The Bye and Bye, Portland OR

The Bye and Bye is one of my favorite places to eat in Portland. Their menu has sandwiches and different  bowls and they have fancy drinks that are delicious. It is quite popular every time we have gone, but we always manage to find a place to sit and enjoy our food and drinks. My favorite bowl is the BBQ Brussel bowl. Tofu in a slightly spicy BBQ sauce over brown rice which is delicious. The brussel sprouts were cooked and seasoned with lots of pepper and are delicious! But then again brussel sprouts are one of my favorite foods.


We also tried the eastern bowl - tofu and broccoli covered in nutritional yeast and tahini sauce served over brown rice. This is also incredibly tasty, Really if I could get this tofu and the brussel sprouts I think I would have the perfect meal. It is nice to have healthy bar food instead of all the greasy food that you usually get at bars.

Overall - I really like the Bye and Bye and stop by pretty much every time we visit Portland. The food is tasty and seemingly healthy, or at least healthier than normal bar foods, and the drinks are tasty.

Macaroni Grill, Lancaster PA

So I normally don't eat at a lot of national chain restaurants. I had some coupons for Macaroni Grill and when visiting my mom we decided to use them (I have had them for years and never went in Seattle). My mom and I both chose the create your own pasta dish. My mom got the gluten free penne with pomodoro sauce, sun dried tomatoes, snap peas, and spinach. This was...just alright. I could make it better at home and have actual pieces of veggies in instead of slivers.



I ordered the capellini with garlic olive oil, cannellini beans, roasted tomatoes and asparagus. This was disappointing. The oil did not have much garlic flavor, so it was just like eating oily plain pasta. The roasted tomatoes were good and added some flavor to this otherwise disappointing dish.

Overall - I would not go to the Macaroni Grill normally. If there were a family event or something there I would go, but it would never be my top choice for restaurants.

Planet Veg, Vancouver BC, Canada

From Vegan Gastrobot

I had put Planet Veg on my list of places to eat at in Vancouver because they had roti rolls. I was hoping they were going to be like the One Love Vegetarian in Toronto. We walked in and I thought oh I don’t know about this place…it just seemed like it wouldn’t be amazing food. When the food came out I again though oh…maybe we should have skipped this. It looks like just a burrito and an eh one at that. This is not going to be amazing like I had hoped. Boy was I wrong! It didn’t look like much but our roti roll was unbelievable! We ordered the Kathmandu roll which was a 12” spinach roti filled with cabbage, mixed vegetables cooked in spices, tomatoes, cucumber and crispy noodles with a jalapeno cilantro chutney.

From Vegan Gastrobot

I was iffy on the noodles – like it didn’t make sense in my head how that would be really good. The mixed veggies were just like the back of frozen carrots, corn, green beans, etc but they were spiced wonderfully! The combination of everything was just incredible – The noodles added a nice crunch, the sauce was delicious and not spicy, it all felt very light and healthy and perfect on a warm summery day. I was wishing we would have gotten more for the road. If I worked in the area I would stop by here for lunch all the time! We also tried the baked curry samosa. This was just alright – it did not have much flavor which surprised me since the roti roll was so flavorful.

Overall – Definitely stop in at Planet Veg. It is fast, cheap and incredibly good. Definitely try a roti roll!

Afghan Horsemen, Vancouver BC

From Vegan Gastrobot

We arrived at Afghan Horsemen around 10pm so it was not that busy. They did have room in the area where you sit on the floor on cushions so we chose to sit in there. I loved the way it was decorated and you just relaxed while eating. There were 2 combination options – the vegan plate (which comes with baked rice with Kabuli topping (sautéed carrots, raisins & almonds), Dahl (lentil stew), cauliflower, Salata & Pakawra (batter fried potatoes), with a vegetarian sauce dip) or the vegan platter which came with all of that plus a plate of pita and hummus and is for 2 people. Since we were not that hungry we decided to share the vegan plate since it would be less food (it was still too much for us and we had some leftovers). The salata was like a cucumber salad I make with vinaigrette – mixed onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, mint flakes and cilantro dressing that was vinegary and delicious. The Pakwara was like a giant battered potato chip. The potato slices were incredibly thin and the batter was spiced nicely.  The cauliflower was cooked till it was falling apart and spiced very well – I couldn’t put my finger on what it tasted like but I loved it, especially with the red sauce that came with it. The Kabuli topping for the rice was carrots, raisons and almonds that were sweet with a hint of cinnamon and really quite good. Finally the dal was like a garlic paste. When I first tried it I couldn’t remember what it was supposed to be it just tasted like garlic and I thought maybe it was a topping for the other things. But it did grow on me until we had eaten the entire bowl of it.

Overall – Definitely check out Afghan Horsemen and get a vegan combination. All of the flavors were amazing and much different from other foods I have eaten.