Last Friday I had lunch at Everybody’s Cafe in Stroudsburg, PA. I wasn’t wowed by the lentil burger, but loved the ambiance of the place and the creamy, vegan chickpea dressing on my starter salad. So we decided to stop in for brunch Sunday, on our drive home.
I spied a vegetarian jambalaya on Friday
and I was obsessed.
After a long, fun weekend of running, playing and wedding fanfare, I was keen to begin the meal in a mellow place. Japanese Sencha tea, please.
I started with a salad, because I was craving crisp, fresh veggies and I wanted more of that creamy chickpea dressing.
And then, the Creole Vegetable Jambalaya that I had been thinking about for two days arrived.
Where to begin? First, the vegan “sausage” was not mock meat and this pleased me. I think it was made with beans, rice and bread crumbs (just guessing). It was really nice and frankly would make for some great “sliders.” The plate was full of rice, summer vegetables, onion and mushrooms. Positively delicious. If you think that’s a huge serving, you are right. I was only able to eat about one-third of it. I took the rest to go and had enough for two additional meals.
This dish delivered.
I took a food writing class earlier in the year and learned something important: food critics visit a restaurant numerous times, unannounced, to write a fair review. We bloggers tend to eat and write — which is the nature of blogging — and should take care to avoid judging an entire establishment, or menu, based on one single dining experience. Though I am not a food critic, I do try to take care when offering my opinion on a dining experience. I am happy that we returned to Everybody’s Cafe to give them another go.
Now, to completely contradict myself, let me warn you. We visited a restaurant in Jim Thorpe, PA Saturday and there is a rave review coming up later this week (or weekend). In fact, I teased my Facebook and Twitter friends over the weekend with this photo and caption:
Do blog restaurant reviews influence your dining out decisions?
6 thoughts on “Everybody’s Cafe, take two”
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They definitely influence my decisions! I can use a blog review to find out if there are any vegan or veg-friendly options, if there’s a dish worth skipping or that I can’t pass up!
Yes! That’s how I first tried the Seitan Piccata at Candle 79 — read so many great things about it!
The Creole Vegetable Jambalaya looks wonderful and nice that you got so many meals out of it. Blog reviews do influence my dining out decisions and I do a lot of reading on Yelp.
I think much of my advance reading is the vegan thing. If I’m going somewhere, I want to see if anyone has written about their vegan experience. It helps!