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CLOSED: Govinda's Gourmet
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11
Closed
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Vegetarian
Vegan-friendly
Lacto
American
Indian
Asian
Vedic
Govinda's To-Go Cafe is a vegan friendly, sit-down dining place. Features a nearly all vegan menu (2 non-vegan dishes) with Asian and American regional influences and a vegan Indian food buffet. Confirmed open Feb. 2014, just enter through the to-go side due to construction. CONFIRMED CLOSED, JAN 2017.
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1505 South St (at corner of Broad St), Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA, 19146
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Last update on 15 Jan 2017 by agentbey
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6 Reviews
First Review by meganrascal
onlyahuman
Points +214
Go for the buffet! - Edit
I've been to Govinda's a few times and have always liked what I've gotten. The all you can eat buffet is the best deal you can get, and if you can eat you can get your money's worth. The last time I was there about 5 months ago, my girlfriend and I got an amazing pumpkin cake for dessert and we still talk about how good it was to this day. I tried calling the number listed on here and it seems to be wrong the person who answered they number provided gave me another number to call which was only a voicemail.
Read morePros: buffet
Cons: expensive
Guest
BruceWayne
Points +57
Not very vegan - Edit
The pepper steak is not vegan. They claimed the steak was vegan for a long time, and when one of the workers who actually cares about veganism read the ingredients of the package of "chicken" for the pepper steak, the ingredients contained non-vegan ingredients.
Read moreThe pepper steak is NOT vegan. When they get shipments of vegan "steak" for the pepper steak, they never continue the same product. They frequently receive shipments of non-vegan "steak" products and serve them in sandwiches, not stating that they are in fact, not vegan.
The workers could care less about veganism, which is a problem only because they won't try to separate the vegan from non-vegan food.
They're always out of bread.
They charge too much for a dinky sandwich. It isn't even vegan!
Pros: kind of tasty
Cons: expensive, small portions, not vegan
Guest
shingfunger
Points +37
Vegan not-so friendly. - Edit
For 8ish years Govindas has been serving "Pepper Steak" sandwiches and claiming them to be vegan. About 5 months ago they were caught and it turns out that in fact the steak used (NOT the same as the chicken cheese steak) is not vegan. The owner claimed he had no idea. If he doesn't know enough about veganism to read the ingridients of his own food, he shouldn't be serving it.
Read moreFor a month after that the cafe got another steak substance and when a customer would ask for vegan cheese, they would give them the vegan alternative. after that ran out, they went straight back to using the non vegan steak and not saying anything to their customers. one of very few workers there who actually cares about veganism finally put up on the sign that the pepper steak is in fact not vegan.
Govindas is overrated and really expensive, and it sucks being lied to about your food.
Guest
lfusfeld
Points +268
NOT entirely vegan, and not the best - Edit
At the restaurant, there are definitely dairy dishes. A couple of them are excellent, others are mediocre. Go to Mi Lah or Horizons instead. Muuuch better.
Read moreAt Govinda's To Go (next door), the employees don't wash their hands - touch hair, touch food, touch money, touch food. Gross. Also, $3.25 for a vegan donut?? I only ate their once, but with no a/c in the summer, it looked like the cook was sweating into my food. I feel more comfortable eating from Gianna's.
Pros: vegan options
Cons: cleanliness, value for price
Guest
bengarland
Points +58
Great Vegan Food, but Not Worth the Price... - Edit
Went to Govinda's last night with high expectations. It was definitely not a total bust, but if you're thinking about going there, you might want to check out Horizons instead. Everyone in our party agreed that Govinda's was nowhere near the quality of Horizons, even though the prices were about the same.
Read more[For what it's worth, I have been vegetarian for 14 years and have experience as a cook in an Asian restaurant, so I have worked with tofu, seitan, and other mock meats in a professional environment.]
At Govinda's...
1) It was $17-19 per entree and $6-9 per appetizer. Almost all of these had some sort of mock meat (chicken, shrimp, beef, duck). These all obviously come from Asian mock meat manufacturers because I've seen the exact same thing in other restaurants and in the frozen section at Asian food stores. Not exactly original.
2) The sauces and side dishes were fairly bland. My mock duck was supposed to have some sort of peanut ginger sauce, but I could taste neither of those two ingredients. A friend also ordered the same dish and she thought it had a weird aftertaste and too much of a smoky flavor (I agree). The sweet potato and chard that came with the duck was also bland and had a very bizarre flavor.
3) If you're going here for upscale vegetarian food, and you don't like mock meat, find somewhere else. One vegan in our group got a shrimp dish and thought that it tasted too much like real shrimp (it did), and he couldn't finish it. Of course, if you're trying to impress some meat eaters, this might be the place.
The verdict?
I can't highly recommend Govinda's because A) For the same price, I can find much better food elsewhere (see Horizons) and B) I can find similar quality food for a cheaper price elsewhere (see Kingdom of Vegetarians).
Pros: nice atmosphere, decent food, good portions
Cons: expensive, low value, slow-ish service
Guest
meganrascal
Points +28
Nice Place - Edit
It was practically empty when I went which makes me think that maybe other people were as confused as I had previously been about where exactly the Govinda's cafe dining room was. You have to go UPSTAIRS for Govinda's cafe. It's a little confusing because there's another seated table area to the right on the South street side of Govinda's fast-food restaurant "Gourmet to go" that looks completely different than the Gourmet to go area but that's NOT the dining room for Govinda's cafe.
Read moreIf you do manage to get to the actual restaurant, it's really nice--warm lighting, nice decor, etc. The appetizers we ordered were excellent. The entrees were good too, it's just that they're mostly all mock meat and I'm not really into fake meat; I prefer my veggies and lentil type dishes.
Pros: Great food, Friendly service
Cons: Difficult to find, too much mock meat
Guest
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