Okay, I’m just going to come right out and say it. Red Dog Saloon on Colley Avenue in the Ghent section of Norfolk makes the best damn vegan cheese pizza in town. Seriously. Though it’s not hard to make the top of the list considering there are only two restaurants in the area serving pizza with vegan cheese.
The crust is well-cooked, but not hard as a rock. The vegetable toppings are rich and flavorful (spinach, big sun dried tomatoes, olives). The sauce is tasty. And the vegan cheese doesn’t taste like chalk/rubber/etc.
I’m pretty sure Red Dog is using Follow Your Heart vegan cheese, known for its meltiness, but there’s just something about the vegan cheese alongside everything else this great pizza has going for it that has me craving it!
And there’s even more great news…if you don’t want to order a whole pie, Red Dog will sell them by the slice. Known for its happy hour specials, Red Dog is used to catering to thirsty visitors just looking for munchies to absorb the alcohol, so they don’t force you into the entire pizza unless you want it. I really appreciate that! And not to mention the slices are gigantic - almost the size of two slices, if you ask me. A slice will run you close to four dollars, but keep in ming it is pretty much the size of two normal slices and it comes with vegan cheese.
On a recent trip with friends we tried the vegan chicken tenders as well, which are basically deep fried chunks of Chickette roll served with some sort of mango mustard dipping sauce. The sweetness of the mango serves as a great replacement to the typical honey mustard sauce served with chicken fingers.
I’ve heard the vegan chicken sandwich is great there as well. A larger piece of chickette roll, deep fried and served sandwich style with the fixin’s.
Red Dog is a saloon and there is smoking, but if it’s nice a nice day and not too crowded you can usually luck out with a seat outdoors. There’s not really a great ambiance to Red Dog. I wouldn’t bring a family there at night on the weekends and I’d be a little upset if a date ever brought me there, but we’re just talking about vegan pizza and chicken tenders here.
Full disclosure: Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” plays almost every hour at Red Dog (or at least it seems that way). You have been warned.
Red Dog Saloon
1421 Colley Ave
Norfolk, VA 23517
(757) 625-4674
Couldn’t find a listing of their hours, but I know they’re open for lunch and I’ve been there for last call on a number of occasions. So, my educated guess would be most likely 11:30/12 until 2 a.m.