National Margarita Day?

Feb 22, 2010 in Restaurants

I've been informed by Jane that Today is National Margarita Day. I must admit, I've never heard of it before, and if I'd given it any thought, I would have tied that in with Cinco de Mayo. However, any excuse is a good excuse so we will be going out for Mexican food and margarita's tonight. Mexican is one of the easiest cuisines to veganize. Simply start with Rice and Beans. We usually get a fajita and split that as well.

Just a reminder... there can be pitfalls. Some restaurants prepare their rice using chicken stock, and some use lard in the preparation of their beans. In order to be on the safe side, ask your server to check with the chef. We've had good luck ordering black beans -- so far none have bee prepared with lard.

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Last Vegan Food For 500 Miles

Jul 21, 2009 in Restaurants

Shojin's Caterpillar Roll

Jane and I are off to Montana for a week. Since it looks like vegan dining will be Taco Bell and The Pita Pit, we figured we'd get a quick fix from our favorite vegan restaurant, Shojin.

As always, dinner was fantastic. We started our dinner with our all time favorite, the Caterpillar Roll. When we first went vegan the idea of "vegan sushi" was a bit of a joke to us. Sushi was fish, and we had loved it. But let me assure you, we are converts. This roll starts with a base of Shojin's barbequed seitan and is topped with sliced avocado. YUM! We've tried other vegan sushi, but this is our absolute favorite.

Our next course was the Barbequed Seitan. It's sliced seitan with some kind of light barbeque sauce. In our opinion, Kimiko (Shojin's master chef) makes the best seitan. It's far and away better than any other we've ever eaten.

Shojin's Seitan Pepper Steak

One of the reasons we enjoy Shojin so much is that they are constantly changing their menu. They keep the core items, but add things as certain foods become seasonally available. Our main course was the Seitan Pepper Steak, which is one of those new things. It was delicious. If you haven't tried Shojin, and can get to Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles, go... you won't be sorry.

So we're sated, and hopefully our expectations of our food options in Montana will be exceeded.

Click here for Shojin's website.

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Free Food At Veggie Grill

Apr 22, 2009 in Restaurants

If you're in the Los Angeles / Orange County area, Veggie Grill is giving away free sweetheart (sweet potato) fries today, Wednesday, April 22nd, in honor of earth day. Just mention you heard it on KTLA. I heard about it on the news this morning and wanted to get the message out quickly.

We love the Veggie Grill. We've been about four times since discovering it last year. It's a little far from our home, so we don't go that often. Also, it's "fast food" -- but when you're in the mood for that kind of meal, it rocks! Even the omni's we've gone with have really enjoyed the food there.

Here's a link to the Veggie Grill Locations. They have three stores at the moment, two in Irvine and one in El Segundo - close to LAX (with plans to open another store in West Hollywood soon).

And happy Earth Day everyone.

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Flore Cafe, Really

Jan 31, 2009 in Restaurants

Flore Cafe Breakfast Burrito

So after my gaffe last week, of confusing Flore with Flore Cafe, I convinced Jane we needed to head on back out to Silver Lake. Last week I reviewed Flore in Silver Lake. This time, we were off to Flore Cafe (really).

Jane had the Breakfast Burrito, and I had the Tu-No Melt, and of course, we shared. The Breakfast Burrito was okay, but not something we'd enthusiastically recommend. You could do this at home with better results. It had too much rice and potato and was very bland. And there's only so much hot sauce you can use! Everyone recommends the tofu benediction, we should have gotten that instead. Next time.

Flore Cafe Tu-No Melt

As for the Tu-No Melt, I'd wanted to try it when we were at Flore, but ordered the Quesadilla instead (which was delicious and I didn't regret my decision one iota). Flore Cafe also offers the Tu-No Melt, so this time I had to order it. It was delicious.

Overall, we were pleased and will definitely be back. Everything tasted really fresh. We really recommend both Flore and Flore Cafe. But I want to stress, the ambiance in these places is not wonderful. They both resemble an eatery or deli more than a restaurant. But the food is fresh and good, and the service we received was wonderful in both locations.

Just in case you're confused, here's a quick primer: