Ottawa is setting a new trend in opening restaurants with ZenKitchen. With a completely vegan menu, no dairy, meat or animal by-products are on their very unique menu. Regional-seasonal-organic are the buzzwords for ZenKitchen, with an impressive local Ontario Wine List to boot.
Why choose vegan? According to Dave Loan, Owner, he wanted a least common denominator of food where everyone could come as a group and eat well. His wife & Chef Caroline Ishi, calls herself a vegetarian until 6 pm. She keeps one hand in the carnivore world to understand where her clients are coming from.
Even for a carnivore like myself, I was impressed with the texture of the food served, and the creativity in finding vegetarian alternatives. For example, Chef Ishi’s sea vegetable caviar was very impressive. Each course at ZenKitchen was not only flavorful, but a global celebration of spices and textures. Even the dairy-free lime crème brulée had a custard-like consistency!
I’m even going to recommend ZenKitchen to my carnivore friends, if nothing else, to get them to eat their veggies!
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