B-more Vegan: The Land of Kush Review

It’s still Vegan MoFo from now until 9/30!

I am happy to announce that I have finally tried the food at what I believe to be the only all-vegan restaurant in Baltimore, the Land of Kush. I was really excited as this is actually, no joke, the first time in my entire life that I have eaten at a fully vegan dining establishment. The main reason for this is that I don’t know any vegans in real life and end up places that have a little something for everyone, which I don’t have a problem with at all. But when I realized the Land of Kush is sort of on the way home from my new office, and that they do takeout, it was finally my chance and I was really excited.

This is not intended to be a fine dining restaurant for vegans – Baltimore is probably a long way from having anything like Vedge or Millennium. Like any major city, there are plenty of places to find vegan food, but on the other hand, it’s not necessarily a lifestyle that’s embraced culturally – just acknowledged from a business standpoint. We’ve got a couple of Whole Foods locations in the area as well as decent vegan offerings at the local chain grocery stores, so it’s hard to complain too much about the ‘vegan climate’ in general here, but of course I want to see it continue to grow.

 

(top left- smoky collards, bottom left- mac n’ “cheese”, right – curry chickun)

Anyway, like I said, I was so pumped to find out about the Land of Kush, a vegan soul food restaurant, and even though it was almost 100 degrees out yesterday, I happily biked the extra few blocks to hit them up on my way home. When I walked in, the first thing I noticed is the light aroma of nutritional yeast. Is that weird? I love nutritional yeast so I was pretty happy about it :). There were a lot of things on the menu that sounded interesting but from doing my research I knew I had to try the mac n’ “cheese”, and I also went with the mild green curry chickun and the smoky collard greens. For the two sides and entree I paid about $12. I wasn’t so stoked about the price, but did turn out to be food for two small meals (or one very large one).

The smoky collards were really good. They also had sweet bell peppers in them and it was very juicy without being greasy, and had a nice light smokiness. I wish it came with more! The curry chickun was just okay to me. The actual protein was very meat-like to me, especially in texture. I actually just thought the curry sauce needed a little salt and acid. Nothing a little sriracha didn’t fix at home!

The star of the show, though, was the vegan mac n’ “cheese”. I am extremely picky about vegan cheese, probably because in my past life I was quite the cheese aficionado, so I was keeping my expectations pretty low when I tried this. But it was delicious! They really went for the salty and creamy angle instead of overloading it with nootch, which you could just taste very subtly. A crack of black pepper and I wolfed down the whole portion of this in one sitting. I wouldn’t say it tasted exactly like the real thing but it hit all the right notes nonetheless.

So would I go to this place again? I think I would! I wouldn’t say that I’m craving eating there ASAP, but some of what I had was really good, and I am so glad to know this place is an option (and like I said, close to my work). I don’t know if I buy their claim about this being health food. I think health food is about more than just being vegan. I did like the casual vibe of the place and how fast the service was. And since I was able to get two meals out of it, I think the price is fairly reasonable. I have heard good things about their BBQ ribz as well so I may have to go back just to try that.

If any readers stop in Baltimore, you should check this place out! Everything is 100% vegan and it’s conveniently located near the Inner Harbor and Lexington Market, two of our most popular tourist destinations. Do any other cities out there have just “that one vegan place”? I bet in another 5-10 years, they’ll be sprouting up everywhere and we won’t have to look so hard!

The Land of Kush is located at 804 N. Eutaw Street. Both takeout and sit-down service are available. You can reach them at (410) 225-5874 or online at www.thelandofkush.com/.