Bloodroot Vegetarian Restaurant

I have many colleagues and friends who love this place. We can openly discuss any topic other than Bloodroot because to them it’s a Fairfield County institution and a kind of shrine and thus unassailable. To a person, the ones who love this place are one of the following: 1) Über-​feminists, 2) über-​organic/​vegans mightily trying to make a statement, 3) have no taste buds and really believe a veggie burger can taste like a real burger, 4) are friends of the owners and feel obligated.
I’ve been there three times, twice for breakfast and once for lunch, and can report, even with a small sample size, that 1) Selma and staff are simply not very good cooks (the absolute worst eggs and sausage I’ve ever had anywhere), 2) almost any Middle Eastern restaurant or even Whole Foods has tastier vegetarian fare, 3) their process of ordering and paying is horribly inefficient, even nonsensical, but the owner is too stubborn to adopt change, 4) the prices — which I suspect are somewhat due to their inefficient organization — are way too high, and 5) if you’re a man and decide to order for yourself rather than letting your woman do it, the chill in the air will freeze your tongue and make you feel about one-​foot high. Although they try so very, very hard to be polite to men, the look and tone are unmistakable.
And NO, my review is not based on any feminist filter — I have feminist friends and have been to many feminist organic restaurants in the past and have praised the food, the difference being their recipes evidenced some talent for cooking.

Ok so I was Syked to come here after hearing all the reviews. It’s very different when u walk in the door I find it very strange that u have to look a chalkboard and decide what u want, there were 6 of us and all trying to decide standing by the front door., with a woman (presuming owner) sitting at a desk collecting the money
If ther was a crowd it would be so confusing. So u order your food, and pay in advance. U serve yourself water, (yes yourself) there’s a station with glasses. Then they call your name n you pick up your food. That’s fine. Until someone wants somethings else. Gotta go back and pay again and the best is — when your done eating u have to clean your own table. We went out to relax. This wasn’t relaxing at all. Felt like a cafeteria and was so hot in ther barely a breeze and no air conditioning.
Ok as far as the food, it was good. But expensive nothing was under $ 18.95 a dish and portions were not huge, but were tasty. This is based on dinner menu
Would I come back, probably not
I can’t imagine what it would be like in a Saturday night when they are busy for dinner. To confusing and awkward. Sorry to say. Overrated.
Oh one more thing, she lets cats roam all over.

Whether you are vegan, vegetarian, or omnivorous, you will enjoy the food here. The owners are lovely, and I like the fact that there are no servers here — I find waiting on tables demeaning. The atmosphere is great for get-​togethers, and very homey. You can actually have conversations without shouting and leisurely enjoy your meal. The food is top notch, always interesting, organic, and gourmet. A real treat! I am especially fond of their brunch.

We recently moved to BlackRock and can’t believe our good fortune to actually live so close we can walk over to BloodRoot. My partner and I love the food and the radical welcome we got from Selma and the staff. The food is delectable, fresh, creative and savory.
Thanksgiving was a FEAST! So good I am going to have to lie to my mother and say I missed the «turkey» meat… (NOT!) Each course was as good as the next —we are going to have to make it a tradition from here on out.
Walk, Run, Drive here for dinner — you will be so glad you did.

One of my all time fav restaurants! Excellent food, lovingly prepared. Casual service and atmosphere contributes to the homey and welcoming feel. Selma and Noël have traveled the world led by a passion for food and arts of all kinds and it is reflected in the eclectic menu. I just had my first Thanksgiving dinner here and plan on making it a tradition. Delicious !

It’s an experience for sure. The lady that owns the place (Selma) is a character. The food is very good and very unique.
You can’t easily find vegan food in Bridgeport. So expect to pay a premium for that privilege.
Selma definitely has «her way» of doing things and she will school you on how things operate at her establishment.
The prices are high here and sometimes a bit out of line in a weird way. For example, a small soup is $ 6.00 but a large is $ 6.50… Kinda weird right? I’d expect the small soup to be $ 4 or $ 5+. Sort of forces you to spend more/​eat more, depending how you look at it.
Also, when I asked for vegan cheese on my veggie burger. Selma tried to discourage me from doing that… She said «it didn’t need cheese» and was kind of adamant about it.
So I said, but I like cheese on my burger. She said «ok it’ll be $ 7 extra.» I was like… Maybe I don’t need it that bad. At this point I am thinking she is a little Kooky.
Then she goes and gives me a side of her special vegan cheese at no charge, on the side with my burger. Go figure…
Prices and kookiness aside, I will come back. The food is good and I do think the lady that runs this ship cares deeply about the food and how her customers experience it.
If you do come here, think of the experience as if you were going to your friend’s quirky grandma’s for dinner. It’s slightly odd, but the food is damn good.

Food is amazing, but the service is not.

What can I say? I grew up in the area and went to this restaurant when it opened in 1977 and up into the early 80’s. I was a regular then. Went back while driving up to Cape Cod recently and The quality and creative inventiveness of the food is still there. How many restaurants can you say that about after almost 40 years? If you are open to eating vegetarian or vegan, this is a delightful place with atmosphere, both indoors with Selma’s looms and outdoors with the view to Captain’s Cove. Don’t miss the desserts, which are still amazing.

You’ll need GPS to find it, but it’s worth the effort. For 38 years this quirky restaurant has been a vegan /​vegetarian /​feminist enclave (do visit the feminist bookstore while waiting for your order).
There is no fixed menu or table service. Review what’s on offer on the chalkboard, order and pay at the desk and they’ll call you when it’s ready.
The cold zucchini soup was delicious as were the quiche and avocado toast. It’s not cheap, but definitely worth it.

This is a really lovely restaurant right on the water. The environment is very relaxing and welcoming. The food is tasty and wholesome. Selma and Noël are inspiring people who really care about their customers. We highly recommend it.

When I pulled up to Bloodroot I thought the GPS was wrong because it looked like someone’s old wooden house with a patio overlooking the marina. I walked inside and it indeed looked like a house minus the tables on the right and the library with cute lamps on the left. There were posters and pictures everywhere, and a counter where you can order. Menu was vegetarian — no meat. There was seating inside and outside in the garden under the trees. The ladies inside where friendly and explained the history of the house — how it used to be a feminist social club in the 70’s.
The atmosphere was very unique and the view was wonderful. I had avocado on toast and spicy ice tea — Sorella. Avo toast was ok but Sorella was really good — too bad the glass was tiny.
Overall — must visit for the experience and view. Very unique establishment and one of the very few vegan restaurants in CT

We stopped here on our travels between RI and NYC because we were drawn in by reading about it on Unilocal and wanted to try it for ourselves.
To put it simply: my husband and I loved our experience at the Bloodroot Feminist Restaurant and Book Store. The food was excellent, the ambiance was unique, and the owners were both available and kind.
I loved my mushroom quiche and blueberry muffin (with blueberries from their garden). My husband really enjoyed his omelette with potatoes, manchego cheese and spicy tomato sauce.
Two big thumbs up. The culture of this independent business brightened our day. We even bought one of their cookbooks, we were so impressed.

Excellent Vegan Place!
Great place for a Sunday afternoon brunch! My friends and I sampled a little of everything and truth be told, EVERTHING was yummy! Scones, scrambled tofu, hash browns, & homemade cheese (just to name a few) tasted excellent.
It is worth the drive to Bridgeport~

Still the worst restaurant in the world
eclectic dishes, personnel, and the smallest portion sizes for above average prices.
Our Breakfast: overdone eggs with pieces of egg shells to boot. The potato hash brown, was burnt, and the equivalent of a small potato (at full price)… we expected more. Our coffee tasted OLD.
Rude people working, maybe because we’re MEN!
Refused to re-​do our order.
NEVER AGAIN!
The owner takes pride in serving bad food, name calling, and miscasting people based on gender. We paid CASH and never gave our name, nor did we dine on Sunday.

I assumed that the reviews of customers being terrorized by misandrist vegan stormtroopers were just people who were afraid of something different. I’m glad I was right. Went for the Sunday brunch and enjoyed my experience enough to want to go back. The atmosphere is quiet and homey. The staff were all very polite and patient with a first-​timer. There are a pair of cats that roam around and are nice enough to let you pet them while you sit back and watch boats float around in the harbor and listen to flute music. It’s a very unique dining experience for a region that really loves homogenized strip mall junk. Enjoy it.

Located a dozen blocks away from any other businesses on a residential side street. this Feminist bookstore and vegetarian restaurant is one of the most unique and delightful establishments I have ever seen.
Every inch of wall space is covered with feminist writings, portraits and art. In fact you might even call it a museum of sorts.
There are plenty of rules on signs all over the huge open space. Rules cover: how to bus your plates, to their unique ordering system. Guests are instructed not to comment on the calorie content of the food since all women are fat shamed in some form and this would be considered detrimental to a pleasant dining experience.
The food was amazing; home cooking at its finest. My favorite dish was Cambodian kansi soup with cilantro, for $ 1 with entrée. The soup was velvety and mild, with chunks of cheese, some grains, and maybe even some puréed beans.
Also tried the bok Choy and tofu over brown rice, it was healthy and filling.
I recommend the pasta with classic butternut squash sauce and crispy sage,
Finally a large Whestaphaner hefeweizen beer for $ 6.90 completed an amazing dining experience.
To top it all off, I even picked up an classic French cookbook on the free book shelf.

We’ve lived in Fairfield County for over 2 decades and have only been to one vegetarian eatery in Norwalk. Once. But Bridgeport’s Bloodroot is the place to go if you want satisfying vegetarian dishes. We had the spicy red lentil soup and cream of fresh corn soup — not too spicy for the former and not too creamy for the latter, both freshly made and a delicious start to our lunch. Tabouli platter and wild mushroom quiche were next, both satisfying and rich tasting, we didn’t miss the meat at all — and this is coming from someone who loves ribeye steak! Dessert we split a chocolate devastation cake which was dense and not too sweet, perfect way to end our meal. Oh, we sat outside and watched the boats go by on a gorgeous sunny day, across from Captain’s Cove but didn’t hear the usual din coming from their bar. Was a perfect and delicious lunch. As Ahnold said, ‘I’ll be back!’

Bloodroot is a local treasure. Given its location, it can also be a bit of a hidden treasure, so hidden that it took a friend from Boston to tell me to go there — and I’m from here. But I am glad my friend suggested that I check it out.
Bloodroot is unabashedly different. They don’t have table service. You read the chalkboard menu, place your order at the desk, and then walk it over to the kitchen window. There is no table service and you have to listen to your order.
You could say table service would be easier. That maybe an update is needed. But all of that is Bloodroot’s charm. You know you’re going to see the same great old photographs on the wall along with the quirky signs along the window. It’s character and a nice departure from fake nostalgic signs or cookie cutter design.
The restaurant has marked 37 years along the water in Bridgeport’s Black Rock neighborhood. That said, while you will often find many familiar vegetarian/​vegan items on the menu, there are some surprises. The ladies aren’t content to serve the same old recipes. Selma and Noelle have been there from the start and Selma told me she’s been working with nut cheeses. I had the beet salad and the cashew ‘cheese’ was exceptional. I also had an Asian-​influenced vegan ‘chicken’ dish, served with vegetables and jasmine rice, which was also quite good.
I’m giving Bloodroot a top rating because it is so unique. Take visitors there and it’s definitely different than their usual choices. While it may look the part of an old school veggie spot, it’s nice to see the experimentation and a nice variety of offerings. Every time I’ve been there, Selma stops by each table to check in with diners.
All this being said, Bloodroot can be a bit pricier than you might expect and often I’m hungry a few hours after my meal. But this is as close to homemade veggie/​vegan as it gets. I think it’s important to support a place that is so different while offering tasty food. With all its quirks, Bloodroot is a fun departure. Find our hidden treasure and enjoy a unique treat in Black Rock with the ladies of Bloodroot.

Having been once before only to find we messed up the time and could not wait, we made a note to try patronizing Bloodroot again when next in Bridgeport. Recently and serendipitously Bloodroot was open when we were traveling along 95.
Dining at Bloodroot, at least lunch service, very much reminded me of my collegiate days where we dined each meal in our dorms, most of the time it was self service. That is a good thing as meal times at my Alma Mater were well known for their graciousness and variety and deliciousness. Throw in a generous helping of feminism and vegetarian offerings and it was like old times in a new setting!
I had one of the best veggie burgers ever, the Bloodroot burger with chips, small tossed salad, pickle & cemen sauce. Apparently the ladies who own Bloodroot traveled to Turkey and concocted their burger along Turkish tastes. (I have been there myself and the food is amazing…) They even offer them in boxes frozen for take away but I had no cooler that day. My loss. I just wish I had had more of an appetite to try more of their dishes as they all sounded worthy of a bite.
With its waterfront setting, unpretentious and welcoming atmosphere, diverse vegetarian and vegan dishes and quirky uniqueness, Bloodroot Vegetarian restaurant IMHO is a must go to for anyone who is evolved and looking for an ethical and delicious home cooked meal. And despite the best efforts of the resident swans we would most definitely return…

I WILL make a special trip to Connecticut just to come here and dine. The women who run Bloodroot are some of the most wonderful souls I’ve encountered over a short period of time. You can see (and taste) their labor of love. When a place this magnificent is still in operation and thriving after 35 years, you know something is going right.
This is a vegan’s paradise. Most of the dishes are vegan and those that are not can most times be made as such. I was in town for 3 days and ate here twice (the only reason I didn’t come a third time was because I arrived in town too late on day one and left too early on day three).
IGNORE THE COST and indulge. Think of it this way — A. You’re in Connecticut — everything is pricey. B. You’re supporting a fantastic establishment who, in turn, supports some wonderful causes. C. Nearly everything is made from scratch — the blueberries in my blueberry pie were grown in the backyard of Bloodroot.
I now rank Bloodroot in my top ten places for vegans to dine. My only regret is that it isn’t in my own backyard to enjoy on a regular basis. Keep up the truly brilliant work.