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Buckhead: Cafe Sunflower

Several people had suggested Cafe Sunflower to me, so when I ran across it on Peachtree, I dashed in to try it. Vegetarian food is an interesting challenge for a chef because of the limited palette. With meat not an option, the chef has to work harder to keep all the dishes from tasting alike. Cafe Sunflower showed impressive skill in touring cuisines of the world vegetarian-style.

I went a little crazy with my lunch, consoling myself with the thought that it was, after all, vegetarian. I started with the soup, which was billed as minestrone-like. It was, in fact, good enough to pass muster as Italian food. I then had a goat cheese salad. Let's face it, the upside on a salad is small---at best, it's still rabbit food. But the downside for a salad can be very low. This salad was quite well done, with very fresh ingredients. My main course was a kung pao dish with soy chicken. It was quite Chinese to my Causasian palette, something that I would be happy to have in many a Chinese restaurant. And then I had to try the chocolate cake, which was exactly what it was billed to be---a decadent dessert.

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