Browsing “The Veggie Option”

You don’t make friends with salad—but fortunately for us, Toronto’s vegetarian- and vegan-friendly offerings extend far beyond leafy greens. With the Veggie Option, we’ll be mining the depths of Toronto’s meat-free eateries, uncovering the best brunches, soul food, juice bars, veg-friendly grocery stores, pre-bar snacks, post-bar snacks, accidentally vegan dishes, budget chow—you get the drift. The only thing that’ll be missing? Meat. Of course, we don’t intend to alienate our omnivorous pals. We’ll also explore Toronto’s array of veg-compatible, but not exclusively meat-free, restaurants—because in this city, being vegetarian doesn’t mean we can’t nosh down with our carnivorous friends. It just means we have to work harder for our iron and B12 vitamins. Om nom nom.

Fucked Up – Do You Feed? (Official Video) from Lance Ludwig on Vimeo.

Banjara (796 Bloor St. W) generated plenty of controversy last year when, in December, it was named Toronto’s top Indian restaurant by BlogTO. The parade of sensitivities ensued: Didn’t it used to be a Coffee Time? Why the hell didn’t Lahore Tikka take the honour? (Even if the restaurant serves Pakistani food.) Were BlogTO readers wilfully ignoring the underrated, and authentic, restaurants of Gerrard St., or Thorncliffe, of Scarborough in favour of downtown-West supremacy?  Perhaps. But such criticisms aren’t entirely fair; Banjara has a lot going for it. It’s cheap, for one. The portions are generous. And, in the summertime, their Christie Pits location—not Banjara’s Yonge-Eglinton chapter—they’re one of the few large, and noteworthy, Indian-resto patio in the city’s downtown West. …READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

You don’t make friends with salad—but fortunately for us, Toronto’s vegetarian- and vegan-friendly offerings extend far beyond leafy greens. With the Veggie Option, we’ll be mining the depths of Toronto’s meat-free eateries, uncovering the best brunches, soul food, juice bars, veg-friendly grocery stores, pre-bar snacks, post-bar snacks, accidentally vegan dishes, budget chow—you get the drift. The only thing that’ll be missing? Meat. Of course, we don’t intend to alienate our omnivorous pals. We’ll also explore Toronto’s array of veg-compatible, but not exclusively meat-free, restaurants—because in this city, being vegetarian doesn’t mean we can’t nosh down with our carnivorous friends. It just means we have to work harder for our iron and B12 vitamins. Om nom nom.

While we love the freakishly engineered creations of Hot Beans (which you can read about in the last edition of The Veggie Option), the nouveau-traditional Mexican craze that’s sweeping through Toronto hasn’t always been friendly to true-blue vegetarians. Yes, mainstays like Kensington’s El Trompo’s offers wonderful huitelacoche—corn fungus, for the uninitiated—and sure, El Asador’s veggie tacos have been a longtime Bloor street fave. But on the other hand, Toronto’s buzziest newcomers, like the perennial lineup that is Parkdale’s Grand Electric, have been light on greens: Beef check tacos? Check. Pork belly? Sure. Baja fish? It’s their signature. Anything vegetarian? Try again.

Thankfully, though, La Carnita, at College and Spadina, resides a quick bike ride to the northeast of Parkdale—and their hype has rivalled, if not equalled, that of Grand Electric. You know them: Their food earned near-religious reviews after La Carnita hosted a series of pop-ups, which paired DJ nights, eye-popping (and often hilarious) street art and, of course, freaking amazing tacos. They famously drew giant lineups at UNO2012, at the Evergreen Brickworks, last April—and many raved that their tacos were well worth the wait. And by the time La Carnita opened its formal brick ‘n’ mortar location, its genesis story emerged: Developed by the minds behind local creative boutique OneMethod Digital+Design, La Carnita’s concept was half food, half unfrontable cool.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

You don’t make friends with salad—but fortunately for us, Toronto’s vegetarian- and vegan-friendly offerings extend far beyond leafy greens. With the Veggie Option, we’ll be mining the depths of Toronto’s meat-free eateries, uncovering the best brunches, soul food, juice bars, veg-friendly grocery stores, pre-bar snacks, post-bar snacks, accidentally vegan dishes, budget chow—you get the drift. The only thing that’ll be missing? Meat. Of course, we don’t intend to alienate our omnivorous pals. We’ll also explore Toronto’s array of veg-compatible, but not exclusively meat-free, restaurants—because in this city, being vegetarian doesn’t mean we can’t nosh down with our carnivorous friends. It just means we have to work harder for our iron and B12 vitamins. Om nom nom.

Full disclaimer: I adore Hot Beans (160 Baldwin St.), the older sis to Bloor and Ossington’s Hogtown Vegan. Not only for its food, either. When it opened in Kensington Market in 2011, its concept was middle finger to plenty of dominant food tropes: It was an all-vegan haunt in a time where meat was trending. It was a loosely Mexican restaurant, but one that promoted gut-busting creations—the type of burrito abominations you’d make at home with all your favourite foods—not by-the-book authenticity. And it was a resto that, unlike its vegan peers, didn’t market itself as healthy or locavore. To be reductionist, it was focused on one thing: Awesome fucking food. Like the TVP tacos below.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

You don’t make friends with salad—but fortunately for us, Toronto’s vegetarian- and vegan-friendly offerings extend far beyond leafy greens. With the Veggie Option, we’ll be mining the depths of Toronto’s meat-free eateries, uncovering the best brunches, soul food, juice bars, veg-friendly grocery stores, pre-bar snacks, post-bar snacks, accidentally vegan dishes, budget chow—you get the drift. The only thing that’ll be missing? Meat. Of course, we don’t intend to alienate our omnivorous pals. We’ll also explore Toronto’s array of veg-compatible, but not exclusively meat-free, restaurants—because in this city, being vegetarian doesn’t mean we can’t nosh down with our carnivorous friends. It just means we have to work harder for our iron and B12 vitamins. Om nom nom.

While they represent another addition to the city’s fixation on homely-gone-haute dining—see our ongoing obsessions with the taco or the poutine—vegetarians have had few mouth-shattering, and creative, local hamburger options. Which isn’t to say that we’re devoid of solid meatless options: Hogtown Vegan‘s grease-bomb of a Big Mac, for example, satiates comfort-food cravings; Cruda Cafe, in St. Lawrence Market, has a wild mushroom-nut burger, which is a raw-food delight but only a burger by the loosest of definitions; countless others, meanwhile, offer up variations on the traditional ground soy patty. Still, many of Toronto’s veggie burgers choose to be either soul-nourishing or inventive. Rarely are they both.

It’s surprising, then, that one of Toronto’s most lust-inducing veggie burgers—and one that’s simultaneously unusual and homely—comes from The Burger’s Priest, a cheeseburger joint known to make carnivores wobbly kneed. You’ve likely heard the hype: If you believe its marketing materials, it’s a religious joint, but it truthfully worships at the altar of Alberta beef.  It’s a restaurant billing itself as anti-gourmet, serving impossibly crumbly, formed-to-order patties to classic American standards. And the lineups are legendary, even during off-times, despite their decidedly less-than-trendy locations at Queen and Coxwell and Yonge and Lawrence.

It’s classic. Traditional. Eerily Catholic. So, were we betting folk, we wouldn’t count on them having a decent veggie burger. But one bite into Burger’s Priest’s Option burger proved us wrong. Very wrong.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

You don’t make friends with salad—but fortunately for us, Toronto’s vegetarian- and vegan-friendly offerings extend far beyond leafy greens. With the Veggie Option, we’ll be mining the depths of Toronto’s meat-free eateries, uncovering the best brunches, soul food, juice bars, veg-friendly grocery stores, pre-bar snacks, post-bar snacks, accidentally vegan dishes, budget chow—you get the drift. The only thing that’ll be missing? Meat. Of course, we don’t intend to alienate our omnivorous pals. We’ll also explore Toronto’s array of veg-compatible, but not exclusively meat-free, restaurants—because in this city, being vegetarian doesn’t mean we can’t nosh down with our carnivorous friends. It just means we have to work harder for our iron and B12 vitamins. Om nom nom.

A thought on being vegetarian in Toronto: It’s never been better. No, it’s not due to the myriad ethnic enclaves, though we have many—many have existed for decades. Nor is it due to trendy eateries; while it’s nice that Woodlot has a parallel veg menu, food trends are becoming meatier by the second. (Cough, Electric Avenue.) And it’s certainly not due to any perceived health benefits.

(Image: Huevos Rancheros at Sadies Diner. Credit: Nyxie.)

Rather, Toronto’s vegetarian eateries are awesome—fucking awesome—because, in 2012, there’s something for everyone. Toronto’s first modern veg wave, which included the Red Dragon-inspired Fresh and Sadies Diner, brought inventiveness to the, um, plate. And with them, those famous vegetarian myths—it’s too bland, too minimal, not filling enough—began to dissipate. Plus, we have Sadies to thank for bringing a vegetarian brunch menu that wasn’t, oh, peanut butter on toast.

…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>