Restaurants
Get Real Cafe
Eating at Get Real reminds me of Michael Pollan's maxim: Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. I think that this is good advice and that Get Real does a bang on job helping me take it.
I come to Get Real Cafe on a sunny afternoon, bringing a vegetarian friend for company. (This reminds me of nervous P.C. assertions from the 90s. Well, no I'm not a vegetarian, but my neighbour is). But seriously, I eat meat, but not too much. My friend eats none. We get along just fine.
I order the daily special, a potato frittata that surprises with soft slices of thick potato and sweet potato, blue cheese and sharp cheddar, all snuggled in a soft pillow of fluffy egg. Generously graced with fresh dill and dill seed, this dish combines several of my favourite flavours in a novel take on an old classic. I love it!
My friend orders miso soup and two salads: beet and chickpea. The soup is a veggie-laden riff on the standard miso, colourful and highly textured with celery roots and leaves, carrot and seaweed shreds. Thin noodles add substance but not too much starch, and a fine balance of miso paste allows earthy mushroom undertones to enchant.
Both beet and chickpea salads are laced with a pungent vinaigrette that is a little too strong for my taste, but as my friend cheerfully asserts, "I've had many a bland chickpea salad, and this is not one of them!" She loves the dressing, and quite literally eats it up.
The key ingredient at Get Real? Freshness. Made-to-order, each dish at Get Real is a timely reminder that healthful eating can be delightful. Add a smiling server and a sunny dining room filled with vivid abstract paintings, and I'm ready to amend Pollard's maxim: Eat--at Get Real. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Lunch for two: $26 including tax and tip.
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It's true they have few good and delicious items but I think that their cuisine is a little too mixed up of flavors for the creation of their vegetarian menu.
we all are vegetarians and appreciate vegetarian restaurants but when it comes to get real cafe, I think they have to get real and think simple.
Their real thing stands only to their name.
Sorry guys.
This menu needs lot of work.
Let's move on. Shall we?
The owner is also amazing. I asked if she knew when they would have a particular soup I fell in love with again and she laughed and told me I just missed it by a day. When she brought out the bill, though, she came with a "gift" - a free bowl to go! Little things like that make me want to go out of my way to visit many more times.
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