Last summer (2003), I traveled to San Francisco for the biannual La Leche League International conference. The hotel was situated downtown, and as luck would have it, was only about two blocks from the Millennium Restaurant, a renowned vegan gourmet restaurant. Having lived overseas since I went veg, I was really looking forward to my first visit to an entirely animal-free food establishment; I could actually order anything on the menu! I made arrangements for a couple of the teen contributors from our sister website who happened to live in the area, Vegetarianteen.com, to meet me there for a special dinner. It is located in the Savoy Hotel, which Travel and Leisure called "one of the ten best small hotels in the city."
The atmosphere is truly elegant, and in San Francisco, the crowd is almost as fun to view as the environment. I overheard well-informed waiters and waitresses explaining about different foods to both meat-eaters and vegans. Everyone you could imagine was there, from your young, hip couples out on a special date to large groups of six, obviously there to try out the famed cuisine - the place was hopping!
Millenium has been profiled in Vegetarian Times and reviewed in many other publications, and they have published two of their very own cookbooks (see below), so I was very excited to see what was on the menu. We didn't hold back that night and ordered whatever our hearts desired, starting with a mouth-watering appetizer suggested by the waitress: Cornmeal Crusted Oyster Mushrooms that tasted like calamari. My entree was Seitan Marsala, which consists of seitan medallions with a marsala mushroom sauce, mashed potatoes, market vegetables, and rosemary almond cream. Last but not least - dessert! We were out for the whole experience that night, so we ordered three sweets and shared a taste of each with each other. Dessert items cover the gamut from simple to extravagant. Try the Chocolate Almond Midnight, an almond cashew crust with mocha chocolate filling, raspberry sauce, and white chocolate mousse, or the Warm Banana Crepe with creamy pecan sorbet, candied pecans, fresh mango. Simpler palates may prefer the Fresh Housemade Sorbets.
The menu changes quite often based on availability of fresh produce (organic and gmo-free, thank you) from season to season. They are "dedicated to supporting the essential earthly concepts of organic food production, small farms, sustainable agriculture, recycling and composting." This is one place you can be sure that every penny spent is well worth it!
Call 415.345.3900 for reservations or visit OpenTable.com for online reservations. 580 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, in the Savoy hotel.
The Artful Vegan - Fresh Flavors from the Millennium Restaurant
The Millennium Cookbook - Extraordinary Vegetarian Cuisine
Melanie is the editor of Vegetarian Baby & Child Online Magazine, Vegetarianteen.com Online Magazine and the senior editor of VegNews magazine.
