Just yesterday I had a lovely meal courtesy of LivingSocial @Sacred Chow! Kudos to them for offering such a lovely handout! :)

Sacred Chow has gotten quite a redesign since I frequented it back in 2009. For one, the space is much brighter due to the addition of floor to ceiling windows in the front of the restaurant as well as an overall white plaster paint makeover on top of their previous red-brick walls. I don’t remember if the Indian/Middle Eastern style sconces were also their last time, but they certainly add a nice touch.

Service: Since it was so very busy that day, the service was quite slow. They were nice nonetheless, but even if they are at maximum capacity, I still expect to be addressed at a normal pace… it took about 10 minutes for them to put down our menus and water and 15 minutes more to finally get our dessert. Oh, and because there was a line out the door, they plopped our check on the table along with the dessert. How professional! 2 out of 5 carrots for service.

Here we have the Mama’s Soy Meatballs hero, which comes with a tiny helping of Chow slaw (essentially pickled shredded red cabbage and carrot) and about three small slices of pickle. I can’t vouch much for the accoutrements since they were so damn small anyhow. The sandwich itself was quite spicy (which was not stated on the menu) and had bits of what looked like buckwheat added in the meatball. The meatballs seemed like they would’ve been dry on their own, but because an ample amount of tomato sauce and onion was added to it, it was moist (but not super moist). There was a bit too much onion for my liking, but overall the sandwich was tasty. The bread was a little hard to bite into, and when I sank my choppers into it, the meatball filling would be pushed out (oh and we saw a man with a Morton Williams bag of baguettes filing back into the kitchen… so that’s where they came from!) 3.5 out of 5 carrots.

The Orange Barbecued Seitan was by far my favorite part of the meal. It came with chunky, substantial slabs of seitan in a delicious gingery barbeque marinade. Again, there were a bit too much onion, but I can’t really complain about the sandwich itself since I liked it so very much. I put my Chow Slaw into the sandwich along with the pickles for good measure and it made for an excellent meal. 4 out of 5 carrots.

We also had a Charlie Brown smoothie (not pictured) and I can say it was quite delicious, but nothing I can’t make on my own.

For our long-awaited dessert we had a daily special: Blueberry Coconut Cream Cake that was just so-so. The icing was the most flavorful part of the cake, with the cake itself being a bit bland. There were plenty of blueberries thrown into the batter, which detracted a bit from the lackluster flavor. The cake came with lots of coconut flakes sprinkled around (perhaps to make up for the wait?). 2.5 out of 5 carrots.

With the LivingSocial deal, our meal came out to a total of 23.85, not including tip (we accidentally left them less tip than we had planned to, a small snafu!) . If we hadn’t had the deal though, I don’t think it would be worth the full price. Nevertheless, they do have a hero special on weekdays from 11-2 for $6 without the tiny pickle and slaw helping, which seems like a good deal. And an interesting brunch menu. So I tack this onto my list of “maybes”… change my mind and prove the worth of your namesake next time, Sacred Chow! Until then, I give this establishment a 3.5 out of 5 carrots.