Wednesday, June 22, 2011

One Love Cafe

Quite a while ago, John and I stopped by One Love Cafe, a vegan-friendly restaurant here in Worcester.  I dutifully took pictures and made notes, and then never blogged about it. So I figured, why not remedy that now?


We started with the fried plantains.  We first had fried plantains last year when we went to New Orleans Jazz Fest, and one of the tents was serving them with a side of jama-jama, a deliciously simple spinach dish.  John fell totally in love with them, so they seemed like a great appetizer choice.  I don't generally use oil much at home, so this was also a bit of a treat for that reason.  The plantains were cooked perfectly.  John said he would rather eat them than French fries, and for him, there is practically no higher praise!


For my entree, I chose the Rasta Pasta, a tricolor pasta dish with veggies and a cheezy, spicy tomato sauce (sprinkled with Daiya).  It was creamy, fresh and delicious!


John chose a tofu vegetable curry dish with rice.  As you can see it was saucy, and it was spicy without being too hot.  We both cleaned our plates, and washed everything down with a pitcher of water flavored with a watermelon slice.

The service at One Love was outstanding, the food authentic, and the price was great as well.  The small cafe could probably get crowded at certain times of day (we went in the afternoon and it was empty), and the food does take a while to come out (it is cooked to order and there was only one person working when we were there), so if you choose to visit, be sure that you can let yourself give in to the relaxed atmosphere.  Listen to the Jamaican music, smell the spice in the air, and enjoy!

10 comments:

  1. Yum! I love fried plantains! And that pasta looks delicious. We used to have a One Love Cafe in Memphis (no relation, I'm sure) and it was also all-vegan. But it closed down years ago...

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  2. Better than french fries? Gimme! I have quite a habit of taking tons of food pictures, then never getting around to blogging about them.

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  3. What a great name for an Ital/Jamaican/Rasta restaurant! I adore the version of that song on Playing for Change's Peace Through Music CD and DVD!

    I've only had fried plantains in Costa Rica, where they were ubiquitous at breakfasts. Sometimes they were quite plain, other times they were glazed and sweet. I, of course, preferred the sweet ones. :-) What were these like?

    Both of your meals look and sound so delicious, I'd have a hard time choosing between them, never mind the rest of the menu! How nice that you have such a great place to dine right there in Worcester!

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  4. those fried plantains look amazing! I came across a bake plantain recipe - that tastes like baked potatoe apparently. I'll have to pick up some plaintains!

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  5. i love fried plantains! there's a cuban place here that serves them with a garlic cilantro dipping sauce, amazing. the curry looks awesome, too!

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  6. It seems like my fried plantains picture set the internet on fire! Well, not really, but 5 comments is a lot on my little bloggy-wogg. They were delish, much more on the plain side, to answer your question, Laloofah. Silly's in Portland, ME has a plantain dessert that is sweet and I believe has glazed pecans and a caramel-y sauce, which was also awesome. I keep meaning to buy plantains for home and make them, but sometimes I'm scared of new foods :)

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  7. I love the plantains too, I've had them here and they are SO GOOD!! I'm in Worcester too. Jessica from A Fete for Food directed me to your blog as another Worcester foodie. I was totally at Worcester Vegfest too haha. Maybe we will run into each other sometime!

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  8. Also you might enjoy http://bittersweetblog.wordpress.com/ She used to go to Clark and has AMAZING vegan treats, mostly baked goods.

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  9. Gosh, I wish that restaurant was here in D.C. We've got some West Indian restaurants, sure, but these pics are drool worthy.

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