I started Saturday with a boca burger patty on an english muffin, cheese, and catsup.
Dinner was at this new vegan place Power Plant on Edgewood, across from Java-ol’-o’gy. We went because one of our number, Robert, is a vegetarian.
Everything was fake. It had fake chicken, fish, crab, beef, and duck, made from the wonderbean soy. Well, except the potatoes, because those were very real. We ordered a sampler platter of their appetizers, which was a good sampling of soy grabcakes, soy chicken drumsticks and wings, soy chicken tenders, and a few fried vegetables, which seemed to be real. Of all of them, I actually enjoyed the faux wings the most, amazed with the texture of the soy meat , stringy like real meat. Unfortunately, the carnivores at the table could not understand the concept.
The disaster of the main courses came in, when we ordered a soy burger, soy duck, orange soy chicken, jerk soy chicken, and I ordered the Soul Fried Soy Chicken, their variation of Southern Fried Chicken, with a side of mashed garlic potatoes,with gravy and sweet potato fries.
My sweet potato fries were a bit undercooked, and the potatoes weren’t exceptional. Nobody else finished their meals, but the soy duck had a nice crisp exterior, giving way to the pliable solid soy protein. I actually preferred the wings from the appetizer to what was given to me, which was pretty much two slabs of soy chicken southern fried, and shaped into the semblance of a chicken half.
Despite the many misses, I had to applaud their attempt to serve a complete faux-meat menu. The service was above-average, the decor a post-industrial feel, reflecting the idea that no animals lived or died in this processed food factory. The one drawback of soy meats is that a cook has to compensate for the innate blandness of soy protein with lots of spices, and or additives. I found the sculpting of the meats into a semblance of the mimicked animals to be quite adorable, if not unsettling to some. This vegan location was trying to stray away from the notion that restaurants in their niche (vegan/vegetarian) have to serve a fresh-produce menu, but I think the faux meats could easily be complemented by a greater assortment of fresh veggies, for color and added texture to the faux-meat.
Would I come back? Most likely, if only for the kitsch and entertainment value, and with a friend with an open-mind.
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