vegetarian/vegan Archives - Page 4 of 8

Cartems Donuts

April 2, 2019

I remember having Cartems donuts maybe like 6-7 years ago when a friend brought them to an university club event. They were delicious! Since then, I haven’t had Cartems so Latte and I went to go check out the Main Street location one evening!

The Main Street location was quite spacious, with very high ceilings. There was a friendly, good vibe going on in there and it would be a nice place to study or get some work done.

The bottom row of donuts are always vegan, so they do have a large selection of vegan donuts (one of the reasons I wanted to come back since I currently can’t have dairy). I was surprised that Latte wanted a vegan donut, but that’s better for me because it meant we could share!

Tea: We both ordered a tea with our donut. I had the herbal strawberry mint which was fragrant and warming.

Citrus glaze donut: This was my favourite out of the 3 that we ordered! The donut was thick and fluffy. The citrus glaze was subtle and gave it a nice, sweet tang. I’ve never had a citrus donut before but the flavours worked well with each other.

Maple walnut donut: This one was good too, but it was more of a savoury donut. It was topped with crushed walnuts and I tasted a hint of black pepper.

Vanilla bean donut: This donut was also good! It was the simplest one out of the 3, so we really tasted the quality of the donut. The donut was delightfully fluffy and moist.

I couldn’t stop thinking about that citrus glaze donut, so I took the boyfriend here a few days later! We ordered 1/2 dozen to bring back and tried more flavours.

The funny thing was that I decided to keep it a secret that it was vegan, so that he wasn’t bias in his opinions!!! MUAHAHA!!!

From left to right:

Vanilla bean: Reviewed above

Citrus glaze: Reviewed above

Chocolate donut: A classic donut, you can’t really go wrong with chocolate. The boyfriend loved it!

Forgot to take a separate photo of it, so this will do!

Tropical mint: The only donut that we did not like that day. The taste was just odd… it was a bit sweet but you get this minty aftertaste. We ended up scraping off the tropical glaze on top so we could eat it as a plain donut.

Salted caramel: This was the only ‘regular’ donut we had (aka not vegan). Since it contained dairy, I couldn’t eat it. He found it to be a lot more dense and not as fluffy, so he didn’t like it as much.

At this point, I was laughing inside and couldn’t wait to tell him this was the only dairy donut – MUAHAHA!!!

Berry hibiscus: This one was just alright…. it was filled with jam inside. The berry hibiscus donut wasn’t as fluffy as the other ones.

After the boyfriend ate all the donuts, I mischievously told him that they were all vegan except for the salted caramel! He was quite shocked and never would have guessed.

Cartems Donuts are amazing and they have very creative flavours! I would definitely recommend stopping by. They have a huge selection of vegan flavours which are arguably better than the regular, non-vegan ones!

DD Mau Chinatown

March 27, 2019

DD Mau Chinatown has been on my radar for awhile now! I went to the original Yaletown location probably over 5 years ago, when they were just starting. Back then, they were only serving banh mi (Vietnamese subs) and I remember they were AH-MAZING.

So, it was time I finally tried their second location, and I brought Latte along with me! She has also been to the Yaletown location and enjoyed it.

DD Mau Chinatown is located on Pender Street, and it is easy to miss without the punny poster board.

The restaurant is quite narrow and dark inside without any windows, so we weren’t really a fan of the ambiance. Their tables were also these metal, stainless steel type tables reminiscent of surgical tables at a hospital.

But, that was quite minor considering how tasty and satisfying our food was!

Iced Thai tea latte: Latte started off with an iced Thai tea. She enjoyed it and had no complaints about it.

BBQ Duck banh mi with a fried egg add-on: For $15, this better be worth it! That’s the most expensive banh mi I’ve ever seen.

Thankfully, it was delicious and Latte enjoyed every bite. It was full of BBQ duck, and lots of fresh veggies inside. She was glad that she ordered this and was very satisfied with it. I’m glad to hear that their banh mi are still delicious (albeit pricey!).

Rice roll: The rice roll came with lemongrass beef, herbs, and vegetables. I had a few bites and it was delicious. The beef was very fragrant and the herbs just elevated the taste. It finished with hints of mango. So good!!!

Pho: For myself, I wanted to see how good their pho was! At $13 (2019 price), it was more than I was used to paying so I hoped it would be good.

And…. It was! The broth had a lot of depth and was savoury and flavourful. It came with a very generous portion of meat balls, rare beef, and flank – more than it looks in the photo!

Overall, we left very satisfied with DD Mau. I would definitely come back.

Elephant Garden Creamery

March 24, 2019

Elephant Garden Creamery has been on my radar for a few months now! It opened up last September, right before it got cold.

One sunny afternoon, the boyfriend and I went to try this place and it ended up being one of our new favourite dessert places (for both regular and vegan ice cream)!

Elephant Garden Creamery is located on Commercial Drive, so parking is a bit hard to find. The decor is white and minimalistic with green plant accents.

It was quite warm in here, they probably could have dialed up the AC a little bit! We did have to wait a bit because there were only two people working.

I was a bit disappointed to see that there was only one vegan/dairy free flavour offered that afternoon when the website had a few more.

It seems like their flavours change a lot, so if you’re really set on one flavour, I would recommend giving them a call first to avoid disappointment. But, the one vegan/dairy free flavour they had ended up being delicious as you’ll read about soon!

Milk tea ice cream (top): The boyfriend absolutely fell in love with the milk tea flavour, and couldn’t stop raving about it. There was a strong, authentic, milk tea flavour (makes sense because this place is Asian-owned). He definitely wants to come back to order this flavour!

Malted chocolate ice cream (bottom): The boyfriend wanted to compare their malted chocolate with Rain or Shine’s much loved version. It was tasty, but the one here doesn’t have any honeycomb in it, so he preferred Rain or Shine’s version more.

Mango coconut sticky rice: My vegan ice cream was delicious! With vegan/non dairy ice cream, sometimes you don’t get that richness because stores don’t use coconut milk/cream. I loved that this was rich but also dairy free.

There was some delicious mango syrup (which did not taste artificial at all) thrown in as well. I loved it and would come back for this flavour! The boyfriend enjoyed this too and said it was quite impressive for a vegan flavour.

Our first visit to Elephant Garden Creamery was a success. I hope that we will be back more in the future, and I’m glad we have another ice cream place added to our list!

Earnest Ice Cream – Revisit

March 1, 2019

In Vancouver, it seems like the two most popular ice cream places are Earnest, and Rain or Shine. Both are great choices and worth the hype. It’s been almost 4 years since my last post on Earnest Ice Cream, so I thought I would write a revisit post!

Although it was a cold February night, that did not stop the boyfriend and I from getting our ice cream fix. We were thinking of checking out Roosters but they were closed already, so we drove up Fraser and came to Earnest a few minutes later.

There is free street parking in this area but you may have to drive around the block a few times to find it.

We were surprised to see that the store was relatively full for a cold evening and 15 minutes before closing! I guess you can’t stop Vancouverites from getting their Earnest fix.

Here were the flavours of the night, they rotate daily. I was happy to see that they offered more than 1 vegan option – they had a whopping five! The vegan chocolate is a staple, but I haven’t seen the other flavours during my past visits.

Cookies and cream: The boyfriend went with a single scoop in a cup. It was delicious, creamy, and full of dairy goodness. He loved how it was loaded with cookie chunks too!

Vegan peanut butter chocolate pretzel: I’m not a crazy peanut butter lover, I’ll have some if it’s around… which was surprising that I purposely picked a peanut butter flavour! Who am I?? But it was just that good.

It reminded me of the filling inside a Reese peanut butter cup. There was also generous chunks of dark chocolate chips, and soft pretzels. The pretzels were a bit mushy inside, but I did enjoy biting into the dark chocolate. It kept the cone exciting and there was so many chunks!

I was happy to hear that the waffle cone was vegan/dairy free, so I jumped at the chance to have it. No regrets, the waffle cone was delicious as well.

We both left very satisfied with our ice cream craving. If you asked me, I would pick Earnest over Rain or Shine. Even before when I was able to have dairy, I still preferred Earnest (the salted caramel is so good!).

Location wise, I like the Earnest by Olympic Village/Main Street more because it is more spacious but the ice cream and service is the same so it’s not that big of a deal.

Pho 99 Noodle House (Renfrew location)

February 26, 2019

The boyfriend and I decided to go check out Pho 99 since it was close by to our appointment. Pho 99 is a chain restaurant with a few other locations around Vancouver.

This was one of the rare times where we didn’t look up reviews prior to visiting… I’m kind of glad we didn’t though because it was a measly 2 stars on Yelp! I was a bit surprised, but then again, the pho was not that good (the other dish was good).

Walking in, the restaurant was quite spacious and modern! I was quite surprised, but I guess I shouldn’t be since they cater to business people at Broadway Tech.

I would imagine that it gets quite busy here during the weekday lunch rush, because there aren’t many restaurants in this area! When we came in the evening, it was nice and quiet, only a few tables were occupied.

The booth seating along the wall also offers chargers for laptops. I assume that is because they are located in a big office complex, so it is probably a convenient and thoughtful touch for their customers.

A nicely designed menu! They also have a few vegan dishes too.

Pho, build your own: I went with the build your own pho! You choose the broth (beef, chicken, seafood, or spicy/sour), noodles (rice or egg), and 3 toppings (steak, flank, brisket, chicken, beef ball, tripe, tendon, veggies) – I bolded what I picked.

When the bowl first came to my table, I was a bit disappointed because it looked small. However, it was jam packed with noodles – it probably could have used a bigger bowl!

Taste-wise, it was alright, slightly bland. It seemed oily but I didn’t get a stomachache afterwards. There was a good amount of steak and tripe, but 3 half cut beef balls (making it 1.5 of a whole beef ball).

Noodles, build your own: The boyfriend took advantage of the DIY set too! It’s not often that Vietnamese places offer this! You choose the starch (vermicelli noodles or rice), and 2 toppings (chicken, beef, pork, prawn, or 2 spring rolls).

He went with the beef and spring rolls! The beef was super good, and probably the highlight of our meal. Instead of the usual lemongrass beef, it tasted like beef luc lac – the perfect amount of savoury and sweet, with a hint of lemongrass at the end.

The portion was also pretty big, which was a plus for me because I kept eating the beef!

The vermicelli also came with the usual fish sauce and side salad. The salad seems like it would contain lettuce, etc but the bottom is actually just beansprouts.

Anyways, we were quite surprised at how much we enjoyed our visit. We came in here with average expectations, but the beef was really good. I also found out as we were paying, that they have bubble tea!

The place was also very clean and modern. Service was friendly and quick too. It wouldn’t be my first choice but if I was in the area or wanted some quick food after my chiropractor appointment next door, I would come back. I would also recommend the stir-fry beef instead of their pho.