Eat, Drink & Perch, Vancouver BC

From Vegan Gastrobot

After the letdown of The Foundation not having vegan nachos I was pretty excited to try out the ones at Perch. We ordered a half order of the vegan nachos as we were not that hungry. This was still a HUGE plate of food. These nachos were also amazing – fancier than normal nachos. They consisted of lemon hummus on the bottom of the plate, layers of tortilla chips, daiya cheese, jalapenos, sun dried tomatoes, olives, artichoke hearts, onions and tomatoes, served with some Pico de Gallo. Sun dried tomatoes on nachos? Yes please! They were amazing! The flavor just melted together into a huge pile of deliciousness. I would highly recommend these nachos.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We also tried the BBQ tofu nuggets. These were really tasty as well. They were a little bit spicy and it was a dry BBQ and I think the tofu might have been frozen first. I am not really sure as I don’t particularly like pre-frozen tofu as it makes it like a sponge….but this was meatier than normal tofu, but not like a sponge so I am not sure how they prepared it. Whatever they did it worked and was amazing.

Overall – I loved Perch. It was a tiny place in an odd location (not much around it but warehouses), but the food was amazing. I wish we would have had time to go back and try some of the vegan pizzas and sandwiches. Or just hang out with a drink and some nachos…Maybe next time.

Banditas Taqueria, Vancouver BC

From Vegan Gastrobot

The last stop on our first evening of eating in Vancouver was Bandidas Taqueria. We were quite full by the time we got there, but wanted to try a few of the tacos. All could be made vegan by request. When we walked in I instantly loved it – this was the kind of place that if I lived here I would visit often. The atmosphere was comfortable, they are all trying to be as environmentally friendly as possible (they try to buy local organic items, reuse things, make you bring your own take out cup for coffee, etc) and the people were friendly, though the lady who greeted us was odd as she didn’t say anything just made odd gestures with her head. We recieved chipas and salsa as we were seated - I really liked the salsa, but could not eat very much of it sinc eI was so full already.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We tried 3 different tacos. First was the Ronny Russell which had roasted yams and onions, fresh guacamole, black beans, green salsa, purple cabbage and toasted pumpkin seeds (pictured bottom left). This had a light mellow flavor of yam and was good.

We also tried the Leona Gayle – smoky-sweet chipotle tofu with pinto beans, cheese, roasted red salsa, romaine lettuce and sour cream (pictured bottom right). I was very excited to try this one as I love smoky things – but like in DC the smoky tofu disappointed. I’m not sure why people cannot get the smoky tofu right – it is not that hard to make I do it all the time. This taco was alright it just didn’t have as much flavor as I thought based on what was in it. The salsa was very good however.

And lastly we tried Connie’s taco – walnuts ground, apple salsa, cheese and roasted red pepper sauce (pictured top). This was amazing! Definitely my favorite of the three..I could have eaten a few more of them. The walnuts lent a very delicious flavor to the taco and made it meaty, the roasted red pepper sauce was amazing, everything about it was so good. I would highly recommend this taco.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We also tried to get the small vegan chocolate cake but they were out so we got the two bite brownies instead. These were super dense and fudgy and good, but not what I was expecting for brownies.

Overall – I loved the atmosphere in here and if we had wanted drinks we could have hung out a long time. The tacos were overall pretty good, the chips and salsa was delicious, and I would definitely go back here again.