Laughing Seed Cafe

04/29/08

Everything is lovely here.

by mountainhikergirl

As a vegan it was pure bliss to sit down to a menu *full* of options including appetizers, entrees, desserts and smoothies. We visited Asheville for the first time for a three day weekend and we ate there (with meat-eater friends who LOVED it) three times! I read previous posts about mediocre service, but our service was great. Our servers were very friendly and extremely helpful. I cannot remember the name of the guy who we had the first time, but we had Sarah the other two times and she is an absolute doll. Very helpful to me (vegan) and my friend who is on a Gluten Free diet. She even tailored a dessert special for my GF friend. The food is soooo good, I can't even explain it!!

If you were my friend, I'd say you gotta try this place!

• Pros: The FOOD!! Location, quality, selection, great service
• Cons: None

11/25/07

Amazingly creative vegetarian food

by usatraveler

They have an amazingly creative vegetarian menu, worth trying even if you're not vegetarian. The atmosphere is very nice, not quite informal, but it isn't stuffy/v. formal either. There are so many appetizing dishes on the menu that I want to eat there every time I go to Asheville - actually, I want to go to Asheville just to eat there!

• Pros: tasty, creative vegetarian dishes
• Cons: service could have been better

09/13/07

This place did not meet our high expectations.

by jitterbugperfume

I've been waiting for years to try Laughing Seed. Friends from Asheville and vegetarian publications have showered it in praise, and when the opportunity to visit Asheville and give it a try arose, I jumped to try it. I was really suprised by the dismissive and rude servers and the deeply mediocre food. My soup, a lavender potato leek soup had a lovely texture, but it was massively oversalted. My entree was a tempeh cuban sandwich, and though it had a decent flavor, the overwhelming number of moist ingredients on the bun undermined the crunchy batter on the tempeh, leaving the sandwich with a mushy texture and a homogeneous mustard flavor. My boyfriend ordered one of the daily specials, a spicy ginger tofu dish. The tofu was delicious, but the vegetables were overcooked mush swimming in a cloyingly sweet, vaguely Asian sauce. Our waitress disappeared for a very, very long time after delivering our food, so when we finally caved and asked a neighboring server for water, we were surprised when she looked and us like we'd just asked her to take her top off and do a bellydance on our tabletop. She snarled at us and when we thanked her for giving us the water, she gave us the most hateful, insincere "thank you" I've ever heard. Laughing Seed left us wishing we'd tried any of the other excellent looking restaurants in downtown Asheville. We certainly didn't stay for dessert.

• Pros: All vegetarian menu, nice patio
• Cons: Worst service ever, mediocre food, and terrible service. And rude service, btw.