Mexico Restaurant, Seattle Wa

From Vegan Gastrobot

We used to go to Mexico quite a bit before I was vegan, but then they changed chefs or something and the food went downhill. I received an email that they have a new "healthier for you" menu with new options, some that are vegan. We tried it out over the summer and had the butter lettuce wraps and they were delicious! Light and perfect for a hot summer day. We were downtown so we decided to try more. We started with some vegetarian tortilla soup which was actually really tasty. I think this was the first time I had ever had tortilla soup so I don't have anything to compare it to, but it was light and refreshing.

From Vegan Gastrobot

We also tried the vegetable fajitas which are the standard fare we get at Mexican places. They come with a side of rice and beans, but there is butter in the rice so they gave us extra beans. The fajita veggies themselves...well I wish there would have been more veggies. There were a lot of onions, like 4 stalks of asparagus and 2 slices of zucchini. They were also incredibly oily and not the best fajitas we have had. It was good, but not great. I would definitely go for something different if eating here again.

Homegrown, Seattle WA

From Vegan Gastrobot

While searching for new restaurants to try I came across Homegrown - a local sustainable sandwich shop. They have 2 vegan sandwiches so we went for dinner last night - I mean it seems like the kind of place I really like to support. First up hummus and roasted red pepper sandwich with avocado, cucumber and arugula. I love the hummus sandwich at Cherry St so I was hoping that this would be just as good. Unfortunately...it was not. The bread wasn't amazing - good but not the best I have had - and it totally overpowered the filling. You couldn't taste the hummus at all. The pepper - they might as well not be on the sandwich. Since the bread was just alright and that was all you could taste this sandwich was just alright. Not that good.

The soup yesterday was Potato Lemongrass so we tried a cup of that as well. It was...interesting, but not in a good way. I don't know what it tasted like, lemongrass I suppose but not like anything lemongrass flavor I have ever had. It was...odd. There were a lot of chunks of different things in the soup that I couldn't identify. It was just odd and not my thing. Not the worst, but not the best either.

From Vegan Gastrobot

The other sandwich they have is seasonal squash and snap pea pesto with sweet corn, green beans and tamari onion. This one was a lot better than the hummus one, you could still taste the filling and the bread didn't overpower it. It still wasn't the best sandwich and I wouldn't go back specifically for it. I would never day "Hey let's go to Homegrown for dinner!" It was just alright. Since there are so many other places that you can get amazing sandwiches I wouldn't spend the money here. Also, the small sandwich is $6 - a large $10. Since the small didn't really fill us up it would be $10 for a so so sandwich.

From Vegan Gastrobot

The one good thing about Homegrown - homemade sea salt and pepper potato chips. These were delicious! I would stop by and pick up some whenever I am in the area. They were a little bit sweet and very peppery and just perfect. Super crispy and I cannot say enough good things about them. Definitely check them out.

Scoops & Plates, Brooklyn, New York

From Food

Next up on our food tour of Brooklyn was Scoops & Plates in Brooklyn. We walked from over in Park Slope just to check out this Jamaican on the other side of Prospect Park. We walked in and the place is tiny - there are only a couple of stools by the window. There were a bunch of trays behind the glass with food in them, but just as we walked in the guy behind the counter covered them up. There wasn't a menu I could see to know what was underneath the lids so I asked the guy if he could tell me what he had. He was incredibly rude the entire time we were in there and if anyone else came in he ignored us and helped them. I am not entirely sure why....I tried being as nice as possible and he still had some issue with us. I almost just left and said screw this place as I was really hungry and tired. I have no idea what his problem with us was, but when I finally got him to tell us what he had he sighed really loudly and angrily took off the lids and threw them to the side. We decided to get a small container with mince and peas over rice. The peas were good, but the mince...the mince was amazing! It was like barbecue and was just amazing! I was glad we stuck out the rude service just to have some of the mince.

From Food

We also got a scoop of the strawberry banana ice cream. All of the ice creams were tofutti brand which is not my favorite, but this strawberry banana was actually pretty good. Not as good as the other ice creams we had, but alright.

Overall I would try this place again just to get more mince, and to see if the service was any better. If not then it would be hard to continue to eat here because I do not like to support rude people.

Foodswings, Brooklyn, New York

From Food

Next up on our tour of New York - Foodswings. Vegan fast food in Brooklyn. We tried one of the combo plates - 3 drumsticks with choice of side. We chose 1 BBQ, 1 Buffalo, and one Southern Fried wing with a side of mac and cheese. The drumsticks...well I really liked the BBQ one - it was sweet and delicious. The buffalo wing I did not like at all. I don't think I really like buffalo sauce unless there are other things to help diffuse the flavor. The southern fried was fine, but not as amazing as I thought it would be. If I were to go back I would get BBQ and maybe the Sweet Southern Fried - battered, fried, then covered in BBQ. The mac and cheese was alright - not the best, but not the worst. It didn't have as much flavor as it could.

From Food

We also tried the Chicken cordon blue sandwich - Breaded and fried mock cutlet, soy ham and daiya mozzarella cheese with lettuce, tomato, onion and dijonaise on a roll. This was delicious and greasy. We wanted to try a corn dog as well, but they were out of them :( Oh well, next time maybe they will be available. If you're in Brooklyn and want some greasy eats check out Foodswings!

Champs Bakery, Brooklyn, New York City

From Food

The second day in New York was spent in Brooklyn. I had only ever been to Manhatten so it was fun to explore another part of the city. Our first stop in Brooklyn - Champs Bakery. We purchased a bunch of day old stuff - a cinnamon roll, cider muffin, chocolate chip cookie and brownie all for $5! What a good deal! Everything was also amazing even though it was day old (which is not always the case). The cinnamon roll was probably the best I have ever had - so delicious! Sweet but not overly so, nuts in the filling...yum! The chocolate chip cookies were crispy but delicious. The brownie moist and chocolatey. The muffin tasted so good on the plane flying home - very moist and flavorful. Champs was probably my favorite bakery in New York - everything was amazing! I didn't know they had other foods or we would have planned on eating here as well (though when we stopped by it was packed!). Since all of the baked goods were so amazing I look forward to trying their breakfast and other entrees next time we visit. Definitely check out Champs for amazing baked goods!!

Sacred Chow, New York City

From Food

Day two of our food tour of New York started with brunch at Sacred Chow. I love breakfast, it is one of my favorite meals though I hate making it. Sacred Chow was a little expensive for breakfast (over $10 a plate), but it was quite tasty. We walked in and I loved the place - very open and bright with lots of natural light. We tried the breakfast sandwich with a side of gravy so we could try out a little bit of everything. The breakfast sandwich was a soy buttermilk biscuit filled with tofu scramble and tempeh strips with a side of fruit to share. This was huge - I am glad we only ordered the one entree. There is no way you could eat this as a sandwich - it would be way too sloppy and the tofu spilled out all over the plate so fork and knife it is. We took the top half of the biscuit and put the gravy on that for a biscuit and gravy. The gravy was pretty good - peppery and thick like a normal white gravy served on biscuits. I haven't come across a lot of vegan gravies like this - the place we usually go has amazing mushroom gravy, which isn't the same so it was nice to have something different. The tofu was good, but nothing special. The biscuits light and fluffy. They were very generous with the fruit on the side.

From Food

We also tried one of the specials - cornmeal crusted brussel sprouts. I definitely need to recreate these. Overall very good if a little pricey.

Babycakes, New York City

From Food

The last stop on our first day's eating extravaganza in New York City was Babycakes. I had heard mixed reviews of this place from a few different sources so I almost just said eh let's skip it since we had so many other stops. We actually saved most of it to eat at a later date since we were so full. We had the cheese biscuit for breakfast the following day and man was that good. One of the best biscuits I have ever had. Amazing! It was a little spicy and I wish we would have gotten more to bring home with us! We also got an agave brownie which was incredibly dry. So dry it was hard to eat because it instantly dried out your mouth so much. The brownie was the only thing I would not recommend. We tried the carrot spelt cupcake which Raymond really wanted to try but I didn't think I would like. I like carrot cake, but the problem is there is usually cream cheese frosting which I hate. This cupcake however was delicious! The cake was moist, the frosting sweet but not overly so - overall really good. The last thing we tried was an oatmeal raisin cookie pie - we had thought about just trying a cookie, but Raymond said why try just 1 cookie when we could try a cookie pie with frosting in the middle? I couldn't argue with that and I am glad we tried it - the cookie was very moist and flavorful and one of the better cookies I have had!

Overall I would definitely come back to Babycakes next time we are in New York City and pick up some cookies and biscuits.