. . . Restaurant, that is. This lovely Veg restaurant in Middletown, CT is most awesome. Middletown is probably best known as the home to Wesleyan University (which is the alma mater of my musical hero, Dar Williams). The college atmosphere in the town lends itself very nicely to the It’s Only Natural Restaurant. It’s a sit down/table service restaurant with a beer and wine menu (I wasn’t drinking this afternoon, so I didn’t get around to asking if all of their beer and wine is vegan, so I can’t vouch for that). All of their food is vegan except for the cheese (including the soy cheese- it’s one with caesin), though very few of the items on their menu included cheese. All the desserts are vegan.
It’s very cute inside the restaurant. The atmosphere is very soothing (Bebel Gilberto music was playing overhead). There’s an outdoor patio, but my fair skin had already exceeded its limit for sun exposure for the day, so I sat inside, lest I leave very burned.
I skipped over the appetizers (though they all looked really good), and ordered a Cajun Tempeh Sandwich with Sweet Potato Fries.
Excellent. I’m not generally a huge fan of sweet potato fries- I often find them to be rather dry- but these were great. They were crisp on the outside, soft on the inside. Plus they had bits of parsley on them, which is always a plus in my book.
Note: I could not finish this.
As I said before, all the desserts are vegan. That made choosing a dessert difficult!
I chose the chocolate hazelnut cake à la mode. The ice cream was vanilla Rice Dream, which I’m not crazy about, but I have to have some sort of ice cream with a cake like this! I have not had a dessert like this since I was vegetarian, so it was most welcome. And delicious!
Note: I could not finish this, either.
Prices were maybe a little high for students, but I suppose in the grand scheme of things these days, it’s not so bad. I actually thought dessert prices were pretty reasonable. You also get a lot of food (though I’d prefer to get less food and be charged less, but hey, what do I know?).
I will definitely go back the next time my travels take me up that way!
