Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs

Jeff Weinstein flays the Prophet Vegetarian Restaurant

I didn't chew my rice enough

The Prophet lasted until 1985
The Prophet lasted until 1985

I have never liked restaurant vegetarian cooking. As a friend of mine has said. “Some of the best things in ‘normal’ cooking are meatless — like cheese souffles — and they are never served in these places that have ‘wholesome’ stuff only.'' I tried to explain to him that meatless and vegetarian cooking are different — uh — concepts (“Why no tomato eggplant?" “Too much yin or yang ...") but I basically agree with my friend.

I don’t mean to be condescending. for I take regimens of healthy eating very seriously, but there has been, in the vegetarian restaurants I’ve tried, a pretension to righteousness that makes the carrot cake — no matter how good — sog in my throat. But many people I know and like have recommended The Prophet, on University Avenue; it seems to have a subculture following of many different San Diego people, and since recommendations of good eating are few. I thought I'd try it. The comments about the restaurant were, as I remember them: “amazingly successful eclectic decoration — primary folk art"; "good vibes — you haven't been there?"; "the cook is fabulous — the dishes are really artful, it’s amazing what they do with vegetables"; “my artichoke was cold." There were others I don’t remember, about the communal pleasure of watching the idea of The Prophet take form with the work of a woman and her friends, about the clouds painted on the ceiling, and about the pun available in its name.

Sponsored
Sponsored

I will add my comments for what they’re worth, but before I do. I should note two things: 1) I know little about the different kinds of vegetarian cooking, and 2) As I sat down to write this review, the voice of Truth, personified in a woman I know, told me not to lie: “I’ve never read an honest restaurant review in San Diego (she said). If you have experience you should be able to tell ‘the place means well, but the food stinks’; the Kitchen is the King of a restaurant, you know. I would write reviews, but I hate food, and that wouldn’t do, would it? I like to drink though." At which point she suggested that I begin the review with a conversation between a bean sprout and a Brussels sprout sitting in a refrigerator, waiting to be made into dishes yet unknown.

Next door to The Prophet is a room set up for meditation, with an enormous red rug, an altar, and some Goodwill overstuffed chairs. This room was empty, but the restaurant itself was in full bustle, a large rectangular room with a high ceiling painted light blue and streaked with wispy cirrus — not neoclassically cumulus — clouds. It was not hung with imitation Persian rugs or tatty tapestry; it was rather bare, and so the noise reverberated and the clatter was at times uncomfortable but also reminiscent of “activity" of people actively talking, eating, enjoying. The menu called The Prophet “A Restaurant And Cultural Center" (“Yoghurt Culture" comes to mind), and the culture could be described by some of the contents of a set of shelves in the room: Prof. Arnold Ehret’s Mucousless Diet Healing System (book), a mechanical canary, 6 pair of comfortable-looking sandals, I assume for sale. And It Is Divine (magazine), and Sadvipra. which is a "Journal of Social and Spiritual Progress." There are two pieces of juxtaposable sculpture: one a plaster white near-Eastern figure, and the other a classical pitcher-holding woman integrated into an actively gurgling fountain, the basin of which contained pennies and dimes.

The waiting people — and especially the friendly and interested woman who took care of seating and general organization the night we were there — were fine and helpful. They were dressed, however, in dreadfully offensive white “purity” costumes. The menu was large and divided into categories; sandwiches, dinners (which are announced each evening), appetizers, juices and shakes, desserts, other things, and we ordered largely, to see what it was all like. We had an appetizer of hummus (which, if I remember correctly, is a paste made of garbanzo beans and spices) on pita (Syrian bread) which was not particularly well-prepared but O.K. I asked for a dinner of stuffed mushrooms, and was served a visually beautiful dish of dark circlets sitting in white glistening sauce, out of which bean sprouts grew like hair. This came with good brown rice and a sweet golden yam. It was, at best, erotic. The while sauce, however, was sweetish and slightly sickening to me and did not enhance the fresh herbs of the gluey mushroom stuffing. It was apparent with this and with other dishes at our table that there was real concern about the appearance of the food — the textures, the colors, the confluent smells — and this is satisfying, but the tastes and temperatures were not so carefully considered. All the parts of my assortment were at the same tepid temperature, and I felt like I was eating an extremely exotic T.V. dinner. A plate of “slightly steamed” vegetables was fatally overcooked and lukewarm. The sandwiches we tried were good — a little heavy handed sometimes, but good — and the soup was rich and tasty. The small rolls (beet-bread?) served with the meals were excellent, and for dessert there was an absurdly rich flavorful cheesecake, which contrasted perfectly with the dry predictable carrot cake. The shakes were thick and tasted well of that self-declaring "l-am-freshness" which to me always typified the food and attitude of such restaurants. I felt less than fresh upon leaving; someone mentioned that perhaps I didn’t chew my rice enough, and she was probably right.

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

Domestic disturbance at the home of Mayor Gloria and partner

Home Sweet Homeless?
The Prophet lasted until 1985
The Prophet lasted until 1985

I have never liked restaurant vegetarian cooking. As a friend of mine has said. “Some of the best things in ‘normal’ cooking are meatless — like cheese souffles — and they are never served in these places that have ‘wholesome’ stuff only.'' I tried to explain to him that meatless and vegetarian cooking are different — uh — concepts (“Why no tomato eggplant?" “Too much yin or yang ...") but I basically agree with my friend.

I don’t mean to be condescending. for I take regimens of healthy eating very seriously, but there has been, in the vegetarian restaurants I’ve tried, a pretension to righteousness that makes the carrot cake — no matter how good — sog in my throat. But many people I know and like have recommended The Prophet, on University Avenue; it seems to have a subculture following of many different San Diego people, and since recommendations of good eating are few. I thought I'd try it. The comments about the restaurant were, as I remember them: “amazingly successful eclectic decoration — primary folk art"; "good vibes — you haven't been there?"; "the cook is fabulous — the dishes are really artful, it’s amazing what they do with vegetables"; “my artichoke was cold." There were others I don’t remember, about the communal pleasure of watching the idea of The Prophet take form with the work of a woman and her friends, about the clouds painted on the ceiling, and about the pun available in its name.

Sponsored
Sponsored

I will add my comments for what they’re worth, but before I do. I should note two things: 1) I know little about the different kinds of vegetarian cooking, and 2) As I sat down to write this review, the voice of Truth, personified in a woman I know, told me not to lie: “I’ve never read an honest restaurant review in San Diego (she said). If you have experience you should be able to tell ‘the place means well, but the food stinks’; the Kitchen is the King of a restaurant, you know. I would write reviews, but I hate food, and that wouldn’t do, would it? I like to drink though." At which point she suggested that I begin the review with a conversation between a bean sprout and a Brussels sprout sitting in a refrigerator, waiting to be made into dishes yet unknown.

Next door to The Prophet is a room set up for meditation, with an enormous red rug, an altar, and some Goodwill overstuffed chairs. This room was empty, but the restaurant itself was in full bustle, a large rectangular room with a high ceiling painted light blue and streaked with wispy cirrus — not neoclassically cumulus — clouds. It was not hung with imitation Persian rugs or tatty tapestry; it was rather bare, and so the noise reverberated and the clatter was at times uncomfortable but also reminiscent of “activity" of people actively talking, eating, enjoying. The menu called The Prophet “A Restaurant And Cultural Center" (“Yoghurt Culture" comes to mind), and the culture could be described by some of the contents of a set of shelves in the room: Prof. Arnold Ehret’s Mucousless Diet Healing System (book), a mechanical canary, 6 pair of comfortable-looking sandals, I assume for sale. And It Is Divine (magazine), and Sadvipra. which is a "Journal of Social and Spiritual Progress." There are two pieces of juxtaposable sculpture: one a plaster white near-Eastern figure, and the other a classical pitcher-holding woman integrated into an actively gurgling fountain, the basin of which contained pennies and dimes.

The waiting people — and especially the friendly and interested woman who took care of seating and general organization the night we were there — were fine and helpful. They were dressed, however, in dreadfully offensive white “purity” costumes. The menu was large and divided into categories; sandwiches, dinners (which are announced each evening), appetizers, juices and shakes, desserts, other things, and we ordered largely, to see what it was all like. We had an appetizer of hummus (which, if I remember correctly, is a paste made of garbanzo beans and spices) on pita (Syrian bread) which was not particularly well-prepared but O.K. I asked for a dinner of stuffed mushrooms, and was served a visually beautiful dish of dark circlets sitting in white glistening sauce, out of which bean sprouts grew like hair. This came with good brown rice and a sweet golden yam. It was, at best, erotic. The while sauce, however, was sweetish and slightly sickening to me and did not enhance the fresh herbs of the gluey mushroom stuffing. It was apparent with this and with other dishes at our table that there was real concern about the appearance of the food — the textures, the colors, the confluent smells — and this is satisfying, but the tastes and temperatures were not so carefully considered. All the parts of my assortment were at the same tepid temperature, and I felt like I was eating an extremely exotic T.V. dinner. A plate of “slightly steamed” vegetables was fatally overcooked and lukewarm. The sandwiches we tried were good — a little heavy handed sometimes, but good — and the soup was rich and tasty. The small rolls (beet-bread?) served with the meals were excellent, and for dessert there was an absurdly rich flavorful cheesecake, which contrasted perfectly with the dry predictable carrot cake. The shakes were thick and tasted well of that self-declaring "l-am-freshness" which to me always typified the food and attitude of such restaurants. I felt less than fresh upon leaving; someone mentioned that perhaps I didn’t chew my rice enough, and she was probably right.

Comments
Sponsored

The latest copy of the Reader

Please enjoy this clickable Reader flipbook. Linked text and ads are flash-highlighted in blue for your convenience. To enhance your viewing, please open full screen mode by clicking the icon on the far right of the black flipbook toolbar.

Here's something you might be interested in.
Submit a free classified
or view all
Previous article

The White-crowned sparrow visits, Liquidambars show their colors

Bat populations migrate westward
Next Article

Halloween opera style

Faust is the quintessential example
Comments
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed Big Screen — Movie commentary Blurt — Music's inside track Booze News — San Diego spirits Classical Music — Immortal beauty Classifieds — Free and easy Cover Stories — Front-page features Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts Feast! — Food & drink reviews Feature Stories — Local news & stories Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore From the Archives — Spotlight on the past Golden Dreams — Talk of the town The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it Letters — Our inbox Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news News Ticker — News & politics Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated Poetry — The old and the new Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers Reading — The hunt for intellectuals Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds SD on the QT — Almost factual news Sheep and Goats — Places of worship Special Issues — The best of Street Style — San Diego streets have style Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves Theater — On stage in San Diego this week Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads Your Week — Daily event picks
4S Ranch Allied Gardens Alpine Baja Balboa Park Bankers Hill Barrio Logan Bay Ho Bay Park Black Mountain Ranch Blossom Valley Bonita Bonsall Borrego Springs Boulevard Campo Cardiff-by-the-Sea Carlsbad Carmel Mountain Carmel Valley Chollas View Chula Vista City College City Heights Clairemont College Area Coronado CSU San Marcos Cuyamaca College Del Cerro Del Mar Descanso Downtown San Diego Eastlake East Village El Cajon Emerald Hills Encanto Encinitas Escondido Fallbrook Fletcher Hills Golden Hill Grant Hill Grantville Grossmont College Guatay Harbor Island Hillcrest Imperial Beach Imperial Valley Jacumba Jamacha-Lomita Jamul Julian Kearny Mesa Kensington La Jolla Lakeside La Mesa Lemon Grove Leucadia Liberty Station Lincoln Acres Lincoln Park Linda Vista Little Italy Logan Heights Mesa College Midway District MiraCosta College Miramar Miramar College Mira Mesa Mission Beach Mission Hills Mission Valley Mountain View Mount Hope Mount Laguna National City Nestor Normal Heights North Park Oak Park Ocean Beach Oceanside Old Town Otay Mesa Pacific Beach Pala Palomar College Palomar Mountain Paradise Hills Pauma Valley Pine Valley Point Loma Point Loma Nazarene Potrero Poway Rainbow Ramona Rancho Bernardo Rancho Penasquitos Rancho San Diego Rancho Santa Fe Rolando San Carlos San Marcos San Onofre Santa Ysabel Santee San Ysidro Scripps Ranch SDSU Serra Mesa Shelltown Shelter Island Sherman Heights Skyline Solana Beach Sorrento Valley Southcrest South Park Southwestern College Spring Valley Stockton Talmadge Temecula Tierrasanta Tijuana UCSD University City University Heights USD Valencia Park Valley Center Vista Warner Springs
Close

Anchor ads are not supported on this page.

This Week’s Reader This Week’s Reader