UPDATE 06/07/10: this post is waaaay out of date.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.

UPDATED JAN. ’11: apparently rootmaster is now closed/on hiatus as of this month, which is very sad. let’s hope they don’t go the way of eat and two veg (RIP vegan full english breakfast!), and shut down completely. it’s always gutting to see a meatless restaurant close its doors. we’ll miss you, double decker bus restaurant! please come back soon. x

recently, my husband and i took a trip to the uk and realized that london is overflowing with vegan-friendly restaurants. the selection in london is even better than it is here in los angeles, and most of the food there is out of this world. while we tried a lot of places, none were quite as special or uniquely british as rootmaster in elys yard. the 100% vegan restaurant cooks and serves its food in a disused double-decker routemaster bus, with the seating upstairs and the kitchen below.

an important piece of london heritage and introduced in 1956, the routemaster was an open platform bus that passengers could board and alight in between stops. however, due to safety concerns and a bunch of lame excuses, the iconic bus was discontinued in 2005. luckily the folks over at rootmaster preserved one of the old buses really well and inside it they gave me the chance to do something just as cool as ride around london: eat vegan food!

everything the rootmaster served up was absolutely fantastic. the menu isn’t that huge, but i was happy knowing i could eat anything on it because it’s all animal-free. we started off with some edamame, along with a portion of bread & oil.

edamame: blanched in the shell, lightly sprinkled with coarse sea salt. £3

bread & oil: fresh bus baked bread accompanied with extra virgin olive oil & balsamic vinegar. £2.5

i never imagined in my life that would eat something called “bus baked bread”, and that it would be so flippin’ tasty! they actually baked that bread fresh, right down stairs in an oven in the little bus kitchen. absolutely amazing. it was so crispy on the edges, and fluffy and warm inside, really top notch. good, fresh bread is hard enough to come by in normal restaurants; now i know those places have no excuse. if a freaking bus can do it, they should be able to as well! the edamame was also lovely. warm and salty goodness, all around the table on a cold london day.

as a main, we wanted to try the burger, but the waiter told us it wouldn’t be ready for around 30 to 40 minutes. oh well, at least the guy was honest! some places will just make you sit there for an hour and never tell you there’s a delay in the kitchen. we didn’t feel like waiting, so we went with the picante tofu and teriyaki stir fry instead.

picante tofu: large chunks of organic tofu with broccoli in a spicy tomato and rich creamy sauce. served with organic brown rice. £6.5

the picante tofu was great, although it’s mostly covered up by rice in the photo. underneath all that fluffy rice, there are huge chunks of tofu and broccoli covered in a really spicy tomato sauce. it was so creamy as well…it reminded me of the sauce on penne ala vodka. the vegetables were really fresh and crisp, and the tofu was thick and juicy. it really shows when restaurants use high quality ingredients. the dish was so good in fact, it made me glad there was a delay on the burger.

the teriyaki stir fry was also excellent. again, rootmaster used really fine ingredients and fresh vegetables, making for a most delicious meal.

teriyaki stir fry: asian market vegetables, cashew nuts & locally made organic tofu, wok seared in an a la carte teriyaki sauce. served with organic brown rice. £8.5

the asian vegetables were all very delicate and tender, and the tofu was soft and well-marinated, but crispy on the edges from being cooked up in the wok. they work fucking wonders in that bus kitchen, i’m telling you! they are baking up bread and wok searing vegetables, not to mention throwing together these amazing sauces! i mean, HONESTLY. how the hell do they make such good food on the first floor of a bus?

so as you can tell, overall, our meal was awesome. the only bad thing about rootmaster is we only got to eat there once. seriously, i cannot wait to return. they also have a whole wine list and dessert menu we didn’t even get to try out! (when you are trying to visit 100 pubs in 14 days, drinking wine at lunch is forbidden.)

i highly suggest that if you find yourself in london, you give this place a try. not only is the food delicious and entirely vegan, but you get to dine in a little piece of london history. the restaurant even moves a bit from side to side, just like a real bus, when the waiter brings your meal up the stairs. plus, it’s located in the old truman brewery, right across from rough trade east; so you can get the satisfaction of eating in an old bus AND where they used to make beer at the same time, then do some record shopping afterwards.

everything about this place is lovely, charming, and extremely special. i feel pretty lucky to have eaten at rootmaster.

rootmaster
elys yard
the old truman brewery
hanbury street
london
e1 6ql

07912389314

native foods in westwood has been one of my regular haunts since becoming a vegan. i mean why not? they’ve got great food and have used to have a huge menu with reasonable prices. that’s right, it’s all changed. imagine how bummed i was to walk up to the native foods counter over the weekend only to find the enormous novel of a menu replaced with a one page paper hand-out. it was tiny! and there wasn’t even enough food to carry on to the back side of the menu, so it was just covered with creeds and missions about saving the earth. really? a disposable paper menu, that you are handing to each customer who is dining in, just because you haven’t had time to get the real menus printed. that’s not saving the environment, now is it, tanya?

so let’s get to the food. upon opening the menu, my heart sank because most of my favorite items had gone. latino lover pizza, malibu veggie burger, farrah’s fatoush…all history. drats. so i went with something that sounded exciting, the portobello & sausage burger.

portobello & sausage burger: big grilled beauties with seitan sausage, pommodoro, caramelized onions, vegan mayo, pesto and sweet roasted garlic. $10.35

while the portobello & sausage burger is by no means a new item, it did used to cost only $9.50, and now it’s $10.35. don’t think i didn’t notice, native foods! while this burger was pretty tasty, it had waaaaaay too much oil. a more appropriate name would the grease & grease burger. seriously, the drippy pesto, globby cheese, and runny olive oil totally overpowered any protein. in fact, the burger got so covered in grease that the bun fell apart and i had to eat it with a fork. ick. a little too slippery for me.

grease and oil on top of fat

also, i just wanna add that the sausage patty tasted EXACTLY like a celebration roast. it even had the same little ridges on the side.

not a bad thing, just makes me wonder if native foods has started buying in bulk.

while navigating the new menu was a little bit intimidating for me, it was especially daunting for my husband, because he’d never ordered anything at native foods EXCEPT the malibu veggie burger. he decided to go with the new burger option that looked kind of similar. unfortunately, it wasn’t.

veggie-mighty-vita burger: 100% angus friendly veggie patty, lettuce, carrots, sprouts, beets, onions, pickles, and 1000 island. $8.75

the veggie-mighty-vita burger isn’t much to write home about, especially since it comes in at a buck more than the malibu veggie burger. the patty is smaller and thinner, and doesn’t have the same combination of grains and quinoa that made the malibu so luscious. the vita is kind of limp and bland. don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t BAD, and it did come stacked with a ton of lovely vegetables, as you can see…it just wasn’t great, either. ooh ooh ooh!–and another thing to note: all burgers used to come with a side of coleslaw, rice or black beans. now the default side is 8 pieces of slightly brown edamame that taste fresh out the microwave. hmmmm.

one cool thing though, as the kind lady at the counter pointed out, is if the new menu is missing one of your old favorites, they can probably still make it for you with the ingredients that are still around…for now. oh really? let’s just see about that. i decided to return to native foods and give this offer a shot with the poltz burrito, a wildly popular item from the previous menu.

poltz burrito: black beans, brown rice, original seitan, flamed banana salsa in a whole wheat tortilla, topped with salsa fresca, chips and guacamole. $8.95

i guess this emasculated version of a poltz burrito counts as making something off the old menu. but seriously, who would want this? i mean, does that look “topped with salsa fresca, chips and guacamole” to you? no! and the inside of it was even more depressing.

pitiful

this burrito used to be massive, overflowing with guacamole, beans and colorful salsas. why did they have to go and ruin a good thing?

oh well, i’m sure i will keep going back to native foods anyways. after all, they do still have the awesome greek gyro on the menu, although it costs more now as well. it’s always a bit sad when menus shrink or prices rise…and it’s especially sad when these two things happen at once.

R.I.P. all my old favorite dishes from native foods.

here is the new menu for you to check out.

and here is the old menu, if you wanna reminisce.

next stop on the quarrygirl roadtrip, crazy hippie sushi from santa rosa at tex wasabi’s! what makes these sushi rolls hippie, you ask? is it organic ingredients? creed of the establishment? psychotropic drug references? nooooooooo. it’s just the names of the dishes, of course—what more could you ask for as a tourist? if the menu makes me think i’m eating hippie food, then i’m gonna buy into it.

morgan’s earthy crunchy roll: tapioca rice paper roll with sushi rice, crunchy tempura bits, avocado, cucumber, julienne vegetables, daikon sprouts served with a ponzu dipping sauce. $6.95 (double order pictured, so i will have a double amount of hippie-ness and feel twice as close to the earth)

woodstock roll: sunset mix, romaine lettuce, daikon sprouts, cucumber, avocado and topped w/ ponzu sauce. $7.95  (of course this roll reminds me of watching janis joplin, the who and jimi hendrix while under the influence of several unmentionable substances…but in sushi form. how did they capture the fantasy so accurately with just a few daikon sprouts?)

in all seriousness though, this sushi was pretty tasty albeit a bit fusion-y. the rice paper was a welcome change from the nori i’m used to…and it was nice to have a wide variety of innards in my role, rather than the standard avocado and cucumber combo. morgan’s earthy crunchy roll was the favorite at the table (good thing since we got a double order); the crunchy tempura bits blended together with the creamy avocado tasted divine.

although there’s not much for vegetarians to eat on the menu (most of the sushi has fish, and they also specialize in southern bbq) these 2 rolls are enough to please and definitely delicious. plus, the place has that chilled out rockin’ roll vibe that a lot of sushi establishments have been adopting lately. i like it.

oh, and don’t forget to start off with some edamame. it’s the root of all that’s good in the vegan diet.

eddie’s mommy (eda-mame): blanched soy bean pods, dusted with kosher salt. $4.25

as the summer rapidly approaches, it’s handy to have an arsenal of cool, refreshing meals that can be whipped up in less than 15 minutes. enter veganomicon and pete’s tofu to go.

veganomicon’s corn & edamame sesame salad, atop spinach leaves with asian dressing

pete’s tofu 2 go ready made tofu, with mango wasabi sauce (and we added in some chili garlic sauce as well)

so simple to make and ready in minutes, this was the perfect meal for a scorching hot evening spent sitting on the couch with a bottle of wine. there was just enough to satisfy without leaving us full, bloated and feeling guilty.

more pix after the jump…

Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve been to Yard House outlets in Long Beach, Pasadena and Palm Desert, although there quite a few in the chain. What I like best is the selection of beers on tap (usually over 100) and a very nicely prepared vegan option on the menu. What better way to enjoy four beers than by ordering two half-yards of beer (or one yard if you’re feeling rather adventurous and have strong biceps).

Sitting at the bar (and this is a real bar: black granite and stainless steel with cared-for keg pumps by the polytope, and nice seats to boot) one can choose from by far the best selection of beers in any bar probably anywhere.

I usually order Young’s Double Chocolate Stout which is also served from a keg back home so tastes almost the same as in the White Hart (incidentally a pub that Roger Waters can often be found drinking in).

Oh yes, a Yard House is a GREAT way to drink away the afternoon with nice beer and chilled edamame served just right. Do it. Do it now. You know it makes sense. And, there’s a Yard House under construction at LA Live right now, due to open at the end of the year so we Los Angelinos will have less distance to travel.

See the rest of this post for more pictures…

Read the rest of this entry »