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one thing i always drool over when i go to the UK are the piping hot pasties being sold on every street corner. have you ever had a pasty before? it’s like a savory pie and a burrito got together and had a little flaky baby that you eat with your hands. they are super popular in england and usually consist of a stuff like meat, cheese, potatoes and vegetables all wrapped up in a pastry shell.

i’ve always wanted to try a real traditional english pasty, but unfortunately they aren’t very vegan-friendly. i resorted to making my own at home once, and i thought that’s the closest i would ever get to the real thing…until i found out about our cornish pasty shop in brighton. the traditional eatery sells pasties handmade in cornwall, and baked fresh throughout the day….plus, they have a huge vegan selection!!!

when we visited them recently, we ordered a vegan wholemeal pasty as well as a vegan sausage roll. both of them were awesome.

Vegan wholemeal: vegetables, pulses and lentils in a mild tomato and herb sauce, in a wholemeal vegan pastry. £3.15

the wholemeal pasty was huge, (that’s it at the very top of the post as well) enough to share between two people. it was a WHOLE MEAL. har har. it was filled up with scrumptious garden vegetables such as carrots, peas, corn and broccoli, and it was rounded out with some nice hearty lentils. the pastry case was flaky and delicious, not “vegan” tasting at all.

Vegan sausage roll: sage and onion stuffing with sundried tomato in a crispy vegan pastry. £2

the sausage roll was delicious as well, although it was a little dry because it had been sitting out for a while. the filling was absolutely perfect though, salty fake meat with sweet caramelized onion. after a few bites, i completely forgot about the dry crust.

it was great to eat this VEGAN meal sitting in a real, traditional pasty shop, looking out on a dreary england street scene. i never thought i’d see the day! i can’t wait to go back.

our trusty quarrygirl operative who us evidence of vegan pizza in las vegas is now stationed in san diego…and guess what? there’s vegan pizza there as well!

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this bar serves some of the best vegan food i've ever eaten.

Situated on a quiet street next to a coffee shop in Southeast Portland, Hungry Tiger Too looks at first glance like any other neighborhood bar. However, in addition to the usual bar accoutrements of beer, fries and TVs, Hungry Tiger Too has a HUGE vegan menu, serving an array of awesome animal-free bar food morning, noon and night.

On our recent trip to PDX we grabbed a seat at the bar, ordered a beer and started to scan the vegan section of the menu. As usual in Portland, though, we were torn between so many amazing menu items that we over-ordered, somewhat and ended up spending way more time there than we expected to. Anywhere else, this would have been a problem, but Hungry Tiger Too is just so wonderful that we were delighted to eat and drink the afternoon away within its hallowed walls.

vegan quesadilla with vegetables, soy cheese and pico de gallo. $8

First up was the vegan quesadilla appetizer: a super rendition of the popular Mexican-influenced dish. Liberal helpings of tomatoes, onions, spinach, cilantro and vegan cheese filled up our vegan bellies in no time, so we were forced to have another beer while waiting to order our main dish.

Well, one beer became two, then three after we played some pinball and goofed around in the photo booth. Next up were main courses, the Montecore Burger, and Home Made Biscuits and Gravy.

montecore burger: grilled onion & mushroom with jalapeno on a boca patty and garlic aioli. $8.75

Let’s get this out right now: The burgers on the menu are all based on the ubiquitous vegan Boca Burger, which at first had me thinking “WTF? I can make one of these at home!”. Well, I could (and I tried, see later) but it couldn’t be anywhere near this tasty. The Montecore was a fusion of zesty garlic, spicy jalapeno and an smooth sauteed mushroom/onion topping that was to die for.

Add in some fresh trimmings (tomato, lettuce and onions), and this was one hearty vegan burger. Throw in the included side of incredible vegan potato salad, and for only $8.75 you have one of the most delicious and best value meals I’ve ever eaten.

homemade biscuits and gravy: huge serving of home-style biscuits smothered in thick mushroom & veggie sausage gravy. $4.00

As we were already full after the quesadilla we ordered the Biscuits and Gravy as a kinda side for the burger (at only $4, how big could it possibly be?). Very big is the answer. Very tasty too.

Creamy vegan mushroom and sausage sauce, smothering two crispy and moist biscuits was a winning combination.

After another beer, and another, we were finally able to finish all the food, and stagger out of the bar to our hotel.

Later on in the evening, the reality of our experience hit us: We’d just enjoyed a great afternoon in a real bar with awesome beers and completely filling, decadent cruelty-free food.

I can tell you this: After buying and cooking a bunch of Boca Burgers from Coscto, I’ve never come close to approximating the taste of that awesome burger. If I lived in Portland, I’d probably visit Hungry Tiger Too at least once, or twice a day week.

Awesome bar, awesome staff, awesome beers, awesome food. DUUUH?! Vegans: Go there now.

Hungry Tiger Too
207 SE 12th Ave Portland, OR 97214
(503) 238.4321

In a way, I feel sorry for Millennium restaurant in San Francisco. I mean, just about every vegan or vegetarian (and omnivores on occasion too) will say that Millennium has some of the best vegan cuisine in the world, and is probably North America’s finest vegan dining experience.

Having enjoyed amazing meals at fine dining establishment Sublime in Fort Lauderdale, and the incredible Madeleine Bistro in Los Angeles, I had stratospheric expectations when I reserved a table for two at Millennium. Although the experience didn’t meet our very high expectations on a number of levels, we did have a thoroughly nice time dining on some of the most special food I’d ever eaten.

It’s critical to make a reservation, as the place fills up hot and fast most evenings. As with anywhere this popular, you’re going to find the proprietors drawing a very fine line between retaining a pleasant environment, and packing people in like cattle. Sadly, Millennium crowds its patrons into small two-top tables, close together. There are a couple of larger booths by the entrance, but I bet you have to be Alicia Silverstone or Natalie Portman to get seated in them.

Once you get over the cramped experience (you can literally hear every word uttered by both adjacent tables, as well as smelling the food they are eating), the menu hits you right between the eyes: on the night we were there dishes from France, Germany, Spain and Italy. And I’m not talking about paella and vegan sausages here, but full-on inventions, based on familiar European dishes, all prepared entirely vegan, non-GMO and organic.

grilled flatbread: spring onion confit, black olives, "gorgonzola" cashew cream, dried chile flake & oregano., radicchio salad. $10.50

To start with, we ordered the Grilled Flatbread which was a scrumptious rendition of crispy bread, pizza-style with cool raddiccio salad, olives and a pungent, gorgonzola-style cheese. Although the tastes were interesting, this was the most unimaginative dish we had: it looked like somebody threw some vegetables on flatbread and plopped it down on the table. It reminded me of what I usually get when I order a vegan pizza from an omni pizza parlor: a selection of vegetables with no sauce or cheese on a crispy crust.

sesame crusted oyster mushrooms: lemongrass-grapefruit-chile sambal, watermelon radish relish. $10.25

Moving on, we ordered the Sesame-encrusted Mushrooms, which were much more up our street. This dish has been described as “the vegan calamari”, and I’m told (by people who have eaten calamari) that it mimics the taste and texture pretty well. I can’t vouch for that, but I can tell you it was the greasiest, oiliest and most scrumptious thing I’d eaten in a long time. While it might be organic this and non-GMO that it was anything other than healthy due to the thousands of calories of oily delicious madness.

So, awash with flatbread and oil, our entrees arrived very, very quickly, leading to a theme I note about us feeling somewhat rushed. Cramped in + rushed = more $ for the proprietors…. Just sayin’. Oh and talking about that, Millennium charges $1 per person for a glass of tap water. That’s plain greedy!

almond and black pepper crusted portobello: sesame, sea palm & scallion barley cake, saffron, IPA & french lentil sugo, seared jerusalem artichokes, carrot & escarole, spring garlic-sage tahini cream, parsley-meyer lemon salad. $23.95

As luck would have it, I am also greedy, otherwise there’s no way I could have polished off the entrees. I plumped for the Almond and Black Pepper Portobello, a dish which took rather uninteresting (but sexily named ingredients) and delivered an intersection of tastes that were downright amazing. I found myself picking at bits of the food so I could enjoy each texture and flavor in and of itself, then scooping up a cross-section of the goods to get the mashup to my taste buds as fast as possible.

mushroom and walnut strudel: flaky pastry crust, green garlic mashed potatoes, seared asparagus, herbed green peppercorn cashew cream, blood orange and black olive relish. $23.9

Our other entree was Mushroom and Walnut Strudel, a sort-of pastry chimichanga crammed full of walnuts, mushrooms (yeah, pretty much everything on the menu was based around mushrooms) floating in a cashew cream sauce with an incredible olive and mushroom relish. Seriously, this is one of the most amazing things I’ve ever eaten: crispy, decadent, filling. Words really defy this dish, other than it had more of the consistency of a dessert, like a cannoli, but without the sweet.

Talking of dessert, as our tubby tummies were about to explode we made a pact NOT to order dessert UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Well, that was until the people NEXT to us ordered dessert. Once I laid eyes on what they had, I knew I had to have it. I feebly muttered: “errr, one of those, please….” as I pointed to the next table when the server asked if we were ready for the check (like I said, they were rushing us).

vegan chocolate midnite pie

Within about 11 seconds, something called a Chocolate Midnight Pie arrived on our table and was gone in not many more seconds. I can’t really describe its creamy chocolatey taste in any words, so I’m going to let you look at the picture, and can reinforce that the dish was at least 14X better than it looks.

After the obligatory bottle of organic wine, our bill was well into car payment territory, but we felt that it wasn’t quite worth every penny. The obvious intent to turn many tables quickly really spoiled what would otherwise have been a perfect dining experience. The menu combines the exquisite with the mundane, and the descriptions really don’t give you much of a clue about what you’ll actually get. Add to that some rushed servers, and this place isn’t too friendly.

Also of note is that Millennium is in the lobby of a Best Western hotel, on the edge of Tenderloin: basically, Downtown San Francsico’s Skid Row. If you go West or South from the restaurant you’re walking through some pretty bad urban decay complete with all the trimmings: aggressive homeless people, syringes, toothless crackheads and all sorts of bodily ejected solids in your way.

It was just our luck that we walked to Millennium from the south and west, so we were treated to several interesting run-ins with street-folk, and as we approached the restaurant watched somebody taking a noisy shit against the wall on the west side. After ducking into the restaurant, I was half-way through my meal when I realized the defecating gentleman (or his defecation, at least) was within about six feet of where I was eating.

Millennium will risk your life with a dodgy journey, fleece you for every penny it can get from you, and pack you in like vegan sardines in a recycled, non-GMO can. I’d probably be back there in a heartbeat, though.

Millennium
580 Geary St
San Francisco, CA 94102-1650
(415) 345-3900

when in london, be sure to pay a visit to the secret society of vegans shop in camden town. yep, one of our favorite vegan online retailers has their very own storefront just steps away from the tube station, in unit 29 of camden market hall.

initially started as a project in 2004 to raise funds for the awesome restaurant/co-op pogo cafe, SSOV has expanded and become an independent organization, now offering rad vegan gear internationally. shirts, mugs, stickers and hoodies are all available to US consumers via their online store, but their camden shop has all those products and more!

vegan clothing, books, belts, condoms, macbeth footwear…camden has it all. they have loads of cool shirts all priced at only ₤10-12, which is much cheaper than if you ordered them online and had them shipped to the states.

so when traveling in london, make sure to put SSOV on your list of places to visit. supposedly they are looking for a bigger location, where they can expand and even have a tea room! that would be awesome. for now, you can find them here:

camden market hall (unit 29)
201 camden high street
london nw1 7BT
TEL: 075 2678 9432
closed monday and tuesday
Wednesday to Friday (2pm-6pm) • Saturday / Sunday (12pm-6pm)

oh, and if you can’t make it to london…that shouldn’t stop you from stocking up on fab SSOV gear anyways. check them out online.

On face value, The Mash Tun in the Alberta Arts district of Portland, OR, is a fairly typical brewpub. It has a couple of niceties, including a patio to enjoy the few days of summer that the Pacific Northwest has to offer, as well as a roomy atmosphere with comfortable tables, and ample bar seating. Throw in free wi-fi, a dart board, a full-size pool table, multiple TVs for watching sports, some home-brewed beers as well as a few guest taps and I’ll be there. As indeed I was one summer’s day this year.

While I must admit that going to bars with a bunch of friends to watch the game isn’t my thing, I can see how awesome The Mash Tun would be do just that. With an ample selection of beers on tap (many of them vegan), and a menu with its own vegan section things start to get interesting!

On our sunny Sunday afternoon, we settled into bar seats in front of the TV, ordered some great beer and started to eat our way through the vegan section of the menu, starting with the Vegan Tempeh Things — tempeh “wings” in spicy sauce with dip and salad. Perfectly hot, perfectly crunchy and with a cool dip, these were gone in about 20 seconds. And I’m not joking.

tempeh things: ain't no wing, but a tempeh thing! deep-fried tempeh, served buffalo or bbq style with housemade vegenaise. $6.75

Next up, we ordered the Baked Red Lentil Puree, an interesting combination of seasoned lentils with green onions and pita wedges for scooping. In texture this was kinda like eating hummus and pita, but with a much more tangy flavor. This dish is a perfect companion to the “wings”, providing some cool respite from the fiery sauce.

baked red lentil puree: puree of red lentils with grilled green onions, roasted garlic and tomato, served with pita wedges. $6.50

For our main dish we deliberated between the two vegan burgers on offer — both home made and very appetizing in description. In the end we went for the Mash Tun Veggie Burger, a complex set of textures and flavors perfectly seasoned on a tasty bun with very fresh salad.

mash tun veggie burger: a housemade patty of chopped almonds, oats and veggies, served on a kaiser bun with vegenaise. $8.25

By the end of our afternoon, we were full of vegan food, great beer and had watched most of a game on the TV before we had to leave and head back to the airport for our return flight to LA. The Mash Tun is a great place to go with omni friends, as you can enjoy everything a real bar has to offer, while pigging out on some very tasty vegan facsimiles of bar food.

Pop open your laptop to jump on the free wi-fi, shoot some pool, throw some darts and watch the game (not at the same time, of course). The Mash Tun provides just about everything you’d want in a typical PDX low-key environment. It might not be the best vegan food on the planet, and the home-brewed beer probably needs some work on the taste front, but you won’t be disappointed at all.

We’ll definitely be back to The Mash Tun next time we’re fortunate enough to visit the PDX!

The Mash Tun Brewpub
2204 NE Alberta St
Ste 101
Portland, OR 97211
(503) 548-4491

If somebody would have told me that some of the best Italian food I’d ever eat would be both vegan and served in a coffee shop, I’d have thought they were nuts. Fact is, Portobello in Portland has some of the most scrumptious Italian food anywhere, is entirely vegan and somehow transforms a space that is a coffee shop by day into an intimate and upscale Italian Trattoria of the highest order by night.

The only advice you need before a visit is to call ahead and ensure you have a reservation. The tiny restaurant seats very few people, fills up almost as soon as it opens and stays full until it closes. So what’s the big deal? Why so popular? Simple answer: THE FOOD.

Artichoke-Mushroom Crostata: Caramelized onion, artichoke heart, and cremini tart with lemon-herb aioli. $6.50

Portobello’s compact menu (just twelve dishes on the evening we went there) is clearly focussed on doing a few things right rather than trying to be all things to all people. What the menu lacks in choice it certainly makes up for in diversity, freshness and portion sizes (many dishes are available in a half order so you can share and sample as much as you like). With the smiliest, friendliest service you’ll find, a great vegan wine selection and rich vegan deserts you are in for a throughly pleasurable evening.

The menu is split into two main sections: “To Share” – appetizers and finger food that you can distribute around your table and “To Hoard”, aptly named because the main dishes are so good you’ll want to keep them all for yourself.

To start with we ordered the “Little T Slab with Olive Oil”. As it had the word “Little” in its name and was only $3.50 we figured we’d need something else as well, so we decided to get the “Artichoke-Mushroom Crostata”. Only when a huge amount of food arrived at our table did we find out that “Little T” was the name of the bakery that baked the amazing Focaccia, and not an indicator of the size of the bread portion being anything BUT little! Also, the Crostata (soft pastry cup filled to the brim with spicy mushrooms, artichokes and creamy sauce) was more than big enough to share.

Little T Slab with Olive Oil: Tim Healea's slab o' focaccia with arbequina olive oil and sea salt. $3.50

Along with the food we ordered a bottle of wine from a small independent winery called Hip Chicks Do Wine. I can’t vouch for their hipness, but I CAN vouch for the fact that they Do Wine really well. The ’06 Cabernet we ordered was incredibly tasty and the perfect compliment for the wonderful food we were about to eat.

For the main course we spent a good deal of time debating what order, as everything on the menu looked so amazing. In the end, after two hearty appetizers and an anticipation of desert looming, we opted to go for two half orders: the Portobello Steak with Polenta and the Potato Gnocchi with Spicy Ragu. We were throughly blown away with the taste and texture of both dishes. Portobello and Polenta are individually terribly difficult to prepare, and uniting them in one dish did, I’m sure, present a major challenge to the chef, who clearly knows what he or she is doing. The greens were just this side of crunchy and the red wine sauce was a perfect balance of tangy and smooth. What an amazing dish this was.

Portobello Steak with Polenta and Greens: Marinated, roasted portobello mushrooms with rosemary polenta, braised greens, and red wine mushroom sauce. $6

Another challenging Italian dish to prepare is gnocchi, especially large pieces as with this dish. I don’t know how this was cooked, but the gnocchi was slightly crispy on the outside, soft and steamy on the inside. The ragu was heavenly – again no idea what was in there, but a deep tomatoey spiciness delivered the perfect compliment to the starchy gnocchi.

Potato Gnocchi with Spicy Ragu: Pan-crisped potato dumplings with a ragu of summer squashes, hot peppers, and tomato-basil sauce. $6

Did somebody say desert? We’d heard that the deserts at Portobello were excellent, so we ordered the Tiramisu — always my favorite Italian desert as a vegetarian. In common with everything else we’d eaten the tiramisu was excellent. Soft and sweet with an impeccably creamy texture and smooth brandy-infused spongy cake makes this the best vegan tiramisu I’ve eaten, and I’m becoming quite a connoisseur, I think!

Tiramisu.

We ended the evening replete with some of the best Italian food we’d ever eaten and are counting the days to until our next visit to Portland so we can rush back to Portobello for a Liitle T, some Hip Chicks and Tiramisu. YUM!

Finally, I’ve heard that Portobello has a habit of running out of certain food items later in the evening. I guess there’s only so much Gnocci you can make in the kitchen of a coffee shop. If you have your heart set on a particular menu item, get an early reservation so you can be sure to get what you want.

Portobello
2001 SE 11th Avenue
Portland, Oregon
503.754.5993

if you are in london this fall, consider yourself lucky. not just because you are in the best city on the planet, but because that means you have the chance to try the amazing autumn menu at manna cuisine in primrose hill. europe’s finest and oldest vegetarian restaurant offers a fresh, seasonal menu that changes every few months and this fall, all the selections are vegan, or at least vegan-optional.

we had the pleasure of dining at manna a few weeks ago, and i can safely say it was one of the lovliest meals i’ve ever had. we started off with a side of organic bread, which is baked fresh at the restaurant daily. perfectly warm and fluffy with a side of olive oil for dipping, this really hit the spot.

fresh organic bread: a selection of breads fresh from our kitchen daily with extra virgin olive oil. ₤2

for our appetizer, we shared the quinoa and millet croquettes—pressed patties served on top of beetroot hummus with rocket salad and hazelnuts. the little cakes were beyond excellent with tons of subtle flavor and a texture that reminded me of falafel. the beetroot hummus was amazing, and also gorgeous with its bright red hue. the roasted hazelnuts were sweet and smokey, and added a perfect “holiday” taste to everything.

quinoa & millet croquette: a pressed cake of these ancient seasoned grains, served with our beetroot humous and a salad of rocket and cumin roasted carrot & hazelnut. ₤7

we decided to split two entrees, starting with the organic bangers and mash. this dish came with two sausages made of fennel and pumpkin seeds, on a bed of carrot, parsnip, and dill mash….all topped off with crispy onion rings. i have had loads of vegan bangers and mash in the UK, and i can say without a doubt that these were the fanciest and the best. the homemade sausages were made of the finest ingredients, and the seeds gave them a really wonderful earthy taste. the mashed potatoes had several distinct vegetable flavors and were incredibly creamy…and the fried onion rings made for an awesome topping. this was the perfect gourmet version of an old school comfort food dish, i would eat this every single day if i could.

organic bangers & mash: organic fennel and pumpkin seed sausages on a bed of carrot, parsnip & dill mash, seasonal mixed greens, a red wine, leek & thyme jus and onion rings. ₤13

we also shared the saffron chestnut cake, which was served in a wild mushroom ragu with pan-seared kale. this thing blew me away after the first bite….i never knew vegan food could be this unique and beautifully presented. the tender cake was filled with perfectly-seasoned grains and nuts, and was a completely new taste. the creamy ragu was rich and decadent, and was great soaked up by the soft cake and eaten with bites of kale.

saffron chestnut cake: a delicately balanced herbed grain and nut cake, served with a wild mushroom ragu, truffle oil and pan-seared kale. ₤13

for dessert we were really looking forward to trying the knickerbocker glory, an ice cream dish served with cake…but unfortunately, that was only available on the summer menu. (even though the online menu at the time still had it listed!) instead we went with the timbale, which according to the menu was a “chocolate sponge and cheesecake” combination. unfortunately, i wasn’t a big fan of this thing…it was very full of blueberries which weren’t listed in the description, and i don’t care for fruit in my dessert. oh well, i guess you can’t win them all—and the rest of our experience was spectacular.

chivu's timbale: a long time favourite daily special, a chocolate sponge and cheesecake layered combination. ₤7

on top of the food being excellent, manna has very friendly service and a comfortable atmosphere. the place is pretty swanky with small tables and moody lighting, and i hear it can get pretty crowded so i would definitely suggest you make a reservation.

on our way out, a friendly man who was unloading bags of food from his car asked us if we enjoyed our meal. we said we did, but made a comment about the knickerbocker glory not being available even though it was on the online menu. he immediately pulled out a business card and introduced himself as roger, the owner. he profusely apologized and said on our next visit we could get a free dessert. how sweet is that?! it made me even more sad that we were leaving to return to america the next day.

as you can probably tell, i just can’t speak highly enough of manna. they really take vegan food to the next level with their creative dishes, and offer the kind of gourmet meatless dining that is very hard to come by. i will be sure to visit them as much as possible when i’m in england.

manna
4 Erskine Road
Primrose Hill, London NW3 3AJ
020 7722 8028

whenever i travel to london, i always look forward to eating at maoz vegetarian. the concept of the restaurant is simple: a small shop that serves open pita sandwiches with base ingredients such as falafel and hummus, with a heaping salad bar full where customers can fill up on any toppings they want. fast food without all the dead animals…what a great idea!

my default meal is a pita with hummus and falafel, generously stuffed with the delicious salad bar options. their falafel is some of the best i’ve ever had, perfectly spiced and crispy, and they don’t skimp on it either! almost everything at maoz is vegan, and i always wind up a sandwich weighing about three pounds—overflowing with broccoli, cous cous, cauliflower and hot sauce. everything at the salad bar is crisp and freshly prepared…i really wish maoz would open up in los angeles, because i would be there everyday.

the only down side of maoz in london is, it can get pretty packed and hard to find a seat—and you don’t wanna be huddled under a roof in the rain, juggling an overflowing sandwich. luckily though, the line moves fast and the tables turn over pretty quickly, so my advice if the place is crowded would be to wait until a seat frees up. we’ve posted on maoz in london before, and since then they’ve re-arranged the shop a bit to make it more classy and fit in more seating. the falafel is still exactly the same though, so tasty that it haunts my dreams when i’m back home in los angeles.

luckily, london isn’t the only place you can enjoy maoz vegetarian. they have locations in paris, spain, amsterdam and nyc as well. and soon they will be opening a shop in san francisco! if you are reading this maoz, please open up in LA ASAP.

maoz
43, Old Compton St
London, UK, London W1D 6HG
020-78511586

ronald’s donuts in las vegas are known to be the best vegan donuts ever. quite possibly the best vegan desserts ever. however, they are so cheap, so good, and so “real” tasting…they often leave people wondering if they are really vegan. i mean, why is this little hole in the wall shop in nevada the only place to master the art of the vegan bear claw?

some internet digging produced stories of rey ortega from sun flour baking having the donuts tested for veganocity, but the actual lab results were nowhere to be found. well thanks to mr. wishbone, the stealth agent behind operation pancake (our undercover investigation of the ingredients at LA vegan restaurants), we were able to get our hands on rey ortega’s report.

the results for the glazed donuts tested show that if any egg white was present, it was below the threshold they could detect. although rey didn’t have the samples tested for milk products, at least we can rest assured that the donuts don’t contain egg…which is a prominent ingredient in every donut recipe i can find online.

i definitely feel comfortable enough to continue eating ronald’s donuts after these results, but stay tuned…maybe we can get these suckers tested for milk in the future. until then, let’s give rey ortega of sun flour baking a big shout out for getting the donuts tested. doing this stuff isn’t easy or cheap, and now we can all eat our sweets with peace of mind.

and thanks to mr. wishbone for the tip. DONUTS.

today, we bring you a special report on red velvet cafe in las vegas, a casual restaurant with a very vegan-friendly menu. you may remember that recently one of our secret quarrygirl.com operatives relocated to sin city, and sent us an in-depth undercover report on the breaking news that whole foods in las vegas was offering vegan pizza with daiya cheese. well now, our secret operative is back with another vegan vegas discovery…proving once again that there is much more than just ronald’s donuts to eat in the desert. over the weekend, our operative teamed up with another agent and ate the hell out of red velvet cafe, and they sent us a write-up and pictures to prove it.

here is some of the vital information we gathered from their report:

-the server was super nice, helpful and answered or found the answer to our million questions. seeing that it was his 3rd day, i would have told myself to fuck off. he said everything was able to be made vegan besides the caprese salad, but that it could be made vegetarian.

-appetizer: avocado strips. they were pressed in a panini press, crispy shell and such gooey cheese, i was convinced it was daiya.

-at this point i was asking so many questions that the owner came over and said their vegan cheese was made from scratch. he did note that they used the same ingredients as daiya, but the texture, taste and feel was identical…it was too on point.

-lunch item #1: the buffalo chicken wrap. this was 100% hands down the best wrap i have ever had anywhere, PERIOD!

-the sauce was ranch and buffalo mixed, tangy and spicy at the same time. the chicken chunks where huge and the sandwich left my mustache and hands so messy, i needed a wet wipe. LMFL

-lunch item #2: tuna salad. so good as well. it was made with faux meat and not tofu so it had texture and it wasn’t overpowered with too much mayo, it was perfect.

dessert: face off between red velvet cupcake and chocolate chip cupcake. both operatives agreed, the red velvet won the challenge. super creamy sweet frosting and moist cake. a staple.

other fun things:
-there were 2 big flat screen tv’s, unfortunately they were playing sports.
-magazines everywhere (as can see pictured below, secret operative #2 is reading the fall fashion issue of vogue).
-as we were leaving someone was picking up a huge vegan cake… bday possibly.
-if red velvet served beer or were BYOB it would be heaven.
—–over and out—-

a very special thanks to our secret operatives who took the time to eat and document all this food.

so there you have it. a very glowing report of red velvet cafe from our field agents in las vegas. in fact, i even got a phone call from our operative immediately after he ate there, and he said red velvet was the best food he’d had during his entire stay in vegas, AND was better than most of the vegan food available in los angeles. that’s a bold statement, and a strong endorsement if i ever heard one.

i can’t wait to get to vegas and check this place out.

red velvet cafe
7875 W. Sahara Ave.
Suite 103 / 104
Las Vegas, NV 89117
(702) 360-1972

Mon-Sat. 9:00 a.m. – 9:00 p.m.

dude, i wasn’t lying when i said portland has everything for vegans. on top of the vegan grocery store, the tattoo parlor, the bakery, the pub, the donut shops, and the billions of other neat places…they also have an all vegetarian and vegan-friendly arcade. backspace cafe calls itself “portland’s entertainment mecca”—its 4,000 square foot space houses video games, pool tables, computers for web surfing, an art gallery, and a meat-free restaurant complete with draught beer & stumptown coffee. plus, the place doubles as a live music venue and hosts awesome events such as “rockband night”. hell yeah!

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one thing we rarely get to enjoy as vegans is cheap bar snacks…but at tube in portland, we can. the arty hipster haven has a badass happy hour from 5 to 10pm with $2 tall boys and loads of vegan menu items at 3 bucks or under.

we hit up tube at around 7pm, before it got super crowded, and dined out on happy hour specials. they also were offering a full dinner menu with lots of vegan options, but we decided bar snacks would be much more special.

my favorite dish we ordered was the professor nanotear muffin pictured above (a slice of grilled vegan ham and vegan cheese between an english muffin and homemade spicy chipotle veganaise, $3). it was thin and greasy, and not much to look at…but it sure tasted fantastic. the vegan ham/cheese/english muffin was a winning combo…soft, salty, melty and crunchy all at once.

vegan ghost dog with mustard. $2

we also tried the vegan ghost dog, a simple vegan hot dog smothered in spicy mustard. now this is definitely something i could make easily at home—but for just $2 in a cool bar, i’ll take it!

lastly, we shared the vegan taco which was freakin’ huge for 3 bucks. it came filled with tasty tofu scramble, which you can’t see in the picture because it’s covered in fresh lettuce and tomatoes. again, this thing wasn’t spectacular…but it was damn good and after eating it, i wanted another.

vegan taco: homemade spicy tofu scramble in a grilled flour tortilla topped with shredded lettuce and vegan cheese and diced tomatoes. $3

the great thing about tube, on top of the vegan-friendly menu, is the design and atmosphere of the place. the place is super slick and super trashy at the same time. everyone who works there is beyond cool and decked out in the height of fashion, like they just stepped out of the pages of an indie rock magazine. the bar is designed to look like the inside of a television, with a green glow and curved glossy walls…and the place is plastered with cool posters and art.

behind the table we were sitting at, there was a pop art piece on the wall with dozens of little red-eyed bunnies, and the word “fuck” scrawled several times beneath them. i dug it.

fuck bunny

after throwing back too many tall boys and snacking away on bar food, i decided it was time to move on to real booze. luckily, tube had a vegan white russian (my favorite drink) on the menu. i was so fucking excited about this, and i don’t know why. i’ve had thousands of vegan white russians in the comfort of my own home, but here i was with the opportunity to drink one in an ultramodern dive bar in one of the coolest cities i’ve ever visited. of course i indulged.

vegan white russian

tube’s vegan white russian was awesome and the bartender gave me a great pour. it would be SO DAMN EASY for all bars to offer this drink…all they need to do is stock some soy creamer behind the bar. until that day, i guess i will just dream of far away places like tube.

so if you like dive bars, modern bars, cool design, hispters, cheap food, or good drinks…be sure to make a stop at tube when you are in portland. you will definitely have a memorable experience.

i fucking love this place.

tube
18 NW Third Ave
Portland, OR 97209
(503) 241-8823
open 7 days at 5pm

a 100% vegan pub. i still can’t really wrap my mind around it. since i’m a huge fan of both good beer and vegan food, for me the bye and bye in portland is a dream come true. quality brews on tap, a laid back bar atmosphere, and a menu from which i can order anything. holy hell, i thought i was in heaven this year when i visited an all vegetarian pub…the fact that i now have been to an all vegan pub is almost too awesome for me to handle.

meatball sub: fresh baguette with veggie meatballs, marinara, and melted cheese with choice of side. $8

the bye and bye’s menu is a slight diversion from your standard pub grub of burgers and chips. they focus more on hearty down-home style entrees, with a healthy twist. you’ll find things like a bbq brussel bowl with tofu, sprouts and rice…or a braised tofu sandwich with a side of black-eyed peas. i ordered the meatball sub because i’d heard great things about it, and man oh man, all the positive reviews were true. the sandwich came on a huge fresh baguette of the highest quality and was packed with loads of thick meatballs and tasty, chunky marinara sauce. the vegan cheese wasn’t really melted as the menu suggested, whatever dude, it tasted good all the same. not since doomie’s (rest in peace) have i had a vegan meatball sub this incredible. for a side dish, i went a bowl of collard greens to round out the home-cookin’ feel, and they were excellent.

eastern bowl: spicy asian tofu, brown rice, and broccoli served with peanut sauce. $8

my husband got the eastern bowl, a mix of tofu, rice and vegetables all smothered in peanut sauce. i had a few bites of this thing and it was damn good as well—the crusted asian tofu and crunchy fresh broccoli was just perfect mixed up in the tangy sauce. normally not a peanut fan, my husband completely polished it off. everything in the bowl was perfectly cooked and seasoned, from the flavorful tofu, to the delicate rice, to the amazing gooey sauce.

on top of the excellent food, the bye and bye also has a great beer selection—better than most los angeles bars, for sure.

add to all that a slick, comfortable interior and extremely friendly service (the vegan bartender was super nice and gave us the rundown on the pdx vegan scene), and you have quite possibly the best pub in the world.

don’t miss this place when you are in portland. the bye and bye is the intersection of good beer and tasty vegan food…my two favorite things.

bye and bye
1011 NE Alberta St
Portland, OR 97211
Hours: Sunday 12pm-2:30am, Mon-Thurs 4pm-2:30am, Friday 2pm-2:30am, Saturday 12pm-2:30am.