Restaurant Review: Vegan Night at Washington Place Bistro

I ended up at Washington Place Bistro's inaugural vegan night accidentally last week.  I'd been at a Yelp event that had really light bites and rather than spending an hour in the car arguing about where to go afterwards (which is generally how any food related decisions are made in my life), I made the managerial decision to go to Washington Place Bistro.  Through the wonders of technology, I was able to make a last minute reservation for 9:00 pm using my Open Table app on my iPhone.

Despite the fact that we were late (have you driven down Euclid Avenue lately?  how many lights are there exactly?!) we were seated without a fuss and had an incredibly attentive (but not in an overbearing way) server.

I ordered what I think is the best drink at Washington Place Bistro - a Moscow mule, and my boyfriend ordered...something?  Beer, maybe.  But I was much more intent on drinking my delicious drink than anything else. 

Our waiter explained that we were there on the first vegan night, and although he wasn't completely familiar with everything, he would be more than willing to ask the chef for more info about anything on the menu.  I had a hard time deciding between the sweet potato falafel (who knew you could make falafel out of sweet potatoes?) and the tomato cous cous with tofu.  But in the hierarchy of vegetarian foods, I have to say I like cous cous a little bit more than falafel, so I ordered that entree.

I also ordered a vegan onion soup because, let's be honest, how often can you order a creamy vegan soup at a mainstream restaurant?  Pretty much never.  It was really delicious. 

While I was waiting for my entree, our waiter brought our bread and olive oil and made sure to tell me which one was vegan and which one wasn't.  I'm obviously just a vegetarian, so it didn't matter all that much to me, but I appreciated that he thought to do that. 

And then my entree arrived.  It smelled so good, I dug into it before I could even take a picture.  It was a great mix of tomatoes, perfectly cooked and seasoned bits of tofu, and other veggies intertwined.  And I ate every last morsel.  Which was bad, because I'd wanted to save room for some of the Vegan Sweet Tooth cake that was on the menu, too, but I just couldn't do it.  (Ironically, I ended up sitting right in front of the ladies from VST - next time let's say hi, shall we ladies?)

As far as vegan nights go, I would say this was one of my favorites.  From the amazing drink to start off, to the great service, to the even better food...nothing could have been better honestly.  I really hope that this vegan night does well at Washington Place Bistro and they're able to keep this going.  So to all of my vegan and vegan curious friends, if you're ever looking for a nice Thursday night out with some incredible vegan food, please give Washington Place Bistro a try.  (and stop by Vegan Sweet Tooth at Eton while you're at it!)