Interim Cafe

Interim Cafe: Looking for someplace new in downtown Santa Monica, Yelp led me here. I can only assume that vegans in Santa Monica don't know what they're missing. I have had exquisite vegan food and this was no more than passable. Non-vegan chicken madras was pretty good, not intense enough, but on brown rice so that's extra points. The tamale with pico de gallo and avacado slices was pretty good, and had a side salad that was pretty good, with three small strawberry slices, some coconut shreds, and a few seeds. The fake-chicken bbq sandwich wasn't bbq but mustard (though nice and tangy), but the faux chicken was not a good consistency and so bland. Arnold Palmer was average. Cherry vanilla smoothie was icy, with an ok flavor but not enough flavor. In all, it was an ok meal, but nothing to write home about. The oat cookie was dry and tasted weak/healthy...they need to add raisins/dates/almond flour. Overall, I'd rather go to the Panera across the street any day and I wouldn't go to a Panera with so many better options for food in Santa Monica. So I'm mystified by the 4.5 out of 5 stars on Yelp for this area and can only assume that Santa Monica doesn't have any good vegan food. I wish I'd gone with my second choice and tried Umami burger even though I had a burger for dinner yesterday.

Happy Family Vegetarian, Lares

Happy Family Vegetarian: Rowland Heights smelled delicious. I've been to a vegetarian restaurant in Boston that made dishes like meat dishes. This restaurant did a much better job, and yet the dishes themselves still seemed lacking. We tried taro made like dried fish covered in sesame...pretty good. The best dish was probably the mushrooms cooked like batter fried chicken. We also had green beans that were fine, and another dish that was spicy small cubes of maybe tofu. Oh, and an appetizer with crunchy things in a cabbage leaf that was rather good. I'd be ok with going back.

We also went to a neat dessert place in diamond plaza...some shaved ice, octopus balls, taro milk tea, and red bean paste in fish-shaped waffles. All of it so good. I would love to go back here.

Lares: An excellent Mexican restaurant. We ate upstairs with a nice view out the back to the mountain. I had a margarita on the rocks that was very tasty. Chips were thick and tasty. Salsa was delicious. Appetizer was a fish ceviche that was absolutely delicious. Main courses were two shrimp dishes that were delicious (good shrimp flavor) and a thin sliced steak in sauce. A great mexican restaurant. A sit-down place, so classier than Tacos Por Favor, though perhaps not tastier. I would love to go back and would prefer this to Gilberts.