I’m in town for the weekend and have decided to finally take up my friend’s recommendation to eat at the vegan restaurant Allah’s Kitchen. They also happened to open a new location right by RIT’s campus in August which makes it so much easier for me to get to when I’m in town so I’m super excited for that aspect too.
LOCATION: 200 JEFFERSON RD, PARK POINT DR. SUITE 205, ROCHESTER, NY 14623
I knew exactly where this location was and used to frequent different restaurants there when I was in college so I went right in but boy was this a chaotic experience in terms of service. I came around 2pm just because that’s what time I arrived in town, and I was so hungry. There were a couple of women in the restaurant when I arrived and it seemed like they had already ordered and were having a fun little day out together. The counter at this place was sparse with space for food to be out for easy service but nothing actually out. Since it was 2pm I gave them the benefit of the doubt because I have no idea what it looks like during a normal lunch or dinner rush so that was odd but not a big deal. I waited for a little and there were two men working and one finally asked me what I wanted to order and I got the INFINITE BOWL. I will say that their menu is kind of crunchy and has these lofty names for their bowls that don’t indicate at all what’s in side of them, aka ‘infinite bowl’ but my friend highly recommends it so I’m along for the ride. The Infinite Bowl is gluten free and soy free along with being vegan so this place is a great option for people with any sort of dietary restrictions because most of their menu is soy free or gluten free as well. This bowl comes with coconut brown rice, aloo gobi (which is potatoes and cauliflower cooked in an Indian curry sauce), stewed chickpeas with spinach, kale, onions, peppers, zucchini, and plantains cooked in coconut oil. Now this sounds like so much food (which it is) but this infinite bowl had a lot of different sides combined into it so I wanted to try it in order to get a little sample of a lot to see if I liked this restaurant. Unluckily for me, they ran out of stewed chickpeas (which are often my favorite side dish) and they asked if a substitute of stewed cabbage was alright which was sad but fine with me.
Now, before I talk about the actual dish, let me just say that the service continued to be chaotic. There was no one that was at the counter full time, and even though there were only two men working they were not good at communicating with each other or with the (few) customers in the building. The man who took my order seemed more like the owner/manager and relayed my order to the server in the back well enough but then the server came out and packed a bag of food while asking the other two women if they were dining in or not (they were). Without saying anything else he places the bag of food on the counter and walks back into the kitchen to get the other order ready. The bag sits there and I stand at the counter with the other women and we’re all waiting for someone to come so we can pay. It takes about 5mins until the owner/manger comes out and lets us know that the ipad/credit card machine isn’t working and asks if we have cash. I have cash in my car but not small bills so I tell him I do but need change to which he replied there is no change. At all. So now, we’ve all ordered and don’t have a means to pay for our food because there is no cash change and no credit card machine. He goes into the back and starts making calls to see if someone can bring cash to him so we can all pay for our meals. Luckily for him, they also allow for payment via CashApp or Venmo and after 5 more mins of standing at the counter wondering what we should do he lets us know that this is an option. Now I’m looking for them on Venmo and he walks away. I have no idea how much my meal costs with tax and i stand there for another 5mins waiting for him to return just to tell me that the $17 list price on the menu is fine and I can just Venmo that amount. All 5 of us in the restaurant stand there staring at each other, he asks me if the food at the counter is mine (how should I know??) then looks inside and asks the server who confirms it’s my meal. He brings out the order for the other ladies who are unbothered by this chaotic transaction, and I Venmo my money and leave with my food. At this point it’s been at least 20mins for a transaction that shouldn’t have taken more than 5, and my food is no longer hot but at least it’s warm and I head to my parent’s house where I can reheat it quickly.
All suffice to say that I was very hesitant to ever return because, while they staff were nice, I do not do well in this chaotic unstructured food service space and miss the automation of Chipotle.
Still, I try to shake it off and get ready to try some of this food. I do realize that I did not get any spinach/kale/onions/peppers but there’s still plenty of food in this container and I’m beyond hungry I just dig in.
This food smells so good and warm/cozy. I realize it’s best just to mix everything together but I set the plantains to the side because I want to save them as a palette cleanser/pseudo dessert since they get sweet when cooked like this. The Aloo golbi, stewed cabbage, and coconut brown rice are such a good combination and it fill’s be up so fast. I eat more than half in this sitting and am just stuffed. The rice is a little harder than I like for it to be but that kind of comes with the territory of brown rice and isn’t off-putting in any way. I love the coconut-y flavor from their use of coconut oil to cook their food and it’s so good that I start to rethink not going back. The food saves the awkwardly weird service and I decide that they’re worth the chaos. I’m still hopeful that next time it might be a little more structured and professional in terms of a business but the meal is great and I’m ready for more. I need to get some chickpeas next time so maybe when I’m in town again, I’ll give this location another shot before switching over to their first location father away. In either case, they’ve won me over as a non-vegan.