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Garden Fresh (Vegetarian cuisine)  $$

 8.33
JaT Rating

1245 W El Camino Real, Mountain View, 94040  (Directions)


650-254-1688


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Vegetarian restaurant offering various foods in non-meat format.


Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 1040
Reviewed: 6/28/2004
Rating: 8
My photo gallery 		Well I took the plunge and tried my first vegetarian restaurant, Garden Fresh. I've tasted veggie dishes before but never an entire course. The biggest obstacle for me was going to be the texture of food and realizing I'm not eating the real thing.

On todays order, we got soup, basil musu rolls, spinach wonton soup, veg curry chicken, and veg steak.

Soup - I dont recall the name but it tasted like egg flower soup without the eggs with plenty of veggies and tofu. I liked it.

Basil rolls - very taste, veggies were very fresh

Spinach Wonton Soup - Terry appeared to enjoy it

Veg Curry Chicken - Chicken was spongy, carrots were cooked perfectly, potatoes were soft and sweet, curry sauce was descent. As for the chicken tasting like chicken, it was pretty damm close. I feel better eating this stuff than the processed chicken you get in the frozen food section. A very suprising meal indeed.

Veg Steak - The steak tasted decent. They still need to work on the texture...its hard to explain but..imagine a beef jerky thats been deep fried, meat flavored, kind of crunchy...weird aftertaste though.

Im loss for words right now. Veggies tasted fresh and appetizers were excellent. Main courses left me limping out of the restaurant...I was sooo stuffed!! I cant believe I enjoyed eating Garden Fresh and will most likely return to try other dishes.
 
  RETURN VISIT for Jason! 8/22/2006 - 9 Rating: It's been a couple of months since I've made a return visit and happy to report the food is better than I can remember. For today's lunch visit, I went with the waitress recommendation, General's Chicken. Very similar to the sweet and sour dishes with a heated zing.

Ordered fried chicken wing appetizers. They didn't really look like wings but more similar to drumsticks. The wooden sticks that impale the faux chicken are not eatable. Skin was crunchy and texture is almost similar to real chicken.

The chicken pieces are battered and deep fried. Accompanied with bell peppers, carrots, chili peppers, and 2 scoops of brown rice. The sauce is very sweet but went very well with neutral flavored rice. I'm not sure how healthy this dish is but it sure tasted good.

I can honestly say, the faux chicken in the General's Chicken can EASILY be replacement for the real thing. Service was excellent and waitress was helpful in selecting the dishes. I love Garden Fresh and raising my score to a happy 9.
 


Reviewer: Terry
Total Reviews: 739
Reviewed: 6/28/2004
Rating: 8
My photo gallery 		I always have to give props for a place that offers non-meat-eating folks a viable selection of dishes. Garden Fresh offers EVERYTHING that will suit my appetite. I barely remembered the day when I could look at an entire menu and choose whatever I want.

Back to the food, I mistakenly thought this place, being a vegetarian restuarant, would offer small portions that would be unfilling. Nothing could be further from the truth. I ordered Spinach Wonton soup to start off with. It was a large soup with spinache and broth. The broth of course was non-meat and still was very delicious. A little salty, but I don't think thats avoidable here. The wontons were non-meat and delicious.

My main dish was the Orange Vegetarian steak. It was very thin slices of tofu? that had a definite steak consistency. Its when the slices of steak got to be larger than say a 1/4" that the consistency came into question and you could tell it was spongier than steak. The outside was lightly burned and smothered in teriyaki sauce. This dish was amazing. It was served with brown rice. I couldn't finish it as it filled me up so much. Not sure what it is about this food, but it FILLS you up.

I would go back again tomorrow and try something else. What a great experience. I just wish they had gone a little easier on the sodium. . . .
 
9
Agent Rating


Reviewer: Brandon
Total Reviews: 16
Reviewed: 7/23/2004
Rating: 9
My photo gallery		 Im a regular here. My favorites are the sweet and sour pork, the stuffed tofu, and the curry chicken. The ham is too salty and I dont like the texture of the seafood dishes. I really dont know how closely their fake pork resembles real pork, but thats not the issue for me. It tastes really good regardless. You get a lot of food for your money - $5.95 for lunch which includes your dish, brown rice, orange slices, and soup with veggies and tofu that I really like, and I always need a take-home box. The staff is super-friendly (really) and will give you extra of anything. The outside tables are nice in good weather. Great place. Id say 9 stars. They almost deserve that just for having such a large vegetarian selection.
 
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NikLinna ate...

many!

“I love this place. Some dishes are salty, some not too bad. The deep-fried scallion pancakes are a greasy treat, potstickers nice and big, and entree portions are always huge.”

10/3/2007 2:18:17 PM