La Semilla, a new restaurant in Atlanta’s Reynoldstown neighborhood, serves a plant-based menu that prioritizes Latin American flavors, rather than virtuous veganism. You leave La Semilla thinking it’s a good restaurant, rather than just a good vegan restaurant.
Even home cooks will tell you that plants often are much more difficult to cook than meat. Teasing out their richness and depth of flavor without using butter, cheese and meat is almost like alchemy, and the kitchen at La Semilla manages to pull off this magic trick on a regular basis.
Credit: Ashley Wilson
Credit: Ashley Wilson
Starting with the obvious, La Semilla has an excellent house salad. You either love or hate beets, but they’re deployed to wonderful effect in the ensalada de casa. Thinly sliced beets form the base of the salad, which is made mostly with arugula and topped with candied pecans, a guava vinaigrette and queso fresco made from macadamia nuts. It’s a satisfying salad that hits nearly every part of the palate: sour, sweet, bitter, spicy and salty.
A humble bowl of mantequilla beans is another standout dish. The tender, creamy heirloom beans have a rich, deep taste, and they’re served with a charred lemon to be squeezed over the bowl just before eating. The lemon provides a nice hit of acid, but also a little pomp and circumstance. Where else does your bowl of beans get the same treatment as a swordfish steak?
Credit: Ashley Wilson
Credit: Ashley Wilson
While its menu is plant-based, La Semilla doesn’t completely shy away from vegan versions of dishes made with animal products. Start with the queso blanco, a lovely amalgam of mostly potatoes and cashews that also manages to be gluten-free. While it doesn’t have the exact texture of real queso, it’s still an excellent dip that comes remarkably close to the original, thanks to a secret recipe. You not only might forget that there’s no cheese in the dip, but you’ll also likely marvel at the quality of the chips made in-house. There are few delights better than a fresh, crisp, flavorful tortilla chip.
Elsewhere on the menu, the restaurant cleverly uses vegan faux-meat products as a minor part of some dishes. La Semilla’s tamal uses a chicken substitute, but the protein is merely an enhancement.
Credit: Ashley Wilson
Credit: Ashley Wilson
The crunch wrap, a vegan re-creation of the classic Taco Bell crunch wrap supreme, also utilizes a meat substitute, this time a beef-like version of seitan, which is made in-house. The soy product is almost indistinguishable from ground beef, and the high-quality ingredients and careful assembly of La Semilla’s crunch wrap make it better than the original.
Mushrooms also are a reliable stand-in for meat, but there aren’t many places that lavish as much care on their fungi as La Semilla does with its bistec de palomilla. The lion’s mane mushroom is cooked three separate times, including a blackening sear, to finish. It’s not quite steak, but the hearty, spicy mushroom hits many of the same notes.
Credit: Ashley Wilson
Credit: Ashley Wilson
One head-scratcher on La Semilla’s menu is the house salsa, called sikil pak, which could use a little more flavor. The finely ground, Aztec-style salsa has a bit of a spicy kick, but compared with the queso, there’s not much else going on. The same could be said for the squash empanada, which also lacked excitement.
There are few misfires, though, and the menu does change seasonally. The food also is bolstered by an excellent cocktail program and friendly, enthusiastic service. Drinks thoughtfully utilize sugar cane and agave, for the most part, including a version of an espresso martini that uses Café Bustelo, rum and oat milk.
Sophia Marchese, who runs the cocktail program, said many of the drinks use byproducts from the kitchen, as part of the restaurant’s low-waste policy. Freshly made agua frescas often make use of leftover fruit and vegetable scraps, too.
Marchese said La Semilla, which grew out of the popular Happy Seed pop-up, is a mission-driven restaurant that wants to open people’s eyes to plant-based dining, without slapping them in the face with its veganism. The small, charming restaurant seems to be reliably packed, so it’s not too much of a stretch to say their mission already is looking successful.
LA SEMILLA
3 out of 4 stars (excellent)
Food: plant-based Latin American cuisine
Service: friendly and knowledgeable
Recommended dishes: queso blanco, croquetas de jamon, ensalada de casa, mantequilla beans, bistec de palomilla, crunch wrap, frituras de calabaza
Vegetarian dishes: menu is 100% plant-based
Alcohol: full bar
Price range: $$
Hours: 5-10 p.m. Tuesdays-Thursdays, 5-11 p.m. Fridays-Saturdays, 5-9 p.m. Sundays
Parking: deck parking free with validation
MARTA Station: 1 mile from King Memorial and Inman Park stations
Reservations: recommended
Outdoor dining: yes
Takeout: yes
Address, phone: 780 Memorial Drive SE, Atlanta. 404-228-3090
Website: lasemilla.kitchen
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