PeeWee Bday Lunch at Peacefood 10-19-2009

Location: 460 Amsterdam Ave.
Time: 1pm
People: Showtime Ops! (PeeWee, SaSha, AP and myself)

Feelings: To celebrate PeeWee's birthday, we went back to the vegan spot, Peacefood in the Upper West Side. The weather was perfectly warm and sunny, and we sat at our table right where the sun hits us directly. We still don't quite understand if they only do counter service, or they do table service here. Last time we were here, we had a waiter. This time, we ordered at the counter, but our waiter brought us our food.

All of us except the birthday boy ordered the pan seared Shanghai style dumplings ($7). They were quite delicious homemade dumplings with Chinese chives, shiitake, and wood ear mushrooms. It is hard to find flavorful vegetable dumplings, but they were able to bring out a lot of flavor from mushrooms. SaSha thought the wrapper was a little thick but crispy. She also enjoyed the dipping sauce.

I tried to order their soup du jour, lentil soup, but they were out...at 1pm. Who knew there was a mass craving for lentil soup today. With much disappointment, I ordered the potato soup instead. Unfortunately it was a bit bland and nothing too special. On the other hand, SaSha enjoyed her roasted potato pizza ($9.95) stating that after adding some salt on it, it had a very earthy flavor with potatoes, mushrooms and truffle oil. The bitterness from arugula also made it more interesting. There was supposedly pesto sauce as well, but she did not taste much of it.

PeeWee ordered tamale and asian green salad with baked tempeh. The tempeh was soft and actually not disgusting like many store bought tempeh we have tasted before.

Food is definitely solid here with interesting vegan twists on many popular dishes. I just still do not understand how I am supposed to order here or where I am supposed to sit. And as I mentioned in my previous post, the service is extremely slow as many vegan restaurants are.
Also, don't sit by the front where the sun directly hits your face unless you want to get sunburned.