I always look forward to my adventures with Avocado (aka Vegan Buddy but I wanted her to have a food nickname too!). We don’t get to see each other as often anymore because we’re both busy with different schedules, but I always treasure our time together when we do get to hang out.
Our March vegan adventure was Meet On Main! I found this place online and it seemed to have great reviews, so I suggested it to Avocado!
I called to make a reservation but unfortunately was told that they don’t accept reservations. I waited about 15 minutes and took the time to read over the menu options, which was perfect as Avocado had just arrived. And I tried to save her the meter parking in front of the restaurant that had 49 minutes remaining… Success!
The restaurant was bumpin’ on a Wednesday night! All the tables were full, the place was buzzing with conversations, and music was blasting.
I love going to vegan restaurants because it means I have the freedom of ordering anything off the menu, whereas usually I am limited to only 2 or 3 choices and have to make modifications.
We decided on sharing a few items!
Mac n’ cheese, $10.75: I haven’t had the regular version of this dish for so long because it’s dairy death. But this one is vegan so yay!
It came with al dente penne pasta which was comforting, warm and filling. It didn’t taste anything like cheese nor was it gooey like cheese, but we both still enjoyed it. We had a hard time identifying what made the sauce creamy, and guessed it was some kind of nut base.
Sweet chili cauliflower, $9.75: Most Yelp reviews and my coworker raved about this, so we had to try it. The cauliflower pieces were bigger than I expected and fully cooked.
I really liked the batter, which was a bit chewy and dense. It came with a sweet chili sauce that reminded me of Korean or Asian-style sweet chili due to the ginger inside.
Hot chiggin’ things, $9.75: This was their take on vegan buffalo chicken! The first bite had the texture of real chicken and I had to do a double take. But after a few more bites, it had a denser texture than chicken.
It was a bit too spicy for Avocado, so she only had one piece. After a couple more pieces for myself, it got pretty spicy so I took turns eating the creamy mac and cheese to balance the heat. The creamy dip was also pretty watery, so it didn’t help to extinguish the heat.
Chili cheez fries, $10.75: This was our least touched and we ended up packing most of it back home. Although it was good, I don’t think the both of us were in the mood for fries as a main course, and my stomach wasn’t feeling good from before so I didn’t want to aggravate it with oily fries.
Warm raspberry crumble with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, $8.50: Even though we were both already full, I rarely get the chance to have dessert since it’s usually always dairy (sorbet is boring) so we had to!
We actually ordered the chocolate pecan crumble but raspberry was fine too. It was okay, but definitely not worth the price. The vegan vanilla ice cream was delicious though. It was more of a vanilla bean flavour than plain vanilla and enhanced the flavour of the raspberry crumble.
All in all, we enjoyed our vegan adventure to Meet On Main. I would recommend hanging here with some friends for snacks instead of a dinner, especially if you want to try something new. Our server was also very friendly and attentive throughout the night.
Although, it is a bit on the pricier side for what the ingredients are so I wouldn’t come that often. Maybe it’s just me, but I felt it was overpriced for veggies. But I feel like Meet is a vegan restaurant staple in Vancouver, so I’m glad we got to check it off our list!
Yay!
Vegan Pizza House is located on Kingsway, just off Victoria by the McDonalds and hotel. The interior has seen better days and looks like a hole in the wall joint, but don’t let that stop you from eating here. The tables and chairs were those reminiscent of Asian restaurants, with a table cloth and glass cover which allows for easy cleanup.
Vegan meat lover, small $14.95: I really wanted to try how their vegan meat measured to regular meat! This pizza came with ham, chicken, capicollo, sausage, bacon, and ground beef.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!