Three Restaurant Reviews (Blue Sun, Ethiopia, Lotus)

[Guest guest]

I've visited a couple of restaurants for the first time, so I thought

I'd share my opinions with some short reviews.

 

On the Labor Day weekend, Jennette and I took a trip towards Capitola

and took a little detour to stop at Blue Sun Cafe in Boulder Creek for

brunch. Blue Sun is an all-vegetarian cafe that serves breakfast and

lunch. They serve eggs and dairy products, but have a lot of vegan

choices and substitutes. I had the tofu scramble with nutritional

yeast cheese, home fried potatoes and toast with a side order of fakin

bacon. It was very good. I would've liked to have tried their lunch

menu - their Tempeh Ruben sounded delicious. Blue Sun is definitely

worth visiting if you're in the Santa Cruz Mountains and looking for a

good veggie breakfast or lunch. They're located at 13070 Highway 9

(Central Ave.) in Boulder Creek. They have a website at

http://bluesuncafe.com

 

Later that weekend, we decided to try Ethiopia Restaurant in Berkeley.

They aren't a vegetarian restaurant, but they advertise over 700

vegetarian combinations on their window and menu. The number is

accurate, but a bit misleading. The vegetarian option is to select

five dishes from a selection of about a dozen. Technically, C(12,5) =

792 combinations, so their math is correct, but it seems like an

exaggeration. The five choices are served on a platter with a basket

of flat Ethiopian bread. You eat everything by scooping it up with

pieces of bread - messy, but fun. The food was good, but to be honest,

I really prefer the Blue Nile restaurant up the road. Blue Nile has

fewer options for vegetarians (3 or 4 vs. over 700), but I like the

food, service and ambience better at Blue Nile. Ethiopia Restaurant is

at 2955 Telegraph in Berkeley. Blue Nile is at 2525 Telegraph.

 

On Friday, we were back in Berkeley and decided to try Lotus

Vegetarian and Seafood Restaurant. It's a Chinese restaurant where

most of the meat dishes use fake meats, but they do use real fish and

other sea creatures in some of the dishes. There weren't any other

customers, but the menu looked promising, so we went in. The place

wasn't so much dirty as just not clean. Most of the tables still had

dirty dishes on them. We were directed over to a large table that

looked clean, but was a bit sticky. An older woman was sitting in a

corner making pot stickers. As we looked over the menu, a woman with a

little girl came in. The girl was riding a tricycle and rode it around

the restaurant while the woman talked to the older woman and other

people working. It felt like we were sitting in a Chinese family's

living room. We went ahead and ordered pot stickers, veggie-crab soup,

sweet & sour veggie pork, and chow mein with veggie beef. I thought

that the chow mein was quite good, while the other items were just OK.

While we were eating, the waiter who served us had the woman with the

girl help him clean the tables and then brought out some food and ate

at another table. All in all, it wasn't the best dining experience.

The food was good, but not extraordinary. However, the service,

cleanliness and ambience were poor. In my opinion, Lotus gets a thumbs

down. There are many better choices for veggie friendly Chinese

restaurants in the bay area. Lotus is at 2272 Shattuck in Berkeley.