Jodie’s is soul food with the emphasis on soul. You’ll get fed with love and pride. The menu is filled with vegetarian options If you can’t choose, just ask for “nothing with something, minus the meat.”

The food at Jodies is quite unique. The owner is proud to tell you that there’s no other restaurant with the same dishes. These are all figments of their imagination.

The recipes are filled with flavor from slow cooking and real spices. Don’t even think of adding ketchup or syrup to your dishes until you’ve tasted them au naturel.

Jodie’s is not for everyone. It’s tiny, cramped, and bohemian. You will end up chatting with everyone that has found a space inside or at the sidewalk tables. This is not the place to enjoy a long breakfast with a book and solitude. This is where you go when you want something unique, flavorful, and enjoy the company of new friends.

Although Jodie’s is tiny and cramped, it is still somewhat accessible. A wheelchair could not get to the bathroom. However, there is outdoor seating and there is no step to enter the restaurant. There are no braille menus, but asking for advice is half the fun.

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Dinner at the Millennium - Photo by Tomeppy - Creative Commons

Don’t get me wrong, Millennium has great food. Scratch that, they have excellent food. More surprisingly the food happens to be vegan and  innovative. What more could I have expected? A religious experience?

I was given a gift certificate for Christmas last year and made a return trip. This time my expectations were not in the stratosphere and I truly enjoyed the meal.

Honest Vegan Food

We’ve all seen the vegetarian or vegan version of a meat dish. We can eat shitake burgers, tu-no casserole, mock duck curry, and the list goes on. Millennium is not trying to re-invent meat dishes with other proteins. Their dishes explore the vegan proteins to see what new dishes can be created.

For example, the basket of bread arrives with a spread that doesn’t try to be butter. It’s got a personality of its own. Keep this in mind when visiting the restaurant. Don’t try to compare it to meat restaurants, look at the dishes on their own merit.

Expectations

You can expect to pay $60-100 for dinner (2 people), not including wine. The dishes are seasonal so you may want to make that big visit in Spring or Summer to get the best produce. Although it would be a great place to have dinner after a long day of holiday shopping. Heck, you’ve already blown your budget at Macy’s why not go all the way?

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Vicky’s specializes in Salvadorian cuisine and we ordered everything. I’ve been a loyal Vicky-ite since the first bite.

There are several must-try dishes at Vicky’s. They have a fruit salad drink, horchata insalada, which features finely minced apples, oranges and other fruits in a sweet water. You’ll drink it with a spoon to get all of the fruit.

They also specialize in pupusas, which are stuffed corn cakes. There are several vegetarian varieties, I like the bean and cheese, zucchini, and vegetarian pupusas. You’ll also want to try the fried plaintains with sour cream and beans.

Vicki’s now features a vegetarian plate. This includes a pupusa, corn tamale, and a rice/beans combination.  Frankly, I’m not impressed with the tamale, so I would recommend ordering a la carte.

That’s Entertainment

While Vicky’s is a great restaurant any day of the week, you don’t want to miss karaoke night on Fridays. You’ll enjoy the crooning attempts by local friends and aspiring Julio Iglesias crooners. The MC fills in the quiet moments and keeps the party going. I have not sung myself, but I do enjoy the show.

Vicky’s is located near the Falafel Drive-in. You may find it hard to pass this landmark but Vicky’s is worth driving a few extra blocks.

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In the back of my mind I hoped I’d never come across this monster on a menu. And then it happened. La Casita Chilanga sells corn smut tacos. I was stuck. I had to order them.

La Casita Chilanga – Mexico City Style

First off, lets back up to the joint in general. It’s a small Mexican restaurant in Redwood City. The parking is ok, depending on the time of day. Their closest competition is  a Peruvian restaurant.

You won’t find the standard list of tacos and burritos at a Mexican City style place. Look for tortas and slow cooked meals instead. There are a couple Mexico-city style restaurants in San Diego that I base my experiences with: Super Cocino and Chilangos. La Casita Chilanga has built their customer base by selling enormous tortas (sandwiches filled with meat and other toppings).

Eating Vegetarian at La Casita Chilanga

La Casita Chilanga has a few vegetarian options. But like most Mexican restaurants, the majority of the menu is meat based. I had the corn smut tacos, a friend had the veggie tostadas, and another friend had a meat torta.

I was really looking forward to eating the smut. However, I can’t tell you what it tasted like. There was enough to turn the taco black, but not enough to establish a flavor. The cheese and salsa were much more prominent. The texture didn’t even help. Over all, I was disappointed. I can’t really say that I’ve experienced the elusive Mexican Truffle.

My friend Jim cannot handle spicy foods, so he requested the veggie tostadas to be mild. Unfortunately they were quite spicy and he couldn’t get past a single bite of food. I tried them and thought they were ok but not spectacular.

Our meat-eating friend was quite happy with his torta. I can’t remember what creature was inside or how it was prepared. It was probably al pastor.

Overall, I’d say this was a good choice for your meat eating friends who are looking for something other than a taco shop in the Redwood City area. I wouldn’t plan another trip. I think the next time I am in the area I will try the Peruvian restaurant or a great Thai place around the corner.

While in Paris, I created the popular Paris Vegetarian blog. This also led to Insider Food, a local food search engine. So now that I’m in San Francisco, it only makes sense to carry on the tradition of eating and blogging.

Look for restaurant reviews and advice for tourists and those that live in this neck of the woods. I’ve lived in the Bay Area before and enjoy the wide spectrum of options. So this should be fun eating from Castroville to Sonoma.

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