VEGAN IN THE CITY (PART 2)
Looking for a delicious and vegan friendly place to eat in the Bay Area? Look no further! This is a continuation to “part 1” of this post; feel free to check out my first recommendations —-> HERE as well. :)
Roasted & Raw:
A black owned restaurant in Oakland California. This menu is fully vegan and we ordered/tried 2 mains, 3 sides & 2 desserts. These are my honest thoughts. The empanadas were absolutely delicious (would eat again), falafel burgers were pretty good, yucca fries were tasty, Mac n cheese was not good in my opinion, black beans and rice were not good and Wok veggies were actually gross. As for desserts, the banana muffins looked and smelled delicious but I literally didn’t get around to tasting them because I was so obsessed with how AMAZINGLY DELICIOUS the chocolate chip cookies were that I couldn’t stop myself from eating those and got full I would literally return to this restaurant JUST for the chocolate chips cookies they were divine!
Home Room:
OK, this restaurant is not fully vegan BUT they have a decent amount of vegan items on their menu and they are all absolutely delicious! 10/10 recommend the vegan mac n cheese, vegan buffalo mac n cheese AND the vegan brussels sprouts. I’d didn’t try the gluten free vegan brownie because we picked up some vegan donuts for dessert right before arriving but it did look super tasty and based upon the flavor of the other dishes, I’d venture to guess that it’s probably pretty good. The location I visited was in Oakland but they now also have a Berkeley location as well.
The Happy Vegan:
The name rings true for me. I ordered 3 items and I’ll rate them individually. 1. “No animal style fries” - 10/10 recommendation this side dish. I kind of have an obsession with trying “fancy French fries” everywhere I find them on the menu and this one did NOT disappoint. I’d order this tasty dish over and over again hands down. 2. Banana chocolate waffle - I also 10/10 recommend this dish. The texture and consistency of the waffle was perfection and the flavor and sweetness ratio was also totally on point. The last thing that I ordered was the 3. New York style cheesecake with caramel drizzle and I would not order this again. Perhaps I was just full from the other 2 items already but this really just didn’t hit the spot for me and I threw it out after just 2 bites. I’d definitely return though to try other items and on the menu and to re-order the fries and waffles! I definitely do recommend this restaurant, which is located in San Francisco on Parnassus Ave.
Eat Sushi:
Fresh Japanese food in San Francisco (located on Lombard street) with a decent amount of vegan options. What we ordered: original edamame, garlic edamame, veg dragon roll, avocado maki roll, veggie gyoza, agendashi tofu (hold the fish flakes) & Oshitashi side. My favorites were the 2 rolls and the tofu, all 3 were quite tasty, especially the dragon roll. The rest of the food was just ok in my opinion.
Golden Lotus:
So it’s actually been years since I ate here last but when I went, there were about 16 of us here and I vividly remember that we all really enjoyed our meals. That being said, I wanted to make sure to include this is a positive dining option in the Bay Area. This restaurant is Vietnamese food, the menu is quite large and it is also located in Oakland. It is open 6 days per week (closed on Monday’s) from 11am - 8pm. I definitely recommend this restaurant for fresh, Asian food.
I am working on a part 3 to this series as well, so make sure to follow to stay up to date on all of best eateries around. :)