Eating Vegan in Las Vegas

A lot of people think it is impossible to eat vegan in Las Vegas. That's not entirely true. It's difficult, but not impossible. It's best to do a ton of research ahead of time. This is a list of places that I compiled from a zillion different websites before we left. The comments are copied from other people's reviews and notes so I cannot vouch for any of these places except for the places where I've linked to my own reviews. I'm sharing this list so that if you have to go to Vegas, you have a starting point and some suggestions of places to check out. Some of the reviews/notes are copied from VegasClick.com.

If you drive there, I suggest bringing a cooler with coffee creamer, soy milk, bread, sandwich fixings (peanut butter, jelly - we brought some tempeh "chicken" salad), and then also bring some chips, cookies, and cereal. Then at least 2 meals of the day are eaten cheaply and easily from stuff in your room.

Off Strip Restaurants

Komol Thai
1 mi off the strip. delivers to all hotels. A vegan friendly Thai restaurant, with no oyster sauce or fish oils used in the vegetarian section.

Rainbow's End Natural Foods Cafe

Veggie Delight - Spring Mountain & Wynn Road (1.5 miles W. of the Strip; get on the #203 bus at Sands/Spring Mountain next to the Fashion Show Mall or the Wynn)
A little-known, tiny Vietnamese/Chinese café, specializing in faux meats. Everything on the menu is at least vegetarian, and can be made vegan for $1.00 to $1.50 extra. The menu is extensive and the food is good, but brown rice is not an option. It's less than a block away from Ronald's Donuts.

Ronald's Donuts (my review and pics)
4600 Spring Mountain Road (1.5 miles West of the Strip)
Most of the donuts and pastries are vegan, and are on two completely separate shelves from the non-vegan stuff. Vegan donuts are usually located on the top shelf but you need to ASK your server exactly what you are getting!

Red Velvet Cafe (my review and pics)
7875 W. Sahara Ave. Las Vegas, NV 89117
Large menu and everything on it can be made vegan.

Himalayan Cuisine
Himalayan Cuisine. Wide range of vegetarian and vegan options. On their menu, I counted 21 vegan dishes and 31 vegetarian dishes.

Mantra Masala Healthy Cuisine from India
8530 West Warm Springs #101, Las Vegas, NV 89113
This is one of the best Indian restaurants in Las Vegas for vegetarian/vegan dishes that are cooked without oil or butter. The flavors created by the combination of spices and curries are truly amazing. They have a whole wheat bread, baked in a clay oven and stuffed with spiced potato called Aloo Paratha that is exceptional. The rice is aromatic basmati white rice.

Samosa Factory
4604 W. Sahara Ave #6, Las Vegas, NV 89102
The Samosa Factory has an all new menu featuring 9 Vegetarian dishes and 16 Vegan dishes. They also have a Vegan soup, two vegan Samosas, vegetable Pokora and a freshly cooked whole wheat flat bread called Roti.

Frank & Fina’s Cocina
4175 S. Grand Canyon Drive, Las Vegas, NV 89147
Sweet Potato Enchiladas, Vegetable enchiladas, tacos, burrito and taquitos. The Sweet Potato enchiladas were excellent, no oil. Order them without cheese or sour cream.

Pei Wei Asian Diner
This is quick and can be a healthy place to eat depending on how you order your dish. The menu is made of Pan Asian flavors that are wok-seared. You can choose the style dish and ingredients you prefer, like vegetables & Tofu.

Whole Foods (near the airport on Las Vegas Blvd)
Has an entire hot vegan food bar. Makes about 8 different vegan sandwiches and also makes vegan pizzas with Daiya vegan cheese.

On the Strip

India Oven - less than a block from the Stratosphere

PF Changs @ Planet Hollywood

Tamba Indian - across the street from the Monte Carlo

Mr. Lucky’s 24/7 @ Hard Rock - Veggie burger

BLT Burger @ Mirage - Veggie burger (my review and pic)

Serendipity 3 at Caesars Palace - Veggie burger

LBS at Red Rock - Veggie burger

Terra Rosa Italian Restaurant inside Red Rock Casino
Chef Renato De Pirro at Terra Rosa makes one of the best whole wheat pasta dishes in town with an excellent mix of vegies and marinara sauce that has little to no oil. The Minestrone soup is vegan also but be sure to say no cheese. Try the Mista field green salad and best to request the dressing on the side. Be sure you make reservations, it’s a popular locals’ restaurant.

Chin Chins At NY NY casino (my review and pics)
Chin Chins will make any dish on the menu with tofu in addition to their on menu veg choices. Portions are generous and satisfying.

Fusia New Chinese Cuisine @ Luxor
Red Miso Soup or Organic Oriental Salad are vegan.
Vegetarian fried rice with tofu and vegetable, an assortment of side dishes: Fusia offers six vegetarian sides: broccolini in hoisin-garlic sauce, baby bok choy, sugar snap peas, Chinese long beans, grilled asparagus spears

Red8 @ Wynn - The Wynn offers perhaps the best vegetarian and vegan options on the Strip. Fine dining Asian restaurant Red8 has several vegetarian dishes, including steamed vegetable buns, pan-fried turnip cakes, and rice.

Border Grill @ Mandalay Bay:
Portabello Mushroom Mulitas, Mexican chopped salad (without chicken - featuring grilled corn, roasted peppers, avocado, tomato, apple, pinto beans, red onion, tortilla chips and romaine lettuce tossed in coriander vinaigrette), chips, salsa (red and green) and guacamole

Benihana @ Las Vegas Hilton
Benihana at the Las Vegas Hilton offers some magnificent stir-fry veggies – along with an always-entertaining cooking show. In my experience, the chefs are highly accommodating to vegans. For example, they will make sure not to cook your food in butter, if you ask. The Hilton is just a short monorail ride from the MGM Grand. - Vegetable Tempura, edamame, japanese salad - Benihana offers a "Vegetable Delight" cooked in foil

il fornaio @ NY NY (my review and pics)
Vegetable pizza without cheese, bruscetta, minestrone, salad, fried zucchini & onion rings, capellini al pomodoro

Gonzalez Y Gonzalez @ NY NY
tableside guacamole, veggie fajitas, margaritas

China Grill @ Mandalay Bay
Overpriced at about $100 a head for dinner and a couple drinks. They have a separate vegan menu consisting of one entree and four sides.

Meskerem Restaurant
252 Convention Center Dr # 8B, Las Vegas, NV

Cafe Canyon Ranch in Venetian - Lunch menu has stir fry with tofu, vegetarian black bean chili, portobello sandwich - only open for breakfast and lunch

Zine Noodles Dim Sum at The Palazzo in Venetian
Fried Tofu, Ma Po Tofu ($18).

Chipotle
3475 Las Vegas Blvd.
Vegan-friendly Burritos on The Strip - Fast Food

The Grand Wok & Sushi Bar at MGM
The Grand Wok offers a few vegetarian selections. The staff is very knowledgeable in what can be made completely vegetarian (without fish sauce or broth). Pretty expensive.

Ichiban Sushi at Bally's - in the back downstairs section

Ronald's Donuts - Las Vegas

We heard there were vegan donuts in Las Vegas, so of course we had to stop on the way out of town. Vegan reviews and reports I'd read said to ask which donuts are vegan when you go in. We asked and were told that the top 2 shelves (out of 3 shelves) are vegan. It looked like the non-cake donuts were all vegan. This includes things like bear claws, and bavarian cream chocolate topped donuts. We got a half dozen and ate them throughout the car ride home. They were very tasty but seriously... how are they vegan? We are still in disbelief. Do they use soy milk in the chocolate topping and in the bavarian cream? If anyone knows the answers, I'd love to know.



*update* They really are vegan.

Red Velvet Cafe - Las Vegas

For our last dinner in Las Vegas, we got in the car and headed over to the Red Velvet Cafe. The Red Velvet is a cute, clean looking, and I think family run restaurant. They have a very large menu (2 pages, small type) and when we asked them what items on the menu could be made vegan, the waiter replied "All of them". Well, we were pretty pleasantly surprised by this. I thought I could stump the waiter on this. So I asked "Even the macaroni and cheese, the spaghetti and meatballs". He got a big smile on this face, and said "Yep, those too".

After we stared at the menu trying to pick what to eat out of the zillion choices we don't normally have, we both narrowed it down some and asked our waiter for advice. He suggested that Mike go with a hot sauce "chicken" wrapini (a wrap, pressed into a panini - I don't see it on the online menu) and suggested that I go with the "chicken" and peanut sauce over rice (also not on the online menu). Well, apparently our waiter has a taste for hot an spicy things! Mike's wrap was a breaded "chicken" wrap with tons of hot sauce. I had one bite of his and couldn't taste my food for about 5 minutes - it was that spicy. He ate the whole thing and then had a tummy ache for the rest of the night... but notice that he ate the whole thing! The spicy peanut sauce "chicken" was also pretty spicy but was really yummy and the little squares of vegan chicken were quite tasty. We were both sad that we hadn't tried this place earlier in the trip so that we could go back and try other (less spicy) items. Again, we forgot the pic till after we ate about 1/3 of the food!


Wrapini



The Red Velvet cafe has an extensive desert counter. They had at least 6 different kinds of vegan cake and also had some vegan cookies. We both got some cake for desert. I got the Red Velvet cake and he got the Vanilla Chocolate Chip cake. We took the cake back to our hotel room and devoured it. The frosting was yummy.









If you go to Vegas, you must find a car and go eat here. I know I'll be going back. But be aware that the spicy things on their menu are very spicy!

BLT Burgers - Las Vegas (Mirage Hotel)

BLT Burgers in Vegas is definitely a burger joint, but a higher end burger joint. If you can't handle the smell of burgers, then you may not want to eat here... but you would be missing a great veggie burger. There is one item on the menu that is vegan: The falafel burger and an order of fries.

I was looking for a good lunch on Monday and when I saw that the veggie burger was a falafel burger, I was disappointed and walked away to look for something better over at the Venetian. I didn't find anything else I wanted and was getting hungry. I decided that I would at least get a cold beer and some good fries over at BLT so I headed back over to the Mirage. Boy am I glad I did. This is the best veggie burger that I think I might have ever had. The falafel burger was green inside (which means it is probably a spinach falafel burger). It had a great firm texture that did not slide or squish out the bun. It was topped with lettuce, tomato, a 1/2 avocado, and hummus and served on a whole wheat bun.



Another great thing about this place is that the veggie burger is cooked on a separate area from the regular burgers so there is no cross contamination. The veggie burgers are cooked on the hot plate and the other burgers are on the grill. If you sit at the bar, you can see all this action going on... the chefs and kitchen are a circular area behind the bar.

I really liked this place, despite only having one thing I could eat. The veggie burger is great and goes very nicely with a cold beer. My lunch was about $25 plus tip (burger, fries, beer).

Il Fornaio - Las Vegas (New York, New York hotel)

Still too lazy to get the car out, we headed back over to the New York, New York hotel to Il Fornaio for dinner on the second night in Las Vegas. There are a few possibly vegan things on the menu. We ordered the Bruschetta Rustica, the Pizza Vegetariano without cheese, and the Capellini Al Pomodoro.

We always dive into the food and forget to take the picture until we are about 1/3 through dinner, so I'm sorry about the partially eaten food. The bruschetta went too fast and we totally forgot about the pic.





Other items that might be vegan (I didn't ask about them) that we did not order are: zucchine e cipolle fritte (fried zucchini and onion rings with tomato sauce), minestrone di verdure (Minestone made with vegetable stock), insalata al balsamico (salad).

The food here is great, but more expensive than Chin Chin's - but still extremely reasonable for Las Vegas. Our bill was about $60, but we did have a couple of expensive glasses of wine added in there. You could probably eat there for about $40. We loved loved loved the Capellini. This place is definitely worth eating at while you are in Vegas.

Chin Chin's - Las Vegas (New York, New York hotel)

We just got back from a long weekend in Vegas. My husband Mike had to go to a conference, and I went to sit by the pool at MGM.



We drove down as it is about an 8 hour drive from our house. So for our first night of dinner in Vegas we were very tired from the drive down and we were looking for a place close by. We did not want to get back into the car. We headed over to Chin Chin's at the New York, New York hotel.

I had read that they could make anything on their menu with tofu so I expected a lot of options. When I asked the waiter, he informed me that the brown sauce (which is used extensively on the menu) contains fish sauce. This means no Kung Pao, no General Tso, etc. That doesn't mean that you are left with nothing, but the choices are much more limited than originally expected. Things still on the menu included the Lemon Tofu, Orange Tofu, and the Almond Tofu. Also the waiter told us that the pot stickers are ok for vegans. You may want to double check this as we didn't have a lot of trust in our waiter's knowledge about what was ok.

We ordered the Pot Stickers and the Orange Tofu and brown rice.





This was just enough food for 2 people. The food was ok and low priced. Our total dinner bill was around $25 bucks, which is pretty good for Vegas. So, if you need a dinner in Vegas, this place is alright (not fantastic, but it's ok).

Cakewalk Vegan Birthday Cake

Last Friday was my birthday. Nope. I am not going to tell you which one. Not a nice number. Anyway, for the first time in a long long time, neither of us had to make my birthday cake. There is a new vegan bakery here in Salt Lake City, Cakewalk Baking Company, so Mike ordered a cake! A confetti cake with chocolate frosting.

The cake was great. It was moist and reminded me of pound cake. The chocolate frosting tasted like we'd made it at home. It was like my mom had come to town and made me a cake. Here are some pics:




Isn't the confetti cute?

The bakery itself is in Bountiful, Utah - Just close enough to get cake, but thankfully not close enough to get it all the time. It is a tiny little cute shop and they have a nice display case full of a variety of cupcakes and "twinkies" (or dillos as they call them). They also had some muffins. And the have TEESE! SLC vegans can now drive to get teese instead of paying a zillion dollars to ship it in a cold pack.

If you live in Salt Lake, drive up there and get ye some cupcakes. And order your next cake from them. We definitely want them to stay in business.

Restaurant Review: Evergreen House (SLC)

We ate lunch today at Evergreen House in Salt Lake City. It is a vegan Chinese restaurant. I'd heard a lot of good things about it and was missing the great Grasshopper in Boston (and My Thai too!). So, we drove down to SLC for a ski swap at REI and then lunch. Oh man. It was bad. Really really bad. I can't believe anyone likes that place. I feel really awful saying anything bad about a vegan restaurant because I really want to support vegan businesses, but wow, so bad.

Mike got a sweet and sour "chicken" and I got a black pepper "beef" dish. In the sweet and sour dish, the sauce tasted like ketchup, the "chicken" was fried on the outside but gummy on the inside. Mike described his "chicken" as "It tasted like a frozen package and um... yucky". I just asked Mike if gummy was an accurate description of the "chicken" and he told me "I don't know, I was too distracted by the horrible taste". My "Beef" had the texture of undercooked seitan (doughy) and tasted a little like five spice powder and a lot like cinnamon. The spring rolls we good ;).

Here are some pics of lunch:

Sweet and Sour "Chicken" - You think there is enough sauce on there?

Hot Pepper "Beef"

Sorry Evergreen House, but you are no Grasshopper... sigh.

Restaurant Review; Chimayo

Tonight was our wedding anniversary. We always splurge on a nice dinner that we probably cannot afford on our anniversary. This year we decided to try Chimayo on Main St in Park City. When we looked online, we noticed that their menu had a nice looking vegan entree: "Vegetable Tamales - A Traditional Native American Steam-Cooked Masa with Roasted Corn, Spicy Seitan Meat, Drunken White and Pinto Beans, smothered in a Red Chili Sauce". So, on we went.

When we got there, we double checked with the host that they did indeed have a vegan entree on the menu. They were very nice and knew offhand that the tamales were indeed vegan. They knew what they word vegan meant (yay) and they all went out of their way to make sure that we got no cheese or dairy on any of our items. That's the good part of this review.

In addition to our tamale entree we also got a salad, "Stuffed Avocado with Marinated Vegetables, Papaya and Julienne Greens with Pasilla Chili Vinaigrette" and some vegetarian fajitas. The salad was great but the rest was not so good. The fajitas were green beans, carrots, mushrooms, corn and a small amount of onions and peppers with some tortillas and tomatoes. meh. The tamales were sadly the same frozen rico tamales that we buy from the grocery store. I am 99.9% sure that the tamales are Rico tamales. i expected much more from a well known high end restaurant in PC. and expected more from a $25 entree.

So, for a two entrees, a salad, and 2 margaritas, we had a grand total of $96 (before tip) and mediocre food. We are very sad about this as we had high hopes and I always want to frequent places that actually try to have something vegan on the menu. Despite my wanting to give business to places that actually have vegan offerings, I cannot recommend Chimayo.

I loves Vertical Diner

In 2 weeks, I have managed to eat at Vertical Diner in Salt Lake City THREE times. This is an amazing feat since I live 25 miles away from it. Thursday, after taking my car into Salt Lake for service, I rewarded myself by hitting the Vertical Dinner for the Thursday night special "Chicken Fried Steak" and mashed potatoes. Yum! Take a look:



Today, Mike and I had to go into SLC to run some errands. I had to pick up colored sugar sprinkles from Sur La Table so I could make margarita cupcakes (pic coming soon) for a party tomorrow night amoung other miscellaneous errands. So of course, we needed brunch. I got "The Avalanche" with French Toast instead of pancakes. Mike got the straight up Avalanche, which comes with pancakes, tofu scramble, hash browns, and vegan sausage. The tofu scramble was a little runnier than usual, but still tasted great. We both got smoothies too. I had the Blue Monkey (apple juice, bananas, and strawberries). Here are a couple of pics.







All pics are compliments of my iPhone (so the quality might not be the best).

Vertical Diner - My new favorite restaurant

Mike and I went to Vertical Diner on Saturday. We had to go into Salt Lake to get the car turned up and run some errands which gives us the perfect excuse to eat a good vegan meal. Vertical Diner is really cute. It is off on a side street and there is parking in back and there is an entrance in the back. This vegan restaurant has such yummy things like all day brunch, fried chicken, a thurs night special of Chicken Fried Steak, and some nice sandwiches.

We got a couple of smoothies and a couple of entrees. My smoothie was called a "blue monkey" and it contained bananas, apples, and strawberries. It was soo purpley-blue that I felt like a kid drinking it. And boy did it taste good. Mike has some sort of berry conconction that I couldn't be bothered with as I was sucking down my blue monkey. Ok, I did taste it and it tasted like raspberries.

We split two entrees and both were really good. We had the Biscuits and gravy with tofu scramble and vegan sausage, and Fried "Chicken" with hashbrowns and gravy. We loved the biscuits and gravy and the tofu scramble. We both were kind of meh on the sausage. We also both loved the fried chicken. The hash browns were ok. We'd have prefered some mashed potatoes with that gravy. The two main dishes and smoothies came to about $35. Very reasonable

This is our new favorite place and we plan to come eat at it everytime we go into Salt Lake City. This includes any time we have to pick up people from the airport. They will have to go to Vertical Diner with us (whether they like it or not).

The move to Utah, and review of Sages in SLC

Sorry there hasn't been much activity here lately. We just moved to Park City last week so things have been quite hectic. If you wanted to see how the move went, or how the cats did in their cross country trip, or you are just looking for something else to read, my livejournal chronicles our trip.

Last weekend, Mike and I went to Sage's in Salt Lake for a birthday dinner. We have been there before and previously had the portobello philly "cheese steak" and the tempeh philly "cheese steak" respectively. We loved it and couldn't wait to go back again.

This time, I had the vegan "chicken" philly and Mike had the mushrrom stroganoff and we had bruschetta as an appetizer. The bruschetta was great with pesto, tomatoes, and a little sliver of tofu. I loved the "chicken" philly and think that it totally kicks the tempeh philly in the booty. Definitely get the vegan "chicken" if you go there. They make their own and it is really good. Also, ask for extra "cheese" sauce with your philly. Mike's stroganoff was not very good so we do not recommend that dish. It was giant wide and thick noodles in a watery mushroom sauce. I highly recommend this place, but don't get the stroganoff.

I also learned while I was there, that the same person owns Vertical Diner in Salt Lake. We will have to try that soon. They have all day breakfast! Tofu scramble, biscuits, pancakes. Yum.

Vegan Eating in Park City, Utah

Since I am moving to Park City at the end of the month (and recent visited for a house hunting trip), I've been doing a lot of research into where to eat. I read a lot of comments on the web about how un-friendly Park City is for Vegans, but I found this to be entirely untrue. Park City felt more vegan friendly to me than Boston. Below is the list of places that look like they have vegan options. Always ask, of course, at the restaurant to be sure. As I try out these places, I will update this post and link to my own reviews.

Shabu
100% veg broth, tofu bento or coconut encrusted tofu with stir fry veg. Pineapple sorbet

Squatters Roadhouse Grill
Brewery with vegan stuff actually marked on the menu
Lots of choices - charbroiled tofu tacos, tempeh salad, veggie burger, edamae hummus, vegan tofu scramble for brunch

Reyes Adobe - veggie chimichanga. Tell them you are vegan to get the right beans on the side.

350 Main

Bangkok Thai on Main = Ask for Vegan Pad See Ew with Tofu

Good Karma Restaurant
Indian, Persian, Japanese Noodle

Spencer's Smokin' Grill
Smokin' Tofu and Fire Roasted Vegetables (not sure if the bbq sauce on the table is vegan)

Taste of Saigon - Vietnamese

Cafe Trang

Szechwan Chinese Kitchen - 612 Ute Blvd # 103, Park City, UT

Reef's - Vegan options: Hummus, Falafel, Couscous, Salads.

Bajio in Kimball Junction - Burritos

Salt Lake City
Sage's - review

Vertical Diner - review

Updated on Dec 11, 2009

Vegan eats in Whistler (British Columbia)

I recently returned from Whistler. Before I left, I tried to investigate where we should eat since our hotel room didn't have a kitchen. I found lots of people asking the same question, but no real answers. Whistler's menus aren't the most vegan friendly, but we did find that no one blinked an eye when we said we were vegan and everyone seemed to understand what that meant without any further definitiions needed. We did manage to find some lunch and dinner spots, but breakfast was not great.

Breakfast
My hotel (The Fairmont - we had free hotel vouchers!) luckily had soy milk for my coffee and toast with peanut butter; they also had oatmeal.

Lunch on the mountain was hard, but once we figured out which lodge had the vegan food, we were all set. You will want to eat at the Roundhouse Lodge. This lodge has several options - vegan chili, baked potato with vegan chili, noodle bowl with tofu and veggies (not sure if the noodles are vegan - I think they might not be, so beware), black bean soup. Note that there are several little cafeterias in this lodge so if you don't see something at the first one you look at, walk around a bit. And it gets really crowded so eat lunch around 11 or 11:30.

Dinner
The first night we ate at the Dubliner (or Dublin) cafe. This is a cute Irish pub with a vegan burger (ask for no cheese and no mayo) - not sure about the bun and lots of beer and french fries. It's pretty good and will fill you up.

The second night we had a free restaurant coupon for listening to some stupid time share presentation so we went to Aubergine at the Westin. This place is pricey, but has a couple of nice vegan options. They brought us a basket of bread which they made sure was vegan and along with the bread, they gave us hummus and an olive tapenade. They made us a mixed greens salad with a nice vinaigrette (slight modification to a salad on the menu). The for dinner, Mike had a vegan mushroom risotto which was to die for. I loved it. My spoon kept sneaking across the table for more... and I hate squishy mushrooms. I had a tofu satay with broccolini. It was ok. Go for the risotto.

Other places that we did not try, but looked like they would have vegan friendly options:
Hot Pot Etc.  - Shabu Shabu
Mongolie Grill - A fire and ice kind of pick you own food to be stir fried. Sauces are supposedly vegan.
Amsterdam cafe - vegan rollup
Wildwood Bistro - vegan vegetarian napolean
Longhorn Salon - 2 veggie burgers
Thai one on
Kypriaki Norte (Greek) - has a Filo tower that might be vegan (with seasonal grilled vegetables, mashed yam and potato layered between basil filo pastry squares and topped with a tomato basil sauce)

Some other random notes I found from various posts on the internet:

"There is also a small place next to the pharmacy in the village (sorry, can't remember what it's called) that serves tofu terriyaki and veg wraps that are vegan. It's a very small place, mostly take out."

"There's also a cafe right next to the IGA that has vegan soups, salads and sandwiches. There is also a burger place just around the corner from IGA that makes great vegan burgers. "

If you get a chance to stop in Vancouver to eat on your way in or out, I highly recommend Naam. We stopped their for breakfast on the way out and had tofu scramble and really fantastic vegan sausages. It is right on the way back from Whistler on route to the airport!

The Hungry Vegan, Your Personal Vegan Chef (review)

When Eric mentioned The Hungry Vegan in a recent BVA newletter, I hopped right onto the 'internets' to get more info and try it out. Here is the lowdown: The Hungry Vegan is a new nationwide vegan and organic meal delivery service. It offers a new menu each week. The food is shipped overnight or in two days. The shipments provide for about five to seven days of lunches and dinners. Orders should be placed about a week before you want the food. The order has to be in by Sunday of the cooking week.

I've always thought it would be cool to have someone come to my house and leave me food each week, but the costs for that kind of service is way to high for me and being vegan makes it unlikely to find such a personal chef. Having it shipped to my house is the next best thing and the cost is just right. So, I ordered a weeks worth of food for 2. The cost was $140 (for tw0) plus a $14 delivery fee. I ordered on a Friday, the food was made on Tuesday, and then arrived at my house the next Friday.

When the food arrived, we immediately froze anything that was not tofu or potatoes, as they suggested. Then about 1-2 days before we wanted to eat a particular item we'd take it out of the freezer and put it in the fridge to thaw. Then it was just a quick microwave for dinner. We had plenty of food for dinner for the week - and a lunch leftover or 2 (some servings seemed to be more than a serving size for me). The great thing is that you don't have to eat it all in one week since you are freezing it and then you can pull out dinner when you know you have a busy night coming up.

The food was pretty good. Not as good as I'd make myself but freezing tends do that to food so it was expected. I think my favorite of the week was the pinto beans with sweet potatoes. We also liked the pasta with olives (and I hate olives). Other dishes we got included a rice pilaf, a lentil stir fry, black bean chili, tofu in a green curry sauce, potato turnip soup, roasted beets and apples, and a peanut bread. We also got 2 slices of pumpkin cheesecake, and 2 servings of blueberry cobbler. These sadly got crushed in delivery, but it didn't stop of from scraping the desserts out of the containers and eating them anyway. I mentioned the desserts to the hungry vegan and they will be changing their containers for future deliveries. They had been trying out a recycled environmentally friendly container that just didn't work out.

I definitely plan on ordering from them again. You should give them a try.

x-posted to bostonvegan.org

I scream, you scream - Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream

My new best friends over at Wheeler's Black Label Vegan Ice Cream brought me some yummy samples to review. Wheeler's is a new vegan ice cream and they are trying to find a place to set up a shop here in Boston. This ice cream is seriously the best vegan ice cream I've ever had. It actually might be the best ice cream I've ever had (comparing to non-vegan brands from my pre-vegan days).

They brought me 4 flavors to try: Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Pumpkin, Pina Colada, and Black Raspberry.

The Chocolate Chocolate Chip was the favorite for both me and my husband. It was rich, full of dark chocolate flavor, and had thick flakes of dark chocolate in it (not positive but we thought maybe we tasted a little almond flavor in the background).

We also really loved the Black Raspberry. I do not even like Black Raspberry and I thought this was great and want to run out and buy more of it. I expected this to be like a sorbet, but it was definitely a creamy ice cream. It had an interesting (but good) flavor that we could not figure out - I thought it tasted a bit like taffy. That is probably why I liked it so much.

The Pina Colada flavor had fresh chewy coconut throughout and actually contained alcohol to make it taste authentic. The Pumpkin flavor was creamy and tasted like freshly grated nutmeg.

When they do find a place to set up shop, I think I will single handedly be keeping them in business. I can't wait.

Here is a pic of the Black Raspberry next to the Pina Colada.



PS - Take a look at their nutritional info comparisons to other ice creams. I had no idea I was eating healthier ice cream!

x-posted to BostonVegan.org

Masao's Kitchen in Waltham - Restaurant Review

A co-worker and I drove over to Waltham for lunch today to try out Masao's Kitchen, a vegan macrobiotic restaurant. Masao's has a buffet all the time with both hot and cold items plus a couple of other entrees and sandwiches to choose from. The buffet is definitely the way to go.

Today's buffet was full of good stuff: A breaded seitan appetizer, BBQ Tofu, brown rice, Adzuki bean stew, broccoli and kale mixed together, and mixed root vegetables (butternut squash, potatoes, onions...). The buffet also had a green salad, a potato salad, and a seaweed salad. There were roasted pumpkin seeds and roasted sunflower seeds for garnish. And, there is seasoning area that contains sesame seeds, soy sauce, and other goodies. The price is very reasonable. The buffet is about $8.00/lb. Both of our very full plates were under $10.

I finished all of this off with an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie (sadly they were all out of the vanilla cake with chocolate frosting... I guess I'll just have to go back).

The food was all very good and I highly recommend this place. It is a tiny place with only 5 tables, but I have always been able to get a table when I've been there (despite the fact that they do get plenty of business). Parking is available on the street.

I give it many thumbs up.

Vegan in San Francisco

I know it's been quiet over here, but boy have I been busy. This week I have been in San Francisco for the JavaOne developer conference. I'm actually in the airport at the moment, waiting for my red-eye home. Traveling with co-workers, as a vegan, is always a challenge for me, but I did ok. I managed to go to Greens one night with a co-worker and got all 6 to go to Millenium another night. Everyone loved Millenium. I had a really yummy smoked maple glazed tempeh served with mashed potatoes and grapefruit segments at Millenium and a Strawberry Spring Salad. At Greens I had a vegetable gratin (no cheese). They had to make it special for me to make it vegan. Last night I had some take out chinese from a vegetarian chinese place near Union Square. It was just ok so I won't bother to mention it's name.

I don't have much else to say, but I promise a decent blog entry in the next few days when I haven't been on the computer for 6 days straight. Any requests or questions that you want me to blog about? Otherwise, I will pick from a couple of co-worker questions about veganism that I have been saving up.

Restaurant Review of Oba! in Portland, Or.

While visiting Portland, Oregon, I got the change to have dinner at Oba!, a cuban fusion restaurant. It was great. It was a really nice place and the decorations were dark and comfy. Our waiter was very knowledgeable. Oba! is veg*n friendly. The have a seperate vegetarian menu that you can get if you ask for it and on the menu it says "please notify your server if you are vegan".

We started with margaritas and spinach salads. I really wanted the butternut squash enchiladas but they came with a cream walnut sauce. The waiter walked to the back to confer with the chef. The chef said that he had just made a new pasilla chile sauce and would use that instead. Yay. The enchiladas came with a red quinoa salad. I was quite pleased with dinner and I think I need to figure out how to make red quinoa salad. That is the second time I have had something like that and I really like it.

I left full and felt like I had had some good nutrition for the day instead of all of the junk food vegan that I have been getting my sticky fingers onto here in Portland. My meat eater friends were also happy with the place. Jennifer also got the enchiladas, but with the walnut sauce (she thinks that shw might have like the pasilla sauce better, as it would have been less creamy), and Dave had the corn chowder with crab and crab cakes for dinner. If you live in Portland or are visiting, I highly recommend this place.

Review of TJ Scallywaggles

HP and I ate dinner at TJ Scallywaggles. It is a pizza and sub shop gone vegan. Everything on the menu is vegan. Imagine a typical Boston pizza place and you have TJs. The only difference is that meat and cheese have been replaced on their menu by vegan substitues. The staff behind the counter were extremely friendly. We asked them for suggestions since we aren't used to having any choices when we eat out. The person helping us suggested the "Chicken" Parm sub and also the buffalo "chicken" pizza.

We decided on a salad, the "chicken" parm sub, and a "meatball" calzone. HP had some lemonade and I had a vanilla soy milk. The food was exactly what you would expect from a pizza/sub shop. It was tasty, filling, and probably not really very good for you... but hey, you aren't generally looking for health food from a pizza shop.

We liked this place and I am sure we will be back. I am curious to try the pizza and I also want to try the "chicken" gyro.