Veggies Galore

One of my fave lunch spots in Harvard Square is Veggie Planet - as you can guess by its name it is a vegetarian restaurant, with lots of vegan options/alternatives as well, and they've been open for over a decade. They have daily specials in addition to a great menu of dishes that can be put on top of pizza dough, coconut rice or brown rice, plus salads, soups and other entrees like mac and cheese and peanut udon noodle salad. I like their lunch special - 1/2 pizza with salad or soup, and my go-to is their "Henry's Lunch" - roasted butternut squash, caramelized onions, rosemary and sage, goat cheese and asiago on pizza crust. Vegetarians and meat eaters alike can find something tasty and very filling for lunch here. I've never ventured to try their brunch so when they decided to open a sit down, diner style version of their restaurant in Central Square I was quick to try it out. Veggie Galaxy is a diner style restaurant with many of the same great concepts as their smaller Veggie Planet, but with all kinds of new menu options as well to keep the two menus a bit different.

Veggie Planet - 47 Palmer Street, Harvard Square

Veggie Galaxy - 450 Massachusetts Ave, Central Square

My friend and I ventured there during the Head of the Charles weekend thinking that since it was outside the main Harvard area - it would be less crowded. We were right! No line on a Sunday morning at 11:30am for brunch - I'll take it! It took us a really long time to read our way through the menu - and so many of the items sounded good. My usual indecision led me to a toss up between savory and sweet.

Ultimately I landed on sweet - surprise, surprise. Stuffed French Toast with banana nut vegan cream cheese, topped with caramelized banana butter, strawberry basil sauce and maple syrup. It was delicious - I would definitely order again, but I'll admit that I couldn't taste the basil in the strawberry sauce. I would've preferred fresh strawberries chopped up on top I think. It was a good size portion too - plenty for brunch. The "vegan cream cheese" didn't taste weird either - tasted normal and tasty!

My friend was a bit more adventurous than I - she went for an omelette - and even made it a "tofu omelet." I don't think it really tasted like eggs - though I'm not sure it was supposed to. It tasted good, but not like eggs. She went for the "Cambridge Street," an omelette with chipotle black beans, roasted red pepper puree, vermont jack cheese, sweet corn, shallot and apple salsa - though she made some changes to it besides making it a tofu one: she substituted the red pepper puree with sweet potato mash, which I think was a great idea. It was a little spicy for me - but I think maybe without the beans and with eggs instead I would've been quite pleased! So head on over to either of these two places and I'm sure you can find something you'll enjoy!