Eating vegan at non-vegan restaurants in Atlanta

While Atlanta does have a few all-vegan restaurants, we don’t have enough to keep me from getting bored. It’s a good thing we have lots of non-vegan restaurants with vegan options. Here are just a few examples:

So Kong Dong Tofu House

so kong dong tofu house

First, the Kimchi at So Kong Dong Tofu House isn’t vegan. So don’t eat that. But, there are a few vegan options on the menu. Get the Vegetable Tofu Dumpling Soup. If you ask for spicy, you will get spicy. They don’t mess around. You can get vegan Bibimbap. And this is the Bibim Gook Soo, a cold noodle dish that is amazing. Also, DONG.

bibim gook soo

Lee’s Bakery

At Lee’s Bakery, you can get vegan banh mi (ask them to leave off the mayo), tofu spring rolls and pho. Can’t decide? They have a half sandwich/pho combo so you don’t have to. Also, it’s super cheap!

vegan banh mi

vegan spring rolls

vegan pho

Chai Pani

Chai Pani serves Indian food snacks in Decatur. This is either the Bhel Puri or Green Mango Chaat. I’ve had and enjoyed both and both are filled with crunchy things so it’s hard to tell.

chai pani

This, this is a samosa. It’s fairly large and filling. The best thing to do here is go with some people, get a few things and then everybody eat all the things. Must haves: the Kale Pakoras and the Matchstick Okra Fries. If you don’t like okra because of the slime, try these. Slime free!

samosa at chai pani

Fuego Mundo

Fuego Mundo is a South American wood-fire grill in Sandy Springs. It’s kosher and they have vegan and gluten free options. Seriously, if you have a diverse group, this is a great place. I typically go with the tofu steak, grilled and seasoned. They have a bunch of vegan side options. Sometimes I’m good and I do quinoa. And then sometimes what you see below happens. Hey, at least I got a salad.

tofu steak at fuego mundo

Ammazza

Ammazza makes a vegan pizza with a house made cashew cheese sauce. We’ve actually only been once to have it and found it meh. But since everyone else raves about it, I figure we could be the problem here. I’m willing to give it another shot some time.

ammazza vegan pizza

El Myriachi

El Myriachi is kind of like El Myr except it’s filled with families instead of smoke. If you aren’t into screeching children, avoid during peak hours.

The food is similar to El Myr but not the same. They have a taco salad in a fried tortilla bowl, so that’s pretty awesome. The first time we went, the guacamole was diluted with stuff. It was just wrong. El Myr has the best guacamole ever, avocado lightly seasoned. That’s all you need. But El Myriachi’s guac has moved towards El Myr’s style in subsequent visits so I think it’s all good now.

el myriachi guacamole

My standard at El Myr is the tofu taco. It’s pretty much the same here except they don’t do the BBQ tofu.

el myriachi tofu taco

Kevin got a chimichanga because of the frying. It came with proper unadulterated guacamole on the side. Looked pretty good.

el myriachi chimichanga

Queen of Sheba

I’ve actually been going to Queen of Sheba since 1998, my very first night in Georgia. The food has been consistently delicious all these years. The veggie combo is where it’s at. Tofu tibs are great. And a few years ago they added a larger veggie combo with even more delicious things on it for when you have the monster munchies. This is the bigger veggie combo plus an order of tofu tibs. The far plate is the regular veggie combo.

veggie combo and tofu tibs at queen of sheba

This is by no means an exhaustive list. There are many more options, but these happen to be the pics I had on hand. Do you have any favorite vegan eats at unexpected places?

Lazy vegan pizza

vegan pizza

Lazy is probably going to work its way into many of my post titles this month. Since I’ve spent the better part of the last 2 or so years working in a kitchen long hours, cooking when I get home has to be fast and easy.

As I said in an earlier post, Trader Joe’s is great for lazy food. That includes lazy pizza. In the refrigerated section, by the cheese in our location, they’ve got vegan pizza dough balls. Just let it sit at room temperature for about 20 minutes, spread out on a pizza pan, throw on sauce and toppings, bake and eat.

Feeling extra lazy? Why yes, yes I am. Then they also have vegan pizza sauce. Your only challenge is to have some vegan cheese on hand. Which I did this time, some Daiya mozzarella.

And I thought about grabbing some sliced pepperoni from work, but instead tried to be a little less lazy and made the TVP Pepperoni from Hearty Vegan Meals For Monster Appetites. This stuff is so easy to make that it’s lazy. Seasonings, TVP, boiling water, soak, it’s pepperoni! And it’s delicious! One recipe made enough to generously top two 16″ pizzas with a little extra left over. I’ll probably throw it in a pasta sauce.

Vegan Pizza Day 2012

Vegan Pizza Day arrived June 30th and we had no plan. Sure, we actually have a few places in Atlanta where you can get vegan pizza, with vegan cheese and all. But none of them does it 100% right. We’re spoiled by all the pizza parties we’ve had. Simon & Star had the makings for peanut sauce, so we picked up a couple of dough balls from Savage Pizza (psst, you can buy dough balls from Savage Pizza), grabbed more ingredients from Sevananda, and headed over to their place to build up some pizzas.

thai tofu pizza

thai tofu pizza slices

Delicious! What’s for dessert? Pizza! Cinnamon apple pizza with tofutti cheese slices on top.

apple pizza

apple pizza slice

Not a shabby Vegan Pizza Day representation.

 

Birthday pizza

For Kevin’s birthday, we staged a (mostly) vegan invasion of Uncle Maddio’s Pizza Joint. If you don’t know, Maddio’s carries Daiya, had tofu as a topping and the whole wheat crust is vegan. It’s also inexpensive. This pizza, a beer and a soda was around $22.

Alison brought this old pic of John & Kevin. WTH, who is that guy?

After pizza, we headed to NOT secret bowling at Suburban Lanes. And we closed the place down getting our money’s worth for the all you can bowl for $5.99 special.

Raw pizza

These pre-packaged raw items by Raw in the Garden have recently shown up in Sevananda‘s island cooler. So I picked one up to try for lunch.

With a pre-packaged item, I was worried it would taste fresh, but it was fine. I think the zucchini might have been marinated which was nice, gave them more flavor. It didn’t have a crisp crust, but the flavors of everything were definitely pizza like. With the nut-based crust and cashew cream it was also pretty filling. This could be pulled off without a dehydrator. I might try this at home.