The following post was made possible by Phonatic.
With the turn of the year always come resets and cleanses and vows to do more of this… less of that. I am not immune to these trends but we are generally in a good place with what we do with our food. Working a bit on cutting down pasta and bread, but this is more of a constant. Nothing new and exciting about it.
What does get me excited in 2017 is that the now-13yo is into trying new things. I’m not sure if it is a permanent shift, but I am taking advantage of it while it is here. And with that, I am starting a new series of posts – Lunch with the Girl. We’ll be hitting spots around town in hopes of finding new yummy vegetarian eats (that we both enjoy) and cozy spots to have working lunches.
First up? Phonatic. We went quite a bit when they first opened and really enjoyed the veggie pho, but our visits got more and more infrequent as the Texas heat kept our pho cravings at bay and we realized that the kiddo was defaulting to bowl of steamed rice + fried egg.
We were really excited to hear that they were expanding their vegetarian/vegan menu and jumped at the chance to try it all out. We tried a full slate of dishes including the Spring Rolls with Tofu, Crispy Salt & Pepper Tofu, the Veggie Pho and a new dish that they are testing out – Marinated Eggplant over steamed rice.
We ended with full bellies and the 13yo was an absolute trooper; taking bites and spoonfuls without questions. She liked everything, but her favorite, the Salt and Pepper Tofu,totally surprised me. She polished off the bowl in spite of its heat!
I’m looking forward to the eggplant dish making its way to the menu permanently, but am perfectly content with eating the Spring Rolls and Veggie Pho in the meantime. So good with lots of fresh veggies and hefty, sharable portions.
Phonatic has locations all over Austin.
P.S. We went for a second visit (in a month!) and the 13yo ordered the Crispy Tofu & Veggies in a salad and I had the Veggie Pho. Just as fresh and yummy as the first time and I declare any location that gets her ordering a salad willingly a winner in my book.
aneelee 