Vegan eating has been something that I thought was disgusting, but now I have grown an inkling towards it. Well, it started with cutting out ALL dairy from my diet due to health issues. Lately, I’ve been thinking about sustainable and conscious eating as well.
After much thought, I don’t think I could become 100% vegan for many reasons, but I do appreciate vegan eating and am open to it. I love going into a restaurant and not having to worry about dairy products, or getting social anxiety from asking a bunch of questions and being judged (although this second reason I don’t really care about anymore, I do what I want ok).
Virtuous Pie is a new vegan pizza/ice cream parlour that opened up in Chinatown. One thing I’ve really missed is pizza, so I knew I had to come here!
It is conveniently located in the middle of Chinatown on Main Street, Vegan Buddy and I took the 22 bus from downtown and walked a few steps over. I was in love with their design, minimal yet sophisticated. It was also bright and spacious!
After placing your order and paying, you can see the pizza being assembled in front of you. Each pizza is made fresh to order, and baked in the oven.
Fennel & sausage, $12: I really wanted to try this because of the faux sausage! I am a big meat lover, and other meat alternatives like seitan just do not cut it for me. With that said, the sausage tasted really legit and I was really impressed!
This was my favourite pizza because I liked the generous portion of sausage, and it was nice and garlicky.
I do wish there would have been more cashew mozzarella though. The cashew mozzarella had a very light taste to it so I didn’t taste much, but the cheesy texture was there.
Stranger Wings, $12: Stranger Wings was the most raved about on Yelp, so we had to try it. It is a vegan take on buffalo chicken, where they use cauliflower as a substitute.
Because I am not a fan of barbeque sauce, this was my least favourite. As well, cauliflower just does not replace chicken but the buffalo flavour was definitely there!
I liked how creamy the blue cheese drizzle was.
Superfunghi, $12: I really liked this pizza! It was a bit different than I was used to because they use a mashed potato sauce in place of your standard tomato sauce. The potato was nice and garlicky, and so delicious!
There was a generous amount of juicy mushrooms as well! The two of us ordered so much that we ended up packing a lot back home, but we were glad we got to try three flavours. My only complaint would be that their cheese lacks the regular cheese taste so I didn’t get that part of my craving satisfied. =(
Overall, I really enjoyed my visit to Virtuous Pie. Their pizzas are like a healthier, non-oily/greasy, lighter version of Pizza Hut or Dominos. You can really see and taste the quality of their ingredients, and you won’t leave feeling guilty or greasy.
I am already thinking of my next visit back and ordering the fennel & sausage pizza!
Yay!
Nice Vice is located in Yaletown, a quick walk from the Canada Line station. It is pretty small, so it is easy to miss.
Vegan Buddy and I came on a Tuesday evening. It was cloudy, but not cold or rainy that day. Due to the weather and seeing how it was a weekday, the store was empty except for us! Luckily, this meant we could sample more flavours.
I wasn’t particularly in love with any of the flavours, but they weren’t bad either. In the end, I ordered strawberry fiends forever and mango. I ordered the one scoop for $5.00, but you can get two flavours for an additional price – I don’t remember exactly, but it was either 50 cents or $1.00 extra.
VB ordered one scoop of the matcha and vanilla strawberry swirl. The matcha had a medium matcha taste, not too strong or subtle. I didn’t really like the vanilla strawberry swirl because I found it a bit bland and just icy.
They also have a bunch of assorted salts that you can top off your dessert with! We tried a bunch of salt flavours. Some went well and brought the flavour out, while some did not pair well at all. I recommend you sprinkle a super, tiny bit of salt – I’m talking about like 4 or 5 grains tiny, because we found that even just a pinch was too much!
So, after an afternoon of exploring Central Park and The Met museum, we explored the Upper East Side and went to Candle 79!
We were still pretty full from our lunch at Blue Dog, but didn’t want to pass up the opportunity to try this place. Since we already had plans for the rest of the trip and wouldn’t be in this area of NYC again, we decided on just having a small snack to at least try something!
Housemade ice cream sampler, $9: The nachos were already really filling considering we weren’t hungry to begin with, but I couldn’t pass up the chance to have ICE CREAM. I was already sold when our server told us it was made with rich coconut milk. I’ve been deprived of ice cream for soooo long.
‘Hook’ smoothie, 12 oz $6.50: Cocoa, mint, goji berries, honey, banana and almond milk. They were out of the honey so they told us they substituted maple syrup instead. Not a big deal, but how do you run out of honey when that is one of the main ingredients in ALL your drinks, and you pride your smoothies on not using sugar?
Buddha bowl, $9.50: An assortment of healthy greens, quinoa, and rice. AGAIN, they didn’t have ripe avocado on hand so they gave us hummus instead. That was another disappointment since we both love avocado.
Raw chili, $9.95: The chili is served a bit chilled/room temperature, something that I found a bit odd. Unfortunately, we found a rubber band piece in our dish. When we asked about it, the staff apologized and said that this was their last bowl of chili so they wouldn’t be able to make us a new one. We came at 12:30 pm and it wasn’t even busy, yet this was your last bowl?
Chocolate walnut fudge brownie, $3.50: To make up for the rubber band and having so many items unavailable, we were offered a complementary brownie as an apology. We enjoyed the brownie, and I liked how it wasn’t that sweet and probably made with dark chocolate. It was sweetened with dates as well.
Commodity Juicery is a new juicery that opened up on Fraser Street in Vancouver, right across from Earnest Ice Cream. Since this area isn’t that busy or commercial, it is pretty easy to find parking. It is also easily accessible by bus (#8 Fraser or #25 UBC).
Upon walking in, Commodity Juicery is pretty small but seating is comfortable. They have a service counter that doubles up as a table, which seats four people comfortable. There are also two lounge chairs by the window.
Top left, going clockwise
Vegan minestrone soup: This recipe was carried on from one of the owners grandma! How sweet. Even though it did not have any meat, I found this to be really delicious and something I could have daily. It was the perfect embodiment of a heart warming soup.
Vegan coconut almond date bites: These cute little bites were delicious as well! They were very sweet due to the dates, while the coconut flakes gave it a nice crunch. These are perfect for a healthy dessert alternative and sure to satisfy those who have a sweet tooth.
Juices range from $10-12 a bottle, with food items ranging anywhere from $2-$10. If I could afford a $10 juice, I would come back here pretty often but until then, I’ll be continuously thinking of their delicious juices.