Peaceful Greens

I think, in order to be a very successful vegetarian restaurant, you need to make food that even carnivores find interesting and tasty. It has been done; there are numerous popular examples.
If the owner would take a short road trip, and visit say Stella’s in Grand Rapids, MI or Seva in Ann Arbor, their eyes would be opened to what a vegetarian restaurant COULD be. I’m not suggesting *copying*, not at all, but after seeing what other, successful, places have done… a little creativity could be applied and then something wonderful could emerge.
Lafayette DOES have a large-​ish and growing vegetarian/​vegan community, and I’m sure they’re dying for a truly good, creative restaurant. It’d probably be even nicer if their non-​veg friends enjoyed eating there. Maybe more of these «step it up!!!» type reviews will spur the owner (s) into action.
Until that happens, though, honestly, you’d probably do better going to LBC and ordering the veggie+cheese platter and skipping the cheese if you’re vegan.

I’ve been a vegetarian for 10 years, and back in college, I organized a vegan Thanksgiving so I know that vegetarian/​vegan food can taste amazing. I also really wanted to like this place because this is the only vegetarian/​vegan restaurant in the Lafayette area that I know of, but this place still has a lot of room for improvement.
I went once on a Saturday morning and got a mini bran muffin, and it was bland and dry. And I know that they don’t have to be this way because my mom makes amazingly moist bran and flax seed muffins. Perhaps they set the oven temperature too low or left the muffins in too long? They may want to try adding fresh fruit rather than dried fruit to improve the taste and dryness.
I went in for Sunday brunch with a group of friends and tried their brunch set. I was a bit taken aback by the $ 15 price tag, but I figure that at least I’m supporting a local business and local and organic food. First, they forgot to give us the drinks that came with the meal (we didn’t realize this until the end and didn’t want to bother because service was so slow). Next, they gave us a fruit and veggie platter with peanut butter and yogurt dip. The peanut butter and carrots were great, but the other stuff was just blah. And oranges in July? I thought we would get some berries or something. Oh well.
After a very very long wait, they brought out our food — many of us had scrambled eggs or omelets — they were dry and really heavy on the black pepper, but there wasn’t a whole lot of other flavors. Maybe it’s just me and my friends, but we like our scrambled eggs a little bit undercooked so it’s more like a curd than a pancake. They could have added a bit of garlic or maybe some herbs in the egg or maybe some soy sauce. Just anything other than black pepper to flavor the eggs. The portions were also a bit small for the $ 15 price tag.
The reason why I’m writing this review is because some part of me hopes that they will read this, maybe tweak their recipes, maybe give their wait staff a heads up about service, and maybe rethink their portion sizes or prices. I’m afraid that Peaceful Greens reinforces the stereotype that vegan/​vegetarian food tastes like cardboard, that it’s overpriced, etc. and it really doesn’t have to be this way.

MY boyfriend used to be vegan. As a caring girlfriend, I sucked it up and took him to a vegetarian restaurant because I wanted to impress him. I think I did, since we’re still together, but man, Peaceful Greens is about as impressive as someone slam-​dunking from atop a 6 foot ladder… not at all.
Let me say that the Tempeh the Fridges Vegan Reuben is awesome. It really is, and this is coming from someone who enjoys real Reubens. My problem with it is the price. $ 8.95 for something smaller than store bought bread plus a small side. I know TVP/​Tempeh is kind of expensive, but you can get about 70 lbs of meat on a DT Kirby’s sandwich for the same price. TVP cannot be THAT expensive. The Rabbit Food This was again, tasty, but the portion was so small that I was left very unfulfilled. The Vegan Ratachaela is nowhere even close to a «version of Ratatouille.» The basil pesto is weak and oily, just like all of the salad dressings. The daily soups are really great, but again, portion size.
If they want people to return, they need to re-​evaluate portion sizes and prices. If I wanted to get a smoothie with wheatgrass, why am I paying an extra two dollars? $ 7 for a drink is kind of pushing it.
Hopefully the wait-​staff has stopped being so flighty too. You’re really better off to make your own vegan/​vegetarian food at home and keep the arm and leg you would pay at Peaceful Greens.

This is the third time I have visited this restaurant, each time hoping it would be better than the last. Totally wrong. Worst ever! First, it is the middle of July, and their doors were wide open and no air is flowing, so by the end of the meal my friend and I were sticky from just sitting there. Disgusting. Due to the open doors, there were flies all over the place.
Service: Don’t get us started. Totally inept servers, 2 girls MAYBE 16 years old. It was our table and one other table (family of one of the girls, we discovered). So, not busy. Still took awhile to get menus, and when we ordered coffee, had to ask for creamer. Then we waited 5 full minutes while both waitresses disappeared. When the waitress came to take our order, we asked what the quiche of the day was. «No quiche yet» was the answer. This is at 11 30 in the morning, and they opened at 10. They are only open for brunch on Sundays, apparently. Then we asked what the waffle of the day was. No waffles. Each time the waitresses had to go see if they were available that day. No idea, like she’d not been there all morning serving people. This left our choices as omelet, egg scramble, and french toast. Really? 3 choices for brunch? Seriously. I ordered an omelet with some veggies and cheddar cheese. No meat, since it’s a vegetarian restaurant. After 40 minutes our food came. My omelet came out missing some veggies and with gouda cheese. Not a huge deal, I like gouda. I asked for the tomatoes that were missing just on the side. She came back and said there had been a mix up. With who? We were the only table there! Also had to ask for butter for the bone dry toast. At least the food was decent tasting.
After finishing, and having no one check on us forever, we went up to the counter to ask for the bill. Apparently we didn’t really realize that there were no prices on the menu, but I’m thinking $ 7 – 9 for a veggie omelet, same for some ¼″ thick french toast that my friend got. Nope, she rings us up individually at $ 14.98. Oh yeah, that includes the worst coffee I’ve ever had. I asked her if she had mistaken and rung us up together. Nope. That’s what it was for each of us. When I asked her why it was so expensive, she said, «Well, you got the snack plate.» Be aware, she is referring to 2 slices of apples, pears, and some oranges (all paper thin) and a few veggies that were quite withered. WE DID NOT ORDER THIS. It showed up on the table. Kind of like a complimentary bread basket would just show up.
We had really been looking forward to supporting a local business and getting tasty brunch food, and were just disappointed time after time. Terrible service (who are volunteers, apparently, and only work for tips… then know how to serve well so people want to tip you!), just ok food, and exorbitant prices. Will not be back.

I was really disappointed. I picked this place for a gathering of friends, and really, really, wanted to like it. There was a lot we were all willing to let slide. But I left unhappy.
I visited with a group — you can’t take a large group there because it’s a very small restaurant, but they were willing to push tables together to seat eight. At a regular mealtime, it would be hard for any more than 4 to find a table, I think.
They were serving Sunday brunch, an all-​in-​one package deal. It looked like non-​brunch items were also available, but we were never offered any other menu. A posted sign mentioned that the staff are all volunteers, so we were willing to be patient with slow and less-​than-​stellar service. Service was OK — our waitress was attentive, but kind of awkward.
Brunch started with a snack plate, then offered several entrée selections, and came with a beverage. The restaurant says it features local and seasonal products, but the snack plate, in mid-​April, consisted of broccoli, baby carrots, cauliflower, and apple, pear, and orange slices. Which of those things do you think came from Indiana in mid-​April? Even the apples looked more like grocery-​store products than something that had been locally harvested and stored for the winter.
The entrée options included omelettes, scrambles, quiche, and waffles or «fronch» toast. So for the $ 12 listed on the menu, you got a drink, a few bites of vegetable, an entrée (in my case, a single waffle), a potato side, and with the egg entrees, a piece of toast. Cheese in the omelette or scramble cost extra. I really didn’t feel the meal was a good value — especially the waffle. They’re vegetarian and lean vegan, so while you can get cheese, you can’t get real milk to drink or butter for your waffle. My friends who had the egg dishes enjoyed them, and that’s a slightly more filling meal for the price.
But the price — when we checked out, the waitress said the brunch was $ 14.98 per person. I said «what? Brunch is $ 15?» and she said «oh, no, it’s $ 14.98.» Another person in our group pointed out that the menus listed $ 12 as the brunch price, but she just said «oh, it’s always been $ 14.98, I’ll have to tell [the manager] to fix that.» We all really, really want to support the whole local/​organic food thing, so we paid and left without arguing, but that definitely made a bad meal worse. It didn’t help that I started to feel sick soon after leaving — the one-​waffle brunch and veggie bites definitely weren’t worth $ 12 + tip, much less $ 15 (or $ 14.98).
One nice thing about the brunch was that a beverage was included, and they offered refills, even for those who chose juice as their beverage. You wouldn’t see that at most restaurants. The sweet potato hash browns are also a lovely idea.
Unless eating at a 100% vegetarian restaurant is important to you, I wouldn’t recommend this place. The food isn’t good or plentiful enough to be worth the price. Maybe it will get better in the summer when they really can serve local seasonal produce — but if I go back, it won’t be for brunch.

YUM! I had the sandwich called, «Rabbit Food This» and it was fab! For anyone who thinks veg food is not filling… think again! Great fresh veggies and bread from Great Harvest, I got the Garlic Dill cheese on it as well, great flavors. The sweet potato wedges were awesome. lightly seasoned with cinnamon.
My friend had the egg salad and loved it as well. Since I was too full for dessert that evening, I had to go back the next day and get a fruit smoothie, «Fruit Salad.» Now that I have found PG, I will be a frequent diner!
It is so cool to have a good vegetarian place (supporting local farmers) in Lafayette.

Heart!
This is the café I dream of. The food is fresh and filling. It’s veg, which isn’t always easy to come by in small Midwestern towns, so I was thrilled to find it.
I got a mint ginger smoothie with wheat grass. It had bite, but also reminded me of chocolate for reasons I’m not sure of. Maybe it was the texture of the blended peaches with the mint.
I also nommed up a breakfast burrito with potatoes and tofu and cheese and other such goodness. Filling and yummy.
The lady who took my order was a total sweetheart, and I look forward to stopping in next time I’m in Lafayette. Peaceful Greens has a wonderful community spirit!