Bayleaf Cafe: Comfortable Food

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Where are all the vegan/vegetarian items on the menu?
We at Bayleaf Cafe take pride in our menu, which was carefully thought out and fashioned to feature the best of our childhood experience and culinary knowlege. Our ears are open to and understand the concerns expressed that we do not have a large vegetarian and vegan option - this discussion was put on the table.

Vegan and vegetarian dishes are not our expertise and to pretend for it to be so would compromise the quality of our food and our customers’ experience. While we do offer some vegan appetizers (the summer rolls with tofu & scallion pancakes) and vegetarian options in breakfast and sides, we couldn't justify pretending we know a lot about vegetarian fare. Our childhood consisted of good simple, hearty meals filled with meats and seafood. We honestly ate some kind of meat in almost every meal because that’s how our family showed love.

That is not to say we wouldn't consider that option in the future or on specials. Thank you for your understanding and hope that you know that we do not mean any disrespect to the vegetarian and vegan community. We feel it would be more disrespectful to serve you a sub-par meal that was made up just to have more non-meat items on the menu.

Thank you for understanding.

update:
We have added a few more vegetarian and vegan options to our menu. Our vegetable lumpia and gintaang spinach are both vegan and the pineapple fried rice is vegetarian (with a vegan option of no eggs).

Are you Southern? Are you Asian? What is your "theme"?
Our basic idea is an extension of comfort food, or what we like to call "comfortable food." This is what we grew up with and what makes us feel like we're back to our childhood home and hope thats what it will do to our customers as well. We like to call it "poor people's food" since we both grew up in hard-working families that had to stretch every dollar but still managed to keep our bellies full and happy.

We are not fast food - we make everything from scratch and meals are made to order. All recipes come from our hearts. So please, sit back, take your time, enjoy our food and our friendly service.