The Blossoming Lotus

Well, we gave it our all and we managed to get to quite a few restaurants. I am sure that I put on more than a few pounds! It may be my imagination, but my clothes feel a bit tighter after this weekend!

Our last Portland Vegan Pick was The Blossoming Lotus. Beautiful space, beautiful food. We walked in as a group and were seated immediately at a high wooden table. The waitress was very friendly and brought over water right away. She was also extremely patient, as we took forever to even determine what we wanted to drink! But eventually we all picked our beers/ciders and the meal began.

I had a terrifically difficult time determining what I wanted to eat. There were just so many delicious choices. In the end I went with the Live Pesto and Portobello Pizza (starting photo). I am completely new to raw food, the only time I have actively tried it was the strawberry cheesecake pie earlier in the weekend, so I was interested in trying something savory and hardy. With my meal I got a salad, which came out first. It was mixed greens with some beat strands on top covered in a gingery/sweet dressing. It was quite delicious. The dressing made everything pop, but only slightly dressed the salad. The pizza was amazing. The spiced tomato and walnut crust did not get soggy beneath the pecan pesto and snapped as I cut into it. The raw roasted portobello mushrooms were extremely flavorful and must have been marinated in some amazing sauce for a long while prior to being placed on my pizza. The pizza was topped with a micro green that tasted a lot like arugula. I also chose the optional creamy cashew cheese sauce which was placed on the side, not on the pizza. It made for a nice occasional dipping sauce, although it was so good that it was most likely used more than just an occasional dip.

My only sad moment was when all the meals started to come out. The Portobello & Vegetable Fajitas were sizzling, spicy and in large quantities. The Four Cheese Lasagna was a large layered piece of goodness. The day's special Live Pasta Primavera with Zucchini and Squash in a tomato sauce (I think) was heaping. And then came out mine, two small pieces of pizza pie. It looked puny next to everyone else's servings. As I typically enjoy eating in larger quantities than that, I was a bit disappointed. Don't get me wrong, the pizza was amazing, but small, even if the salad that came out first had been brought out with it!! I felt a bit stingy as I gave out small bite sized pieces for others to try as they gave me much larger tastes. I rationalized in my head that they understood that I had such a small meal and had to do so or not be able to eat any of it myself!!

The other plates were delicious as well. The Portobello & Vegetable Fajitas was the standout cooked meal (mine the standout raw meal). Each vegetable and grain that was used was flavorful and the whole meal had a bit of a spicy kick to it. There were so many vegetables that the filled corn tortillas quickly disappeared leaving many more vegetables to be eaten with a fork. The sauce that was used was so good that the greens used decoratively under the vegetables were amazing!! I luckily got to get my fork and knife into that bunch of greens, gobbling them all up but savoring them as they went down. The Live Pasta Primavera also carried the same mushrooms as my pizza, so good!! And the Four Cheese Lasagna was the perfect comfort food.

There seemed to be more talking than eating going on at our table in this very laid back, yet classy establishment, but we all managed to finish out plates!! The food and drink were wonderful, as was my company. I'd go back to Blossoming Lotus in a second!
(sorry for the blurry/bad pictures)