Business & Tech

Purus Fine Foods Offers Traditional, Vegan and Gluten-Free Options

Restaurant review: this unique eatery offers a wide variety of palate pleasing flavors.

As the only restaurant in town to offer vegan and gluten-free menu items, this cafe in the Snellville Oaks shopping center has already gained quite a loyal following. (Never fear, meat lovers - they also have quite an array of carnivorous dishes!)

Items on the hot bar and in the deli are preservative- and hormone-free, have no artificial dyes and are typically organic and, when possible, locally sourced. 

Definitions

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  • Vegan: does not include any animal products, including dairy
  • Vegetarian: no meat
  • Gluten-free: no wheat products. People with celiac disease cannot process gluten, but some people are gluten sensitive; symptoms include digestive problems, headaches, migraines, irritability, neurological issues like dizziness, tingling or numbness in the extremities and chronic fatigue.  

The items on the hot bar, located at the back of the store, switch out daily. On the day Snellville Patch went by to sample the fare, it included Mediterranean quinoa cakes over tomato sauce (vegan and gluten-free), beef stroganoff, lemon and thyme roasted chicken and three different soups, while the cold bar included beef tenderloin with tomato chutney, shrimp vindaloo, chicken with mango curry sauce, sauteed kale and mushroom and parmesan bread pudding. 

Purus also has a lovely display filled with chocolate delights, many of which are also gluten-free. 

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Where to start? Let's start with my favorite: the chicken with mango curry sauce. Sweet with a bit of heat and not a smidge of fat on the chicken. A very close second was the beef tenderloin with tomato chutney. It was melt-in-your mouth perfection. And although I'm not a huge fan of shrimp, I am somewhat obsessive about Indian food, and the shrimp vindaloo tasted as authentic as the vindaloo I've had in hole-in-the-wall Indian restaurants. 

Now, the items from the cold bar have to be reheated at home, but it's all made the same day and cooked in the back kitchen by Jean-Paul, a French chef. 

Mushroom bread pudding: sounds kind of weird, looked kind of odd, tasted like a rich vegetable lasagna that you would order at a high end Italian restaurant. Good stuff. I've never seen a savory bread pudding before, but owner Deirdre O'Reilly believes they're "the wave of the future." 

Finally, the desserts. If you're in the mood for something rich and chocolatey, take a few minutes and stop by Purus. Ranging from homemade peanut butter cups to vegan chocolate chip cookies, you really can't go wrong. If you're having a dinner party and don't want to cook, they also cater. Just call in the morning and let them know!

Although many of the food items were rich, none were heavy. For example, while most beef stroganoff dishes are heavy on the cream, this one was not. 

Follow Purus Fine Foods on Facebook for their daily menu. 

Puris Fine Foods is located at 2135 Main Street East, Suite 310, Snellville.


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