AM Cafe - Plant-Based Cafe

Amid the hoopla that was the Odd Burger opening (it was hoopla to me, at least), AM Cafe (Animals Matter) quietly opened just a few blocks away at Guelph, just off East Broadway. Destined to become not only a neighborhood place for excellent coffee, breakfast, and lunch, AMC will likely become a destination place as it has an all-plant-based menu that is quite impressive!

We showed up mid morning on a Saturday, still during their soft opening to find a fair number of people with the same ideas as us. I confess to a small connection as one of my work mates knows the owners and did some of their electrical work but not enough of a connection to prejudice my notes.

We decided to try everything on their soft-opening breakfast menu, starting with the Sausage Sandwich. The egg was Just Egg and even though, I try to make vegan egg at home, you really can't touch Just Egg. It is the best thing out there if you want an egg sandwich. This came with excellent melty cheese, sausage, arugula and pesto, which was the game changer. The pesto moved this into a different category and was a brilliant touch.

The Egg and Cheese Sandwich featured smoked tofu instead of sausage but was otherwise mostly the same. Did I mention tomato? These sandwiches were a few bucks more than down the road at Odd Burger but really worth it. The extra touches (not to mention the nice atmosphere) made this a fine experience.

Finally, the Burrito which was very substantial for only a buck more! With a choice of tortilla (we chose tomatoes) the grilling again was the difference between a good and great burrito. This was full of good stuff including bacon and egg, tumeric rice (a nice touch), sweet potato, cabbage and black beans. Healthy and delicious! A perfect meal that you can hold in one hand. 

They have a nice coffee menu here as well and we shared a decaf Americano. We enjoyed the pleasant atmosphere from the decor to the personable staff. We didn't get to meet the chef as she was quite busy but she answered the questions we relayed to her. One can't ask for more when someone is working to get a business up and running. If the early results are any indication, they will do well here.

It was our intention to return and try the lunch menu (I had my eye on their fish sandwich) but that will have to be another time.

Food                         5 out of 5

Vegan Options          5 out of 5

Comfort                    5 out of 5

Service                     5 out of 5

Value                        5 out of 5

                                         

                     

Oddburger - Vegan Fast Food - Second Visit

Judging by the crowd (these are early days), I would say that the Vancouver vegan community is well aware of Oddburger and has been excitedly anticipating it as we have. Of course, maybe the omnivores are showing up as well! That would be great! Again on Sunday, we arrived right at noon (soft opening hours) and were able to sit at what we now consider "our table" but a few more minutes and it was standing room only! There aren't a ton of tables but this food is very takeout friendly.

If you haven't read about our first visit, it is one post down. Read it first if you like! Today we are leaping into the lunch menu! We ordered a couple of burgers, a chicken sandwich and a salad. I am better at the self-serve kiosks than yesterday but I still stupidly did not order combos.

First up was the BacUn Famous Melt. House-made smash patty and house-made bacUn with grilled onions, pickles, lettuce and Famous sauce on a sesame seed bun make this pretty impressive for $10. The bacUn could have been crisper but definitely tasted like a pork product and the patty is not bad. The cheese is nicely melty. A very good burger!

Next up was the Classic Burger, to which we added Cheeze. This was a full-on McDonald's cheeseburger with ketchup, onion, pickles, and mustard. I will admit to a certain amount of nostalgia here, as maybe five decades ago, the cheeseburger was my go-to at McDs. This tasty burger opened a door to my childhood, but as always, without the cruelty and for only $8. 

We tried one of the many chickUn burgers, the Sticky ChickUn. The chickUn is seitan and nicely crispy before a good dunking in the "sticky" sauce, a Korean sesame concoction. With all the toppings this was great. Have I mentioned that the sesame seed bun is really very good! Loved this also.

We thought we should try a salad and so ended up ordering the Taco Salad. Again, this felt a little nostalgic for me. This time for the Taco Time ground meat that I loved at one point in my omnivorous junk food life. In other words, this was a pretty good salad with lots of good cheese and the usual taco salad fixings!

Finally, Onion Rings! These were excellent, with wide pieces of red onion and a very good crispy batter. They have to be some of the best onion rings we have had!

So thanks again to brothers, Steven and James who have jumped through all the hoops over the last 3 years to bring this excellent Canadian chain to Vancouver.

We typically go to a place once and then move on so that I can blog about as many plant based places as possible but I have a feeling we may drop in here on occasion. I am not suggesting that fast food should be a significant part of anyone's diet. At home we eat pretty healthy with a lot of whole foods but everyone deserves a treat!

Food                         5 out of 5

Vegan Options          5 out of 5

Comfort                    4 out of 5

Service                     4 1/2 out of 5

Value                        5 out of 5

Oddburger - Vegan Fast Food - First Visit

So whenever it was that I read that Oddburger was coming to Vancouver, probably 2 years ago, I immediately downloaded the Oddburger app and have sat with my thumbs at the ready ever since. I had reached the point of, "I can't wait any longer", and was planning for Mharie and me to park, walk onto the ferry and go to Victoria for the day to scope out the Oddburger location there. Thanks to the fact that the Vancouver restaurant has heroically opened just now, I have saved $160 in transit costs (not that we don't love the occasional trip to Victoria just for the sake of being on the ferry and being in Victoria)! Oddburger serves vegan fast food and is a chain across Canada.

Being a little overexcited, we arrived at exactly noon on Saturday (soft opening hours) and it turned out to be a good thing as they got very busy very fast. Upon arriving, we placed our order at one of the 2 kiosks (I needed a little guidance as I wanted my burger as advertised but didn't realize that you still have to work your way through many of the options on the screen (senior moment)).

Our first-day mission was to explore the all-day breakfast menu (they will be opening earlier at some point) which started with a Maple Crunch  There are all kinds of options here including protein (we chose sausage), bun (we chose whole wheat muffin), black salt or no black salt (for the eggy flavour) and more or less of anything. This was a great sandwich! The maple flavour was there and the tofu was subtly eggy. It was an excellent muffin with melty cheese. All you could want without the cruelty! The regular breakfast sandwich is $5.99 here compared to an EggMcMuffin being $5.50 at McDonalds (so I am told). We are off to a great start!

Next up was the Venedict (sounds like Benedict...get it?) We chose the white muffin this time (I will always go whole wheat in the future but this was good for a white English muffin), a tofu egg with more black salt, salty ham and a creamy sauce. It was a slippery thing but very tasty. I would order it again.

The Hash Browns were exactly what you would expect. You can order anything here as a combo, but I didn't do that for some reason. 

I know it's weird to order a Strawberry Milkshake for breakfast, but this was a strategic move calculated to help us through a wide swath of the menu in two visits! Great milkshake! Not so thick that you can't get it through the straw but thick enough. Not shockingly sweet but just right!

Smokey Pulled Jackfruit Tater Tot Poutine is also not your typical breakfast food although it certainly should be! The smokey jackfruit is a winner here. You would never actually mistake it for the usual pork thing and in my opinion, it is better by far. Lighter (you can't feel your arteries hardening) but still substantial. Lots of crispy tots, gravy and cheese and you have a messy and delicious side or snack.

Speaking of two visits, I am breaking our initial investigation of Oddburger into two posts. Even though I know you guys only look at the pictures, I don't want to drone on for too long. So consider this the breakfast post and the next will be lunch. To summarize, we are loving Oddburger already. The menu is extensive with something for everyone and many options and combos.  I spoke a couple of times with Steven (sorry if it's ph) who, with his brother James, has worked for 3 full years to get this thing going. Thank you, brothers. 

And thank you for being vegan! If I had learned that this place was opened just by a couple of sharp businessmen, I would have been happy enough, but knowing that they have plant-based skin in the game makes it somehow more of a victory!

Food                         5 out of 5

Vegan Options         5 out of 5

Comfort                    4 out of 5

Service                     4 1/2 out of 5

Value                        5 out of 5

Vegan Shoku - Second Visit

This is Plant Curious set up a pop-up discount for Vegan Shoku, which would only last for two weeks! On our last visit, we noticed ramen on the menu and determined that we would return to give it a try. There is no time like the present!

We made the trek to Kerrisdale to take advantage of the 40% off dinner items up to a maximum of $25. Nice!

We came for the ramen but wanted to try a couple more items from the rather lengthy menu starting with the Vegan Spam Teriyaki Roll. I didn't dislike spam before I became vegan, but I always worried about what I may have been eating. With the vegan version, we know we are not eating mystery animal bits. The taste was surprisingly like the canned meat but was crispy thanks to a thin tempura coating. With the Teriyaki sauce added, this was a great roll!

Next up was the Crunch Roll, which was essentially a deep-fried California Roll! I still can't figure out the pearls even after getting an explanation from our server. Strawberry-ish with an interesting berry-like skin. I ate all the garnish on this plate!

I hate to disparage what has become a breakthrough vegan joint in Vancouver, but the soup was just not the best we've had. The Chicken Ramen had very tasty chicken, which could have been seitan, and we loved it. I got my tofu for the day and there were other nice additions, but the butternut squash broth was a little low on flavour. Could it have just been a matter of salt? We did add some soy sauce and that helped

The other ramen that we chose was the Tempura Ramen. Same problem with the somewhat bland broth (we like the idea of butternut squash broth but it needs to be tweaked). The noodles of course, suffered the fate of needing salt as well but we liked the texture and there was a decent amount in the bowl. This one came with a side dish of 2 vegan shrimp and 2 yam tempura, which we took the liberty of dipping  in the ramen. Very nice!

VS offers a few desserts, including the Mango Mousse Cake, This was very tasty and featured different textures and components. The drizzle in the photo was not chocolate as you may guess but was more of a soy sauce savoury kind of thing. It made an interesting contrast to the sweet cake but I really can't decide if this was an intentional thing or a mistake!

Despite the less-than-stellar ramen, we still love this place as one of the most creative and enjoyable vegan places in Metro Vancouver. The staff were once again so friendly and helpful. We'll be back!

Feel free to search this blog for tales of our first visit.

Food                         4 out of 5

Vegan Options          5 out of 5

Comfort                    4 out of 5

Service                     5 out of 5

Vallue                       4 out of 5

                 

Viet Family - The Vegan House

On a busy rainy Saturday, we parked in the first spot we could find on Commercial Drive, prepared to walk a fair distance. As we approached Viet Family, which we had visited a couple of years previously, I was looking specifically at the west side of the road, where I recalled it being. Suddenly, my wife said, "There it is," while pointing to the east side of the road. Of course, this caused some questioning of my cognitive function which I realize is ever less impressive as the years go by.

It's worth noting that this is another This is Plant Curious stop for us.

This place was busy as warm soup is probably the first thing many thought of when they saw the rain this morning, but we got a table right away. I confessed to my server about my thinking the restaurant was on the other side of the road but she assured me that they had moved to these new digs for the extra space! Existential crisis averted! Let's eat!

We started with the Fried Dumplings. If I didn't know better, I would think we were eating pork dumplings. They were quite tasty and I'm glad they were deep-fried. We loved the sauce and spent a lot of time trying to figure out what it was (not that tricky...garlic soy sauce etc.).

We also had the Beef Pho which was perfect for this rainy day. They use an 8-hour broth which is quite impressive. The good stuff in the soup made it a hit. Lots of faux beef, both slices and meatballs were also quite excellent. We loved the noodles and toppings and even good old tofu.

The hit of our lunch was the Bahn Hoi Heo Quay or pork-belly platter. Just look at the vast quantity of herbage! We made lettuce wraps with noodles, vegan fish sauce cucumber, thai basil and a Vietnamese herb that translates to Vietnamese cilantro but really isn't anything like cilantro. 

The pork belly itself was insane. Our server described the general process (it is their only in-house made "meat") for the 3 separate parts of the pork belly: the skin, the fat, and the flesh (it sounds disgusting as I type, and I'm glad it's not real flesh). All I remember is that Vietnamese bread is involved in making the skin. Anyway, it was an impressive faux meat.

We decided to go a little dessert crazy and actually ordered 2. It's been a long time since I had Afflogato and coconut ice cream is completely suitable for this. Loved it!

Second dessert up was a Pandan Sticky Rice and ice cream. It has a much more interesting Vietnamese name but the description is the same either way. Wonderful!

So the new location is bigger but just as busy! I can't imagine that all these people are vegan.  They must just realize that plant-based food can be delicious and maybe they don't mind that nothing had to die in the process!

Food                                 5 out of 5

Vegan Options                  5 out of 5

Service                             5 out of 5

Comfort                            4 1/2 out of 5

Value                                5 out of 5

Burger Crush - Vegan Options

We have been to Burger Crush in Victoria. There, we ate everything on their menu that was vegan. This past Monday night, we went to Burger Crush at the corner of Howe and Nelson in Vancouver before seeing the Kim Mitchell Band at the Commodore Ballroom. We ate exactly the same thing that we had in Victoria but have no regrets about it!

It was a rainy night in Vancouver and we forgot to bring an umbrella so we were glad that Burger Crush is in the downtown core and close to the Commodore.

So the Vegan Cheeseburger was OK. We have had some amazing vegan burgers lately and this one was not quite on the same level. Good bun, good cheese and decent toppings and the patty is housemade. I usually prefer that to a commercial patty but this one was a bit soft and could have used a bit more char. Still, I love a cheeseburger which is not something we eat all that often. This one was definitely worth while.

The best word to describe the Vegan Crush Fries other than delicious is messy! Obviously anticipating my inability to get food into my mouth, they provided us with lots of napkins. Over this bed of very crispy fries were vegan cheese slices which were well melted, fried onions which were well carmelized and so sweet, and their vegan Crush Sauce which was a little along the lines of Big Mac sauce (hopefully they don't take offence with that). Wonderful and to my mind, a bigger serving than we got in Victoria!

With our Vegan Nuggets, we ordered the house hot sauce which resembles the Crush Sauce but with a little heat. The nuggets are tofu and fried crispy in batter. I am not a big fan of large plain tofu chunks. I feel like these could be smaller or maybe flavoured with a spice mix or a marinade. Still, I think most people would be happy with the crispy and sauce part of the dish and we certainly aren't complaining.

This was a great vegan milkshake! They have quite a few flavours including orange. It reminded us a lot of a Creamsicle!

Burger Crush in Vancouver is quite a bit bigger than the Victoria cafe. It is comfortable, and the staff is friendly. Briefly, I whined to myself that there weren't more choices on the menu, but the fact is that there are more vegan items on the menu than there are omnivore options! It's nice to know that there is a good old-fashioned fast-food burger and some sides downtown in addition to the usual slime choices at the usual fast-food joints.

Food                         3 1/2 out of 5

Vegan Options         4 out of 5

Comfort                    3 1/2 out of 5

Service                     4 out of 5

Value                        3 1/2 out of 5

Satya Asha Vegetarian Restaurant - Vegan Options

Occasionally, I have attempted to wade through a study of the eastern religions (Buddhism, Sikhism, Hinduism, Jainism etc.) to determine who is vegetarian or vegan and why. Like with all types of religion, there are so many exceptions and differences between groups (and I'm not saying that's bad) that not everyone fits into the mould that I would like. Many are governed by the concept of Ahimsa, which is the principle of kindness and non-violence towards all other beings, which is wonderful. I would argue that the dairy and egg industries inflict great violence and suffering on its animals and therefore all of these faithful should be vegan but it is certainly not up to me.

That being said, when I reached out to Satya Asha on Instagram, they were enthusiastic about guiding us through their menu to vegan choices. Even our server did not require my little tutorial but was familiar with veganism.

We arrived at Satya Asha which is at 72nd and 128th Street in Newton at about 4 pm on Saturday and were surprised at how busy they were! Cleary that was a good sign!

Every time we have dosa, I feel like it has been too long since we last had dosa! This is one of the most underrated great foods found anywhere. It is naturally healthy and so delicious!. Rava Dosa is made from semolina rather than lentil and is more lacey and crispy than the lentil version. Sometimes it is made with ghee so it is not always vegan, This one came with a couple of chutneys and sambar so just what we were missing. If you have never had dosa, you do not realize what you are missing.

Often we order Idly and Vada as a side or appetizer for our dosa but this time we tried their Idly 65. This was a bit of a stew of chillis, peppers and spices. The idly are perfect sauce carriers and this was also delicious!

This is not the first time we have seen the little robot waiter. I believe that it's more of an amusement than a labour-saving device. Don't worry that your server job is in jeopardy due to advancing technology. The restaurant itself is quite comfortable and still has pandemic dividers between some of the tables. I guess they will serve as privacy dividers until the next pandemic (sorry. was that out loud?).

We also got a couple of dishes to go. The first was at their recommendation (from my Instagram exchanges) and called Dhokla. I admit that I had never even heard of it but it was amazing and very different from the usual dishes we order. This is apparently a steamed cake made of fermented ground rice and lentils. It was a little like a variation on cornbread but with both spicy and sweet toppings. We will definitely be ordering this again!

Finally, another one of our standby favourites, Veg Manchurian. Again, this dish is usually vegan, but you have to verify, as sometimes there is ghee instead of oil. This one was obviously vegan and quite delicious.

So we are now fans of Satya Asha, and since it is near Mharie's kid's place, it is highly convenient. There is much more for us to try here. Thanks for the quick and detailed communication on Instagram!

Food                          4 1/2 out of 5

Vegan Options           4 1/2 out of 5

Comfort                     4 out of 5

Service                      4 1/2 out of 5

Value                         4 1/2 out of 5