Carmo

527 Julia Street (between Camp and Magazine), Warehouse District, New Orleans, LA
Map
http://cafecarmo.com/ 

 

Restaurant type:

informal tropical cafe with many vegan, vegetarian and gluten free options. Eco-friendly and sustainable ethic. Eclectic mix of African, South American, and Asian influences.

The Acarajé main course

Service:

adequate

Ambiance:

stripped-back, exposed brick, re-purposed and re-finished furniture, kitchen open to restaurant

Vegan choice:

Excellent. Most of the dishes were vegan or had vegan alternatives that involved replacing a non-vegan ingredient with a vegan one (e.g. replacing ham with vegan ham) not just leaving things out. Thought was given to the vegan meals to make sure that they were nutritionally balanced. The menu contained a substantial salad selection, sandwiches, a handful of main courses plus a couple of extra specials, and a few baked goods. Unusual fruit juices and cocktails are a feature.

The Acarajé main course

Review:

In many ways this restaurant knows what it is doing, and is doing it very well. Based in the trendy warehouse district it offers a pared-back look, with undisguised, re-cycled furniture, exposed brick, high ceilings and the kitchen open to one of the two main dining rooms. It has a utilitarian, functional aesthetic. Matching this, is the stated eco-friendly, sustainable ethic behind the food, which is also sensitive to vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free needs and desires. In addition, the restaurant has an inventive, varied and interesting menu. Yet given all these positive and attractive features, the food doesn't quite live up to what one might hope that a place like this might deliver. That's not to say the food is not good. It is. It is just does not quite live up to the high expectations the other features the restaurant has to offer set for it.

I tried three of the salads. The Carmo salad contained rice, pineapple, avocado, nuts, raisins, cucumber, green pepper, vegan ham tossed with citrus mango vinaigrette. It was perhaps a little sweet, but otherwise tasty and varied. The Broken Noodle salad contained rice noodles with tofu, peanuts, bean sprouts, carrots, cucumber, peas, mushrooms, cabbage, cilantro, peppers and scallions, tossed with citrus ginger chili vinaigrette. This was a little disappointing. It was a bit light on the noodles, tofu and peanuts and contained too many bean sprouts. The dressing was not substantial enough for the salad and existed in a puddle at the bottom of the dish. The Esmeralda Salad was delicious. The base was quinoa, and it also contained black beans, corn, peppers, pumpkin seeds and cilantro. The coconut chili lime vinaigrette was absolutely delicious. Its sweet and sour balance was just right, and the quinoa held the dressing very well.

I ordered the Acarajé main course. It consisted of three black-eyed pea fritters stuffed with vatapá (spicy cashew peanut paste), served with salsa fresca, hot sauce and salad. The fritters were crispy on the outside and moist on the inside and fairly substantial. One of my companions thought that the fritters were much too dry and tough on the outside. I disagreed but they would have been better if slightly lighter. The cashew paste was tasty and thick without being cloying. The salad and salsa were fresh and a good accompaniment. Other main courses were not presented in as beautiful a fashion as this dish, and the presentation of some of the specials requires some attention.

I tried two of the cocktails on offer. The Cajulia was a mix of cashew fruit juice with lemon and vodka. It was beautifully bitter with the  right level of alcohol in it. The L'Entrepot was a tea-infused rum concoction with lime, mint, agave and soda water. It was high in alcohol and had an interesting intense many-layered spiced taste. The wine list was short but, nontheless, contained a variety of good quaffable wines. I wish that I had tried some of the fruit juices listed on the blackboards but not on the menus, and would have done if they had been brought to my attention when first ordering.

Overall the restaurant has an exciting, original menu of fair-quality fusion cuisine. It is well worth a visit.