THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Green Earth Cafe & Bakery

THIS RESTAURANT IS CLOSED Green Earth Cafe & Bakery Restaurant Review:

Green Earth gladly walks the walk with gluten-free lasagna, vegan-dashi soba bowls, tempeh Reuben sandwiches and black-bean burgers on house-made brown-rice bread with polenta fries and salad on the side. Fruit-topped, date-nut-crusted cashew-cream "cheezcake" is a glorious finish. A health-food movement with a long history that began in Japan, macrobiotic cuisine is based on whole grains, legumes, sea vegetables, fermented soybean products, and fresh and pickled produce --- as local and seasonal as possible. Green Earth's owner Barbara Johnston-Brown, a classically trained pastry chef, adds a vegan dimension. Sandwiches and daily-special entrée-salad-pickle plates and bowls are hearty and diverse. Desserts --- adzuki bean and cashew cream parfaits, earthy banana-nut bread, amaranth-flour cookies and raw chocolate balls rolled in toasted coconut --- are rip-roaringly rich and just sweet enough, but not one whit too much. Faculty from nearby UC Berkeley while away their off hours here amidst lushly colored walls, soft music and moody art. Above the kitchen door is a Tibetan scarf bearing a blessing from the Dalai Lama.