We've been cooking from the Horizons cookbooks for a while now (both books available for purchase at Horizons, just ask the host upstairs), and it's pretty great. However, the restaurant itself is a little on the expensive side for us, so it's taken us a while to get over there for a sit-down dinner. We had take-out from Horizons a year or so ago with friends with mixed results - like most food, it's truly best when cooked, served and eaten in a timely manner.

For Messy's birthday, we decided to go. By drinking water (not that we're normally guzzling bubbly and martinis) and sharing an appetizer, we were able to keep our bill under $50. We were surprisingly so full we didn't even need dessert to satiate our sweet tooths.

Their freshly baked bread and herby olive oil was so yummy! It's one of the many reasons why this place is packed from open to close every single day - reservations for the upstairs dining area are strongly recommended. We got there just before 9 p.m. on a Thursday and were told the dining room was full until about 9:30p.m., but we got lucky and a table for two opened up and was bussed within a few minutes.

We started off with spicy chipotle seitan and black bean enchiladas, and they were absolutely fabulous. Vegan cheese almost never tastes good, and this was terriffic. Whatever their secret is, it's worth the trip. In fact, this appetizer could make a suitable dinner. Picky ordered the Yucatan chopped spinach salad and Jamaican BBQ seitan for his meal (both appetizers). Messy had the grilled seitan which comes with Horizons famous yukon mash potatoes. (We both really, really like seitan. Our favorite way to eat it is with Horizon's "zesty chipotle" recipe). It was all delicious.

The Yucatan salad was quite creamy with tons of avocado holding the guts of the chopped salad together. The smoked black olives were a lovely touch adding unexpected little bursts of flavor. It's a salad big enough to share and we did - along with everything else. Our server was helpful and accommodating to our request to have our food brought out of traditional order (we ordered appetizers, an entrée and sides) so that we could create our own pace. Picky's Jamaican BBQ seitan was tasty, but not as good as the "zesty chipotle" version in the cookbook. Horizons threw a little curveball and the seitan had a distinctly smoky flavor to it which was different from the cookbook's directive, but very well done and balanced with a spicy scotch bonnet crema. (Prior to this meal, Picky was feeling lukewarm about Horizons. He had previously had the take-out version of the Pacific rim grilled tofu which just didn't cut it flavor wise. It didn't pull the Korean-Japanese meld they were going for. But that was over a year ago and maybe the recipe has been tweaked since.)

Messy had the grilled seitan with Yukon mash, horseradish cream, grilled spinach and red pepper tapenade. The portion was generous and everything was just incredibly tasty and filling. Messy had this meal when we got take-out last year and she'll continue to get it every time we return to Horizons, because it is awesome. (It is so awesome, Messy is breaking her own personal rule of trying everything "interesting" on a given menu before repeating orders.)

We're quite happy that Horizons made their move from the 'burbs a few years ago. Knowing it's close by is comforting. But saving up to dine in makes visits about as frequent as if they were still located outside of Philly. However, saving up some coin to make the trip is well worth it for special occasions — especially if you're a vegetarian.

Messy ****
Picky ***

The final word: Delicious upscale vegan food that is out of our budget. Get the cookbook!

Horizons Philadelphia
611 S. 7th St
215.923.6117
Tue - Thu: 6pm - 10pm
Fri - Sat: 6pm - 11pm