Eve Encinitas

Review #70

Funny how when it’s time to blog tacos or pizza, the world shows up to join us.  Blog “Eve”, a vegan restaurant on the 101, and suddenly everyone is sick, swamped with work or has surgeries scheduled.  Uh huh.  Die hards Dave, Diane and Debbie stepped up to try Eve with us.  BP stayed home….No meat, no go.

I have to admit that Eve is one of the few places on the 101 that I have already tried.  I’ve had lunch here a handful of times and was eager to share this place with Hubby and friends.

Walking in, you will noticed Eve’s very cool vibe.  It’s the exact right kind of funky that Encinitas embraces.  You order at the counter, and then choose from either an odd shaped table or some saggy furniture to sit in.

The restaurant is super cute with tons of plants hanging everywhere.

Eve has a beautiful living wall.  Just beware, if you choose to sit in one of the two tables next to that wall, those plants will become part of your experience.  Last time I sat there, I found vines tickling my neck and leaves scratching at my shins.  A bit too Little Shop of Horrors for my liking. You can appreciate Audrey without sitting within eating distance of her.

Eve has a back room that I have never seen before.  It was open tonight, and it’s huge!  It’s super cool with tables and chairs set up in fun little nooks, and tons more sofas to laze around on.  It’s very “Friends” except the “Chandlers” have dreadlocks and the “Rachels” don’t shave.

There were only a few people ahead of us in line, so we were a bit stunned that it took over 20 minutes to get to the counter and order.  VERY slow.

The sign on the counter reminder me of Debbie.  Although she is often the butt of my jokes (My GOD she just opens herself RIGHT UP for them!), I really do stay close to her for this reason:

Since I always order the Legendary Hero bowl, I forced myself to branch out.  It wasn’t easy.  I was jonesing for those brussel sprouts and beets smothered in their incredible tahini sauce.  The woman behind the counter suggested the Veggie Burrito, so I went with it.   I ordered Hubby the Legendary Hero bowl with avocado, so I could nibble off it.  I scoffed at the “coconut bacon” offered as a topping.  I’m sure it tastes just like pork as coconut often does.  NOT!

Personally, I don’t like when vegans try to make plants taste like meat.  Embrace the vegetables! I’ve yet to taste a mock chicken that tastes anything like chicken.  Or even tastes good.  I prefer my veggie burger to taste like veggies, beans and nuts.  Fake meat is not my thing.   No to coconut bacon.  Just say no.

I was hoping to see a yummy dessert in the display case to share after our meal, something creamy like a key lime pie or mousse, but there were only over-baked muffins, scones and parfaits today.

Diane has laryngitis so she can only point and type her words on her phone.  I heard Hubby mutter something like “Lucky you” to her husband Dave.  He got my Evil Eye. Diane chose the only thing on the menu that didn’t come with kale.  The Aphrodite Salad.  It ain’t easy coming to a vegan restaurant as a kale hater!

We sat down and waited for our food.  And waited.  And waited.  After AN HOUR, food arrived, but only one item: Debbie’s Hawaii Five-0. We insisted she start, but it felt awkward for her while we all stared, which we did.  It is some kind of vegan patty with grilled organic pineapple, on a pretzel bun.  We all watched as she loved it.

Hawaii Five-0 Burger

Although she ate slow, she was all but finished before the rest of our food finally came out.  It was seriously ridiculous how long we waited.  Oldest ordered the Kung Pao Bowl with a side of avocado and a side of falafel.

“Do you have any hot sauce” he asked the server.

“Sure, what kind do you want?” he answered.

“What do you have?” inquired Oldest.

“Not much.  Just one.”

“Ok” Oldest said confused, “I’ll take that one”.

His Kung Pao Bowl was quite bland and needed the hot sauce.  But when I tasted the hot sauce, my lips cried with burning pain.

“What’s in that hot sauce?” I asked the same server.

“Well, we usually mix the hot chili paste with bbq sauce.  But today we didn’t.” So it was just hot chili paste straight from the jar.

Kung Pao Bowl

Hubby’s Legendary Hero Bowl came, and it was as delicious as I remembered. Except the porportations were off tonight, and about 1/3 of the bowl was just beets.  That was a lot of beets. Hubby doesn’t even like beets so he was unimpressed with it. I still loved it.

Legendary Hero Bowl

My veggie burrito came, and it was huge.  I loved the pickled red cabbage that they also use in the Legendary Bowl.  They toast the tortilla/wrap and it’s delicious.  So colorful and healthy.  So good!  Dave ordered a breakfast burrito which was very similar to this one, but included cactus and roasted potatoes, and he loved it too.

Veggie Burrito

Diane sat and quitedly glared at her Aphrodite Bowl.  It was covered in KALE!  And she had no voice to complain about it!  Here are the ingredients as listed on their menu: Aphrodite Bowl- Herbed quinoa, sunflower tzatziki, roasted broccolini, roasted mushrooms, housemade chickpea falafel, GF housemade pita, mediterranean olive mix.  No mention of kale.  Nothing that even rhymes with “kale”.  Yet it was filled with kale! How could they? She unloaded the kale onto Hubby’s bowl and ate what was underneath.  She was very underwhelmed.

Aphrodite Bowl

The nice woman who took our order came by at the end to ask us how everything was.  I told her the truth.  Some things were good, but mistakes were made.  And the wait!  She offered to make Diane another Aphrodite without kale, but we just didn’t have another 90 minutes to wait for it.

She was very apologetic and rushed a strawberry scone back to our table.  It was cold.  It was hard.  I haven’t had anything that dry since Thanksgiving turkey 2015. If you took small bites and rehydrated your mouth immediately after swallowing, the taste was very decent. It was a nice gesture, and didn’t go unnoticed.

Strawberry Scone

We all agreed that we needed to go somewhere else to finish off this meal properly.  None of us felt satisfied.  Unfortunately there aren’t any late night bacon shops open, because that would have been first choice.  So we went over to where the new gourmet, vegan, cookie dough place is.  AND WALKED RIGHT PAST IT TO HANDEL’S ICE CREAM. Made from real cow animals.

Bottom line:

Our experience at Eve tonight was not the best.  Again, this comes down to inconsistency.  I think you have to know what to order as some things are way better than others.  The winners tonight were the Hawaii Five-0 burger, the Breakfast and Veggie Burritos and (usually) the Legendary Hero Bowl, though tonight’s wasn’t as good as usual.  Debbie’s berry Kombucha was also delicious.  I bet their acai bowls are great, and that is what I will try next time.  And there will be a next time, because in spite of tonight’s horrifically long wait, I really like Eve.  The place is totally worth seeing, just for the funkiness of it, especially when the back room is open.  You will feel like a better, more healthful version of yourself after eating a meal here, as long as you don’t blow it at Handel’s afterwards like we did.

Eve: Where Buddha is fabulous

and there’s a bathroom for everyone!

***Since eating here, Eve Encinitas responded to Diane’s low-star YELP review with a gift card, apologies and a promise that her next experience there will be a good one.  Everyone makes mistakes, it’s how you handle them that counts.  Kudos here.

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