San Francisco | San Francisco Bay Area Vegetarian

It’s hard to live up to great expectations. That is a curse that Millennium has to deal with. They’ve become known as the “French Laundry” of veganism. While that is great for bringing the guests in, it’s also easy for them to leave disappointed. I was one of those customers on my first visit.

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?

Millennium Restaurant

580 Geary St
San Francisco, 94102

(415) 345-3900

Gourmet Vegan

Overall: 4/5
Value: 3/5
Location: 5/5
Taste: 5/5
Vegetarian Options: 5/5
Vegan Options: 5/5
Meat-Eating Friend Friendly: 2/5

Best Burger, Vegan? (sfist.com)
Reading Food Labels: Certified Vegan (wholefoodandmore.net)
“Uncooked, organic foods such as raw sauerkraut, flaxseed and searingly hot habanero peppers.” (althouse.blogspot.com)
Top Chef Brings on the Vegetables and Natalie Portman! (takepart.com)
Clean Plates NYC: Eating Well and Healthy in the Big Apple (takepart.com)
How to Eat Vegan & Vegetarian During DineLA (laist.com)
The Must-Have Vegetarian Cookbooks (fitsugar.com)
What the Last Meal Taught Him (nytimes.com)

I’ve landed. I’ve just returned to the Bay Area after two years in Paris, the city of lights and surprisingly good vegetarian dinners. I’m not sure why it is surprising, Parisians love food and fresh, local ingredients. It’s only natural that some of the dishes and options are vegetarian.

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.