Restaurant Review: Zudakas

Buenas.  We went to Zudaka for lunch today - it is a Venezuelan and Colombian vegetarian restaurant, and is by far the best restaurant I have ever been to.  Many of the items on the menu are completely vegetarian (no eggs, no milk, no meat), and they taste sooo good.  They had a good selection of arepas, which are traditional Colombian pastries, made from corn or hominy and cheese.  In Colombia, our taxi driver, Oscar, had gotten us some as a wedding present - it was really generous and sweet of him, and they tasted so good.  It is a really fond memory of ours.  The restaurant is small and nicely decorated - there were paintings of flowers and some books about Simon Bolivar and others, and a toy guitar and parrot.  The tablecloth had pictures of different kinds of spices.  There were only two employees - the waitress and the chef, and they were kind, helpful, friendly, and fast.  We barely had to wait at all for anything.  It was funny because we were surprised to find out that the waitress had been to India and lived in Nepal, and she was surprised to find out we had been to Colombia.  (She was Colombian but had been married to a Venezuelan - hence the cuisine). It is also very healthy and fresh food - unlike many restaurants, we felt pretty good after eating here, and didn't feel stuffed or like we ate something we shouldn't have, which is usually how I feel after eating out.  We also had some really tasty Colombian tea and a rice pudding desert.  I was very happy to find out the rice pudding was vegetarian too - made from soy milk instead of cow milk - it tastes much better with soy.  I'm eager to try out the recipe at home now.  Adios.