Friday, June 3, 2011

Native Foods and Veggie Grill: Irvine Vegan Heaven

Two vegan restaurants in 18 hours? Don't mind if I do. Boyfriend on the other hand...


Boyfriend isn't vegan, nor vegetarian, but his culinary adventurousness has evolved over the course of our relationship and I'm so blessed that he's willing to walk into an all-vegan restaurant and order a Tempeh Burger. Not all the time perhaps, but he's up for it, and I know I'm lucky.

So for dinner last night, we checked out Native Foods in Tustin. It's a chain, but it's the first time I've been. Guaranteed not the last. I chose the Greek Gyro Bowl with Sweet Potato fries and John went for The Scorpion Burger, a tempeh burger with chipotle vegan mayo.






Gyro Bowl

Fries. Incredible. I'm not sure what the herb was, but I think they had both sugar and salt, and it was genius. 


Scorpion Burger with Edamame.

It was a lovely and rare experience to be able to share food. And it was ridiculously delicious.

After that brave move of John's, I didn't really expect him to be up for ANOTHER all-vegan restaurant, but today lunch found us exactly there, at the Veggie Grill.


He chose Chili and Spring Mix Salad with Ginger Miso Dressing, and I went for a Chipotle BBQ Burger with Chili. It was awesome. And again, so nice to be able to steal some bites of his food. He even tried mine, vegan "meat" and all. His response? "BBQ is a good flavor for vegan meat." I still don't really know what that means.



This was as messy as it looks. After a few bites I went for a fork and knife approach. The little chili taster was the perfect size. 

Salad and Chili. There's some quinoa buried under there. 


We also stopped by Trader Joe's for snacks and, of course, mineral water. And this evening? Who knows. We're still on vacation. Probably not another all-vegan restaurant though. That might be a bit much even for him.

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