Vegetarian Restaurant: Yerba Buena
The carnivore that I am, it takes me a lot to invest food money in an expensive vegetarian restaurant. But, I like vegetarian food too -- so when my pure vegetarian best friend from India visited, I decided to take her to what's been officially and unofficially called the "best vegetarian restaurant in Madrid" -- Yerba Buena.
Translating to the "good herb", the place is as green as it gets. Literally. The entire decor is parrot green with a lot of plants placed everywhere. It's got that whole happy-healthy feel going on.
We needed a reservation. That, normally is a sign that the restaurant is good. When we got there we were also happy to see it was full.
The menu is elaborate and has every Spanish and continental vegetarian concoction possible. E.g. of a dish: Spanish stew with mixed vegetables and Japanese tofu marinated in garlic tomato and herb paste, with poached egg, noodles and green oil. (Yes, whoa!)
Everything being super gourmet style and inventive, my friend took a good half hour to decide what she wanted. We chose the creamy Italian risotto with integral rice, 4-cheese, parsley and pesto garnish and the cheese-spinach-tomato canneloni with mexican sauce and honey dressing salad on the side. And a jug of sangria to accompany.
10/10 for the dish decoration. Our plates looked so wonderful, we didn't feel like messing up the careful designs our food created on our plates. So after a round of food-photographs (yes, I know, very sad), we dug in.
Uh oh. See, when you go to a pure vegetarian restaurant, you forget that you are eating ultra healthy, organic-ecological,multi-grained, low-fat food. So, the cheese doesn't taste like cheese, the bread tastes more like wheat as does the brown rice the risotto is made of. In other words, not so yummy. However, it was evident that the food was "good", organic standard wise. But, we couldn't finish it.
We decided to wrap things up (and try to fill our stomachs) by ordering the chocolate/mousse/brownie cake (which we prayed not to be made of healthy anything!), and yes, it was delicious.
Our bill -- two mains, jug of alcohol, and dessert came to about €40.
Conclusion: If you are not used to ecological and organic food, you may not like it. But if you are, or even if you are vegan, this is the place for you as most dishes have the vegan option...something not common in Madrid. The service is excellent.
Where: Calle Borradores, 3 (right off Calle Arenal).
Closest metro: Sol/Opera
Tel: 915 480 811