Less Exciting Than Cookin'

Before I went to Cookin' today, I had myself some lunch with my lonesome at Herbivore.  Now, I don't want to hate on anything vegan, especially something that is fairly well-known, and been around for awhile.  And let me preface this by saying I've only been here a grand total of 3 times, and none of those times have I gone all out in the manner that I usually do when visiting a vegan joint that is new to me.  So for instance, while at Millenium for the first time I managed to test at least 2 appetizers, 3 entrees, and 2 desserts thru the skillful planning and huge feedbags of my friends and I, even though I've  been to Herbivore 3 times, I've only tried 4 things.  Getting the picture? So now that I've explained why my Herb. experience might be a little shortsighted let me go ahead and speak what's on my mind...is it just me, or does Herbivore kinda suck? They have the word grill in their title, but nothing I've ever had there has been hot, luke warm across the board.  That's including the grilled veggie appetizer and the Black Bean soup of the day that I had for lunch today.  Then there's the bruschetta app. I've had before (which technically doesn't need to be served warm, i guess), and my sammich which described grilled tempeh, which again, could reasonable be served cold, but the fact that it was luke warm leads me to believe that perhaps it should have been hot.  I dunno.

On top of this, the waitress was uninspired.  My afterglow from Cookin' is going to keep me from climbing up on my service industry soapbox, but I just really have no appreciation for someone that is going to completely half-ass their job and then expect a tip for it.  After being a bitch to the restaurant world for the last ten years I'm going to share a secret, something that I myself invented.....it's called the checkback.  OH WAIT!! I didn't invent that: call it common sense, call it corporate training, call it being a good server.....if you drop off my food and I don't hear a word from you until you drop off my bill, you suck.  What if there was a problem with my food (despite it just being mediocre)? What if I needed a condiment? What if I wanted another beverage? or dessert? You don't know, because you never bothered to check back with me.  And by the way, part of the perk of any restaurant, and I assume definitely a vegan restaurant, is the fact that you can eat at your job! But don't do it in front of me.  Do it in the server  aisle where everyone else is eating, or the breakroom.  You don't even need to wash your hands before coming  back to me, I'm not weird about that kind of thing, but don't feed yourself with your hands and then drop off my food.  GROSS!

*Climbs off soapbox*  Anyway, I'll probably give it another try, maybe an entree (although lord help them if that's not HOT), but to be completely honest I went to Jay's Cheesesteak the day before, which is not vegan, but has vegan options, and I was much  more pleased with the food and the service.  More on that later.