Red Lentil @ Watertown, MA

The husband and I are never an all-vegetarian fan (or anything healthy). The word vegan sends a chill down our spine. I guess we tend to associate the words healthy/vegetarian/vegan to bland and flavorless. On several occasions, when we had vegetarian food we end up hungry a few hours later.

So, when our friend Crystal suggested that we try out Red Lentil, a vegetarian/vegan restaurant..we were skeptical. After looking through the menu, I was however super duper hyped about dining there. The menu looked so exotic and sounded really really good. Reviews were also great! I was very excited and decided to invite my friends Seyda and Rob to join us as well.

I called in about 30 minutes before we got there to make a reservation. We sort of got the time we wanted but it surely beats having to arrive at the restaurant without a reservation and waiting forever. We got seated quite soon after that as more patrons arrived and waited for a table. The restaurant was bright and buzzing with diners. It however does not offer too many seating; maybe 40 max (and that includes seating at the “bar'” overlooking the open kitchen concept).

Here’s what we ordered:

1) Butternut Squash Polenta @ $13.99 - Grilled polenta, oyster mushroom ragout, warmed sesame asparagus drizzled with cilantro sunflower seed pesto (Bottom Left). Crystal and I ordered this yummy and very filling dish. The magic words “mushrooms”, “polenta” and “cilantro” won me over. 2 big chunks of grilled polenta went very well with the oyster mushroom ragout which seem to be cooked in some tomato sauce perhaps? The grilled asparagus was heavenly. The portion for this was huge that I ALMOST has a tough time finishing it!

2) Eggplant Rollatini @ $16.99 – Eggplant stuffed with seitan, served with beans and some kind of sauce (Bottom Right). I forgot the exact name and description to this dish which was one of the Special for the night. Hubby ordered this dish and I thought the presentation was very nicely done. They took a lot of effort to make it look oh-so-pretty! Seitan is actually wheat gluten, made to look like meat. Although the portion somehow looked smaller than mine, the husband said it was very filling. I guess all the gluten and beans filled him up really well! He enjoyed his food.

 

3) Sweet Potato Pizza @ $13.00 – Sweet Potatoes, onion on a crisp base (Bottom Left). This was another special for the night and I forgot how much this cost and what was in it. All I remember was sweet potatoes. This was Rob’s dish and it was apparently also very good as hefinished it. =)

4) Tropical Blend Smoothie @ $4.50 - Strawberry, blueberry, raspberry and mango (Bottom Right). These are some of my favorite fruits and I had to order the smoothie when I saw it! It was really good. The blueberry flavors were probably the strongest and all other flavors were very subtle. I didn’t mind, coz it was thick, rich and GOOD!

5) NIrvana Delight @ $13.99  An Ayurveda inspired meal, balanced with nutrition, flavor, texture, color and variety- Grilled Tandoori marinated tofu served with cold quinoa salad and spinach, topped with beet relish and cucumber yoghurt sauce. Seyda knew right off this was the dish she wanted and the tofu was apparently very good!! Too bad I forgot to take picture of her colorful and delicious dish!!

All of us thought the food were VERY GOOD and had wonderful flavors! Service was kinda iffy depending on the wait staff I guess. For starters, Seyda’s dish came last as the order apparently did not go through. We did not have to wait too long before they brought it out though. However, the same waiter also forgot about hubby’s Iced Tea. We had to ask different wait staff 2-3 times before it FINALLY came. I guess all the wait staff were overwhelmed with the many patrons dining and waiting? And one harassing diner who kept telling the wait  staff how to arrange the tables for her party did not help either =P.

With those 2 forgivable service glitch, the overall service was good. Water was filled very promptly and everyone was very friendly. We decided that this is one Vegetarian / Vegan place that we will patronize again!

There are ample metered street parking in the area. They take reservations for party more than 6 people. Since the premise is small, I would suggest keeping your parties small to avoid waiting too long for a table. 6 would be a good number, 4 the best! Check out their menu HERE. Oh, if you’re planning to go there for lunch, print out this money saving coupon HERE.

600 Mount Auburn Street
Watertown, MA 02472
(617) 972-9188