Nashville Food Friday: Sunflower Cafe

 

This might come as a bit of a shock to my regular readers, but I spent about 6 years being vegetarian and I was vegan for about 1.5 of those years. Just because I re-embraced my love of meat doesn't mean that I can't get behind some seriously good vegetarian fare. Honestly, sometimes it feels good to eat something that seems much healthier than bacon (not to knock bacon- just sometimes I can feel my ventricles closing if I eat too much). The Sunflower Cafe, a vegetarian and vegan restaurant in Berry Hill, opened about a year ago. Steve and I checked it out for dinner before a movie on a recommendation from my best friend Jeff, who also happens to be a vegetarian.

Sunflower Cafe serves their food cafeteria style. Normally I don't like this type of food because mass produced items are never as good and they lose their flavor the longer they sit in the trays. But for some magical reason, the food at the Sunflower Cafe didn't taste like regular cafeteria style food. Maybe it's in the cooking, I don't know. Basically you look at all the goodies down the line and pick what you want. Our server was very nice and super helpful. I asked for recommendations and I got them in abundance. Nothing makes me happier than when I encounter a genuinely affable server.

The decor is simple, bright and clean. Long dining tables reminiscent of college dining halls populate the place. I dig this set up because it allows you to make new friends if you choose. This might be the cleanest restaurant I have ever stepped foot in. Everything was SPARKLING, even the bathroom. Plus, I totally love the little Sunflowers they have dotted around the place.

I chose the the tofu buffalo sliders with sunflower rice and sweet potato casserole. Each night there's a rotating cast of entrees and sides. You have an option to pick an entree and two sides, or a whole bunch of sides as your meal. The food bar was packed with tons of options- making the decisions hard! I enjoyed the sliders and was impressed with the crisp layer of breading they were able to get around the tofu. It created a really nice crunch. Since I like spicy food I think they could stand to put a bit more spicy buffalo sauce on the tofu. I liked the bread to filling ratio of this dish and the blue cheese dressing just knocked it out of the park. Buffalo sauce and blue cheese are a match made in heaven. The sunflower rice was just OK. I enjoyed the nice crunch of the sunflower seeds, but besides that it didn't have any distinct flavor. The sweet potato casserole was hearty, thick and sweet without making your teeth hurt. Overall, I was really impressed with this plate and what turned out to be a huge portion.

Steve had the Thai ginger tofu over sunflower rice with a side of sweet potato casserole (great minds think alike). I really liked the curry. It was thick and had a lovely creaminess about it. The tofu was firm without being hard, a difficult line to walk when it comes to soy. Both Steve and I ordered kombucha on tap from tealixir. I keep ordering it, so I guess I like it.

Overall I really enjoyed my experience at Sunflower. The food was fresh and there were tons of options. The staff was friendly and helpful, and they keep the space itself super clean. The best part was the fast service; we were able to make our movie with no problem!