Trying Vegan at Cider Press Cafe in St Pete Florida #TravelTips

To start things off, let me be quite clear: I´m a carnivore, so for me, trying vegan was going to be a first. Of course, I eat lots of salad and stuff, but I tend to add cheese or eggs to them. So I wasn´t sure what to expect when trying vegan for the first time when folks at Cider Press Cafe in St Pete invited us for a tasting.

We had heard very good things about this restaurant, but, to be honest kind of shrugged it off as “it´s probably good for a very particular niche”. I have to say, as I told you on a previous article, St Pete had already surprised us with the best burgers at Boulevard; now it was time to try something completely different.

Ok, as soon as you arrive, you get a hip vibe about Cider Press Cafe, especially as it is on Central Boulevard in St Pete and the whole area is hip. (More to come about this)
You can choose between inside and outside seating, we chose inside so we checked out the decor and everything.
When our sever Derek came with our menus, we did not know what anything was, so we decided to do a tasting.

First Course: Pineapple Kimchi Dumplings. Coconut wrapper dumplings, pineapple kimchi; cashew, mango-yellow ahi sauce.

Beautiful presentation in every single detail, making it look both subtle and elegant. Once we tried it the flavors were mixing nice, and the best part was the sauce with a great texture both fresh from the mango and spicey from the ahi.

Second Course: Seminole Corn Chowder. Corn, young coconut, cashew buttercream, pico de gallo.

Let me be clear: We are fans of soup. Wherever we go we try soup. If you have a menu with the word chowder in it, we will try it. This one was as good as any, with good body and texture, creaminess and some sweet notes due to the corn and the spices of pico de gallo.
The portion is a good size for a soup. It´s a sunny day kind of soup as it is not hot soup.

Third Course: Flatbread. Artisanal walnut-yellow squash flatbread (2), tomato-walnut pesto, herbed macadamia ricotta, lemon kalamata tapenade, capers, baby arugula, caramelized onions, basil.

This one was a winner. An ultimate surprise. I wasn´t expecting it to be this good. It would be like pizza crust (no flour though), and covered with lots of goodies. The flavors compliment each other as well as the textures. I would´ve eaten an extra portion but wanted to see what else came next.

Fourth Course: Chipotle Enchiladas.  Spiced dehydrated corn tortillas, walnut-sweet potato picadillo, salsa verde, macadamia crema fresca, pickled jalapeños; corn maque choux.

A reinvention of the classic mexican enchilada. This one stings a little, so I ate most of it while my girlfriend tasted it only. For me, it was very good. Probably not for every palate.

Fifth Course: “Crab” Cake Dinner. Floridian jicama ‘crab’ cakes with corn maque choux; field greens, dill tartar sauce.

This one was the one I was most skeptical about. I really don´t like to it when they put “Meat” names to meatless dishes. So when it came I was ready to criticise it. Luckily, it was amazeballs. One of the best new dishes I tried lately. If only the name was different like “Jicama Cakes” I´d give it an A+. So, just for semantics, it will be an A-.

The flavor is like the real deal; it is prepared to make you feel like you were eating actual crabs. You can notice it is not in the texture; but all in all a great discovery and goes down as a great dish in my book.

Dessert: Key Lime Pie.

Yummy! (It looked so good we went directly diving in and forgot to take the picture).

Beverages: Hibiscus Tea: It was very refreshing.
Mother Kombucha: Not even coming close to ever consider becoming a fan.

Our Final Verdict: It was a very pleasant surprise. I thought I wouldn´t like it that much, and it was very very good. Best thing about it, it did not come with speeches about how wrong meat is. It was: This is what we have to offer, and boy it is good.

Some extra tidbits and tips for your visit to Cider Press Cafe in St Pete, Florida:

• Everything in the menu (food) is free from gluten, tofu, peanut, milk, trans fat and sugar.
• Beers do have gluten.
• Besides dining in, there are several vegan products you can purchase to go.
• We went on a Saturday for lunch and it was pretty packed, consider calling for reservations.
• It is downtown St Pete, so you will probably want to stroll down the street after eating.
• The tasting we did was enough for the two of us. If you plan on getting one dish, maybe you should add a starter.
• Prices are OK. Not too pricey, not too cheap.
• Parking is in the street at 45 degrees with meters.

We did our #SelfieWithTheServer, in this case Derek, who kindly explained us everythng we were eating.

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