• 4
• A Great Find

I believe this restaurant has been in Raleigh for many years, but I ate there for the first time last night. I was quite pleased with the experience: lots of great choices for vegetarians and vegans. The place is spacious (huge) and modern in appearance, with wood (bamboo?) floors and comfortable lighting. Sweet Tomatoes is part of a national chain. For the very reasonable price of $11.79, you get to enjoy an all-you-can-eat buffet. There are no servers-just some staff who restock the buffet and clear away dirty plates. Prepared food items are labeled clearly as VE (vegan), VG (vegetarian), and/or G (gluten-free). Most all the food is vegetarian. But that does not mean it’s all healthy: There is plenty of white flour and sugar to be found in prepared items. Good news for vegans: Per the website, “If you're looking for ingredient lists, each of our restaurants feature [sic] ‘Product Information Binders’ behind each bar. These binders list all our menu items and ingredients in each.” My favorite part of the buffet was the soup bar: The flavors change regularly, with about six from which to choose—including some very unique options. All are made from scratch. There was a vegetarian Pesto Pumpkin Bisque and a vegan Sizzling Sriracha Udon. Yes, vegan soup! And it was yummy. The hot bar includes baked russet and sweet potatoes, several types of focaccia (all with cheese), some hot pasta (all three choices looked plain to me), and miscellaneous baked items such as cornbread (all vegetarian, none vegan). Items apparently change regularly. Here is how the company describes its salad bar: “We have over 45 feet of fresh salad ingredients and 10 house-made dressings where you can build your own salad masterpiece.” I really enjoyed being able to make a salad with raw spinach and mixed greens, plus shredded jicama, black beans, kidney beans, etc. The salad bar included a prepared citrus arugula pasta salad (vegan) that was quite tasty. My only complaint: A lot of the plates and bowls were dirty. At a buffet-type eatery, I like to eat small amounts at a time, trying various items--so I went through a lot of bowls and plates. I had to set aside several soup bowls and several plates that had bits of food stuck to them. And most of the plates had droplets of water on them. Perhaps it is time to buy a new dishwasher? The dirtiness of the dishes is the reason I have given Sweet Tomatoes 4 stars rather than 5.