Yikes – how are we already halfway through February?! I know it’s the shortest month and all, but… yeesh. I’ve got some catching up to do!

S and I spent the first week of February in California (LA/Loma Linda) and Seattle, respectively, on separate work trips. S took full advantage of LA’s many vegan eateries and will be back to share his meals soon, but for now I’ve got a quick post  about Plum Bistro, a Seattle fixture. Happily for me, my brother lives in Seattle, so I flew in a few days early and hung out with him. On the Sunday night before the work portion of my work trip started, the two of us and my brother’s girlfriend hit up Plum Bistro for dinner. We were just in time for Happy Hour, which does not just feature lower-priced drinks – they’ve got a full Happy Hour menu! We decided to split a bunch of small plates, tapas-style.

First, though, we started with an appetizer – hand-cut curry yam fries with a trio of sauces.

A mountain of fries!

The fries were terrific, and each of those dipping sauces was super flavorful and different. One was heavy on the dill and garlic, one was a bit spicy, and the other… well, I can’t quite remember, but I liked it!

After polishing off the fries, our food came. Clearly we hadn’t read the menu carefully enough, because the beer-battered nori-wrapped tofu came with even more fries – frankly, too many for us to finish! In the background are the purple potato taquitos and Plum’s famous mac & yease.

Even moar dipping sauce!

Holy moly. The mac & yease totally lives up to its famous reputation – it’s incredibly rich and creamy, probably the creamiest, most unique vegan mac & cheese I’ve ever had. Very impressive, and very filling – I was so glad we were splitting all this food! The beer-battered tofu was not terribly exciting, but the taquitos were tasty.

We also ordered baby eggplants stuffed with smoked tofu, basil, and sweet and sour plum sauce.

Eggplants.

I very much enjoyed these, although I found myself wishing they weren’t fried (like most of the rest of our meal). They had a great eggplant-to-stuffing ratio.

Finally, my brother ordered the jerk tofu yam slider.

Slider.

I couldn’t resist a bite of the tofu, and I was well rewarded – it was chewy and well-seasoned with jerk spices. My brother polished most of it off, though!

Whew! If that looks like a heavy, rich meal, well, it was. I was so full afterwards! I rarely eat that heavily, and I found myself wishing we’d curated our choices more closely and chosen a small salad to add some lightness. Live and learn! Overall, Plum Bistro was well-worth the hype. I was also pleased at the variety of my fellow diners – there were elderly folks, entire families, and a few couples. I love seeing such a diverse group of people enjoying vegan food!