Friday, October 8, 2010

El Vez




Tonight, I met my friend Mikey for dinner at El Vez, a fun Mexican restaurant in Center City Philadelphia.

El Vez is known for its guac, so we rolled with “The Original”- tomato, onion, jalepeno cilantro and lime.


It came served with fresh corn tortilla chips and salsa roja.


Mikey introduced me to the double dip, in which you dip your chip first in guac, then in salsa. Genius- how did I not think of this before?

For my entr矇e, I rolled with the Mexican chopped salad.


Romaine, watercress, pumpkin seeds, tomato, chayote, corn and black beans with crispy tortilla stips and chipotle ranch and cumin-lime dressings.

This photo is actually an optical illusion. The salad was massive, and chock full of beans and corn on the bottom. Veggie heaven. I finished every last bite and was perfectly full!

We contemplated ordering dessert, but opted out when we realized that Sweet Endings, a self-serve froyo bar, was right down the street.

Even better? They had pumpkin spice yogurt on tap J


I filled a cup with half pumpkin, half tart, then topped it with rainbow sprinkles, chocolate chips and candy corn.


My only regret was not filling my whole cup with the pumpkin. It tasted just like pie!

A sweet ending to the night, for sure. Dinner dates with friends are my favorite kind of social activity- good company, good food, good conversation. What more could you ask for?

Guacamole or salsa?

Do you prefer self-serve yogurt bars, or plain old-fashioned ice cream parlors?

21 comments:

atasteofconfidence said...

I'm a new fan of guacamole! But salsa comes in a close second :)

Ellen R. said...

You should have gotten the whole thing as pumpkin and then only candy corn as topping. Yay halloween!

Gina said...

i'm totally in love with guacamole! and i think it depends on my mood when deciding between yogurt bars and ice cream parlors.

cleaneatingchelsey said...

Gotta do the guac!!! It is the best part of Mexican restaurants!

Megan D said...

Definitely guac for me! I'm going to have to do the double dip thing next time!

Red Deception said...

Guacamole!! Chunky, smooth, hot, mild...it's always amazing!

Krystina said...

Salsa and I prefer gelateria's to anything because there's usually delicious sorbet.

Jessica @ The Process of Healing said...

That pumpkin yogurt... omg. So jealous. My little bitty town (i kid you not, it's TINY) is getting a fro-yo place and i'm BEYOND excited!

Averie (LoveVeggiesAndYoga) said...

glad you two lovebirds had such a great nite!

guac b/c salsa is too onions/garlic/salt based in a restaurant but again, I am picky on the guac too. I like it when they make it tableside so i can be like nooooo to the red onions, and salt mania...haha!

have a great weekend honey!

the actor's diet said...

while you're in philly you should check out sweet freedom bakery - they just sent me a bunch of stuff and it's good!

http://theactorsdiet.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/sssss/

Liza @ Health Nutting said...

I went to El Vez last spring and we ordered The Original guac and then I had the chopped salad-- kid you not! Haha.
Love Sweet Endings :) Yay Philly!

jaclyn said...

Self serve fro yo is pretty much the best invention ever ;)

That guac looks amazing too, love "friend dates!" I went with a friend to sushi and a movie tonight. nothing beats it!

Susan said...

What a fun night on the town with your pal!

Your blog always makes me wish I wasn't allergic to avocados! It makes enjoying Mexican cuisine much more challenging for me hahha. So salsa for me!

And if I had to choose a dessert destination of choice, it would be a chocolate shop! I'm not much of a frozen treats girl.

Chelsea said...

Guacamole, hands down!

Also that pumpkin spice fro yo sounds amazing! I'm so jealous of all the self-serve fro yo places you go to. My tiny town still hasn't hopped on that bandwagon. :(

Maya said...

I love myself some good quality ice cream. But I'm also indecisive as heck. Having a self serve fro yo bar is pretty much my dream scenario!

bitemebuttercup said...

I love SOFT SERVE, which usually isn't served in ice cream parlors. So, frozen yogurt is a perfectly adequate substitute. I love that it now comes in so many flavors (although I get chocolate about 90 percent of the time), and I'll admit that for me, portion sizes matter with frozen desserts. It's such a more-ish food, so the bigger the better :)

peaceluvmunchies said...

GUAAAC! Allll the way! haha

Kenzie @ A Healthy Purpose said...

Guacamole. Self-serve.

That salad is awesome! I love when restaurants have vegetarian food thats DESIRABLE! have a great weekend, girl!

Kat said...

A. Thank you for sharing the double-dip. This concept is a new must-try in my life.

B. Self-serve. For sure. Except for the fact that we don't really have those in MN yet, so in the meantime, I'll have to be jealous of everyone else in blog-world who gets to rock it!

Pure2raw twins said...

GUACAMOLE ALL THE WAY!!! You know how much we love our avocados ;)

From Here to There. In Purple. said...

OMG!

sweet endings is MY place, haha. i'm so envious of you.

and ive been DYING to go to el vez, it just hasnt happened yet.

you lived my perfect night. yup haha

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