Road Trip Restaurant Review: Mango Mango in Amherst, MA

We love Sunday drives, and this past Sunday, we were blessed with a beautiful, sunny, almost warm day.  We decided to take a quick little drive and ended up meandering all the way out to Amherst.  It was almost 2 PM by the time we got there, and our usual western Mass stop, Cafe Evolution, closes up shop at 2 after serving brunch on Sunday.  (And what a brunch it is.  Their bread alone is worth the trip, and someday I will take pictures and share them.)  So we found ourselves looking into other choices.  Mango Mango showed up on our iPhone app VegOut, but it had no reviews, so we weren't sure how it would be, but we decided to be brave and try it anyway.  And boy are we glad we did!

Mango Mango is a counter-service type place, where you go up front and order from the big board, pay, and sit down, and they bring out the food when it's ready.  A group of folks left right when we came in (I can't tell you if it's because I was wearing sweatpants or because they had finished their meal), leaving us with the whole place to ourselves.  The restaurant does serve meat, but there are a large number of vegetarian items available, as well as a respectable number of vegan options and gluten-free choices, all clearly marked.  

Instead of engaging in a fist fight over who would order the tempeh taco, John was the better person and let me get it.  It came with either chips or a side salad, and being that I have been pigging out on chips lately like the emotional eater that I am, I went for the side salad.  We had a seat with our drinks (John got a soda and I opted for a Hibiscus Cooler, which was noted as one of their house-brewed teas), and only waited for maybe ten minutes before the food came out, which was a pleasant surprise.

John has been on a curry kick lately, which you will see when I post another restaurant review this week, and he opted for the West Coast Curry with tempeh.  It was served over short grain brown rice.  The flavor and spice on this dish was excellent, and it had potatoes and haricot verts, which I thought was interesting and unique and made this stand out from a regular curry.

Meanwhile, my salad and tempeh taco.  Ho. ly. Wow.  This was so good, I am going to have trouble verbalizing.  First, the salad was delicious and fresh, with what tasted like a ginger-sesame dressing that was wonderfully light.  I could probably have eaten a much larger portion of just the salad alone.  The taco is actually these giant tempeh chunks with what I would describe as a teriyaki-type sauce, with guacamole, lettuce, and tomato wrapped in a soft naan-like bread.  It was so great, I see myself wanting to go back weekly to get one.

In addition to the pretty great selection of options, I have to give this place major kudos for what they do with tempeh.   John has never been much of a fan, and I have had mixed responses to tempeh, but we went to Whole Foods after we ate and bought a couple packages because we fell so much in love with this tempeh.  (Now I just have to figure out how to make it taste that good at home.)  Combining that tempeh deliciousness with the speed of service, I have to think that they have a magic wand back in the kitchen that they are making the food with.

Mango Mango serves lunch and dinner, but if these are the portion sizes for both meals, I think it's probably more of a lunch place.  The price was fabulous, only $22 for both our meals and drinks, and it's BYOB, if you are into that sort of thing, which I am but only when I don't have to drive home.  One other nitpick, which shows how spoiled I am by the number of vegan-friendly places in my area, was that they didn't have a non-dairy milk or creamer for coffee, so I hope that they will consider adding that in the future.  Otherwise, this is a definite recommend!

Sahara Restaurant

For Christmas this year, my work team got me a gift certificate to Sahara Restaurant, a Lebanese place on Highland Street in Worcester.  What can I say--they know what I like! Not to mention, they are fantastic people, and they are the main reason I consider myself to have a pretty decent job.

Before I went vegan, I was the most boring person on the planet as far as food is concerned, and John was too.  We used to eat at your standard American type places: burgers, fries, deep fried appetizers, etc.  We did occasionally get Indian or Chinese, but these trips were more the exception than the rule.  Now that we eat plant-based, we have opened ourselves up to ethnic foods a lot more, and it has been great.  John's definite favorite is Indian food; he would eat samosas for every meal!  I love Indian too, and we both enjoy African as well, but my favorite has to be Middle Eastern.  I am a bean fiend, and no chickpea is safe in my presence, so it's the perfect cuisine for me.  

This past week, we decided to use our gift certificate to go to Sahara for an early dinner. Because I always get the falafel sandwich, earlier is better, because after 5 PM, the sandwiches get more expensive (you have to pay a fairly exorbitant markup for a salad, which is pretty standard around here at the other Lebanese places as well).  Apologies for the iPhone pictures; we headed straight to the restaurant after John picked me up from work, so I forgot the camera.  I would probably call this meal bean overload for most people, but for me, it was heaven.

We started with the falafel appetizer as well as a plate of hummus with ful mudammas, which is a fava bean and chickpea mixture with lemon, garlic, tomato, onion and parsley. So to recap, fried bean balls and bean dip with beans on top.

Falafel appetizer with tahini sauce

Hummus with Ful Mudammas

For our meals, John probably wisely decided to break up the bean party by ordering the vegetarian Sheik El Mishi (this is their spelling on the menu; I've seen it called El Mashi elsewhere), which is an eggplant and tomato sauce dish, delicately spiced and served over rice pilaf.

This smile says, please take the picture so I can eat.  :)

I, on the other hand, have no concept of too much of a good thing, so I got my falafel sandwich, served with garlicky pita chips.

Falafel rolled in flatbread with lettuce, tomato, tahini sauce, and mixed pickle

As if you hadn't realized this already, I am a huge falafel fan, and I will try it from everyone to see how it measures up.  At the moment, Sahara's falafel is the standard by which all others are measured.  It's super crispy (I think it's twice fried, so it's also probably super-unhealthy, but I'm not going to a restaurant for health food usually), and it tastes just right to me.  It's great on its own and in the sandwich, depending on your taste.  I love the sandwich because it contains the mixed pickle, which I asked about, and was told it's a homemade pickle made of turnips and a beet thrown in, which gives it that beautiful pink color.  The pickled turnip just sets it right over the edge.  El Basha and Fantastic's Pizza--also in Worcester--do serve excellent falafel, and I have heard (from my similarly falafel-addicted friend Pam) that a new contender has just shown up on the scene, with the opening of Firewood Cafe, so I am looking forward to trying it as well.  So far though, Sahara just does it for me.  

So, the food at Sahara is a definite recommend.  Beyond the meal we had this time, other veggie options include the Mixed Vegetable Saute entree and the Vegetarian Platter, where you can combine a number of the veggie appetizers to make a meal, including the delicious stuffed grape leaves.  (It's not on the menu, but if you ask, your server will get them to make you a grape leaves entree.)  It's got a nice atmosphere as well, the folks who work there are pleasant and friendly, and it has its own parking lot, which is kind of a big deal on Highland Street, since there is limited street parking in the area.  The major drawback is price, as I do find Sahara to be on the expensive side, especially if you add beer or wine to your meal.  It's not a place we would go to every month, but it is nice for a special occasion, when you are in the mood to splurge a bit, both on calories and money.  They sometimes have live music, which makes your dinner an even more special experience, so if you can, plan to visit on one of those nights.