As the only all-vegetarian restaurant in Rhode Island, Garden Grille has long been popular with vegan and vegetarian diners. It’s worked hard to develop and hold onto that clientele while enticing omnivores to try vegetarian dishes. A recent visit confirmed my personal feeling that the restaurant succeeds better with the first goal than the second.

Speaking as someone who’s been a "flexitarian" (an ovo-lacto vegetarian who occasionally eats seafood) for many, many years and who makes a point of cooking only meatless dishes at home, I’m completely open to any of the menu items that Garden Grille creates — whether they contain tofu, tempeh, seitan, or something unknown to me. It’s just that I long for a little more pizzazz in those dishes.

Recently, we met friends who are very committed vegan cooks and diners at Garden Grille, along with another friend, to make a party of five. Settling into a corner table, we admired the new grassy mural on the wall behind the juice bar and the expanse of green philodendron vines that wander across the deep orange walls. There are stools at the bar, and booths along the wall. But we fit best at one of the wooden tables near the front, the better to view and be viewed by the growing line of hungry people spilling in at the door.

We were hungry, too, and promptly ordered a "pizza Bella" ($12.95) to hold us until we could decide on the rest of our meals. The pizza had a nice crust, not too thin and not too thick. The portobellos gave it heft, the sweetness of the grilled onions and roasted red peppers played off nicely against the tart artichoke hearts, and the soy mozzarella settled in to hold it all together (you could choose regular mozzarella as well).

The menu took a while to peruse, since there are sections for soups, salads, sandwiches, burgers, wraps, appetizers and sides, pizzas, quesadillas, and entrees. Just when we were beginning to make choices, a list of specials was attached to the wall behind us.

Bags and bags of hardwood charcoal line the hallway to the restroom, and the result is seen in the many wood-grilled items on the menu: wood-grilled eggplant, portobello, veggie and tofu sandwiches; wood-grilled tempeh or tofu available for such entrées as "flame-kissed" veggies on rice, or steamed veggies on rice. The "Mexican black beans" (on rice) have wood-grilled banana with them.

One friend chose the eggplant sandwich ($7.50), on grilled "country bread" with sesame coleslaw. She found it very filling, topped by grilled onions, mesclun greens, tomatoes, and melted mozzarella. One of the resident vegans chose the Indonesian rice and tofu ($9.95), and the other had the roasted butternut squash quesadilla ($8.95).

The Indonesian rice had red and green peppers, red onions, roasted cashews, and golden raisins atop a bowl of rice and tofu. What made it come alive was the sweet mirin and toasted sesame oil dressing tossed with the rice and friends. Similarly, there was a bit of Southwestern heat to the squash quesadilla, from the salsa and jalapeño jack soy cheese, and the black beans and avocado also snuggled into the quesadilla triangles for nice textures and tastes.

Now we come to the choices made by yours truly and my mate. Always drawn to the exotic, we went for the specials: mine with tempeh, his with seitan. Tempeh is a soybean product made from partially cooked and fermented beans; seitan is wheat gluten formed into liver-like clumps. These may sound unappetizing in their raw descriptions, but we love their versatility.

The "seared" seitan ($14) was served in a gravy made of shiitakes and leeks, with a brown rice-lentil timbale and sautéed broccoli rabe on the side. The dash of hot pepper in the rabe was good, though the greens themselves seemed tough; the brown rice and lentils needed some zing. The "sautéed leeks" weren’t sautéed long enough to bring out their flavor, and the shiitakes were leathery. However, Bill said he liked it and that it was "fine."

My special ($13) was called "curry-encrusted Moroccan tempeh." Well, they got the crusty part right. The three-grain tempeh, with millet in it, seemed fairly naked: sprinkled with a bit of curry powder and set into the pomegranate sauce. This sauce was quite good, but the whole dish would have been better if the tempeh had been "encrusted" with it. The couscous with apricots and pine nuts was okay, but it needed some spark. The presentation was nice, with bits of sautéed asparagus and red pepper surrounding concentric circles of couscous and tempeh.

Desserts at Garden Grille run from fruit salad, brownies, and cookies to carrot cake, tofu cheesecake, chocolate mousse pie, and chocolate cake. We went for the last one, on our cheerful waiter Jed’s recommendation. It was quite good, like an old-fashioned layer cake.

Whole foods don’t have to be unexciting, and the cooks at Garden Grille are reaching for that excitement. I just don’t think they’ve quite found it yet, except in that chocolate cake.