Saturday, July 17, 2010

dos segundos



931 north 2nd street
philadelphia, pa
(215) 629 0500
www.cantinadossegundos.com

type of cuisine: mexican
culinary excellence: 7
vegan friendliness: 7

thanks again to the punk kitchen posters for turning me on to yet another vegan-friendly philly joint. dos segundos is apparently one of two sister restaurants serving up tasty mexican food in northern liberties and south philly. danielle and i decided to hit up the northern liberties sister for dinner last night.

the space has a kind of festive rustic chic atmosphere, with exposed brick, deep orange walls and blocky wooden tables and chairs. when we got there a bit after 6pm, it wasn't too busy, but by the end of dinner, our voices hurt from having to scream through all the noise just to to hear our own conversation.

in my effort to avoid hard alcohol, i ordered a red sangria. danielle selected a watermelon frozen margarita from their enticing menu of fruity drinks:



they look good, right? sadly, they were underwhelming. my sangria tasted kind of syrupy and watery at the same time and danielle's choice was unevenly mixed, so there was frothy fruitiness at the top and what seemed like pure alcohol on the bottom. the thin salty tortilla chips served with both green and red salsa were a nice consolation.

there weren't as many vegan entrees as i had expected, but our attentive waiter checked ingredients for me in his little menu rolodex. since i didn't want a salad, he said i could choose between tofu and seitan fajitas and their mole tofu burrito special. there was one other option which he didn't recommend, because it would have meant omitting cheese, and they did not have any vegan cheeses to sub in, as i had thought they did. he said they have vegan cheese on occasion, just not on a regular basis. so i went for the fajitas:



the waiter warned me that this was a large dish, and that it was. a hefty hefty plate of well-made guacamole, pico de gallo, moist and smoky black beans, perfectly cooked rice and a delightful mix of deeply flavorful onions, peppers, wild mushrooms, delicious strips of firm tofu and chunks of meaty seitan served with four soft flour tortillas. i was very impressed with the dish, particularly since it didn't rely on soy cheese or sour cream - just really nice seasonings and combinations. the tofu was good enough to have eaten alone. the seitan was not on par with the adobe cafe's, but the texture added to the mix anyway.

we got the check before i realized that all of dos segundos' cakes were actually from the vegan treats bakery, but that's ok because i was pretty stuffed by that point. if they had had chocolate covered strawberry shortcake or peanut butter bomb instead of carrot cake and tiramisu cake, i might have broken down and gotten a piece to go. alas, vegan treats seem to be everywhere these days.

one final note about dos segundos - it was a pleasure making a trip to the bathroom there! you go downstairs where the walls are done in a calming blue faux finish and on the way back up you see this!:



if their sister restaurant, los caballitos, also has the vt cakes, that might justify a trip over there...

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