zpizza with vegan daiya cheese

it’s finally happened. zpizza, a national pizza chain, has decided to get rid of their casein-laden soy cheese and roll out pies covered in daiya, making vegan pizza available to the masses. from LA, to manhattan…from santa clarita to montana, zillions of vegans across the united states will be able to dig into that familiar box of home-delivered goodness. zpizza has started serving vegan pizza at their west hollywood outlet, and over the next several weeks should be selling it in all 68 locations throughout the country.

in case you were wondering, daiya is a vegan cheese that has been taking los angeles (and the rest of the country) by storm. it stretches and melts almost exactly like real cheese, and it doesn’t contain soy. it has even gotten the attention of whole foods, who have started using it on pizzas in their prepared foods section. …and zpizza is a national chain serving up organic and healthy style pizza that tastes like authentic delivery. they have been serving a non-vegan soy cheese as a healthy alternative to regular dairy, but are swiftly replacing it. yes!

since hearing about zpizza’s plan to offer daiya, we have been regularly tracking their status (almost daily if you can believe it!). we didn’t expect it to hit LA so soon, but today we called the west hollywood location and found out they had “the new vegan cheese” in stock. we headed over and skeptically asked to see the new cheese. they brought a large bag from behind the counter of daiya italian shreds, and we were in business. we specified NOT to use any of the old non-vegan soy cheese on our pizza, and they assured us that they would be using the vegan cheese from now on. for safety though, even at the weho zpizza, you should confirm that what you are getting on your pizza is indeed daiya.

make sure you get a receipt that says you are vegan, y'all!

large pizza with daiya cheese, mushroom, tomato, and chopped garlic. $19.48

after eating this for dinner, i can tell you that the marriage of zpizza and daiya is a fucking beautiful thing. zpizza has a 650 degree oven that melts the cheese like none other. the crust and sauce at zpizza have always been a favorite of mine, and the toppings are as fresh as they come. the fact that a national chain is offering vegan pizza this good is absolutely mind-blowing. it’s fast, it’s convenient, it’s consistent, and it’s VEGAN. seriously, i never thought i’d see the day!

after flipping out and doing a happy dance over my vegan pizza, i called the other local zpizza locations to see if they had the goods as well. larchmont village, burbank, woodland hills, and santa clarita are still serving non-vegan soy cheese for now…although most of the locations assured me that they would have the new vegan cheese next week. zpizza claims that all of their locations will be serving a 100% vegan option within the next 6-8 weeks. until then, head over to the weho location and ask them for some vegan pizza. you won’t be sorry.

zpizza
8869 Santa Monica Blvd
West Hollywood, CA 90069
(310) 360-1414

UPDATE 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.

Everybody in America knows Buca Di Beppo… The down-market chain of pseudo Italian-American diners with ebullient servers and over-the-top Italianate décor has won its place in the hearts and minds of many cities – 90 locations, to be exact.

The very first Buca di Beppo I visited was in Seattle. My mother (a fluent Italian speaker who lived in Italy for many years) was quite enchanted by the place. She pointed out pictures of Frank Sinatra, The Pope, Sophia Loren (who bears an uncanny likeness to my mother in the 60s…. Not now, though, for sure) and was overjoyed to be greeted by an Italian-speaker who led us to our table via the kitchen, then handed us our menus. My mother, who LOVES to speak Italian (given the most minute opportunity) immediately engaged with our server in his supposed native tongue. He became a little flustered right away, and I realized after a few back-and-forths that they had began to speak in SPANISH (yeah, my mother is also fluent in that). It turned out that Giuseppe from Napoli was actually Marco, from El Salvador. A very pleasant medical undergrad from UW who had grown his moustache out to look “more Italian”.

Yes, like Marco, every single thing about Buca di Beppo is completely, 100% and absolutely not what it appears to be. From plastic statues to Plexiglas windows to bulk wine served in a fancy bottle – the farcical nature of the place cannot be under (or over) estimated. The menu is rather diverse – everything from “garlic olive oil bread” to “seafood pasta”, so a splendid time should be guaranteed for all.

I ended up at the Universal City Walk outlet a couple of weeks ago with some rather drunk omni friends. I’d researched all the restaurants in advance, and Buca di Beppo was the only one to have several websites glorifying their vegan options, with pasted emails from the management as proof (not to mention the blessing of a trusted iPhone application). So, it was with grand aplomb that we showed up there, rather inebriated, around 10pm on a Sunday night.

I had my entire meal planned out – I was going to get a couple of orders of “Garlic Bread” (without cheese), which is allegedly entirely vegan – bread with no milk or egg additives, olive oil and fresh garlic. The dudes I was with got various horrific and non-vegan dishes, but I must admit the garlic bread was pretty good. Not as good as the old-style bread they used to do (which came in a round cake pan) but still very tasty.

Continuing the olive oil theme, I was craving for green vegetables, so “Green Beans” sounded amazing. And, indeed they were. Crunchy on the outside, smooth as silk on the inside they alone would have been a very nice entrée. BUT, neither of those offerings are particularly “Italian”, so I also ordered the “Spaghetti Marinara” which was completely, 100% predictably boring but nevertheless filled a gap.

spaghetti with marinara $9.99, green beans $5.99, garlic bread with no cheese $7.99

Read the rest of this entry »

for a long time, quiznos has been a place for vegans to avoid. up until very recently, all of their breads have contained dairy, making it impossible to order a vegan sandwich. all this has changed though, with the introduction of the torpedo!

vegan quiznos torpedo: guacamole, black olives, lettuce, tomato, red onions, mushrooms. (no cheese, no vinaigrette) $4

the new sleek sandwich is over one foot long, about two inches wide, and comes on baked ciabatta bread that is delicious and dairy-free. although none of the standard torpedo combinations are vegan (or even vegetarian), you can order a vegan sandwich by getting a torpedo with the the veggie sub fillings, minus the cheese and vinaigrette (which contains dairy). the end result is actually extremely tasty, and a damn good deal for 4 bucks. plus, isn’t it great to know we vegans can finally eat at quiznos?!?! i am sooo burnt out on subway.

oh, and you get extra credit vegan points if you bring in your own tofurky and add it to your sandwich. it really takes the torpedo to the next level.

vegan quiznos torpedo with some added tofurky action

so there you have it. vegan fast food for under 5 dollars. if you are ever stranded in need of a vegan meal, chances are you are probably near a quiznos. do the torpedo!

oh, and in case you were wondering…my friend double checked with the quiznos hq about the torpedo bread being vegan, and they sent her a list of ingredients in the ciabatta. click here if you want to check them out.

this weekend i wound up in my hometown, santa clarita, visiting my omnivore parents and treating them to dinner. scv is great but when eating there, it’s definitely a lot harder to find a safe restaurant than in los angeles…so out of desperation, we chose to dine at the (somewhat) vegan-friendly macaroni grill.

before heading to the restaurant, i did my research and found that peta and various vegan blogs had confirmed the veganocity of certain mac-grill menu items.

i decided to give them a try and i gotta say, pretty good. pretty, pretty, pretty, PRETTY GOOD!

spaghetti with garlic and olive oil, broccoli, mushrooms and diced tomatoes

the wonderful bread was vegan as well, and dipped in olive oil it made the perfect appetizer.

peasant bread to start with

we also enjoyed glass after glass of the house chianti, which was left on our table to refill as we wished using the “honor system”. oh, macaroni grill, don’t TEMPT me!

as a vegan, i was happy as could be in this huge chain restaurant surrounded by meat-eaters…not something i can say very often. everyone had a great time, and our whole table ordered vegan as well!
Read the rest of this entry »