Yesterday, on May 18, Los Amigos in Atlantic City hosted a 5 course vegan dinner and my husband and I attended. They host these randomly and promised to host them more often! One of the chefs said they were hoping to do one in July next. With how amazing this dinner was, I can't imagine how good their regular vegan menu is! I will definitely be back to try some of it!
They have another location in West Berlin that does not have a vegan menu, but they do have a few items on the menu that are vegan.
Salsa Macha
Peanuts, sesame seeds, agave, arbol.
This was such a great starter. We arrived early, so we ate this right away and had to wait for everyone to settle in to get to the first course. After this salsa and how good it was, we felt like we were waiting for an eternity! On the left is mango and jicima with chili.
Course 1
Chipotle White Bean Soup
Great northern beans, coconut chipotle broth, pico de gallo.
This was everyone's favorite dish of the evening. At the end of the meal, the chefs came out and we heard everyone saying the soup was their favorite! Ours, too! The flavor was out of control. I definitely want to recreate this at home one day. I will let you know if I do and once I get a great recipe, I will make sure to share. I hope they add this soup to their regular vegan menu!
Course 2
Nachos
House made chorizo (vegan, of course!), cashew nacho cheese, coconut sour cream, black beans, roasted corn, pico de gallo, jalapenos,
The chorizo flavor was on point, but felt much lighter. I would have never thought to make sour cream from coconut, but I loved it! Wasn't sweet and didn't taste like coconut! I honestly don't remember each flavor on it's own, but as a whole, it was really good together! I loved the corn added in, too! You don't usually see it in nachos, but it was tasty!
Course 3
"Crab" Stuffed Tortilla Crusted Avocado
Hearts of palm, nori seaweed, grilled asparagus, baby corn, jalapeno, red peppers, cilantro, sesame seeds, citrus chili arbol vinaigrette.
This was such a cool arrangement of flavors! That vinaigrette was so amazing. I want to have it on everything! The dish felt less like crab and more like ceviche to me, but definitely not mad about it because I used to love ceviche and have had it veganized before and would love to recreate! Honestly, they had me at avocado, though. One of my favorite foods!
Course 4
Bahn Mi Taco
Braised oyster mushrooms, pickled vegetables, "fish" sauce, flour tortilla.
This wasn't my favorite dish of the night, but if given the choice to eat more of anything, I would have eaten so many more of these. It was such an addictive group of flavors! The pickled veggies, the savory mushrooms... It was so awesome! Not to mention, I just love tacos, so if I was given 10 of these, I would have eaten 10 of these.
Course 5
Raw Date Walnut Cacao Brownie Trifle
Avocado chocolate ganache, tequila soaked mandarin oranges, cardamom citrus cream, cocoa scented cumin spiced walnuts.
SO MANY FLAVORS. When all of them were in one spoonful, it was such a roller coaster of tastes! The avocado chocolate ganache was so rich, the mandarins were such a wake up call with being soaked in tequila, the citrus cream was so light and the walnuts gave it some much needed texture contrast. This was such a well crafted dessert!