Good evening!
I hope you have had a great weekend. Today we had a fun meet-up at Calico Cafe in Toronto.
I was really excited to enjoy ‘lupper’ with these fabulous ladies.
I love these ladies!!! We had a blast.
In attendance were: Kristin, Angela, Jess, Jenn, Therese, Callie, Susan, Laura, Jenn, and I.
Please don’t mind the dirt on my leg. I swear it wasn’t there when I left the house!
We started off with drinks and were disappointed to find out that none of their juices were fresh and you couldn’t customize anything. Not knowing this, I asked for a veggie juice and was told that would not be possible. Then, I asked for the lemonade without agave and was also told that wasn’t possible.
Lemon water it was!
They serve Brunch all day on Sunday until 4pm.
A bunch of us ordered this Seared Butternut Squash sandwich with sweet potato hummus, rutabaga, and Dijon.
…and none of us liked it.
It basically tasted like oodles of Dijon sandwiched between two pieces of curry flavoured bread. It was a very strange flavour combination.
You know how sometimes you throw together sandwiches and they seem so wrong, but are so right? This was just wrong. I also wasn’t thinking to ask them to hold the Dijon since I don’t eat honey. I tried scraping it off, but it still strongly over-powered the sandwich.
The pan fries also weren’t great…
Same with the salad.
Verdict: Boo.
Others had the crispy tempeh sandwich…
Verdict: It was quite salty and a bit too heavy on the tempeh and not enough veggies.
The Creamy Seitan Omelette:
Verdict: The omelette was pretty good with a weird texture. The potatoes weren’t great.
The tempeh scramble had a good review!
Verdict: It was excellent and tasted like stuffing! lol.
Overall impression:
- The food did not meet expectations
- The menu was very heavy on tofu and tempeh (which is a nightmare for someone who can’t eat much soy).
- The service wasn’t overly friendly and the cafe lacked atmosphere.
- I did love that they grow their own herbs out back…!
To date, nothing compares to Fresh restaurant. Not Fressen, Kindfood, or Calico cafe (click links for my reviews).
Calactus Cafe is a very close runner up to Fresh. The reason why we didn’t go to Fresh for this meet-up is because Fresh doesn’t take reservations and last time we ended up waiting 40 minutes for a table with such a large group.
The company was fabulous and we had a great time chatting away! :biggrin: What a fun group of ladies.
PS- Sketchie says: WHATZZZZ UPPPPP my peeps?
His mad face when I pick him up:
He loathes when I hold him and squirms and digs his claws into me until I put him down. A tear hits the ground and I admit defeat finally putting him back on the ground.
I’m off to finish up some laundry that I started earlier and then plant myself on the couch. I need to rest up for another crazy week ahead.
Have a good night!
What a disappointment! I hate leaving a restaurant unsatisfied with pretty much EVERYTHING.
Yeah, it’s nice when you actually have at least something that you enjoyed.
Too bad about the lunner! I love it when cats get that face, it’s so cute that they have such an attitude!
That is awful that at a restaurant like that you can’t customize. I’m glad the company was enjoyable.
It was great meeting up with you again Angela!! Boo, I didn’t know you guys didn’t care for the sandwiches. Sweet potato hummus still intrigues me though. I really dug the seitan omelette, although I probably wouldn’t compare it to a real egg omelette ;)
You know Calactus will always be #1 in my heart!!
Looks like a fun time even if the food wasn’t the best :-)
This post makes me jealoussssssssss.
Shame the restaurant wasn’t any good. Vegan food is restrictive but it just takes some creativity.
It’s really too bad no one liked the butternut squash sandwich, it sounded like it might be good! I got the tempeh sandwich and actually liked it, though a bit salty. I may go back and try the omlette or scramble at some point. I live so close by, I can’t believe I hadn’t been there before! Didn’t even know about it.
Had such a fun time at the meet up today, was great meeting you! Thanks for the Glo Bars, looking foward to trying them. :)
Oh, boo :-( That is very disappointing to hear. That last smoothie listed sounded good, though. You should got back to try it, haha.
Awww what a disappointment! It’s always a bummer to have a bad restaurant experience. At least you had good company :)
I need that squash sandwich in my life!!! nom nom nom
That’s too bad that your meal wasn’t good – there is nothing worse than paying for a meal at a restaurant and having it be crappy. Boo for sure!
I love your nail colour, and how it matches your dress perfectly! You look beautiful – as always!
Shame about the food but at least the company was great!!!
I know what that’s like – at work, I have to handle puppies and those guys just do not like being picked up! They squirm and whine and nip and howl and cry and make passersby think that you’re hurting them. Little stinkers!
Thanks for putting together such a fun get-together, I had a blast with you ladies :) I’m sorry you didn’t really enjoy the food, I guess I lucked out by switching to the scramble last minute! I think the pictures you have there were actually of the egg scramble, because the tempeh scramble came layered with butternut squash fritters :)
It looks like I really need to check out Fresh – it seems like it always gets rave reviews!
Ok so red is definately one of your colours. I need to know where that dress is from. Please share! :)
Its from target in March 2010 :)
So disappointing! But I’m glad you had a great time with friends anyway.
Makes me so excited for HLS. I’m excited to meet you!
I can’t wait to meet you too! Its so soon
One of our boys makes a similar face when I pick him up…he is definitely not a lap cat! Bummer about our lupper date, but at least you had good friends to make up for the less than stellar menu!
Bummer about the food but you have such a beautiful cat!
You HAVE to try The Vegetarian Haven in Toronto on Baldwin St. It is one of my favorites! It ties in first place with Fresh. I love that I can choose between two awesome restaurants for dinner so I don’t have to choose from one menu all the time!!!
Yes…so I heard today!!! Will have to check them out next time :)