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More
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Seva Restaurant and Market
314 E. Liberty St.
Hours Monday-Thursday 11-9 pm
Friday 11-10 pm
Saturday 10-10 pm
Sunday 10-9 pm
By Neil Galanter
W HERE CAN you walk out of a
restaurant, tummy full and
satisfied, along with a brilliant green
head of leaf lettuce, exotic coffee beans
and perhaps some tofu? "Is that
possible?" you might be asking. It is,
and I assure you of the fact because I
did it last week, when I dined and shop-
ped at the Seva Restaurant and Market
at 314 E. Liberty Street.
The all veggie-restaurant is accom-
panied by a delightful health food
market with spring fresh produce pat-
ch, gourmet coffees and teas and a wide
variety of health accessories. vitamins
and food. My evening began about 7:15
p.m. while the restaurant and market
were both extremely busy. During my
approximate 20 minute wait to be
seated, I browsed the market. A natural
peanut butter machine was interesting
and provided freshly ground peanut
butter for $1.99 per pound.
Slightly higher than your ordinary Jif,
but well worth the extra cents for its
freshness and naturalness.
Bins of crunchy snack mixes such as
Carribean Mix which consists of dried
carrot and pineapple pieces, carob
chips and other assorted raw nuts
tossed with coconut strips, surround the
area. The assorted mixes ranges in
price from $2.49 to $2.99 per pound.
Other healthful goods included a com-
plete produce section with organic
vegetables and fruits that surprisingly
enough looked as if they had just-been
picked and delivered. This was near the
end of the day,.the time when produce
usually begins to look as if it had seen
its better days, but this was not the case
here. Their produce is extremely
Z
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Seva: Healthful fare for singles or pairs
reasonably priced to, and the quality is
much higher than that of the local area
supermarkets. This vegetable forest
and produce garden is well worth
looking into, especially for those
students who do some of their own
grocery shopping.
I glance at my watch; its about 7:30
p.m. and I'm getting somewhat hungry.
But, being the coffee fiend I am, I'll get
some gourmet coffee beans. What a
selection to choose from; everything
from Dutch Chocolate Mint (my
favorite, for the aroma alone is a
gratifying experience) and the list ex-
tends all the way to Mocha Javas,
French Roasts and rare Ethiopian
Djimar. The beans are superior but
they run a little steep in price, the
lowest bean costing approximately
$4.35 per pound and the top of the scale
at $7.99 per pound. For a coffee con-
noisseur though, no price is too much to
pay and Seva's can certainly satisfy
your caffeine needs.
By the time I had paid for my market
selections, it was time to dine. We star-
ted the evening with the corn chips as
an appetizer. It seemed like a good
choice. Paranthesized as homemade,
the chips at 95 cents were served with a
very hot Jalapeno pepper sauce. They
were tasty but they did not emit waves
of being homemade. Instead they
seemed similar in quality to any type of
tortilla/corn chip one might purchase
in the store. The menu's other ap-
petizers include "Nachos" and "Chips
with Guacamole Dip." Prices range
from the 95 cents we paid for the corn
chips to a grand $6.25 for the Nachos
Supreme which includes all toppings.
For dinner entrees Seva offers a wide
variety from a menu that includes
Salads, Soups, Oriental Stir Fry's,
Pasta, Mexican Specialties, Omelettes,
Sandwiches, and Blackboard Daily
Specials. We chose a blackboard
special which comes with a choice of
soup or salad and a loaf of homemade
special bread. The entree was entitled
"Broccoli Wilfridshire" at $5.95, and it
was a delicately stir fried combination
of broccoli, red peppers, mushrooms
and onions, served with a bed of brown
rice and gracefully accompanied by
orange twists and a small cup of warm
walnuts. A pleasant white sauce was
also included. The walnuts tasted as if
they had just been roasted and the
homemade date bread was full of date
chunks. It melted like butter in our
mouths.
With my "special" I had the
Hungarian mushroom soup which was
included, and I tried ahouse salad for
$1.50. Both were delicious and
satisfying. The soup was creamy,
rich 'n' thick and stock full of giant
mushroom pieces. It only could have
been more piping hot. The house salad
although somewhat small and refined,
was an attractive arrangement of red-
leaf lettuce, cabbage, carrots, raisins
and served with a choice of six
dressings. Other salads on Seva's menu
range in price from the $1.50 for that
house salad to $4.85 for what they call
the Superfruit, a large assortment of
fresh fruits served with cottage cheese.
From the regular menu we sampled
the Smothered Burrito from the
Mexican Specialties category. This was
a gigantic flour tortilla with pinto
beans, lettuce, onions, tomatoes, sour
cream, topped with cheese and Seva's
special hot sauce. The portion was
more than generous, and the blend of
all of the previously mentioned was
most savory to the tongue. The sauce
really was not that hot but still was
tasty enough. We accompanied that
grand burrito with a glass of wine: A
Chenin Blanc, white wine for $2.25. It
was full bodied and fruity with a smooth
finish and it did not have the dryness
that many white wines do. It was moist
to the tongue and it left a pleasant taste.
Seva also has a major selection of
other drinks to choose from on their
regular menu such as natural papaya,
apple cider, carrot, and orange juices;
coffees and herbal and black teas and
there are also various blended drinks to
choose from. All are priced reasonably
and moderately. The highest priced
drink only. $1.85.
One would imagine that after all that
food the evening would gracefully taper
off to a close. But there was still a
choice of dessert from a gorgeous
dessert traysthatthe waitress brought
to our table. We had Frandaise, a
modest collection of chocolate truffles,
cookie, strawberry, flake pastry and
chocolate covered orange peel. The
truffles were chocolatey scrumptious
and tasted as if 10 pounds of chocolate
had gone into the candy mold. Although
the small group of sinful delicacies cost
$2.75, it satisfied ones palate in. full and
put a definitive and positive close on the
evening's meal.
Seva also has a regular dessert menu,
and a breakfast menu which is served
Saturday and Sunday only from 10 a.m.
til 2:30 p.m. Pancakes, waffles, French
toast, Seva's special breads, and a
large selection of egg creations make
up that menu and their breads are
available for take-out also.
To make this long story a bit shorter,
the conclusion rests that this restaurant
and market is one of Ann Arbor's most
unique and at the same time one of the
f Est. There is something for everyone
here and the varied menu can make a'
vegetarian out of a person even if their
whole life they have been eating strictly
meat and potatoes. That combination is
not missed in the least here. E9
GREAT
EUROPEAN VACATIONS
In 1985, American Express
offers a fabulous selection of
more than 100 vacations to
Europe from 4 to 29 days - span-
ning more than a dozen fas-
cinating countries.
For more information, come in or call:
REGENCY TRAVEL, INC.
601 E. William St.
Corner of E. William & MaynardE
665-6122 r
Vacation I
Representative
6 Weekend/Friday, April 12, 1985
Weekend/Friday,