I am not a vegetarian. Although I don't cook or buy beef, chicken or seafood during the week, my reasoning is more out of a personal aversion to handling raw meat. This does not prevent me from ordering chicken parmesan or shrimp stir-fry at a restaurant; as long as I don't have to see or touch the food in its pre-cooked state, I think it's delicious. Every weekend, I look forward to my one meal out during which I can dine upon whatever I want. So, as you can imagine, it's not just any vegetarian restaurant that can pull me in while I am enjoying my night on the town.

Right off the bat, Veggie Galaxy had allure. Its sister restaurant, Veggie Planet, nestled beneath the street level of Harvard Square, had previously impressed me with its array of pizza toppings and casual, soup-kitchen feel. When I found out that a new diner-style venue had opened while I had been abroad last semester, I was eager to check it out.

Situated across the street from the Central Square MBTA stop, Veggie Galaxy has the look of a favorite corner eatery down pat. With big booths, a comfortable countertop and shiny revolving pie shelves, Veggie Galaxy appears to be the typical greasy spoon—minus most of the grease.

Breakfast is served all day, and from the aroma of plump pancakes and the sight of stuffed French toast, it seems like it's their most popular meal. Arriving at prime dinnertime, I opted to try a new-to-me chickpea mushroom veggie burger. The menu offered a number of designer burger toppings including sweet potato mash, roasted eggplant and a make-your-own option. I decided to try the apple corn salsa, sun-dried tomato pesto and caramelized onions, wanting to really get a taste for what the kitchen could produce.

While I was hugely impressed by the texture and hummus-y taste of my patty, the add-ons were less impressive, to be polite. The apple corn salsa consisted of fingernail-sized bits of Granny Smith and three or four corn kernels, the caramelized onions were so small that I almost thought the waiter had messed up my order, and the sun-dried tomato pesto was a thin layer of red smeared on the top and bottom buns.

Each entrée comes with a choice of vegan potato salad, made with suspicious-sounding yet surprisingly good faux mayo or red cabbage slaw and a bed of arugula, which presented itself as a tasteless pile of leaves that even I, a salad addict, could not eat.

My dining companion ordered a spin on a classic diner dish: a vegan club sandwich with tempeh bacon, smoked tofu, balsamic roasted tomato, romaine, pickled red onion, tarragon basil pesto and roasted garlic mayo. While she enjoyed her food, she admitted it wasn't the best and decided to take half of it home.

The biggest draw for us was the restaurant's small bakery and large display of all-vegan goods. For dessert, I ordered two scoops of coconut milk ice cream: one vanilla and one chocolate. The chocolate ice cream was great—creamy, chocolaty and generously sized. The vanilla, however, was a bit bland. My friend ordered a piece of vegan peanut butter-frosted chocolate layer cake. I tasted it and thought it was, although flavorful, very dry, probably from having sat on a shelf for several hours.

I do commend our waiter, who was very attentive and accommodating of our food preferences and dietary restrictions. However, although it was clean and comfortable, quick and individualized, I think in the future I'll stick to somewhere that takes the quality of its food as seriously as it does its stance against animal products.