Chapel Hill

Variety
Quality

Lime & Basil is a vietnamese restaurant on the venerable Franklin Street. The name is very evocative of the freshness and subtle flavor that these two ingredients bring to any dish they get to be a part of. It came very highly recommended by Aparna who had a girls night out a couple of weeks back while I was slugging it out south of the equator. Lime & Basil is Veg/Vegan aware - ie. they are aware of the fact that a soup with chicken stock is not vegetarian and red curry with tofu isn't "good karma" if there is the small matter of fish sauce in it. All dishes are clearly marked in the menu and the waitresses seemed very aware of our preferences(at least ours did).

We started off with the special summer rolls featuring a beautifully transparent rice paper roll, seasonal greens, vermicelli noodles and fresh veggies all wrapped around a delightfully crispy stick that I can't quite put a finger served with salty/sweet peanut sauce. What I do know is, I'll order it every time I visit this restaurant. The rolls are huge and a plate of two is good enough for two.

Both Aparna and I weren't super hungry and looking at the size of the dishes, we did what we usually do - share the main course. We went with the lemongrass "chicken". Now, I'm usually not a fan of dishes that substitute a meat with a soy/gluten based concoction. 9 times out of 10, the texture is wrong, the flavor is missing and it is just too damn chewy. Not so here, this was definitely amongst the better executed meat substitutes. The flavor seeped thru, it was not so chewy and it was definitely cooked right - not fried to death. We ordered it served on a bed of vermicelli noodles which make a nice accompaniment. The restaurant substitutes the regular fish sauce with a pretty unremarkable soy based sauce. It really didn't take anything away though. In spite of my natural instincts, I'll find it hard to order something different the next time - and there will be many "next time"s.

There is nothing much in the name of desserts. The bubble tea I hear is worth trying but a sweet tapioca based tea just didn't tickle me enough to try.

Lime & Basil is one of those joints that pops up when the dreaded question - "so .. where shall we eat?" - pops up and everyone draws a blank and the movie starts in an hour. The food is excellent at a very affordable price point. While it's a bit thin on variety, it offers unique and superbly executed dishes.

Cafe Carolina and Bakery, Chapel Hill

Variety
Quality

We visited Cafe Carolina & Bakery in Chapel Hill after receiving discount coupons for the restaurant in my mail. For one thing, I don't look down upon coupon sending restaurants anymore. CC&B turned out to be quite good and is our destination of choice for great sandwiches and weekend brunches after a long run.

A look at CC&B's menu at first glance will reveal very few vegetarian options. Besides the garden veggie wrap, there really isn't much to pick right off the menu. However, we found the cafe employees to be quite helpful and accommodating when we asked for specific sandwiches with meat substitutions and omissions. They even made the portobello panini for Aparna though it wasn't listed on the menu. Both the Turkey Berry panini and Chipotle chicken panini can be had with veggie substitutions. Be sure to also taste their delicious breads - the sun-dried tomato baguette was a standout

CC&B's brunch menu (available upto 2pm) is another worthy attraction. I tried the mexican flatbread sans sausage and it was delicious. It's quite filling though so make sure you come with an appetite to match. While I shy away from salads most of the time, I must mention their signature salad. It's heavy on fruits (mandarin oranges, strawberries, dried cranberries, raisins, pineapple) and some nuts and gorgonzola cheese. For me it almost works as a dessert.

If at all possible, do save some room for their fresh-baked brownies and cupcakes. Aparna enjoys their curiously blue-cream topped chocolate cupcakes. There are other varieties to choose from. I highly recommend their brownie - drenched in gooey chocolate and butter. Don't forget to get it warmed up a little bit before digging in.

Lemon Pappardelle w/ Broccoli and Sicilian tomato sauce

Aparna started off with store bought lemon pappardelle (TJs) and sicilian tomato sauce (Whole Foods), added sauteed onions and broccoli and finished it off with chopped basil and salt and pepper. It was as yummy as it looks.

Oh! La La - Cartagena, Colombia

Variety
Quality

I'd been wanting to visit Oh! La La ever since it featured in an NYTimes article. I couldn't quite make it back in December due to lack of time. This time, I was determined to go there with Aparna in tow. It proved to be quite an adventure getting there. Oh! La La very recently moved to its trendy new location in the Old city - so much so that they did not even have a name plate. It took a few calls in my broken spanish before I eventually found it.

Since we were effectively the first guests for the evening, we were attended to very well. The owner, Carolina spoke English and gave us a tour of the menu which contained a fair smattering of vegetarian dishes. She was very open to preparing something not on the menu if we didn't find anything to our liking. That, wasn't necessary.

We started off with some delectable soups. Both the Carrot/Orange soup and Coconut Lentil soup were exquisite.

The mushroom parmesan penne pasta was cooked to my liking. It symbolized everything that I like about Italian food in Colombia - fresh ingredients, pasta cooked al dente and a restraint in terms of excess - read cheese, salt and butter.

The dessert was a disappointment. It was probably my fault. I should've picked the chocolate mousse.

Di Lucca - Bogota, Colombia

Variety
Quality

When I first ate at Di Lucca , I felt it was easily the best Italian food I'd ever eaten. Along with San Giorgio Trattoria and La Comedia Divinia, Di Lucca is part of a trio of superb Italian fare. There is a wide variety of choices for vegetarians starting with the appetizers, a few soups, pizzas, risotto and of course - pastas.

Di Lucca's stuffed pastas are easily the biggest draw. My favorite is the Ricotta Spinach Capelletti in a 3-cheese sauce. If you are lucky enough to spot the feta ravioli - which isn't a regular - order it right away. Other great options include Pappardelle al Telefono, Spinach Gnocchi and Spinach/Ricotta Cannelloni. It is worth noting that Di Lucca lets one order combinations pastas. Pictured above is a half-n-half of Canelloni and Capelletti pastas.

Among the desserts, the only standout is the malbec ice-cream. The rest of the desserts are more or less standard fare - Tiramisu, gelato, creme-brulee and flan. Pictured here is the Caramel Flan - which didn't make a huge impression on me.