Vegan Beauty Review» vegan restaurants

WOW Your Valentine with Cinnaholic for V-Day!

Sunny — Tue, 31 Jan 2012 22:29:50 +0000

Calling all lovey-dovekins, V-Day is right around the corner! Woot(ang clan)! I’m gonna let you in on a little secret/tip… Rather than gifting your boo with flowers (which wither and die), lingerie (which is totes for the guys anyway), or chocolate (which is generic times 12), hook your sugar booger up with some deluxe, gourmet, vegan cinnamon rolls! Trust me, I’m a lady—I know what we bitches want.

Now, it’s important to realize that not all cinnamon rolls are created equally. Skip the artificial, über fattening, tainty ones and opt for the Cinnaholic variety which are dairy-free, egg-free, cholesterol-free, lower in saturated fat, sweetened with beet sugar, and made with heart-healthy soy. Aroused? (Me too!) But there’s more (R.I.P. Billy Mays)! Cinnaholic offers 30 different flavors of icing and toppings to choose from (caramel with cookie dough and marshmallows, anyone?)! And you can have these bad boys shipped to your love muffin’s door (but if you’re in the Bay Area, go there NOW and get gacked on nummy awesomeness)!

Does this get any sweeter? It DOES! Cinnaholic will be donating $5 for every online order purchased now through February 9th to the Beagle Freedom Project (please read up on this amazing non-profit). ♥

Here are just some of the insanely delish rolls I’ve devoured in the past few months (get your drool rags out!):

The first 50 orders will receive a handmade, customizable card designed by Rigel Stuhmiller. Score, score, and score! Happy V-Day, betches! ♥

Cinnaholic
2132 Oxford Street
Berkeley, CA

Oaktown Foodie Stop: Encuentro

Sunny — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 03:21:11 +0000

My hubs recently took me to Encuentro for a fancy schmancy date night out. He had been there before and couldn’t stop raving about their vegan reuben. Any time I hear the word “reuben,” my ears perk up and my salivary glands shoot into hyperdrive.

Btw, this cozy café, conveniently located in my hood, is the collaboration between Eric Tucker (executive chef at Millennium Restaurant in San Francisco), Lacey Sher (former owner of Down To Earth Restaurant in Red Bank, New Jersey), and Linda Braz. As you can imagine, the food at Encuentro is uh-mazing!

Only bummer is that they recently (as in days ago) took their reuben off the menu (*gasp*), so I never got to try it (womp womp)… but here’s what we ordered instead (all deeee-lish!):

Cheese plate with fig chutney, grain mustard, walnut "honey," and seasonal fruit, $15

Roasted potatoes, $6

BBQ tempeh sankie with creamy jicama cabbage slaw and sweet and smokey bbq sauce, $10

Strawberry shortcake, $8

Encuentro
200 2nd Street
Oakland, CA 94607
(510) 832-9463

Flacos: Vegan Mexican Fare in Berkeley

Sunny — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 17:14:14 +0000

I’ve been officially living in the East Bay for a little over a month now, and I realized it was high time I started blogging about the deee-lish vegan grubs I’ve been discovering with my boo. First up: Flacos. Mhm. Mexican food is usually not vegan-friendly (i.e. it’s usually doused in copious amounts of lard and chicken stock), so when the Avmesiter and I heard about Flacos, we flipped! All Mexican, all vegan, all healthy, and all retardedly tasty! Their soy protein meat filling is insane…

Don’t even front like those skeltetor pubes alone aren’t beckoning you for some Flacos tacos!

Soy Protein Tacos, $3 each

Full Plate w/Banana Leaf Tamal, $9

Eat it, love it! (and report back!) xx

p.s. Bummed I devoured dessert before taking pics… rest assured their Pan Dulce (sweet bread) and Polvorones (Mexican wedding cookies) are indeed the shit!

More Curly’s!

Sunny — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:59:57 +0000

If you live in NYC or you have plans to visit in the near future, go to Curly’s—it’s the shit!

Disco Fries, $6.50

Fake Crab Cake Sandwich

Fauxphilly Cheesesteak, $7.95

Mexican Sundae, $6.95

For more info: Curly’s

328 East 14th St.
(Between 1st & 2nd Ave.)
NY, NY 10003
Tel: 212-598-9998

Brunching It Up in NYC

Sunny — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 18:35:03 +0000

There’s absolutely no doubt that NYC is one of the most vegan-friendly cities in the US. That’s why when my boo and I visit the Big Apple, we make sure to squeeze in as much vegan grub at as many restaurants as possible.

Everyone and their granny insists that Counter has the best vegan brunch in NYC. Although we had been to Counter before, we had never gone for brunch… So for this trip, we made a point to wake up early enough to brunch it up. It was pretty damn awesome (not my absolute fave, but it was up there).

Highlights:

Their vegan baked goods (first pic below) came with vegan Nutella. ‘Nuf said. Sold. Happy tum-tum.

The Kale Ceasar Salad was off the hook. It was super hearty and flavorful and caperlicious. The chunks of tempeh were icing on the cake (mismatached food expression – I don’t care).

The Biscuits and Gravy and Tofu Scram were OK (required a bit of salt and hot sauce to kick ‘em up a notch). I wasn’t überly horny about them, but I ate everything up like a good girl.

Housemade Bakery Goodies

Biscuits and Gravy

Tofu Scramble

Kale Ceasar Salad with Tempeh

Counter
105 First Avenue
New York, NY 10003
(212) 982-5870

Have you been to Counter? What do you usually order?

Loco for Locali

Sunny — Tue, 05 Oct 2010 17:13:18 +0000

All right peeps, if you live in LA, you’ve prolly eaten vegan reubens up the yin yang—they are everywhere (dog bless America)!

Whether they be tempeh, tofu, TVP, Tofurkey, seitan or other incarnations of tasty-ass wheat meatiness, there is no argument that LA does a vegan reuben right… Now as far as the best vegan reuben goes, we vegans are petty much in consensus that Locali takes the [vegan] cake. Speaking of, they have some pretty amazing, floofy icing topped vegan cupcakes (below: orange on the left; smores on the right) that’ll make any sweet-toothed lassie drool.

Check it out, Foolio:

Vegan Reuben w/Daiya Cheese, $9.75

Tell me about your favorite vegan reuben!

Café Gratitude: Get Your Spiritual Grub On!

Sunny — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:49:19 +0000

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not überly horny about raw food… My hubs is all about the healthy grubs so I give in from time to time. While in San Francisco, we made sure to hit up Café Gratitude. I had actually been to this restaurant a few years ago, so I was familiar with Gratitude’s hippie-esque ambiance and raw cuisine. It really is a cute place. While you’re waiting for your food, you can play scenario-type games with the fun playing cards on each table. As for the food… it was tasty but I have to say, LA raw joints pretty much take the [raw] cake. The dishes we ordered were simple and hearty and definitely guac-heavy (which is typically not a bad thing but we managed to guac ourselves out).

I Am Thriving Hot Soup of the Day (Creamy Mushroom), $6.50

I Am Honoring Live Nachos, $12

I Am Elated Special Enchilada del Dia, $15.50

We immediately followed up our healthy meal with a trip to Maggie Mudd for some decadent non-healthy ice cream. Yin yang, Bitches!

Café Gratitude

2400 Harrison Street (@20th Street)

San Francisco, CA 94110

Tel: (415) 830-3014

Millennium: Best Vegan Meal Ever

Sunny — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 21:55:22 +0000

My friends have always hyped up San Francisco’s Millennium for years, saying it was the BEST vegan food they’ve ever had. So when my hubby and I went to San Fran a couple months ago, I was eager to see what the big deal was. I’m not one to fall for hype so I had average expectations for this new-to-me dining experience. OMFG, Millennium is the shiznit times 12 (totally worth the hype and more)! I was seriously blown away by every single item we ordered. We got the tasting menu (I highly recommend you do the same), so we got to sample everything! My faves: Black Bean Torte, Mushroom Duxelle Roulade and all of their desserts! Nomnomnom…

Black Bean Torte

Salt & Pepper Sesame Cornmeal Crusted Oyster Mushrooms

Fresh Corn Tamale

Red Miso Glazed Tempeh

Zucchini Uttapam

Mushroom Duxelle Roulade

Millennium Dessert Sampler

Millennium Restaurant

580 Geary Street

San Francisco, CA 94102

Tel: 415-345-3900

Vegan Sushi at Cha-Ya in San Francisco!

Sunny — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:37:13 +0000

Even though it’s been a little while since my sugar booger and I visited San Francisco, the memories of tasty-ass vegan grubz are ever present in my brain… I fantasize about Cha-Ya’s vegan sushi from time to time, and it always makes me drool. Everything on their menu is ridiculously finger-lickin’ good, their prices are right (but make sure to bring cash!), their service is quick, and their staff is friendly and helpful. I’ll let these pictures speak for themselves. For the record, the Cha-Ya Roll (tempura-fried sushi filled with avocado, yam, and carrots, served with a special house sauce) stole the show. I wish we had ordered 5 of those! If you find yourself sushi’ing it up in San Fran Cha-Ya-style, you have to try this roll! You’ll be sorry if you don’t!

Vegan Roll, $6.75

Yamagobo Roll, $4; Sea Vegetable Salad Roll, $4.25

Summer Green Roll, $6.75

Cha-Ya Roll, $7.40

Cha-Ya

762 Valencia St

(between 18th St & 19th St)

San Francisco, CA 94110

(415) 252-7825

*cash only*

Ice Cream Heaven in San Fran!

Sunny — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 21:58:28 +0000

Every night before I go to bed, I pray to the magical, mystical unicorns of the universe to bring Maggie Mudd to LA. I’ve had my fair share of scrumptious deliumptious vegan ice cream, but I have to say Maggie Mudd takes the (ice cream) cake. If you live in San Francisco and you like sweet, decadent, mind-blowingly awesome ice cream (and hey, who doesn’t?), you need to get your booties to Maggie Mudd asap.

They have a wonderful selection of cones, sundaes, shakes and cakes that are insanely delish and vegan (they have non-vegan ice cream, too, so make sure to order off their vegan menu). Maggie Mudd is by no means a boring, ho-hum vanilla ice creamery. You can expect to devour vegan scoops like Banana Rum Brownie, Peanut Butter Palooka, and Coconut Pecan Praline, just to name a few. I was so overwhelmed by all the vegan options (there we 16 dairy-free flavors to choose from that day) that I spent at least 15 mins. finalizing my order.

I decided to go with the Maggie Muddy Fudgy, which is a rich, hot brownie with a (2) scoops of ice cream (I chose Tramack and Toasted Coconut), whipped cream, nuts, sprinkles, and choice of sauce (I chose their marshmallow sauce – my favorite part of the sundae). It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!

Maggie Mudd, please get yo’ ass to LA! xo

For more info: Maggie Mudd

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Raw, vegan ice cream anyone?

Is there such a thing as healthy ice cream?

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