Herbivore: The Earthly Grill, San Francisco

Herbivore restaurant was another restaurant on my list of must-eat places in San Francisco. With three locations right downtown, I knew it must be a popular spot. Funk and I were famished when we arrived, which was a good thing since we wanted almost everything on the menu!

Herbivore is as close as you may get to vegan fast food or diner food. The restaurant is seat-yourself casual and bright with limited outdoor seating. The menu had everything from vegan schwarma (something I’ve never seen before) to a variety of tofu scramble options (my favorite!). While we read the menu over and over deciding on lunch, we ordered an espresso shake (espresso blended with soy ice cream – heavenly!) and Sauteed Mushrooms with crostini. This appetizer was so simple yet incredibly flavorful and something I will make at home. (Update: Made this mushroom dish! See below) It was simply a big plate of sauteed mushrooms in oil, garlic, salt and lemon juice, that you pile on top of crusty crostini just like bruschetta. After the shake and the mushrooms, we were full before our entrees even came! I ordered the tofu scramble with spinach, mushrooms, and tomatoes with house potatoes, and corn bread. Both the potatoes and scramble were some of the best I’ve ever had. I saved the cornbread for a snack later on, and loved the spicy kick it had from the jalepenos baked in. Funk loves seitan so he enjoyed the BBQ Seitan Sandwich with lettuce, tomatoes, onions & pickles on french bread and a side of garlic herb fries, also saved for a snack later on (we were so stuffed as you can see from Funk’s “full face”) The dessert looked amazing too but we were too full to even attempt it, and our espresso shake “beverage” was really our pre-lunch dessert.

This was one of the best vegan meals I have ever had, hands down. Writing about it now makes me want to take a flight back out to Cali just to have another meal there. I’m not the only fan of Herbivore, as you can see by some of the Vegetarian Awards they’ve received on the wall. Maybe the fact that there are three Herbivore locations is a sign they’ll be expanding even more? Hopefully all the way to the East Coast in Boston. Hurry up, Herbivore!
*I think I just successfully imitated Herbivore’s flavorful, savory, sauteed mushrooms with crostini! To start, I bought a pack of pre-sliced white button mushrooms to make the whole recipe that much easier. I poured a few glugs of grapeseed oil (has a high cook point) in my pan and once it was nice and hot, dumped in the mushrooms. I then gave them a small squirt of lemon juice and a few pinches of salt. I let them cook, tossing them here and there, until they were soft and soaked in all the grapeseed oil. We topped some crusty fresh baked rolls with the mushrooms and it felt like Herbivore all over again, minus the San Francisco city around us.