DINE OUT REVIEWS:
White Rose Vegetarian Kitchen
suggest eating at a vegetarian restaurant and unless your friends are yogis, Seventh Day Adventists or Californian, the response is rarely enthusiastic. But after a visit to White Rose Vegetarian Kitchen last summer, even my unabashedly carnivorous partner kept talking about it. So when friends told us at Thanksgiving that they were experimenting with a vegan diet, we knew just where to take them for dinner.
White Rose is housed in a former White Rose gas station (hence the name) and is run by Dwayne and Alberta Ennest of Cuisine Concepts (they also own Big Fish and Open Range).
The Ennests have carved a very cool space out of what was essentially an old garage. With the exception of glass overhead doors that face the street, you’d never know it; the walls are painted a soothing shade of turquoise, while the banquettes that line two of those walls are covered in seagreen corduroy. (The corner where they meet is the best spot in the room, if you can get it.) The rest of the seating is comprised of mismatched round tables and chairs, the kind you find in a second-hand store (beside the raspberry berets, presumably).
Things have changed slightly since our last visit, when all plates cost either $12 or $18. Now there’s a range of prices, though all are still under $20. The menu still encourages family-style dining, which means ordering can be an exercise in egalitarianism. (Thankfully, we proved to be a fairly easygoing bunch.)
For the appetizer we had a vegan, roasted-almondand-red-pepper romesco, $10, which comes with triangles of grilled flatbread and a few salty, smoked olives and crispy capers. We also had to order what’s listed on the menu simply as “Potato,” $17, one of the dishes the carnivore had been thinking about since last having it. Part scalloped potatoes, part galette, the ingredients include Sylvan Star Gouda, fennel, and kale, which together the carnivore pronounced “better than a steak.” We also shared the grilled portobello mushroom, $18, which comes chopped with sundried tomatoes, walnuts, and sweet potato; and the Yorkshire pudding, $13, which includes subtle bits of blue cheese. Both are cooked in a dark, reduced vegetable stock, and if there’s a criticism, it’s that all the dishes were brown. We added a bit of colour with the broccoli rabe, $17, though it is served on brown rice. Next time we’ll try to lighten things up with a butter-leaf salad. We could perhaps have ordered a few more plates for the table—it’s hard to feel full on a plant-based diet—but decided to save room for dessert. The substantial carrot cake, $9, is soaked with honey sauce, and comes topped with a dollop of vanilla mousse and carrot shavings. The vegan rice pudding, $9, made with cashew-coconut milk and figs, is served hot in a stout Mason jar. As he did the first time we visited, the carnivore finished his meal with a gelato milkshake, $9, which is also available in a vegan version. For those wanting a little more kick from their drinks, there are interesting cocktails, digestifs and chilled herbal drinks, as well as Alberta beer. A musthave is the plum mojito, $8, as much fruit salad as cocktail, filled with slices of limes and plums that you can eat with a spoon once you’ve drained the glass. Of the herbal drinks, the Czech Becherovka bitters, with cinnamon, ginger and cloves, $7, tasted like Christmas.