Red Lentil Vegetarian and Vegan Restaurant New Haven

On Friday I headed over to New Haven, for a one-day work-related conference at the Omni-New Haven Hotel. I was happy enough to be going to New Haven to check out a couple of my favorite places there, but I was also excited to check out the new Veg restaurant in town- Red Lentil– which just happens to be a couple of doors down from the Omni. Once I knew I was going, I decided that was what I was doing for lunch!

As it turns out, lunch was served as part of the registration price at the conference, so I ended up going by myself, as my colleagues that I was with decided to stay for the free one. At least one turned out to be pretty jealous, as the hotel sandwiches turned out to not be very good. 🙂

Red Lentil is more or less an upscale American cuisine restaurant, with some Asian and European influences. The lunch menu is fairly simple, so I ended up ordering a combo of appetizers and sides, since I knew it would be a while before I would be able to get there again. I was not disappointed!

I started off with a house salad. Of course, salad would have been an option had I stayed at the conference for lunch, but this was just the tip of the iceberg! (Har har.)

I also ordered Sesame Encrusted Seitan Strips. They were phenomenal! They were served with a horseradish sauce. The waitress said to go easy with it because it was really hot, but I think she’s just a wimp. Don’t worry, I still left a good tip. 😉

I also went with the sweet potato fries. They are very thick cut, with a crisp skin outside and creamy-soft inside. Served with barbecue sauce. Delish!

I had to get back to the conference, so I got a piece of carrot cake to go. It was light and fluffy, not dense like most carrot cakes, but very carrot-y! The frosting wasn’t overly sweet, either. Good cake, in my opinion! My colleagues who stayed for the free lunch did not enjoy their (hotel-served) cakes as I did mine. 🙂

I only wish that I could have gone back for dinner, because the dinner menu looks off the hook.

It’s important to know that this is not an entirely vegan restaurant, but it looks as though almost everything can be prepared vegan, and many items are gluten-free or can be prepared gluten-free as well.