There are two cuisines that both vegetarians and vegans can agree are the best - Asian (a broad term defining Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese etc. but not Korean cuisines*) and eastern Mediterranean cuisine.  It’s quite amazing what one culture can do with a single food-stuff.  In the case of Mexican food, it is corn, but for Mediterranean food - wonders never cease for what the chickpea can do.  It can be a garnish in a stew, be pureed into hummus, or deep-fried to make falafel.  Dipping a falafel into hummus is the veggie equivalent of eating a chicken omelet.  One of my all-time favorite falafels is what comes from Oasis Restaurant in Lexington, KY. 

Unfortunately for my wallet and stomach, Oasis makes so much great food, that I can’t just order a falafel sandwich and be done with it.  I ordered the Oasis sampler, a classic, which included 3 falafels, 3 grape leaves, hummus, baba ghanoush, and tabbouleh.  The one down side is that they were supposed to include the dipping sauce (tahini and some parsley) with the falafel, but they didn’t.  If you order anything from Oasis, I would highly recommend this.

I also ordered the vegetarian lover entree, which includes falafel, hummus, moujadarah, grape leaves (top) and a fattoush salad (below).  You can alternatively get a greek salad, but I like fattoush.  I don’t really know why I ordered this entree, as after eating this, I remembered my favorite dishes at Oasis are in order: falafel, baba ghanoush, hummus, and foule moudamas.  The rest of the food is average to mediocre.  However, the main four dishes are so delicious that they make up for the inferiority of the others, much like how fraternities bring in nerds to boost their GPA.  Although, this would imply that Oasis is just making a few really delicious dishes to make up for the fact that they can’t make anything else.  Which wouldn’t really make sense, because if you’re a restaurant, you would aspire that all of your dishes are delicious.  So, maybe it’s more like a nerd fraternity that can’t get any more nerds to join, so they just bring in dumb jocks.  That happens in real life, right?

For the few dishes that Oasis makes really well, they are fantastic.  But if you were to survey the full repertoire of what Oasis has to offer, you might be slightly disappointed and wonder how so astute a critic as Cheese Sandwich guy could praise this locale.  Partly nostalgia of days when Oasis was far superior, and partly my falafel bias, I can’t help but give Oasis Restaurant four cheese sandwiches.

*I’m not saying Koreans are not Asian, vegetarians and vegans just can’t eat Korean food.

Oasis Restaurant
837 Chevy Chase Place
Lexington, KY 40502-2144 
(859) 269-6440