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Veggie Pleasures
By bukkhead | August 9, 2007
RESTAURANT REVIEW: ‘CARMELITA’
Address: 7314 Greenwood Avenue North
Cuisine: Vegetarian-Mediterranean
Chef: Ande Janousek
I wish I could tell you that writing these restaurant reviews is easier for places I’ve been to twice, but who are we kidding? I still have no idea what I’m doing. But at least this time, I can tell you that my two dining experiences at Carmelita where very different, which I think is a plus from a local restaurant. The reasons for going where more or less the same: we were to dine with vegetarians.
The first time we went, we sat outside, in the sunlight, and ordered light salady and appetizery things from the small menu. We were there with a few vegetarians who had chosen the life. The second time we sat inside, in the evening, and I ordered food a little more hearty, and we were there with people who had been born into vegetarianism. One wonders which kind of vegetarian would be more picky, or more, shall we say, evangelical in their vegetarianism. Well, both times we ate with the kinds of classy persons who would probably not say boo to dining in a steak house, just ordering the salad and maybe a glass of iced tea.
Carmelita is located on the top of Phinney Ridge, in a neighborhood close enough to Greenlake to probably be called Greenlake by realtors and the upwardly mobile. It’s a cute little place, calm on weekend afternoons and busy at night. I’m tired of using the word “cozy” to describe these little places, so instead I’ll call it intimate, which is much the same thing.
The menu is very brief, with seven starters, two pizza choices, and five entrees, along with an antipasti platter. There’s also six dessert choices, including a sorbet, which you will have room for, (unless you decide to hit the nearby ice-cream place, if it’s open. The sorbet is vegan, though). You will have room for dessert, I promise, which is not bad thing at all, and yes, even vegetarian dishes can be filling.
I had the leek and gruyere tart, frisee salad, caper vinaigrette, and potato basket. I ordered it because I like all things onion, leek, garlic, and so forth, and I love potatoes. But I’m from the Midwest, so I’m sure my unconscious was filling me with an expectation of french fries when I read potato basket. Instead, what I got was a basket made out of fried shoe-string potatoes, with the frisee inside it. But that’s okay, and I enjoyed the crunch when the salad was all gone. Then again, I was on my second 8 Ball stout by that time.
But the big hit for me and at least one other dining companion was the garlic and leek tinged dipping oil for the pre-meal bread. We just could not get enough of it, even risking our appetites on more than one serving. We shouldn’t have been worried—as I pointed out, this is vegetarian faire, which can be hearty, but there’s always room for more. Or for vegan sorbet.
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