Ladies that Lunch - Jasmine

The ladies and I met in Midtown for lunch this week.  We decided to try Jasmine Thai & Vegetarian restaurant.  I almost went to this place a while back and I think it fell through because we thought it was truly a vegetarian restaurant.  (Not that there's anything wrong with that.)  It is in fact NOT vegetarian.  They'll even make the vegetarian dishes with meat upon request.

We showed up at at 11am and were the first ones to arrive.  And actually the only ones there the whole time.  The owner waited on us, gave recommendations, cooked, and was just generally a delight.

Jasmine doesn't have a lunch menu so it's not the cheapest venture.  And the dinner menu is ginormous.  We ended up getting several things and sharing so we could get more of a variety of tastes. And thank goodness for this hungry girl, the food came out quickly!

Since we decided to get 2 meat dishes, Natalie & I were interested to try the spring rolls with tofu.  I always want to love tofu but sometimes it's BAD.  Big globby messes.  The scaredy-pants in me doesn't want to risk it in a main dish.  But an appetizer?  Why not, I say.

Tofu spring roll with peanut sauce.

It was really good!  Phew.  The tofu had a nice firm consistency and tasted, well, like a spring roll.  The peanut sauce was much thicker than I'm used too.  More like an actual peanut butter.  But very tasty and went well with the the roll.

Anita kindly shared her steamed dumpling with us.

Featuring pork.

Also good!  Sometimes steamed dumplings can get a little soggy.  But these were just right and whatever that sauce was was good.

Off to a good start!

Our meals quickly followed.  I forgot the name of this dish but it had chicken, cumber, cilantro, green onions, red bell, onions, and lemongrass.

The #8.  Sorry it's blurry.

We thought it would be a warm dish but it came out cool.  Hmmm.  Spooned it on the plate...  What a fantastic surprise!  A perfect summer dish.  Crisp.  Refreshing.  Or as Anita said "Bright".  A tasty treat.

I peer pressured (not that it was hard) for a noodle dish and we got the house pad thai.

Featuring beef, chicken, and shrimp.

Great!  Natalie warned me that the hot sauce we ordered on the side was super hot.  I carefully added a little and it was a KICKER.  The noodles had a nice flavor and texture and with some spiciness, just terrifical.

Jasmine was great.  We split our bill 3 ways and it came to  $15.  Not bad for all that!  I'll definitely go back...  I only have about 50 more items to try.