Ahhh, vegetarian/vegan food. How are we have come, how much our relationship as improved. Heirloom Vegetarian Restaurant is one of the most popular vegetarian/vegan eateries in Vancouver, so I knew I had to come in and try their vegan food.
It was my Vegan Buddy’s birthday in October, so we decided to come here for a birthday brunch! Yes, this post is super late… I actually forgot about writing it until I was deleting stuff off my phone (Curse you, iPhone storage) and found these pictures.
Tbh, the food wasn’t that good and left lots to be desired- that’s why I forgot about blogging because it was so meh.
Heirloom Vegetarian Restaurant is located on the west side of Vancouver. There’s West Vancouver, the west side, and the west end… Heirloom is on the west side, just off South Granville. It’s located in a busy area, but luckily we found free parking right outside the restaurant.
If there’s one thing to give props to, it’s the decor. The restaurant is very clean, comfortable and spacious, with high ceilings.
This place is heaven to the stereotypical rich, healthy, yoga-doing, organic-only, Vancouver girl. This is a restaurant I imagine Lululemon lovers flock to. Since I am not rich, only semi-healthy, and don’t do yoga on a daily basis, I did not fit their clientele. If you are not dainty and soft spoken, you probably won’t fit in here (like moi).
Perhaps the servers could tell I was a fraud that didn’t meet the clientele criteria, but service was pretty cold and slow that day.
Tofu Rancheros, $19.95: Since I can’t have dairy, we tried the vegan menu only. The tofu rancheros was a tofu scramble, with spicy chilli, served on grilled corn tortillas, topped with guacamole, pico de gallo, ranchero sauce, fresh cilantro and green onion.
We thought this was pretty decent, but definitely overpriced. The tomatoes and green onions tasted fresh on the tofu scramble, but the greens for the house salad weren’t that fresh.
Banana French Toast, $16.95: This sounded good on the menu, but it was really disappointing. The french toast was made with an almond milk and banana infused batter. It was very bland and we could only taste burnt toast that had a soft and moist texture.
We found ourselves trying to salvage this dish by dipping it in the cashew cream drizzle, but there wasn’t enough drizzle to drown out the bland and burnt taste. In addition, the bananas were cut VERY thinly.
Field Roast Sausage, $5.00: Vegan Buddy and I were both curious as to what the sausage would taste like, so we ordered this as a side. It was decent and resembled the texture of sausage, although it wasn’t as juicy.
Overall, we thought Heirloom was just ‘meh’ and thinking back, it was definitely overpriced. Perhaps their vegetarian menu would have tasted better, but we were there specifically to try the vegan menu since I can’t have dairy. Actually, I have full confidence their vegetarian menu would be better because cheese.
Their vegan food is probably meant for full vegans who have acquired the taste of vegan eating. Not those who like to eat vegan food sometimes like us. And definitely not for people who enjoy eating meat and dairy!
The overall atmosphere did not feel welcoming or friendly. Coupled with mediocre vegan food and high prices, I don’t think I would come back here. I’ll stick to my other vegan places like Virtuous Pie or Vegan Pizza House instead.
Nay.
The restaurant is pretty small and located on the main level of an apartment building (or maybe it was an office building? don’t remember). The only downside to the restaurant is that it is really cramped.
Blue Dog burger, $16.50: After ensuring that the burger had no dairy in it, I was good to go! The Blue Dog burger consists of a custom blend brisket-chuck beef, fried egg, applewood bacon, veggies, and fries. I asked for the burger to be cooked well done, as I am a bit wary of eating raw ground beef.
Free range chicken burger, $15.50: The ground chicken burger was delicious as well! Even though it looks pretty simple, the patty was bursting with juicy flavour, much like the beef.
Since we had a larger group, we tried to make reservations but unfortunately, were told that they don’t take them. Hopefully this will change soon, as the space was comfortable enough to hold larger parties. We were told to come a bit earlier to secure seats.
I would describe Fable Diner as a fancier, much cleaner and hipster version of your traditional diner. It is not greasy in there, and did not smell like oil. With that said, it is also more expensive than your classic diner!
Drink: I don’t remember what the drink was called and there isn’t a drink menu online. I do recall it was some sort of blueberry soda though. It was pretty good and sweet.
Peanut butter nutella milkshake: Again, sorry I don’t have the price as the drink menu isn’t currently posted online! Everyone expect me split this milkshake, and LOVED it. It was very creamy and rich, and they couldn’t stop raving about how good it was! It also came with some salted pretzels inside the whipped cream.
Roast duck pancakes, $14: We all decided to split this and see how it tasted. For $14, it is a bit pricey but the roast duck was cooked very well. It was flavourful and very tender. It’s a good appy to split with others!
Tomato soup bowl, $10: Again, almost everyone ordered this because it is a favourite of theirs back at Fable Kitchen. Everyone was happy when they tasted it, and it was the same recipe! I wanted to try it but this dish is the epitome of food death for me because of the high amount of dairy inside!
FD Burger, $14: Finally, something I could actually eat! After checking with our amazing and friendly server that this did not have dairy in it, I decided to order this! The patty was cooked well done, and very juicy. It was served with a mayo-based sauce. The bun was also soft and fluffy, and lightly toasted.
Pulled pork sandwich with tomato soup, $10: I didn’t try this, but I was told it was really good! 
Corn on the cob, $6: I didn’t try this either, but I was told it was really good. It came with a chili lime sauce and a couple pieces of fresh cilanto.
Complimentary bread: To start, we were given a nice loaf of warm bread to munch on. The bread was fluffy, soft and came out lightly toasted. No complaints here!
Wagyu beef french dip, $23: Originally, my mom and I were going to share this because it sounded amazing! However, after telling my server about my dairy restriction, she told me the wagyu beef is smothered in butter before getting cooked. Sigh.
Prime steak salad, $25: I wanted to try the steak, but I didn’t want to pay $50 for steak at lunch so I went with the prime steak salad. That way, I was still able to try their famous steak! The salad normally comes with blue and Parmesan cheese, and dressing. Obviously I wanted to have the dairy component, but due to my stupid and frustrating restriction, and risk of getting super sick I had to order without it.
