Best of DC -- Everlasting Life Cafe on Georgia Ave

We got an $8 gift certificate from Everlasting Life about a month ago as part of a rewards program they do. Feeling empowered with our eight dollars, we splurged on a late lunch to-go from there on Saturday, getting a main course, two sides, a salad, and a dessert. As expected, everything was just about perfect! Everlasting Life Cafe is an all-vegan restaurant in DC near Howard University that serves a slightly different menu every day, cafeteria-style. The food is relatively inexpensive and the atmosphere is homey. We were lucky to move just three blocks away from EL last January, and have been going there pretty often this year. Check out what we got for a discounted price:

The fried "chicken" main dish is amazing--they have it available as a main on Saturdays, and you can order it in a sandwich any other day. I mixed up a barbecue sauce to go with it (they have it at the restaurant, we just forgot to take some to go.) The mac and cheese is the best vegan mac and cheese I've tried, so we often get that as our side, and the greens are tender and smoky. We tried the potato salad for the first time. It tasted classic; it would fool any non-vegan at a potluck for sure. We also had one of their desserts, an unlabeled slice of cake that was maybe half-cherry half-brown sugar, for the first time -- big mistake, because it was so freakin' delicious we'll want to get it every time! We'd managed to avoid the cost and calories of desserts here before, but now I'm not so sure we'll be able to do that...

If you're a vegan living in DC or visiting DC and want to check out the vegan food scene, this is a must-visit, especially if you can go on a Saturday. We also love their fried cabbage and eggplant parmesan... and pretty much everything else we've tried there. It won best vegan restaurant of DC from the Washington City Paper's Readers Poll in 2013, so it's definitely one of the top vegan places-to-be in DC.