Located in downtown Springville, about fifteen minutes south of UVU campus, Ginger’s Garden Café is a hidden gem of the Utah County food scene. Springville is not a particularly foodie place and struggles to offer interesting options outside of the food chain rundown that plagues most of Utah’s recent development. Ginger’s is a welcome and long-standing venue for interesting, healthy, and affordable options.
A bright, plant-filled dining room coheres well with a mostly plant-based menu. The space is shared with a health and natural supplement store, enticing health-curious folks to take a gander. A hand-drawn menu decorates the entrance with a large selection of options including salads, wraps, sandwiches, soups, drinks and bowls.
Prices for full entrées are well-seated in the $10-15 range, with cheaper options in the $6-9 mark for half-portions – far from unreasonable considering the food quality. And yes, the food is quite good. Joints that favor plant-based menus – not as a side quest, but as the main mission — understand how to make flavorful, filling dishes that highlight the best of each ingredient.
Dishes such as the beet-apple salad are a great example. Crisp, thinly sliced apples are balanced by soft cubes of beets. Sitting atop spinach and mixed greens, seeds and nuts provide a hearty crunch. Home-made dressings – in this case, a sweet poppyseed dressing — provide a generous coating of flavor to the greens which would otherwise go unfairly understated.
Hot dishes such as the portobello sandwich demonstrate Ginger’s commitment to letting plants do what they do best. Creamy avocado, micro-greens, and a plant-based mayo enveloped by caramelized onions and mushrooms are a great way to lend a pleasant mouth-feel and plenty of umami.
The best experience, however, is trying a bit of both. Ginger’s generous $12 half-and-half option makes the best of the menu by allowing customers to pick two menu items. Though hard to go wrong with a salad and sandwich, they allow any combination your hungry heart desires.
Ginger’s succeeds because it knows what it wants to do and how it wants to do it. Unassuming digs, mixed with friendly staff and well-executed dishes make for a restaurant that is hard not to love. Ginger’s on ??188 S Main St sits within a stone’s throw of other downtown Springville eateries and welcomes guests Monday through Saturday from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.. For a full menu and more information visit www.gingersgardencafe.com
