Prana Cafe, Newton, MA

My husband and I had dinner here last night:

http://www.thepranacafe.com/

It's a beautiful, colorful, light space, right in the heart of Newton Corner.
Parking garage [expensive] right across street, public parking right behind that
[in VERY hot demand], street parking almost non-existent.

The service was friendly and very attentive and they have a beautiful children's play area. There is a small area of to-go foods and a small store front with Prana logo items and non-perishable raw items.

Now, the food!

We had the Vietnamese Spring Rolls first and they were delicious! Authentic rice paper wrapper with ribbons of fresh herbs tucked inside. Fresh lime to squeeze on them and a wonderfully creamy dipping sauce.

Then we shared the Eggplant Parmesan with Side of Seasonal Veggies and the Savory Spinach and Mushroom Crepe with Herbed Cream and Fennel Tomato Salad. These were both delicious! The eggplant was tender and VERY similar in texture to cooked Parm. There was a little "tart tang" in the dish that was unexpected, but worked well and the side of lightly wilted cauliflower was perfect with it.

The crepe was a real jewel! A chia, zucchini wrapper surrounding a tender, lightly sauced mix of spinach and baby bella mushrooms. There was a delicious white sauce on top which I forgot to ask about. The tomato fennel salad was lightly dressed and a wonderful balance to all of the tender textures of the crepe and its fillings.

For dessert we shared a slice of coconut cream pie and a slice of lemon meringue pie. We enjoyed them both A LOT :) but agreed that the texture of the lemon meringue was a tiny bit more pleasing due to the 'heaviness' of the coconut filling. The coconut cream slice was topped with tiny dry shreds of coconut and a berry coulis and the lemon meringue was topped with a coconut whipped cream and diced fresh mango. The lemon filling texture was perfect and the whole dish just came together magnificently!

YUM! A great dinner at a beautiful place with really nice service :)

[For those of you coming to the area to go to Grezzo, it is about 20 minutes west, so you could easily do lunch there and then a later dinner at Grezzo or vice versa.]

Lisa