I had seen good reviews of the Top of Tacoma Bar & Café, and a good friend highly recommended it, but I had glossed over the comments that it is a good place for Vegan cuisine. This is not something I search for, but I do like good vegetables. On Sunday afternoon I cooked a pork chop dinner with gravy, frozen corn kernels with butter and lemon juice, baked baby reds, and a romaine salad with walnuts, raisins, tomato slices, shredded Italian cheeses, and crispy Chinese noodles.
My pork chop, cooked perfectly, was last on the list of the dinner favorites. The gravy probably came in at #1, but other than that vegetables were at the forefront of the afternoon meal.
This seems to be happening more often lately. In my younger days, meat was number one . . . possibly followed by some other meat course.
My friend, Jim picked me up for our monthly lunch together. I usually choose where we go. Top of Tacoma was at the top of my list.
From the outside, the place looks rather small, but it was filled with people all the way back past the pool table. We walked back and took the only table, which was by the front door. There were open seats at the bar, but it's harder to carry on a conversation at the bar.
Jim ordered the meatball sandwich with a small salad. I ordered the cauliflower curry soup with my sandwich. My soup was fantastic. It might have been a little spicey for Peg, but it was perfect for me. I added a little more pepper. I could have eaten a bowl of it instead of a cup. With the sandwiches, the salad and the soup were only $1.50 more. That's a super deal for good soup.
When I ordered my Pork Belly Banh Mi, I had asked if the pork belly was cooked "crispy." Indeed it was. The bun was fresh and so were the condiments.
On top of the pork belly were slices of pineapple. If I had seen red pepper flakes anywhere I would have asked for them. Not that the sandwich needed them, but it just felt like it would boost the flavor for me.
The amount of food was about right for lunch, but for dinner one and a half sandwiches would have been good to go for me. Or better, yet, a bowl of the soup and a pork belly sandwich . . . with perhaps an extra half waiting to play in the big game.
After the lunch crowd, it thinned out a little bit, but shortly afterward another influx of diners came in. The bar and Café has a ton of reviews, and I'm guessing that most of them had to be favorable. I will return with Peg and quite possibly more friends. I was thinking of Sunday brunch (opens at 11:00), but the waiter said to come early. When the door opens on Sunday there is usually a line of thirty or forty people waiting to get inside.
