Austin Food Data Bank

I'm not entirely sure what's going on. First, there's Galaxy Cafe. Now... Cosmic Cafe!! (taking over West Lynn Cafe location) Away, and into the solar system! All this reminds me of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, and this space craze seems a bit odd. These all sound like little bistros that might perhaps be in the corner of a space station, feeding astronauts with bags of ready-made food.

Not that I have any problem with this; I welcome references to outer space in food. I still haven't been to Mars Restaurant & Bar, but I want to. I'm not sure if the deli in Sun Harvest counts. "Cosmic" Cafe *definitely* counts, though. It seems the owners of vegetarian Mother's Cafe decided to ditch their other veg restaurant, West Lynn. They sold this location to the Cosmic guys, who are *supposedly* from Dallas. I'm thinking it's more like M31. These people (?) are doing the vegetarian thing, too, so have no fear! Check out the menu at the website for the only other location, in Dallas.

This is the kind of place that is trying to be extremely... zen-like? Supposedly they have yoga there. Meditation everywhere. Very chill. That is, except for our waiter, when a friend and I visited there for lunch one day. He was SO hardcore. HOW ARE THINGS TODAY!!!!!???? MAY I INTEREST YOU IN ONE OF OUR SPECIALS!!!!!!! AAAAHHH!!!!! Totally frenetic (but cool) guy. My friend did make a good point that, really, he was the only source of energy in the whole place, so he was doing a perfect job. Basically, the place was still half-painted.. few bells and whistles.. Menu looked bland, etc, and didn't have all the items from the Dallas location. As of this writing, they are in transition.. Still moving in. So that's all ok.

These guys basically serve Indian fusion food. It's interesting and very worth checking out. Here's what I can tell you about the food thus far:

- Mango Lassi: THE BEST mango lassi I have ever tried. I normally like plain sweet lassi instead, but this was a great exception. It tasted like they used fresh mangos, instead of canned mango juice or something. Additional evidence of this: the color was not a deep orange or bright yellow.. but instead was sort of a washed out yellow. To me, it looked more like the real thing.

- Portabella Trance: All I know is that my friend ordered this and was blown away. It might be next on my list to try. Literally, he almost was blown out of the restaurant, through the roof. Luckily, the surrounding roads aren't that major.

- Eggplant Masala Pizza: I am told by a different friend that this is spectacular, at least from the Dallas location. It wasn't on the menu yet here when I went. Hmmm.. maybe actually this is the next one to try.

- Buddha's Delight: I'm not entirely sure this is what Gautama Buddha would've eaten, as many of the ingredients (like chili peppers and potatoes) apparently only existed in the Americas when he was around. That aside, this was a pretty good selection. It came with a lot of stuff, so I'll have to break it down further:

a) Rice: Not from outer space. Standard. Plain white basmati. Next topic.
b) Naan: Hmmm. Disappointing. I was expecting a real... like... Naan. Instead, I got 4 or 5 pita trianglets. I like non-existent words.
c) Samosa: Yeah this was pretty good! Not the best around... but enjoyable. On par with Madras Pavillion's in quality I'd say.. Spicy and potato-filled. The real star here, however, was the tamarind chutney. Sorry.. that's The Tamarind Chutney. There is a god, and it is called The Tamarind Chutney. I got blown away by this... even more than my friend by his dish. WOW. I was trying to dip everything on my plate into this stuff. The other chutney? Bleh. I think it was mint. It was tried and immediately scorned and rejected.
d) Dal: Certain friends of mine are way into this dal, but I just found it average. I thought they needed to calm down on the cloves. Also it was really more of a soup. I think it was made with Masoor lentils.
e) Spinach w/ Tofu: Hmmm.. I remember thinking of canned spinach when I had this. Were I to be a spinach-hater, it would be because of items like this. Maybe Popeye would like it.. but not me. Note: this was actually the vegetable of the day, so any other day, there might be something different on Buddha's Delight. Note #2: This item was supposedly a fluke. I've just had too much input from friends saying that the other daily vegetables are absolutely delicious.

I admit, the stuff here that I liked... I REALLY liked... and was Cosmic in stature. I'm willing to blame the earthly remainder on the whole "transitional" state of the restaurant. The receipt even said "West Lynn Cafe" on it. Not to mention people were walking in thinking it was still West Lynn... It was funny trying to count the number of those that promptly just walked out. Anyway, I'm going to recommend that this place definitely be checked out ASAP. Very promising place, even with the galactic trianglets, etc. All vegetarian... and local to Texas. I'll find myself here again very soon!