Eating in Sacramento


Welcome back from a fabulous week of Holidays. We sure rested and relaxed a little too much this last week. I gather that we were not the only ones. I hope everyone had a safe weekend. My wife and I spent a day in Sacramento with my grandparents and cousins. We spent some time catching up and then went to lunch at Andy Nguyen's.


Andy Nguyen is a vegetarian restaurant with Vietnamese, Buddhist cuisine. My aunt chose this place knowing that is served vegetarian food. Our experience there will be a memorable one. We arrived around 12:30 with a 9 top(6 adults and three children) and were seated almost immediately. The restaurant was nearly empty with maybe two or three tables dining.

They have a extensive tea menu, which was a real plus. Many flavors and choices to accommodate everyone. The menu itself offers appetizers, salads, giant bowls of soup and entrees. Everything is served family-style, meaning large portions with a separate plate for each diner. This is fun because everyone can share, if they want, and we did. The menu is full of various faux meats including; shrimp, beef, chicken and pork. I am not a fan of the fake meats. They often are too close to the real thing and it kinda disgusts me. If I want meat I will order it, but it is great for those that are skeptical of vegan/vegetarian food. Overall, the food was delicious, as well as, large portions.

The problem was with my grandma's and wife's entrees. First, my wife is celiac, which makes her intolerant to wheat. We are very careful in Asian restaurant's because of the use of soy sauces, which contain wheat. When we ordered her veggie stir-fry we asked for no soy sauce but when it came out it had a brownish liquid at the bottom of the bowl. From previous restaurant experience's we know that we should ask. And we were right, it was soy sauce. They promptly removed the dish, cooked and brought another in a timely matter.

As for my grandma, she just didn't receive her food. We all had gotten our food and had to wait for hers to arrive. After about ten minutes, I asked the waitress and she said it was on its way. Another 5 minutes go by and I ask again. As she assures me it is on its way. The problem is that the rest of us were just about done with lunch and grandma hadn't gotten her food yet, and I was a little worried about how grandma was going to react(she is in her mid 80's and can be impatient). Finally her veggie burger arrived on a huge platter with tempura fried potatoes, a salad and condiments. Grandma was so impressed and tickled about the size of the plate. It was a pleasure to see her so happy, and a relief.

When my wife and I got back home to the East Bay, I looked up Andy Nguyen's on Happy Cow. Happy Cow is a vegan/vegetarian restaurant guide that is rated by the people for the people, and is a great resource to use before dining out. Many of the reviews had the same complaint about food not coming out at the same time and the service being mediocre. All in all, we had a good time and enjoyed our time with each other. Next time we will be prepared to have some lousy service and food that arrives sporadically. I recommend checking out www.happycow.net before you go out to a restaurant for the first time. It may prepare you for your next dining experience. I know I will.



Enjoy.


Vegan Chef Period.
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