It's tough being a vegetarian restaurant these days.
On the one hand, consumption of beef, butter, bacon and eggs is on the rise. My guess is that people are a little less into self-denial than they have been, especially when they're eating out.
On the other hand, if you are a vegetarian, you can find wonderful non-meat dishes at any number of ethnic restaurants. And just about any chef at any type of restaurant these days is happy to make a vegetable platter for his customers.
So I feel sorry for Sprouts, the relatively new natural foods cafe in Owings Mills. It's a cute little place, with a market in front and a small dining room in back. The menu is paved with good intentions; everything is natural, wholesome and free of just about everything that's bad for you.
It's just not very good.
I didn't, for instance, expect vegetable rice soup to be three-quarters rice and a few -- I mean very few -- seriously overcooked vegetables. And I didn't think the lo mein noodles would be topped with an equally skimpy amount of equally overdone vegetables.
I didn't expect the fruit salad (a very good fruit salad of strawberries, apples, oranges and grapes) to be piled on top of a house salad -- tomatoes, sprouts, onions and all.
I didn't think the lasagna would be overcooked, with a bitter tomato sauce. Or the cold little whole wheat rolls would be served without anything -- how about olive oil if not butter.
Or that the fruit pie would have a crust that couldn't be cut with a fork. (If white flour and butter or shortening aren't healthful, then why make a faux pastry crust at all? I would have been happier with the mixed fruit filling alone for dessert.)
Your best bets at Sprouts are the sandwiches, like the ever-popular powerhouse -- sprouts, muenster cheese, you know the drill. Or an open-faced "veggie melt" with cheese on seven-grain bread. All the sandwiches come with excellent blue corn chips.
Spinach puffs filled with brown rice, cheese and "tofu crumbles" were better than they sounded, even though the phyllo is baked, not fried, with almost no fat.
But in general, our meal was a dud. The things that are wrong with Sprouts wouldn't be difficult to fix. Start with more vegetables. Less cooked. (Note to the cook: There are other vegetables besides broccoli, carrots and squash.)
And then there was the coup de grace: when the tea water came -- herbal tea, of course -- it was hardly body temperature.
Sprouts
.' Where: 10027 Reisterstown Road
Hours: 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday
Credit cards accepted: MC, V
Features: Vegetarian
Non-smoking section? No smoking allowed
Call: (410) 363-4222
Prices: $2.50-$8.95
* 1/2