Recently in Restaurants Category

Almost exactly two years ago (while writing at Liberal Atheist Vegetarian), I set out to find the best vegetarian Mexican food in OC. Judging the difference between a good enchilada platter and a bad one is the easy part - the real challenge is actually finding "authentic"-style restaurants that are vegetarian friendly. From the original post:

I'm looking for the best Mexican restaurants in (and around -- I'm willing to make a short drive) Orange County. They can be large chain restaurants, small mom-and-pop places, fast food, even non-traditional styles. Where do you like to eat?

There are a few rules. All of the base ingredients must be vegetarian. This includes the beans, rice, tortillas (corn and flour), and chips. They must use vegetarian cooking oil, and there should be something vegetarian on the menu beyond a bean and cheese burrito. If you're not sure, suggest a place and I'll do the research.

These don't have to be all-vegetarian restaurants - in fact, I'd kinda prefer if they weren't. I'm looking for a good Socal-style Mexican restaurant experience that I can share with my meat-eating friends, but where I'm not limited by ingredients. 

So I need your help. Throw out ideas of locations you like to eat - either places you already know about, or somewhere that looks promising. I'll compile results (with a breakdown of both their vegetarianness and tastiness) and list them here. If you're interested, I'd even like to go out to your favorite places with you, so there's a meetup aspect to this as well.

What's good?

It's interesting what a difference a year can make. When I stopped regularly posting to TofuFighting last August, the only place I'd seen Gardein brand meat substitutes was at Fresh and Easy and Whole Foods - they sell little two-to-three serving packets of pre-seasoned fake meats, in "beef" and "chicken" varieties. Easily one of the best-tasting products out there (though some of the flavors didn't appeal to me), and the consistancy is the most reminisant of meat that I've had (especially the chicken).

Fast foward to today. Gardein is everywhere:

Chipotle is serving Gardein as "Garden Blend" at select stores in New York, Washington DC, and California, and last week expanded to include many of their Los Angeles-area locations (sorry OC and the IE, none for us, yet). I tried it last week, and found it a bit dry - it didn't have the flavor I expected (and had heard about). I'm more than willing to give it another try.

The Yard House, a generally west-coast brewpub restaurant, is serving Gardein as a replacement for meat in almost all of their menu items. Some vegans are freaking out because the menu items themselves aren't vegan, but still, to have a vegan replacement that's not just a veggie burger is amazing to me. Right now it's available at their Irvine location, but it should go company-wide later this year.

Select Costco locations are now selling large bags of Gardein Crispy Tenders (fake chicken tenders) for $9.99 for 40 pieces. As is often the case with Costco, not all locations carry it, and it will likely disappear at some point as well. Keep buying it, and it may not. Such are the whims of Costco.

I'm sure it's found its way to other locations as well, but three major chains, in the space of a few months, is a fairly impressive feat for a vegan product. The best part is that it's actually good. I'm hoping more places jump on this bandwagon.

Hello Readers! A quick update to let you all know that yours truly has the cover story on this month's Vegetarian Network of Austin newsletter, "Austin Vegetarian Living". It's about how to eat vegetarian/vegan at Mexican restaurants (and how difficult it can be).

I'm hoping to start posting here more, with links to other great blogs and original stuff. Thanks for reading, and enjoy!

Based on what I can gather from this post over at the Fast Food Maven, El Pollo Loco's rice, while never anything special, will no longer be vegetarian once it's reformulated in the coming months. That's too bad, because their BRC burritos are a semi-staple for me (well, I go there once a month or so), and it's always been nice to have another burrito choice besides Del Taco and Taco Bell. Alas, if the only thing I can eat there is the beans, I very likely won't go anymore. I'm sure I'm not the only vegetarian, either.

I must say that I haven't been to a Little Caesar's in a LONG time - but back in the day, their $5 pizzas were a mainstay in our household. That said, I might start going back, because they're all kinds of awesome for having this kind of information on their website:

Vegetarian Options at Little Caesars
Little Caesars wants to help meet the growing needs of our vegetarian customers and offers them many appropriate menu choices. Vegetarian diets that allow dairy products can easily be planned to meet nutritional adequacy using any of the Little Caesars vegetarian-style pizzas. Little Caesars pizzas can be ordered with cheese-only or with any of our fresh vegetable toppings including onions, green peppers, and tomato slices. Mushrooms, ripe olives, and pineapples are also available toppings. Banana pepper rings can be added to give some "zip" to any vegetable-topped pizza.

Please note: Topping selection varies by location. Visit your local Little Caesars Pizza restaurant for topping availability.

For the Strict Vegetarian Diet (Vegan Diet)
A strict vegetarian diet requires a little more planning for nutritional adequacy because it may require special conditions such as no animal by-products. Little Caesars' pizza crust is made with a quality, high-protein flour and contains no animal products or by-products. The sauce is made from crushed tomatoes and is seasoned with a special blend of herbs and spices - it also is made without animal by-products. This means that customers who are strict vegetarians can order a Little Caesars vegetable pizza, without cheese, and still fulfill their needs.

There are other items that can be special-ordered from our menu that are acceptable for a strict vegetarian diet. For example, Crazy Bread® can be ordered without Parmesan cheese along with an order of Crazy Sauce® on the side.

If every restaurant (especially chains!) had a page like this on their site, my life would be much, much simpler. It doesn't take much to make me happy: Know what "vegetarian" and "vegan" mean, and tell me, simply, what's in your food. Little Caesar's does it perfectly.