Sorry for the hiatus! I was in Europe for a few weeks vacationing and sampling delicious vegan food. If you’re ever in Berlin, you must seek out YoYo Foodworld! Now, back to the many vegan things Hampton Roads has to offer…
Indian restaurants are always great places to find vegetarian and vegan options, but Rajput Indian Cuisine in the Ghent section of Norfolk really goes out of its way to spoil diners, especially us vegans.
First off, let me just say this so you can mark it off on your calendars for the next year, Rajput offers a vegetarian and vegan dinner buffet on the first Thursday of every month. That means next week - on Thursday, September 3rd - you could be sitting down to a giant plate of mostly vegan buffet items, such as vegetable samosa, mint chutney, roti, vegetable jalfryizi, tofu patia (to die for - you must get this if you see it on the menu!), cauliflower and potatoes, and you can polish it all off with a dessert of carrot pudding before heading up there to do it again. All vegan! Those are just a few of the items I’ve seen on the monthly buffet. The price runs under $15 for the dinner buffet.
The lunch buffets at Rajput tend to cater more to the omnivores, but if you luck out with a veg-friendly buffet one day for the lunch it will run you around $10.
Rajput offers a veg-friendly brunch on the weekends, which basically means the buffet is full of your typical vegetarian, mostly vegan items, and there is a table on the other side of the room with some meat dishes. I always forget about this, but I’m pleasantly surprised when I head in for a weekend lunch and most of the buffet is vegan.
If you happen to check out the buffet one night and it’s not vegan friendly enough to make it worth your while, the menu is expansive. Rajput boasts one of the largest vegan menus in the Commonwealth. Make sure you ask for the vegan menu. The regular menu includes most of the vegan items, but I’ve found some gems (like tofu patia!) on the strictly vegan menu. Plus it’s just fun to have an entire menu at your vegan fingertips full of so many choices.
Some great things to try at Rajput are the Tofu Patia ($10.95), which I wanted to mention at least three times in this review, Caulfilower Potatoes ($10.95), Eggplant Bhartha ($11.95), and the Chana Masala ($10.95). There are plenty of other vegan dishes, but those are some of my favorites. All of the entrees are served with perfectly cooked basmati rice and you can specify the spiciness of your dishes. I tend to go with medium hot for most dishes.
No Indian meal is complete without some bread. Luckily Rajput has a long list of vegan breads from which you can order. My favorite is the garlic roti ($3.95). I’ve said before that Nawab’s roti is my favorite, because it tends to be softer and fluffier, but they only offer plain roti. Rajput offers plain ($2.50), garlic, and prathas stuffed with things like onions and potatoes.
Every meal ordered from the menu starts out with some pappadum and two chutneys - generally onion and mint. These are vegan and delicious! Like a yummy seeded cracker to put your hunger at ease before you get down to business.
If you want to try a number of things, but the buffet isn’t very vegan, you can order a combination plate called Vegan Thali ($16.95), which includes vegetable pakora, palak tofu, chana masala, salad, basmati rice, roti bread and carrot dessert.
If you want to share, you can order a vegan dinner combo for two ($31.95) that includes an appetizer and entree of your choice, and these combos can be scaled up for four people, six, etc.
The service is always great. Takeout and catering is available. And forgive me for the lack of photos on this post, but Indian food isn’t the most photogenic - it might be the most delicious, though.
Rajput Indian Cuisine
742 W, 21st Street
Norfolk, VA 23517
(757) 625 4634
Lunch: Mon-Fri 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Sat-Sun noon to 3 p.m.
Dinner: Sun-Thu 5 p.m. to 10 p.m., Fri-Sat 5:00 p.m.-10:30 p.m.
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