Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I don't know from downtown :)

And, YES! The chicken sandwich is damn good.

Has anyone had the tofu banh mi from Roaming Dragon? I still have yet to eat a delicious vegan banh mi outside of Oregon/California.

The Roaming Dragon tofu banh mi is totally boring. They also put mayo on mine even though I said no mayo. So it's just vegetables and bland tofu. Bun Mi on Robson and Hornby actually has a flavourful bahn mi, lemongrass tofu with an onion dressing (no vegenaise yet). Carolina Deli on Broadway near Fraser has an alright tofu banh mi as well.

Huh. Those all sound slightly boring, but thanks for the warning about Roaming Dragon! There's an okay lemongrass tofu banh mi in Victoria (at Green Leaf Vietnamese, and they don't add any mayo!), but the baguettes aren't great and that ruins it for me. Have you tried Chau Veggiexpress?

Chau is my current favourite restaurant. Sandwich is pretty great but it's the curry noodle soup that does it for me.

BaoQi over on Davie (I think btwn. Seymour and Granville) has a pretty decent vegan bahn mi. I haven't had it in a while and they don't have a website, so I can't remember exactly what's in it, but it comes with tofu and your standard pickled vegetables and chilies and cilantro. They used to use an avocado aioli as the spread, but they've since changed it to something else slightly sweet/spicy.

My Local Cafe closed???? BOOOOOOOO. Those muffins were delicious.

http://www.chompveganeatery.com/

Has anyone been here? I'm planning a post-Christmas field trip to Port Moody just to try it and would love menu recommendations. Looks delicious!

East is East has a really good vegan selection, delicious x1000 Chais that can be made with almond or soy, and an amazing dark chocolate vegan pudding with cherries/

I just had one of the best, if not the best, meals in Vancouver, last night at Coast. Never could I have imagined this when my uncle asked to eat there. I figured I'd be getting a salad, maybe a baked potato. Instead the Chef de Cuisine comes out and tells us that he heard there was a vegan coming and was going to make us 2-3 courses. He's from a Wynn restaurant in Vegas so was definitely familiar with vegan cooking and didn't make any stupid jokes about needing to eat meat.

The first course was a small salad of pickled beets, kumquats and radishes. Then came an edamame hummus with taro chips and root vegetables. For the pasta dish he made it cream and clams style using cashew cream and a seaweed broth to make the sauce and mushrooms tasty a bit fishy. Next up was a scallop style tofu with a yuzu broth along with bok choy. For dessert apple brown betty with a side of white peach sorbet.

Unbelievable how special they made us feel, at a fancy seafood restaurant of all places. So if you need to find a place for a special meal I highly recommend Coast. Make sure you call ahead so that Pedro Gonzalez (Chef de Cuisine) knows you're vegan.

Awesome!

Can anyone recommend a good place for breakfast on a Saturday? I'm going to be in Vancouver this afternoon through tomorrow afternoon, and I'm going to be getting breakfast tomorrow with my little sister. Somewhere around either Kitsilano or the Commercial or Broadway areas would be ideal, but we have time to bus it if need be.

I'm not sure about Kits, but here are my suggestions:

Bandidas - Commercial and 12th
- Vegetarian Mexican with most things veganisable. They're bennies are good - I always get The Hicks.

The Wallflower - Main and Broadway
- It's an omni place with a lot of vegan options. They apparently have a Breakfast Poutine, but I don't know anyone who's tried it. Their vegan benny is mediocre. The BBQ Tofu Hash is tasty enough.

Too bad Rhizome is closed for the holidays. Their pumpkin seed pesto tof scramble is good.

Slickity Jim's - Main and 19th
- They have one tofu scramble made with chilis, ginger and sesame oil. The potatoes aren't always fully cooked, though.

3G - Cambie and 19th
- This is a great place for all-vegan dim sum, and not far off Broadway

Vancouver is sad, sad, sad for vegan brunch. Too bad Vegan Mischief isn't having an underground brunch this weekend - those women know good food. If you hear about any other places and want to know what they're like, the two reviewers on Yelp I completely trust are Malloreigh M. and vijita (though I can't find you on there anymore, vijita!)

Haha, I ditched yelp. But I still go back for Malloreigh's reviews!

There's Sejuiced, the Naam, and Dharma Kitchen in Kits (Dharma Kitchen finally sells booze. Wooo!). We went to the Naam on xmas eve and it was fine. We're all snobs about it but we all secretly admit we like it.

But, go to 3G or Slickity Jim's! Mishka has you covered. You might hate Bandidas since you're used to California Mexican food. Are you heading to the airport tomorrow? We keep missing each other! We're heading into Vancouver around 5:30.

Bandidas all the way!

I have all day in Vancouver tomorrow, unexpectedly! If anyone wants to hang out, I put my number on a recent facebook post, so text me, and we will try to figure something out!

Thanks for the recommendations - I think I will give bandidas a try.

(There their they're... please to excuse the typos in my restaurant listing)

Hope you don't hate Bandidas! Enjoy your stay - looks fairly nice-ish today :)

Happy New Year, guys!

Update on Chomp - um, most ridiculously small portion sizes EVER. Like, I ate my dinner in two bites *LITERALLY NOT KIDDING*. My boyfriend and I went home and made a full dinner. Biggest disappointment, and it was expensive too. I sent them an email letting them know there are other places doing vegan/gluten free stuff for a lot better value. I know they are way out in Port Moody and all, but still. Ridiculous. I'll post pictures on the blog in the new year...

We had the best NYE dinner at Wild Rice. Free dessert and everything. For the record, I still love them. Sucks about Chomp, Mel! :(

Good morning! We have an exciting date with a tow truck and whatever garage is open in Richmond today. Where should we brunch to fuel up for this fab start to 2012?

If any one's looking to do Dine Out, here's the options I found (I called places yesterday since my friend and I go every year):

Wild Rice
The Reef
Hapa Izakaya

For the last two just make sure you tell you're vegan when you make a reservation!
The Bitter Tasting Room has a vegan appetizer and main, but sadly the desserts aren't vegan. So close people, so close. All the vegetarian menus for a bunch of places listed are chock full of cheese and butter, so not very helpful. My friend and I decided to go to the Reef since we did Wild Rice last year. Report back if you find another place with vegan-friendly Dine Out menus!

Thanks, mel! Maenam's looks pretty vegan-friendly, no? I've had both the soup and the banana blossom salad and they said they were vegan. Maybe the sorbet has a honey syrup or something.

APPETIZER
Starter: Creamy Hot and Sour soup of Mushrooms galangal, coconut cream, oyster mushrooms, chili jam

ENTREE
Salad: Crispy Banana Blossom Salad roasted banana blossom fritter, soy, toasted sesame, lychees, thai basil
or
Stir fry: Stir Fry Long Aubergine japanese long aubergines, soy bean paste, thai basil
or
Curry: Aromatic Curry of Assorted Vegetables Thai vegetables, longans, fried shallots, served with cucumber relish

DESSERT
Maenam's Nam Kang Sai our version of the pouplar street side dessert. Shaved coconut sorbet, candied thai fruit, jasmine perfumed pandanus syrup
or
Dark Chocolate Pot de Creme sea salt, tamarind tuile, tamarind semifreddo
or
house made rice doughnuts fried crispy doughnuts served with Thai ice tea ice cream

Nice, thanks for adding that! I missed their vegetarian menu the first time through.

Perfect time to go back to Maenam.