Sublime Restaurant was just TOO good not to revisit while we were in Fort Lauderdale. And there was also the $40 special (I am pretty sure it was $39.99) for an appetizer, entrée and dessert (with a glass of house wine included.) That is a really good price no matter where you go to eat at this level of establishment. You could have the usual S.A.D. food for probably half that price at Applebee’s or the like, but if you want food that is actually good for you and our planet, then you usually pay a bit higher. Sublime could definitely increase their prices for what you get there, but hey! Why would I complain! So we again sat at the bar and met Spencer yet again. Since we enjoyed talking to him, as well as his drink recommendations, we decided to just sit at the bar and enjoy our dinner there. So we ordered the Eggplant Rollatini and the Frito Miso as appetizers. I wasn’t too sure about the Frito Miso, even though we’d been told by EVERYONE (wait staff, Spencer, Nanci herself, and the other customers) that it was THE BEST appetizer I just usually don’t do ‘sweet chili sauce’ because it’s not my thing. And then it was deep fried, and it seemed more like a heavy Asian food. I don’t normally like anything that is fried anymore either. But I took one bite of Frito Miso, and entered food heaven. I don’t know how it topped the Gardein ‘cheeseburger’ sliders, but heck I ate my half of the Frito Miso as slow as possible to savor each bite. The black and white sesame seeds really accented the taste and just sent my tastebuds into overdrive. Man oh MAN was that amazing! (And you too can make it yourself if you’ve got the frier available, and a cookbook from Sublime *which you can purchase at the hostess stand for just $20)
Next Dave & I switched and he was ooo-ing and aahh-ing at the Eggplant Rollatini so I was really excited to try that. Now, I was always a cheese person when I ate the S.A.D. but there hasn’t been anything that I’ve had that was like a ricotta. Oh boy oh boy was that Eggplant Rollatini good. So cheesy and flavorful. It was almost like having stuffed manicotti. But better for me and OH so delightful!!
Onto the dinner: I ordered Mushroom Ravioli and Dave ordered the Quiche Lorraine. I have to say that I was horribly skeptical of the Quiche. My Mom always made killer Quiche Lorraine, and when I became vegan, she made it vegan for me and it was still awesome. *We had it for our housewarming party and no one knew it was vegan!* So out came the main dishes and both looked amazing. I absolutely fell for the mushroom ravioli. Again, what a treat with the creamy taste and the mushrooms what a delight. And it wasn’t heavy at all. I just really liked it. I didn’t really want to swap with Dave except that it seemed he had entered food heaven and didn’t want to swap with me. So that peaked my curiosity. We swapped and then I again entered food heaven. The quiche was the best I have ever had. (I’m sorry Mom!! But you raised me to tell the truth!) My Mom definitely gets best ‘local’ quiche from me, but holy moly, Sublime blew it out of the park. It was SO rich, SO cheesy and SO tasteful. At this point I had determined that I wanted to move into Sublime, I would sleep on the floor of the kitchen just to get a meal from Sublime once a day.
Last, but certainly not least, we got our desserts. Dave got the ice cream Sundae and I ordered the infamous Coconut Cake. The Sundae was by far the best ice-cream I have had since becoming vegan. But we were FAR too full to have the coconut cake.
We boxed that up and took it back to the hotel for a midnight snack or breakfast. Well, since we’d had dinner fairly early, about 9 or so we were both wanting to have something sweet. That coconut cake was ecstasy. Now I am known to have a bit of a sweet tooth and for me, that coconut cake was by far utter baked perfection. I have always been a great cook and an even better baker. It’s in my blood, as my grandfather taught cake making as well as pastry courses at Johnson & Wales Culinary School in Rhode Island. But since I went vegan I haven’t exactly done well with baking. Vegan Heartland (who you can find both on Facebook and Twitter) had a recipe for ‘Vegan Screw Up Cake’ which I screwed up further by not having ingredients and having to swap and the first time it was awesome. But Nanci Alexander must have had me in mind by putting the recipe for the Coconut Cake in her cookbook. I could have kissed her for the taste of this cake! So, I urge you, take the time to go to Sublime. Your tastebuds deserve it. And you will not regret it!
SO…my husband and I took a little out of town jaunt to Fort Lauderdale, FL for our anniversary. Why Fort Lauderdale you may ask? Well, let me tell you. Fort Lauderdale is home to the completely AMAZING Vegan Restaurant Sublime. And I say completely amazing in forsight and hindsight. How could a place like Sublime be NOT good when everything I have read and heard says it’s wonderful. Well, it IS wonderful. We arrived later on a Friday afternoon into the city. We freshened up at our hotel and then headed over to Sublime to hit happy hour. We arrived at the start of a torrential downpour and horrible thunderstorm. From the outside, Sublime looked pretty normal, low key, and nice.
When we arrived inside, the gorgeous room and décor immediately impressed me. The set up is roomy and feels free and airy. There are waterfalls on the far wall, near the parking lot on glass windows. They look absolutely gorgeous, and are soothing. The restaurant inside presents itself as a very high class and sophisticated place. But there is no pretentiousness in it. The dress for patrons is casual, so you can go in your jeans and flip flops and feel perfectly welcome; or you can arrive in business casual clothing and still feel like your dress is suited to the restaurant. I was surprised that at about 5:30 the restaurant was still pretty quiet. We went and sat down at the bar, and were greeted by Spencer, the wonderful bartender. I got the ‘Roll Out the Red Carpet’ flight of red wines to try and my husband got a Watermelon Margarita. I will say that my red wines were ALL amazing, and I felt like the red carpet had been rolled out by the service we received! My husband absolutely LOVED his Margarita as well.
Next out came the pesto polenta; and oh my word. There is no way to describe the flavor of the pesto polenta. I love pesto, I love basil and I’ve never been a big fan of polenta. But, the flavor of the pesto polenta is absolutely amazing. The texture isn’t gritty like a polenta, but almost spongy. SO incredible. And the best part is that Sublime gives this as a free dish.
We then ordered some appetizers: the Broccomoli dip and the Gardein sliders. The sliders were absolutely to die for. I am a huge fan of Gardein but have never had a burger like this since I became vegan. The flavor and the cheesiness of the sliders, the perfecty sized individual sliders and wonderful flavorful buns were the BEST burer I have had since I became a vegan. I almost didn’t want to eat anything else, but wanted to order another slider plate. The Broccomoli dip was great as well. The texture was almost like hummus, and had a great flavor. And the flatbread that came with it was also the best we’ve ever had, vegan or otherwise.
I ended up with a glass of the Shiraz (an 09 Australian) and Dave got a Mojito to finish up happy hour. Then for dinner I ordered the Pesto Pizza on whole wheat crust and Dave ordered the Singapore Street Noodles. Oscar was our server, and he was very knowledgeable about the menu and recommended our meals to us. My Pesto Pizza was incredibly delicious. I had 4 of the 6 pieces and decided to save room for dessert. Dave finished just a bit more than half of his Singapore Street Noodles. I loved the rich texture and boldness of the pesto on the pizza. The street noodles were nice and light and the vegetables were very fresh, even though they’d been lightly fried.
For dessert I had the chocolate nirvana cake and Dave went for the key lime cheesecake. It was more of a cheesecake and less key-limey, per Dave, but it was still delicious. I couldn’t get more than a few bites of the cake in, because it was so rich that I could not eat too much at once. It was delicious though. So we boxed everything up for either breakfast or a midnight snack and finished our first visit to Sublime.
My summary: Sublime was absolutely the correct name to choose for this restaurant. It’s food is sublime, as is the atmosphere and service. Nanci Alexander, the owner, can be found at any given moment speaking to different tables to see how their food is and how their evening is. For a woman that has been featured by media for years and is in the vegan world a pretty big star, she doesn’t allude to having as much authority as even the restaurant owner. She is kind, funny and down to earth. She made each customer feel like they were a friend. She genuinely cared about our experience when she stopped by and was absolutely delightful, as was our entire experience. And a random note to finish it on: I LOVE the wash wash wash your hands music in the restroom!!!
October 8th, 2011 my husband and I decided to grab a quick pizza from Pizza Fusion as they offer quite a good vegan selection of pizza. I got the Ultimate Vegan pizza on whole wheat which had: roasted garlic, onion, portabella mushrooms and Daiya mozzarella. Dave got the Farmer’s Market Pizza on whole wheat which had: zucchini, artichoke, crimini mushrooms, onions, and Daiya mozzarella. The pizza was good, but it was not as good as Sublime and not nearly as good as Gourmet Pizza Company in Tampa. I don’t have much to say about this experience, I did like that you could get a small sized pizza and the entire pizza was under 400 calories. But it was a bit greasy, which I really disliked, and the crust had a funky aftertaste to it. Something sweet in it and I couldn’t quite place it. I would definitely try it again, but I might have regular crust instead.
October 8th 2011 our vegan food experience in Fort Lauderdale continued. We made our way to Green Wave Organic Café for lunch. I ordered the cheeseburger and Dave ordered the open-faced hummus sandwich. We both started off with some tomato pizza flavored soup. It was wonderful. It was a lovely and very flavorful. We both preferred one another’s meals to the one we ordered. I liked the cheeseburger, but the vegetables on the open-faced hummus sandwich were so fresh and flavorful that I was in love! I also tried some new tea and had a Blueberry Lemon Tea for lunch. It was an absolutely delightful place, very clean and bright inside. And the family that runs it and served us was wonderful. The prices were great, they had a nice selection and everything was presented so beautifully. The other thing I liked was that they offered a pretty large selection, for the small size the café itself is, of natural foods and supplements to purchase. I would definitely head to Green Wave Café again, as it was time and money well spent. And there was far more lovely food we have yet to try on the menu!
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