Vegan Hampton Roads

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’

I’ve been sitting on this blog post for a while because, frankly, there are just too many vegan options for me to try. This blog may die before I try everything at Yorgo’s available to vegans.

Yorgo's Bageldashery in Norfolk. The counter is calm for the photo, but this place can get busy enough on the weekends for a line to form outside the door.

The bagel shop has been around for quite a few years - many of my friends worked there in high school and at its peak they had three locations in the region. Right now there is only one on Colonial Avenue in the Ghent section of Norfolk (aka the Hampton Roads vegan’s paradise), but it’s worth the drive from anywhere in the region. The lines can run out the door on the weekends, though - you’ve been warned!

First and foremost, I must say, the bagels are delicious. There are a ton of flavors, sweet and savory, baked every morning, including everyone’s favorite everything bagel. The shop recently started offering a whole wheat everything bagel that I like much more - it’s just as soft and chewy as the original, but you’ll feel better about eating it. At least I do when I slather it with vegan herb cream cheese.

If you’ve been on a carb overload and can’t stand the idea of eating a whole bagel, you can get anything on a wrap (whole wheat, spinach, sun dried tomato…even the jalapeno “cheddar” wrap is vegan!).

Yorgo’s offers the typical omni, sandwich fare, but the vegan menu started with Tofutti cream cheese. Just plain. But it was a start. Then the shop hit the big time and started offering a flavored vegan cream cheese every week or so. My personal favorites have been the herb (guaranteed to make you smell like garlic for at least two days) and chipotle flavors. I’ve also seen lemon caper, cinnamon sugar, roasted mushroom and garlic, and a sun dried tomato pine nut pesto. Haven’t tried those, though, because I was too busy getting addicted to some of their other offerings. Yorgo’s always has plain Tofutti on hand when they aren’t offering a flavored special.

Vegan flavor-of-the-moment cream cheese at Yorgo's Bageldashery in Norfolk shmeared on a toasted whole wheat everything bagel.

A delicous option if you’re not in the mood for vegan cream cheese is the TLT - tempeh bacon, lettuce and tomato with a herb vegan mayo. It’s great on a whole wheat everything bagel and the tempeh is sliced thin and seasoned well.

If you’re into deli salads, Yorgo’s takes the cake for the best vegan egg and vegan chicken salads. I used to go for the vegan egg salad with lots of spicy mustard and onions on an everything bagel, but my current order is the vegan chicken salad on a sun dried tomato wrap with lettuce, tomato and onions ($5.65). I really recommend the vegan chicken salad in a wrap, because it’s a bit crumbly on a bagel. The chicken salad as a sandwich is pretty pricey, but you can buy the salad in a tub for a little more than 6 bucks. The vegan egg salad is also available by the tub.

Vegan chicken salad on a sundried tomato wrap with lettuce, tomato and onion.

Other vegan menu specials I’ve seen include the Italian, which involves a vegan sausage chili thing, and the Inside Out Omelet, which is a tofu scramble in wrap with spinach and other toppings. Yorgo’s also offers a vegan sausage (or tempeh bacon) egg and cheese, which is surprisingly delicious.

I’ve written so much already, but I feel like I’ve just broken the surface of Yorgo’s vegan offerings. Have I even started on the baked goods? The bagel shop employs a vegan baker that has turned out some of the most amazing desserts I’ve ever had, vegan or otherwise. I’m still dreaming of the coconut cream pie.

Some of the other items I’ve tried - all vegan - include: Boston cream cake, carrot cake cookies, cinnamon rolls, brownies, cookies. Some of the ones I haven’t tried but I wish I had: banana split cake, Almond Joy cake, strawberry shortcake, chocolate raspberry cake. The big slices of cake tend to run about $3.25, which is steep for dessert, but the slices are huge. It took me two or three sittings to finish my hunk of Boston Cream Cake. And if you’re going to try anything, go for the carrot cake cookie, which is basically two slices of carrot cake sandwiched around sweet cream cheese icing.

Disclaimer: I may have written a lot, but I feel like I’m forgetting even more menu items! If there’s something I forgot, leave it in the comments.

The basics:

Yorgo’s Bageldashery
2123 Colonial Avenue (near 22nd street)
Norfolk’s Historic Ghent
757.623.6609

Hours: Mon-Fri 6 am to 3 pm
Sat-Sun 7 am to 3 pm

*Yorgo’s has free wireless Internet and offers custom catering.

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.

Sometimes you just want a really good sandwich. But, for vegans, sandwiches can be tricky. Sure, we can make some great ones on our own, but restaurants leave us with roasted vegetable and hummus wraps. Don’t get me wrong - I love roasted veggies, I love hummus, but I feel like I deserve a little more every once in a while.

Enter Gourmet Gang. The company has been around for a while serving the lunch and office crowd with sandwiches and salads. They offer a few vegetarian options on their regular menu, but most include cheese and well, without the cheese they aren’t that good.

Sometime last year Gourmet Gang got the great idea to start offering a weekly vegetarian sandwich special and, lucky for you and me, most of them are vegan. I’ve never had a sandwich as delicious as the crabless crabcake at Gourmet Gang. Now, if you’re like me, the idea of vegan seafood is just about the most unappetizing thing imaginable. But you need to let your guard down on this one.

The crabless crabcake ($6.25) is a mixture of tofu and traditional crabcake ingredients like celery, red pepper, Old Bay seasoning and bread crumbs. Everything is pulled together by a vegan roasted red pepper mayo, diced tomatoes and field greens. Sounds simple enough, but it’s mind-blowingly delicious. So delicious a friend had it catered at her wedding. That good!

The crabless crabcake sandwich at Gourmet Gang. Easily the best vegan sandwich in Hampton Roads.

My second favorite GG vegan sandwich is the tempeh ruben ($6.25). The ruben is vegan if you ask for no-cheese, but thankfully you don’t miss the Swiss. On delicious sliced rye, they put some well-cooked and seasoned tempeh, apple sauerkraut, vegan Thousand Island dressing and pickles.

The vegan tempeh ruben at Gourmet Gang

As for their regular menu, you can order the roasted vegetable ($5.95) or grilled portabella ($6.25) sandwiches without cheese or mayo as vegan options if you’re stuck without a delicious special that week. And bonus - Veganaise is available upon request!

There are a few side items available. Sometimes the weekly pasta salad is vegan and the fruit salad is vegan, of course. None of the desserts are vegan - but they should think about adding a vegan option soon (wink, wink).

Gourmet Gang has seven locations across Hampton Roads and has pretty skimpy hours - generally between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. They will deliver to some offices, but your best bet is to call in an order and pick up because these places get insane at lunch time. The food is good and people swarm during lunch. You can also fax in an order…if you have a fax machine laying around.

The current special is the Italian Lentil Ball with vegan mozzarella and marinara…you would know that already if you followed us on Twitter @veganHR!

You can also keep up with local vegan food porn through our flickr photostream.

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’

Sushi is something usually reserved for the meat-eaters among us, not vegetarians and vegans. But Kotobuki in the Ghent section of Norfolk has changed that with its extensive, and sometimes startling (vegetarian shrimp, anyone?), vegetarian menu. The owners even launched a monthly vegetarian lunch special, but you’ll need to ask for that when the server brings you a menu.

I’m usually a fan of the vegetable maki (hand rolls). I always get fried sweet potato and avocado rolls, and I always preface it with a bowl of miso soup. Their miso soup is one of my favorites and the owners assured me its fish flake free.

But when I want something to stick to my ribs, I go for the Vegetarian Sesame Chicken. The chicken pieces have a truly meaty texture and are fried and drenched in a sweet sesame sauce atop a bed of lettuce. In the bento tray, you also receive a salad with a terribly addictive dressing, a tiny fried spring roll and potato cake, and of course rice. And like most meals at the restaurant, it comes with a miso soup appetizer. Also not featured on the menu is brown rice, but they usually have it on hand for the vegetarian specials, so ask for it if you like.

The veg sesame chicken is a favorite among friends, but I’ve also tried the veg chicken teryaki and the veg chicken and broccoli. The teryaki has a great sauce, but the “meat” is a turn off - half moon shaped and cooked to a crisp, it’s pretty hard to tear your teeth through. The chicken and broccoli was the least enjoyable with an off-tasting gravy.

There are still a number of the restaurant’s faux meat dishes I’ve yet to try, such as the tofu steak or the eggplant “ham” platter, which won an award from PETA in 2006 for the best vegetarian meal in Hampton Roads

You may like these dishes, but if you’re going for the first time and want something spot-on, go for the veg sesame chicken.

And don’t forget the wealth of vegetable maki available, from vegetarian shrimp tempura rolls to spinach, fried tofu and asparagus rolls. Kotobuki also offers a number of veggie-friendly appetizers.

The details:

Kotobuki Japanese Restaurant & Sushi Bar
721 W. 21st Street
Norfolk
Phone: (757) 628-1025

Hours:
Lunch: Mon - Fri, 11 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.; Sat - Sun, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.
Dinner: Mon - Thur, 5 - 10 p.m.; Fri - Sat, 5 - 11 p.m.; Sun, 4:30 - 9:30 p.m.

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

Ah, Chinese takeout. It’s greasy, salty and there’s enough for dinner and lunch the next day.

Kin’s Wok on West 21st Street in Norfolk is my favorite pick for a quick and filling dinner. Kin’s Wok isn’t a vegetarian restaurant by any means, but they serve some great tofu. My favorite is the orange flavored tofu ($8.25). The dish comes with white rice and a plastic container full to the brim with fried tofu glazed in a sauce of red chile and orange - there are even chunks of orange peel in the dish. And to make it slightly healthier, the orange tofu is served alongside some steamed broccoli. The sauce is very sweet with a hint of heat, but you can request it spicier, which I prefer.

If you visit Kin’s Wok, make sure you bring cash! You can dine in, takeout or have food delivered, but it’s all cash only.

There is a “vegetarian” section of the menu, but the name isn’t accurate. For example, one of the dishes is Tofu with Loster Sauce….not vegetarian. But there are other options in the vegetarian, health food, tofu and vegetable sections of the menu. It’s a huge menu, so look around.

Watch out for dishes containing egg - you may want to double check before ordering. The vegetarian combo dinners come with fried rice and an egg roll, neither of which are vegan.

You can add steamed or crispy tofu for an extra $1.00 to any of the vegetable dishes (avoid the String Bean w. Garlic Sauce - it contains minced pork).

If you’re around for lunch, check out the lunch specials. There are a few mixed vegetable dishes - all for less than $5.00. The lunch combos come with rice, but make sure you specify white rice.

As with any restaurant that serves meat, eggs and other non-vegan things, double check if you’re unsure of the ingredients. Just because something appears on the tofu menu, doesn’t mean it’s vegetarian or vegan.

Here’s a shot of a recent takeout order of orange flavored tofu:

The details:

Kin’s Wok
21st Street Pavilion Shopping Center
222 West 21st Street
Norfolk
Phone: (757) 623-2933 / 623-8025

Hours: Sunday to Thursday 11 am - 11 pm ;
Friday and Saturday 11 am to 11:30 pm

Dine in, take out or delivery (minimum $10)
Remember, cash only!