118 Degrees Community Cafe (Anaheim) 8.5.14

Have you ever felt good about eating something, but not felt satisfied or happy eating it?  This was my experience tonight with 118 Degrees Community Cafe in Downtown Anaheim. I was actually really excited to try this 118 Degrees location as I've passed the Cafe several times strolling down Center Street, but it's always been closed when I come by.  This is actually where I need to start the review. The hours on both the yelp site & the website linked above are wrong.  I don't know where to find the actual hours.  However, tonight we were told that they closed at 7pm so it's good that we got there early because originally we had intended to arrive at the restaurant at closing time (since the website said they closed at 9pm and the yelp site said 8:30 pm).

We took a long time with the menu because my friend and I are kinda indecisive and everything sounded really delicious.  The woman who worked the counter (and also served us) was very sweet, gave us several recommendations and was patient when we took our time in deciding.  We ended up ordering the pesto stuffed mushrooms, thai spring rolls and the mole enchiladas.  I also ordered an apple, lemon, ginger juice & my friend had a coconut water.

Apple, Lemon, Ginger Juice (not much to look at, but always tasty)

The juice was fresh juice. I love fresh juice so there isn't much to say about that except that they make an excellent juice.  I know juice is expensive because I also juice at home so it's a $5 juice and it was yummy.

Thai Spring Rolls: Housemade wrap rolled with carrots, cucumber, avocado, squash, coconut

Served with avocado lime dipping sauce

So, the waitress had recommended this and it sounded delicious--I mean, it's basically lots of stuff I'd put in a great salad in a wrap with some dipping sauce that would make a great dressing, right? Not exactly.  My friend tried the sauce first and she was like, "Um, it's kinda...bland" which it was--there wasn't any zip to the dressing (the lime was very hidden and the avocado was pretty muted).  The veggies themselves, while fresh, didn't have a ton of flavor either, so it was just eating a lot of flavorless textured food.  I want to justify the fact that I love vegetables and their natural flavors.  These just didn't stand out to me. 

Next, we had the mole enchiladas: 

Mole Enchiladas: Served in a spicy tomato coconut wrap, mole chipotle cheese, marinated Spanish squash, carrots & avocado -- topped with spicy enchilada sauce and salsa

So, for both my friend and I, the tomatillo salsa (pictured to the far left in the shot) completely stole the show and practically the entire meal.  It was bright with some heat, but really fresh. It had a great texture, chunkiness of the tomatillos with the bite of jalapeño. So yum.  That salsa was what I had hoped for the meal as a whole.  The rest of enchiladas were okay.  There was red pepper and corn in the enchilada in addition to the squash and carrots and the wrap wasn't really a spicy tomato wrap. It was fine, but not the flavor sensation that I had hoped for.  Thank goodness for the salsa. 

Pesto stuffed mushrooms: Pistachio pesto stuffed crimini mushrooms, served warm with farm marinara

The sauce didn't taste like a marinara (I don't like it when something has a name that is supposed to be "representative" of a particular flavor, but it's not that at all), but the pesto was amazing and the mushrooms were great.  I loved the finish of the pistachio pesto and the way it left a nutty aftertaste on the palate.  Although there wasn't a lot of textural variety in this dish, it was flavorful overall. 

At the end of our meal, it was past closing time (7:25 on a school night...oh wait...nevermind), I was still pretty hungry (luckily, Hans' Homemade was on the way home so we stopped in and got ice cream and I came home full), and my friend (who bought my dinner) was out $40.  I felt good that I had eaten a living foods vegan meal, but with all the amazing restaurant choices in the area, I can't say that I'd ever come back.  So, the quest for amazing vegan food continues.  I'll just stick to making myself fantastic tomato salads at home for the moment.  Happy Eating Everyone!