My neighborhood in Decatur, GA offers a ton of veggie friendly food options. We have a pub, South American, Mexican, Irish, Italian, pizza, panini and coffee shop food spots within 2 blocks from our house. This post I’ll be talking about Saba, my neighborhood Italian restaurant. Since my first visit in October of 2009, I have gone back tri*monthly for the excellent (and reasonably priced) brunch, lunch and dinner menu.

Whenever I go for brunch I always get the tofu scramble ($5.95). What an incredible price for whole wheat toast, tofu scramble, potatoes and 2 pieces of soysage. They also have vegan french toast and a $4 mimosa, bloody mary and blood mary bar. I pretty much want to go every Sunday (brunch hours are Saturday and Sunday from 10-3).

My first trip in was to celebrate my boyfriend and I’s 4 year anniversary. Once the staff found out it was our anniversary they had us multiple glasses of wine to taste test, gave us incredible service and even brought us complimentary dessert (home made cannolis and tiramisu cheesecake). I always order the Vegan Vindaloo Pasta off the dinner menu (I request buckwheat noodles and add broccoli and onions). Pastas come with a side of bread, sandwiches are ginormous and come with a salad and anything you order is going to be delicious.

Anytime I can support my community I do.  I am a strong believer in voting with your dollar which is why I shop at the Dekalb Farmers Market, visit local restaurants and breweries and pay special attention to my community’s pet shelters and gardens.  One of my favorite spots in my neighborhood of Oakhurst village is Mojo Pizza N Pub.  The staff is awesome, they have daily beer/drink/food specials and weekly events (like trivia).  If you’re vegetarian, they have tons-o-options.  For us vegans, we can do cheeseless slices, salads or the vegetable sandwich.  I always get my vegetable sandwich stocked full of pesto and marinara sauce. It’s…incredible.

Rainbow Natural Foods is a grocery store in Decatur that is very similar to Sevananda.  Rainbow has a hot and cold bar and even a little room where you can sit and eat once you’ve purchased your items.  It has mostly vegan food and the selection is outstanding (I saw Tofurkey jerky!)! There are prepared raw meals in the deli section (even raw granola bars!), as well as vegan and vegetarian ones.  It’s a small place and is very organic and natural.  If you use your debit card you should try to purchase at least $10.  They get charged more from the third party when the purchase is under $10–they’ll still run but they will let you know for next time. Anyone who is in Decatur should check it out!

Yoforia is a delicious fro-yo place located on N Highland Ave in Atlanta.  It is a direct descendant of Pinkberry.  You can get this delicious non fat yogurt in multiple flavors including: green tea, blueberry, mango, plain, dark chocolate and pomegranate.  You can get up to 3 toppings and they range from fruit to tasty kiddy cereal snacks.  I got 1/2 green tea yogurt and 1/2 pomegranate yogurt with blueberry, almond and granola on top.   It was incredible! I have also tried to blueberry yogurt and it was outstanding! Yoforia is not vegan but it’s a tasty snack for an every once in awhile treat.  Added bonus: no HFCS or partially hydrogenated crap!

I love our new neighborhood! The Oakhurst square in Decatur is full of life every day and night. There are several restaurants and bars, a shoe store, gym, mechanic and dry cleaners. The other night we walked over to Nectar for some smoothies and a meal.

I created my own smoothie with OJ, frozen bananas, frozen strawberries and frozen peaches. For my meal I ordered the Hearts of Palm salad with the dressing on the side. It was a really good salad and the first time I had hearts of palm on top of some field greens. Every salad at Nectar is topped with red onions, tomatoes, home made croutons and raw pumpkin seeds. My salad came with a side of toasted mutilgrain panini bread.

Loren ordered the detox juice (lemon, ginger and carrot) and the veggie panini. The panini had cooked eggplant, zucchini, red onions, tomatoes, pesto and havarti cheese.

I went to Nectar on a Saturday morning to get a breakfast panini (egg white, Tofutti vegan cheese, veggie sausage) along with some friends and we had about an hour long wait. There were tons of people waiting for food and only 3 people working. They only have 1 panini press and 1 blender inside and there was a festival in the square that day so I understood the wait.  If you read the (1) review on Yelp that person said they waited 45 minutes for their sandwich so I have to assume there is usually a wait. When we went for dinner we were the only people there so it was quick and easy.

If you’re lucky enough to grab a meal during their down time it’s amazing. The options range from meat eaters to raw foodists and the presentation is outstanding. They have soy cheese and vegan cheese, veggie sausage, raw juice and smoothies, fresh wheat grass shots and their website claims to have raw meals on the way.

Here’s hoping (but I won’t cross my fingers)!

ZOMG! I can’t believe I went my whole life without eating Indian food! Loren took me to Udipi recently and we had the lunch buffet. It’s $7.99 and amazing! The owners are from south India (where they are mostly vegetarian with the exception of fish) and everything is vegetarian and delicious. I can’t wait to go again!

Udipi just moved locations.  The Yelp page says they are on Lawrenceville Hwy in Decatur and once you get there, the new location is posted on the door.  It’s in the same shopping center at the Last Chance Thrift Store.

I have dreams about this food it’s so good. I suggest you expiriement with the different side sauces but my favorite was the white one.  It was a coconut based sauce and was good with almost everything.  The green one had a lot of cilantro and mint flavors to it, the brown was sweet and the reddish orange sauce was very citrusy.  The big bread burrito like rolls pictured were like pancakes and had a potato cream dollup in the middle.  Most everything I had on my plate consisted of potatoes and Loren pretty much had the same thing with the addition of a curry chickpea dish.

We also had a cup of coffee which Loren thought was incredible but I thought was too creamy.  I’m not sure if whole milk was added or half and half but I know it was too much and I won’t order it again.  If you don’t have a problem with milk or cream, go for it! My stomach didn’t appreciate the surprise though…

Walking into Mezcalito’s I was surprised by it’s small size. There are about 10 tables inside, a small patio and then 2 more tables outside sitting basically on the sidewalk. The amount of flavor and deliciousness that comes out of that kitchen amazed me! The rice is green-it’s mixed with a purée of spinach, cilantro and poblano peppers and the house beans are black beans that have almost a smokey flavor to them….they’re incredible.  Mezcalito’s has a variety of veggie friendly items like quesadillas (Super Quesadilla that comes with a side of green rice and a side salad (complete with raw pumpkin seeds!) and a non super one that is served with green rice and black beans), enchiladas, chile relleno, chilaquiles and even a veggie cuban sandwich!!

You don’t get free chips and salsa here, it’s more of a gourmet South American restaurant than your average run of the mill Mexican place. The chips and 2 home made salsas (red and green) are $4 and an order of chips and gauc is $6. The gauc is OuTStAnDinG!!!

We ordered a half pitcher of the silver margaritas ($21) and they’re were very good-not sweet and served with a lemon.

I ordered the veggie enchiladas (pictured) and Loren got the veggie super quesadilla. We split both meals right down the middle so I feel like what I am about to say next is researched.

Veggie Enchiladas > Veggie Super Quesadilla

The Super Quesadilla plate is amazing in it’s own right–the side salad is boss…its worth a purchase but it doesn’t compare to the enchiladas.  The veggies used in the two plates are zucchini, corn, carrot, spinach, onion, green pepper and tomatoes.  I can’t wait to go again!

One word, 10 letters (all the same): Mmmmmmmmmm!!! You wouldn’t think you’d be able to find an amazing raw restaurant in East Point, GA but you can!! Lovin’ It Live is truly an amazing experience.  The following photos are of the Stuffed Avocados, Vitality Soup, House Salad, Lasagna, Sage Burger and Sweet Potato Pie. My partner and his friend went and enjoyed this amazing meal–he brought me home the nachos and they were as amazing as can be imagined.

The rumors are true–Decatur really is Greater. We’re so excited for our upcoming move that we already started celebrating in our new neighborhood’s activities! Last Saturday we found ourselves day drinking in the spirit of the Decatur/Oakhurst/East Atlanta/Virginia Highlands pub crawl!! We started off the crawl at the Universal Joint where I munched on some hummus and veggies (no pita for this chick-I let the boys eat that) and my partner joyfully ate a black bean burger and salad.  The food at the U-Joint is incredible and we couldnt be more excited to have an awesome pub across the street from our new house! The U-Joint has a rockin patio and they allow dogs so I see many-a-nice-nights in my future chillin on the patio with my favorite pup and favorite boy!

I can’t get enough of R. Thomas! For the first time I ordered their raw Walnut Sunflower Pate and was floored by its deliciousness! I must get the recipe!! It is served with some flax chips and a side of raw guacamole with carrot, zucchini and jicama slices.  When ordering this appetizer, be sure you also order an order of flax chips. They only give you about 3 chips with this dip and clearly that is not enough.