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vegan chain dining at the yard house
11June 1st, 2009LA restaurants, yard houseUPDATE 06/07/10: this post is waaaay out of date. not all this stuff is even on the menu anymore! there is good news though, yard house is adding gardein to the menu. read about it here.
UPDATE 06/02/09: the ‘vegan’ lettuce wraps at yardhouse, which the staff told me were vegan as did the veganxpress iphone application, turned out to be almost entirely vegan, but with a sheen of oyster sauce sprayed on them to preserve them. special thanks to commenter kate, who alerted me to this. they use non-vegan fish sauce in their lettuce/tofu/mushroom wraps. i don’t trust anything at this place now, except the beer. the food can go fuck itself.
it’s always interesting to see what vegan options can be found at large chain restaurants, and it turns out the yard house has some pretty good selections. i usually visit yard house not to eat, but to drink vast quantities of alcohol. the place claims to have the largest selection of draft beer in the world, and serves the drinks in your choice of a standard pint glass, a huge half yard glass, or an enormous glass that’s a yard long and almost impossible to drink. after too many pints of strong beer on our recent visit, my husband and i decided we should order some food to help soak up the booze. i pulled out my iphone and launched the veganxpress application, a $1.99 app that lists vegan options at chain and fast food restaurants. thankfully, the yard house was one of the restaurants covered in the application, so we went about ordering up what was vegan on the menu.
chilled edamame: steamed soybean pods with kosher salt
we started with the edamame which was obviously vegan, and it was pretty tasty. not much to really say about it, but all of it was fresh and i really enjoyed the kosher salt. we also ordered the lettuce wraps with the mushroom option, and they were surprisingly good. these were actually some of the best lettuce wraps i’ve ever had, with lightly fried smoked tofu and 2 kinds of mushrooms. the chunky pine nuts also added a great texture, and the green onion a delicious but subtle flavor. i highly recommend these. be sure to specify you want the mushroom option though, because these also come with the choice of shrimp or chicken. blech.
mushroom lettuce wraps: Stir fried, smoke tofu, pine nuts and green onions with three dipping sauces and shiitake & portabella mushrooms
for our main course, we shared the portobella burger which was made vegan by omitting the cheese and mayo. i also told them to leave off the bell peppers, which left us with a huge mushroom, a slice of eggplant and tomato, and some basil. this thing was pretty dry and boring, but we livened it up with some hot sauce and were good to go. it definitely hit the spot, but i don’t think i’d ever order it again. my advice would be to stick to the lettuce wraps.
portabella burger (no cheese, no mayo): eggplant, peppers, basil, onion poppyseed bun
so next time you are at the yard house getting your drink on with some omnivores, rest assured, they have food for you too. and if you have an iphone, you may wanna drop $1.99 on the veganxpress app. i have used it a few times, and in my mind, it has already paid for itself.
Tags: bars, chain dining, edamame, long beach, portabello, veganxpress
11 responses to “vegan chain dining at the yard house” 
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i enjoyed those mushroom wraps last time i was at hte yard house with some beers, but once i also had their summer salad (i don’t remember if it had cheese or not but if it did i got it minus the cheese) which has strawberries and stuff and that was the BOMB, if a bit overpriced for its size.
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i’ve never even heard of this place… those mushroom wraps look pretty tasty, though!
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I was told, by the yardhouse, the lettuce for the mushroom wraps was not vegan. It was coated with an oyster sauce to keep it fresh.
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They’ve got a gluten-free beer on tap (Redbridge), which is pretty badass if you’ve got a friend that’s gluten-free. They’re usually relegated to bottles of cider.
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Bottles of Redbridge, rather – no tap for that one. Still cool that they have a beer and not a cider.
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F’in great! I ate these and I am allergic to shellfish (found this out when I was a non-veg). Obviously nothing tragic happened like turning into the elephant man but it’s a serious bum out. Ugh!
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Sharon June 1st, 2009 at 22:21
That sucks! VeganXpress better give you a free month or coupon or something. I’m in LA Thurs-Monday. I want to go to some raw food places. We have like ONE decent one in NYC of which I know.
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what if someone allergic to oysters(shell fish) bit into these wraps? Restaurants are going to learn this one the hard way it seems…
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hilda June 23rd, 2009 at 20:14
yea those wraps are yummy! i always tell them to hold the oyster sauce & fish sauce & they tell me they have to check with the chef but i tell them it’s been done b4! If they make a big deal tell them you’re allergic and they’ll make sure not to put it on! 🙂
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Turtle Dove August 23rd, 2009 at 13:59
I was told that the poppy-seed bun isn’t vegan but the potato bun is.
Last time I ordered that same portobello sammy and it was so d-lish with my icy hoegaarden/orange slice. Not sure if the beer is vegan. Dear god please let it be vegan.
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The Mushroom Wraps are now vegan (not the dipping sauces though), the oyster sauce is now Mushroom based. What’s great is the company IS taking steps to accommodate veg*ns. If you have an allergy, DEFINITELY tell the server because a manager will get involved. Don’t just assume that something is “safe” because it’s vegan, as cross contamination is always an issue in restaurants.
Emily June 1st, 2009 at 07:33