Vegan Hampton Roads

Well folks, the vegan picks for restaurant week in Downtown Norfolk and Ghent are few and far between, but at least we have some options! Click each restaurant below for their restaurant week menu. Before you head out to any of these restaurants, you may want to call and confirm if certain dishes are in fact vegan or can be made vegan. I haven’t made any calls myself, but I’ve included those places offering dishes that seem like they should be vegan. And unfortunately vegans will not be able to enjoy all three courses on restaurant week since the desserts seem to all be non-vegan, but maybe you can talk them into a substitution for you.

California Pizza Kitchen - Hummus appetizer and veggie pizza without cheese.

Freemason Abbey - House salad and balsamic grilled eggplant, though be warned that Freemason Abbey uses meat stock in their rice which comes with the vegetarian dish. Make sure you ask for a different side.

Monastery - House salad and pasta florentine dish. Surprising that there are options at this decidedly un-vegan, Hungarian restaurant. I’m not sure about any of the other, more traditional dishes, but my suspicion is that none of them is vegan or vegetarian. If you find out something different, let us know!

Pasha - Hummus or kale salad appetizer and vegetarian plate entree (a few items on this platter are not vegan, so you’ll need to ask for a substitution).

Rajput Indian Cuisine - Vegetable samosa appetizer, vegetable jalfrezi or chana masala entree, and gajjar halwa (carrot pudding) for dessert. This is the only fully-vegan, three course meal you can get on restaurant week and it’s only $20! Rajput is great.

Boot - Many of the Boot’s dishes are vegetarian and some can be made vegan upon request, so just let your server know and they’ll give you your options at the table. I ate dinner recently at the Boot and had some great vegan dishes. **update** The sorbet on the Boot’s restaurant week menu is vegan! Thanks to Kristen for letting us know. And she said it was pretty tasty.

Remember, you can follow us on Twitter for up-to-the-minute Hampton Roads vegan dining news and conversation @veganHR. For local vegan food porn, check out our flickr stream.

Machismo Burrito Bar was around serving up its football-sized burritos before Moe’s, Chipotle, Qdoba and the other chains even considered hitting the Hampton Roads scene, and the restaurant still boasts a dedicated following thanks to its delicious food and vegan options.

Machismo's newest location in Downtown Norfolk.

The menu at Machismo is pretty simple - it’s organized into burritos, of course, tacos, quesadillas, nachos and salads. Once you decide what you want, you’ll need to figure out the fillings and toppings, from bright yellow saffron rice to perfectly cooked black beans to a hot, green salsa, just to name a few. Like a Subway for burritos, you follow your food along letting the friendly folks at Machismo know what you want and how much before they attempt to wrap it up in a neat football of foil. You even get your choice of tortillas, from wheat, to spinach and chipotle. Or you can get the burrito in a bowl, sans tortilla.

Continue reading ‘Machismo Burrito Bar’

Norfolk Restaurant Week is a great idea and it’s going on now. To encourage dining out, restaurants offer prix fixe menus of usually three courses for $20 or $30. The menus are set ahead of time and it’s a great way to try a few new restaurants without busting your wallet.

But the sad thing is, many of these restaurants offer little in the way of vegan options on their standard menus, so they rarely go out of their way to cater to even vegetarians on their restaurant week menus.

Thankfully there are a few options in case you want to participate this week:

Rajput Indian Cuisine is offering a three course menu for $20 and quite a few of the choices are vegan, including the vegetable samosa appetizer; vegetable jalfrezi and chana masala entrees; and gajjar halwa dessert (carrot pudding).

The Boot is offering their entire menu at three courses for $30 and quite a few of their items can be made vegan if you specify.

Sirena Cucina Italiana doesn’t have their restaurant week specials up on their Web site, but they offer a number of vegetarian and easily-veganized menu items. Not sure if those will be on the restaurant week special, but it’s a possibility.

And that’s it!

I’m hoping we get some more options in the future, because I may be vegan, but I would still like to enjoy restaurant week and support local businesses.

There’s not much to say about this one, only that if you’re looking for a vegan pizza you can get it here. Bella carries Follow Your Heart vegan cheese, which I consider one of the most melty vegan cheeses around. I’ve ordered takeout from Bella and dined in and the pizza is much better in person - trust me. It’s not horrible on delivery, but their crust is much better fresh and I’ve found they give you more vegan cheese when you dine in. It’s a little skimpy when you order delivery.

The waitress at the restaurant said they only serve the vegan cheese with the pizzas, but I’m sure with some prodding you could get it on a veggie sub as well, which they also serve.

The restaurant is a typical family place with some al fresco seating along Colley Avenue in the warmer months. They also sell pastas, salads, sandwiches and beer.

This is the only vegan cheese pizza I’ve had in town, but, word is Red Dog’s new vegan menu includes a mean pizza. The last few times I’ve hit Red Dog it’s been for drinks only, but it’s on my list!

You all know what pizza looks like, but here’s a shot from my most recent visit. A pie with vegan cheese, black olives, garlic, onions and tomatoes.

I will update this post with prices as soon as I track down that take-out menu, but be warned they charge almost a dollar per topping, so check out the menu for topping specials. And they charge an extra fee for the vegan cheese, but you should have expected that.

The details:

Bella Pizzeria
1308 Colley Ave
Norfolk, VA 23517
(757) 625-3525

Hours: Sunday through Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m; Friday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m.

Dine-in, take-out or delivery
Accepts cash and major credit cards.

Wow, this place came out of nowhere! Well, not really. They’ve had a location at the Virginia Beach Oceanfront for seven years or so, but they recently opened a Ghent location and added a large number of vegan items to their menu.

Nearly every item on their menu can be made vegan – even their famous fish tacos – for an additional 20 percent. After numerous visits in the last month (I think I’m addicted), the fish tacos have to be my favorite. And to tell you the truth, when I considered a vegan fish taco, I wasn’t too excited. I was picturing scary, rubbery, faux fish.

Vegan fish taco from Pelon's.

Continue reading ‘Pelon’s Baja Grill in Ghent’