love n haight is a tiny little sandwich joint in the lower haight area of san francisco, and is a great place to grab a quick and cheap vegan bite. i found it by accident when stumbling around after too many pints at the magnolia brewery, and was pretty damn impressed with the food.

what appeared to be just a crappy hole in the wall sandwich shop turned out to be a place offering huge vegan sandwiches piled high with fake meats, hummus and avocado. my husband and i split the “veggie chicken” and “veggie peppersteak” sandwiches (both without mayo), and they really hit the spot.

vegan peppersteak sandwich, no mayo plus avocado. $6.48

for sandwiches well under $10, the things were huge and all the ingredients were fresh and tasty. the 2 flavors of mock meat tasted pretty similar…but for the price and size i really can’t complain. plus, all the vegetables were top notch and the bread was perfectly soft. definitely a delicious and unexpected treat when wandering around an unfamiliar part of town.

vegan chicken sandwich, no mayo plus hummus. $5.84

another great thing about love n haight, is that everything right down to the bread selections are labeled indicating whether or not they are vegan. just be sure to order all your sandwiches without mayo, because this place doesn’t have vegenaise. love n haight also offers a wide array of vegan chips and cookies…definitely a great place to get your grub on after a day of drinking.

while this wasn’t a like life-altering sandwich experience or anything, it was pretty damn cheap and convenient at the time. if you are ever in the area, i’d recommend checking love n haight out.

love n haight deli and cafe
553 Haight St
(between Fillmore St & Steiner St)
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 252-8190

Hours:
Mon-Sat. 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 a.m.
Sun. 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 a.m.

it was a super eco-friendly day in los angeles as hippies, vegans and all around earth lovers gathered to partake in worldfest, “a solar-powered celebration of music, the environment, animals and humanity.” basically a big grassy field in the valley was fenced off and people were charged 7 bucks (+ $5 for parking) to hear to jam bands, listen to animal activist speakers, and have the opportunity to purchase a wide variety of all vegan food and alcohol. i went for a couple hours today and didn’t spend much time with the speakers or the music…i did get my fill of food though, and that’s what i’m here to tell ya about.

wordfest vegan corn dog. $3.50

between the two of us, my husband and i murdered a lot of vegan goodies. one of my favorites was a corn dog offered up by a stand selling field roast sausages, tofurky links, curly fries and vegan burgers. the corn dog was a standard veggie dog turned spectacular with corn batter and a deep fryer. this was nothing like your out-of-the-freezer family meal corn dogs…this thing was just like the old school hot dog on a stick meals i used to get at my local mall. the batter formed a crispy and almost burnt layer on the outside which surrounded fluffy moist corn bread and finally a plump and juicy soy dog. this totally brought back childhood memories.

we also tried the vegan chicken curry from the bodhi tree stand, which was excellent. the bodhi tree is a vegetarian restaurant located in huntington beach, and after eating their curry, i know i will be making a trip there very soon. the sauce was sweet with a perfectly subtle spiciness, and the soy meat was thick and juicy. all the vegetables were fresh and well-prepared as well, and they had so many other appetizing dishes i didn’t even get to try.

bodhi tree vegan curry chicken. $7

the chicken sandwich from follow your heart was another high point of the festival—at only 5 bucks it was a total steal, considering it was huge and came with a side of greens and potato salad. we interrogated the booth about the ingredients in the bun (normal follow your heart buns contain honey), and they ensured us that not only were these special vegan buns ordered just for worldfest, but that their restaurant buns may soon no longer contain honey either! (we will try to keep you posted on that.) aside from the bun, the sandwich was awesome and extremely well priced. the bbq sauce was mild and tangy, not overwhelmingly sweet, and the slices of soy meat were thick and hearty. the potato salad was on point as well: soft and creamy yet not too full of vegenaise. total perfection.

follow your heart vegan chicken bbq sandwich with potato salad. $5

for dessert, we rounded off the feasting with some maggie mudd ice cream all the way from san francisco. they offered a whopping bowl filled up with ice cream, chocolate sauce, nuts, sprinkles and whipped cream (ALL VEGAN) for just $7. it came with the choice of three flavors, but i stuck to two: memphis mudd pie (coffee flavor with chocolate cookies, fudge swirl and whiskey) and tarmack (chocolate peanut butter flavor with chocolate cookies and peanut butter swirl). the ice cream itself was extremely decadent, and it came with the most amazing toppings….this has to be the best old-fashioned dessert i’ve had since i was a child. no vegan ice cream has anything on maggie mudd; this stuff was so good, i’m considering a move to SF.

big bowl: tarmack and memphis mudd ice cream topped with whipped cream, nuts, chocolate sauce and sprinkles

to top it all off, worldfest had a bad ass beer garden serving up $5 pints of lagunitas ipa and $10 bottles of double ipa. that made coachella’s beer garden look like a total shithole. i’m telling you, this beer was off the chain. not only was it well priced, this stuff was hoppy and flavorful as hell…i’d be stoked to get brew this good in a bar, so imagine how thrilled i was to drink it at a sweaty festival in the valley.

lagunitas double ipa

although i did try a lot of great stuff at worldfest this year, i can only eat so much…so naturally i missed out on tons of vendors. i wanna give some shout outs to places that looked delicious, yet i was way too stuffed to try. to name a few: luscious organic desserts, c’est la v bakeshop, friedel caribbean cuisine and sunpower cafe. the frankenstand was also supposed to make an appearance, but to everyone’s dismay, ended up cancelling. basically what i am trying to say is, even with all the ridiculously tasty vegan food i got to eat today, it was still just the tip of the iceberg. worldfest is apparently THE PLACE to get your vegan eats on—i’m talking several entirely animal-free stands with stuff ranging from salads, to burgers, to fried foods, to desserts including ice cream, cookies, funnel cakes, and cobbler.

word to the wise: save up for worldfest 2010. the amazing food will make all the bitchy fees and unhealthy calories worth it. i’ve never seen so much food i can eat in one place, it made me feel like an omnivore…in a good way!

i gotta take a minute to tell y’all that the best sandwiches i’ve ever eaten were from ike’s place in san francisco. the hole-in-the-wall sandwich shop is located in the castro area of SF and offers a huge menu of specialty sandwiches, most of which can be ordered vegan with mock meats and soy cheese. i tried out ike’s place with my husband on a recent trip up north and we couldn’t believe how fucking amazing our sandwiches were.

vegan eli manning: vegan turkey, garlic and herb sauce, mushrooms, avocado, soy cheese. $9.99

we ordered 2 massive sandwiches and split them, and both were so damn good i couldn’t even decide on a favorite. the vegan eli manning (pictured above) was stacked with vegan turkey, garlic sauce, mushrooms, and soy cheese. i can see why it was the most expensive vegan sandwich on the menu, the thing was so damn hearty. my friend melisser of the urban housewife who suggested we check out ike’s in the first place, implored us to order the vegan backstabber (pictured below) which turned out to be an excellent sandwich as well. the thing that made the backstabber were the marinated artichoke hearts all mixed in with the garlic sauce, un-bloody-believable. we loved it.

vegan backstabber: vegan turkey, marinated artichoke hearts, garlic and herb sauce, soy cheese. $8.98

if you are ever in san francisco looking for a great vegan sandwich, seriously look no further than ike’s place. i don’t even know what makes the sandwiches so exceptional. maybe it’s the fresh ingredients, or the soft bread, or the amazing “dirty sauce” that comes on each one. no matter what the secret ingredient is, all i can say is that ike’s place serves up the best damn sandwiches i’ve ever had. oh, and did i mention the staff are ridiculously friendly and sing along to beatles songs while they make your sandwich? i love this place. i’ve heard ike’s gets crazy on weekdays, so call and order your sandwich in advance if you don’t like lines!

ike’s place
3506 16th St
(between Prosper St & Sanchez St)
San Francisco, CA 94114
(415) 553-6888

up north in san francisco and berkely, there’s an entirely vegan restaurant with three locations called herbivore. one glance at their menu makes herbivore look like heaven—they’ve got tons of brunch selections, a 2 page lunch and dinner menu with several types of cuisine, loads of desserts, and even tap beer. it would seriously take me months of eating there regularly to try everything, and it all sounds delicious.

i have been to herbivore and blogged about it a couple times in the past for both breakfast and lunch, and thoroughly enjoyed both of my meals. however, every single person i know who lives in SF thinks herbivore sucks balls. the word on the street, according to friends of mine who live up there, is that the only decent things at herbivore are the shwarma and the brunch items. the pad thai is supposedly noodles with a load of peanut butter dumped on them, and the fake meats are store-bought packages from white wave. so i took her advice on my recent visit and stuck to the brunch.

sausage biscuit: with house potatoes, mushroom gravy and avocado-tomato salad. $8.25

i ordered the sausage biscuit, which tasted amazingly like the “sausage rolls” from london i fell in love with at beetroot. the flaky pastry was filled with chunky soy meat…i wish i could find more stuff like this at los angeles vegan restaurants. the breakfast potatoes were just superb as well—slightly burnt and a tad oily with tasty seasoning. my only complaint about this dish is that the sausage biscuit was a bit small (especially for 8 bucks), and it came with a salad which is a bit odd at breakfast-time. whateves, i was overall pretty happy with it.

mudslide ice cream from maggie mudd. $4.75

since i didn’t make it to maggie mudd on my trip, i decided to grab a scoop of their ice cream which is sold at herbivore. it was a bit of a ripoff at $4.75 (i come from the land of huge portions of scoops for 2 bucks), but i gotta say it was damn good. the mudslide flavor was super chunky and the ice cream was really thick and dense. i can’t wait until the day i can visit maggie mudd and go wild with a slap up sundae. this ice cream deserves to be done right! still, i’ll take what i can get, and herbivore’s serving hit the spot.

so overall my experiences at herbivore have been pretty good, although i haven’t ordered any of the “sucky” menu items. i will continue to stick to the brunch offerings when i visit there, and of course the amazing shwarma, which rocks my world.

if you go to san francisco, i highly recommend you eat at herbivore as many times as you can, ’cause that’s what i did. the menu is massive, the food is all vegan and everything tastes amazing. we made two stops at herbivore on the quarrygirl road trip, once for breakfast and once for the most delicious lunch. we dropped in to the valencia location on a sunday at 11am and the place was already in full swing. the service was a bit slow, but the meal more than made up for it.

grilled tempeh sandwich: lettuce, tomatoes, onions & pickles on french bread w/ garlic-lemon sauce. $9.50

a tempeh sandwich has the potential to be pretty boring, but in this case it definitely wasn’t. first off, the tempeh was juicy and perfectly flavored, and there was slice after thick, luscious slice of it piled high atop the bread. the french bread itself was fresh and baked just right: fluffy and pillowy on the inside, crisp and chalky on the outside. not to mention the crisp vegetables and the runny garlicky sauce. dude! it was great.

did i mention it came with a light and tasty side salad, as well as some ridiculously good potatoes? they served ours with breakfast potatoes that were so much better than the ones we had previously at the other herbivore location. they didn’t even need hot sauce to make them flavorful…which means a lot coming from me!

next up, and definitely the eating highlight of the entire road trip, we ordered the grilled seitan shawarma. now, i’d read about this before and knew i’d love it, but nothing could prepare me for the delicious repletion it provided.

grilled seitan shawarma: with seasoned onions, tomatoes, hummus, hot sauce, pickles & tahini in a wrap, with a green salad. $7.75

i got my wrap without pickles of course, and i gotta say it’s the best meal i’ve had in a long time. each bite was a flavor explosion, oozing creamy hummus and oily hot sauce. it was so freakin’ scrumptious. the seitan was also top notch—peppery, thick and juicy.

in this case, the picture really doesn’t do the food justice. but i guess a photograph can never really capture the most savory wrap i’ve ever eaten. you will just have to take my word for it!

i’m hoping herbivore opens a location someday in los angeles. did i mention they also have a dessert menu, a full bar and tap beer? it’s about time someone gave pure luck a run for their money.

i knew when i visited san francisco that i’d have the chance to sample some lovely vegan restaurants. what i didn’t know is that i’d find a place as great as herbivore. herbivore rocked so much, in fact, that i visited it twice in a row. while i may have missed out on other fine SF vegan establishments in my brief gustatory endeavors, at least i managed to hit up 2 different herbivore locations…and i will bring you reports from both. (special thanks to foodeater for the recommendation.)

after miles driving from santa rosa, we pulled up at the herbivore on divisadero street for a morning meal. i was totally craving some items from the lunch menu, but because it was around 10:30 am, i was forced into eating breakfast. poor me.

breakfast burrito: black beans scrambled tofu or tempeh, guacamole, vegan sour cream, and potatoes. $9.25

i opted for the tempeh burrito and by any standards, it was bloody amazing. but even though the waiter assured me it didn’t contain bell peppers, it came completely filled with the motherfuckers (which i hate). maybe i should have known better after seeing the logo for the restaurant that hung on the sign out front. next time i will ask twice.

i had to sheepishly return the burrito because i just couldn’t eat around the pungent bell peppers. fortunately upon realizing their mistake, not only did herbivore immediately give me a replacement pepper-free meal, but they gave us a complementary slice of the most delectable banana nut bread.

i don’t have pix of the bread or my pepperless burrito because they were both consumed in record time. (hey, driving through nor-cal works up a voracious appetite!) take my word for it though, the food was fantastic. what herbivore lacked in accuracy, they made up for in free shit and quality eats. despite the fact they nearly poisoned me with gross bell peppers, they redeemed themselves so much that i returned the next day for lunch.

when in SF, go there. if you don’t, you are missing out!