Oleana, Cambridge MA

Jay and I went to Oleana for my birthday dinner way back in February and had a great time. They have a special menu for vegetarians and the waiter was extremely knowledgeable about the menu and could explain in detail what was vegan or could be made vegan. Unfortunately the Spinach Falafel wasn't included in this list, but as you'll see there were a lot of other great options! The food was so good, you can see from the photo above that I forgot to take a picture before we started eating! Also, it was pretty dark in there and I just had my phone, so I apologize for the poor quality of the photos.

The menu is tapas style, so we ordered a bunch of small plates - all vegan.
The photo above shows clockwise from the top left: fried cauliflower, a chickpea terrine, my plate of food and grilled red pepper pita.
I wish I had taken a picture of the chickpea terrine earlier, but it was so good we ate it so quickly. It was layered with pureed chickpeas, sliced radishes, and greens.  I loved the combo of the smooth puree with the crunchy radishes. I paired it wish the red pepper pita and bread basket they provided. I'm not sure how they expected you to eat it since it didn't come with any bread or pita itself, but it went really well with the pita.
On the left you can see an up close shot of the pita with the cauliflower in the background and below an up close shot of the flat bread with the chickpea terrine on top.
The pita was tasty, but not what I was expecting. I thought it would be warm, since it was grilled, and have bigger pieces of red pepper. It was still really tasty though and I used it a lot to eat the rest of the items.

The fried cauliflower (below) was the real winner. Jay was a little skeptical when I ordered it since he has yet to like a cauliflower dish that I've ever made, but this was a real game changer for him! His hang up has always been the texture of the cauliflower, but this melted in your mouth! It was seriously some of the best cauliflower I've ever had and Jay said it was the best thing he ate that night. Coming from someone who has never like cauliflower before that is high praise!

The spicy fideos, pictured on the left, were really good. I wanted them to be a bit more spicy, more flavorful, but they were all around solid. Not as good as the cauliflower or chickpeas, but still a great dish. To be fair I probably had extremely high expectations for them, since I always love a good noodle dish.

The flattened potatoes, pictured below, unfortunately were underwhelming. You can see how dark they are in the picture. I don't know if this was on purpose or not, but they were very burnt and the taste was overwhelming, in a bad way. The potatoes were nice and soft inside, but since they were flattened potatoes there wasn't much of an inside. I liked the oregano flavor, but the burnt edges were too overpowering. Jay was disappointed as they were the last item brought out and he had been looking forward to them. Luckily he was able to enjoy the cauliflower instead.

For dessert we had blood orange sorbet and it was soooo good! It had an extremely intense orange flavor that was great and a phenomenal texture. It was very smooth and creamy, not at all overly icy. Overall it was a great meal. The potatoes were a disappointment, but the rest of the meal was great, as was the whole experience. It's a cute little place with a cozy atmosphere and great service. I was just checking the menu out again, and it looks like there are some seasonal updates - I would definitely go back and try some more items!