Tag Archives: austin vegetarian restaurant

Austin Chronicle Restaurant Poll, vote vegan!

Every year I read the results of the restaurant poll and every year I get so annoyed when the same people win. I know everyone really loves Mother’s and Casa de Luz but there are so many other vegan friendly restaurants and it makes me sad that they don’t ever get any Chronicle love. So here is how I voted, I could think of a vegan friendly establishment in almost every category, even seafood! Kelp totally counts!

And I think there should be more categories like best smoothie, best potato, best healthy, best raw, best farmer’s market, best CSA and best latte but it seems like they seldom change the categories.

The only things that we don’t have is a vegan chicken fried steak or any vegan cajun food or vegan crepes. So please people, let’s get this together for next year! If you are thinking about moving to Austin and opening a vegan trailer, this is what we need! I also answered trailers for a lot of categories because on the whole they are more vegan friendly and that is where I eat most of the time. If you need help thinking of places check out my Austin Vegan Guide, it has almost everything I know of, in fact I am going to update it today. Be sure to vote!


FAVORITE RESTAURANT

One: Counter Culture
Two: Conscious Cravings
Three: Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse

BEST DISHES

Appetizers: Wingz at Iggie’s Texitarian
Barbecue: Barbecued Seitan Wrap from Consious Cravings
Hamburger: Bouldin Creek Veggie Burger
Steak: Milanesa from Mr. Natural
Comfort Food: vegan mac & cheese, greens, and fried tofu at Wheatsville
Chicken-Fried Steak: southern fried tofu from Wheatsville
Chile-Pepper Dish: chips & vegan queso at Gueros
French Fries: rosemary baked fries at Conscious Cravings
Hot Dog: BROKEN SPOKE DOG at Dog Almighty
Chips and Salsa: Polvos
Taco: Whole Foods breakfast taco
Soup: mulligatawny from the soup peddler
Salad/Dressing: cashew tamari dressing from wheatsville
Seafood Dish: ASIAN STYLE NOODLE SALAD from Beets
Pub Grub: cowgirl nachos at Iggie’s Texitarian
Bagels: Central Market
Sushi: Sushi a-go-go
Tofu Dish: Tofu Vermicelli bowl from Lulu B’s
Dim Sum: Salt and Pepper Tofu Get Sum Dim Sum
Pho: veggie pho at Sunflower
American Breakfast: the rennedict from Bouldin Creek
Mexican Breakfast: tofu migas at Mr. Natural
Sandwich: chimichurri seitan Conscious Cravings
Bread: Moonlight Bakery
Dessert:raw cheesecake from Counter Culture
Ice Cream: Thai Fresh
Frozen Yogurt:
Gelato: whole foods
Local Chocolate: raw chocolate from the daily juice
Coffee: the fair bean
Pizza: The Parlour
Enchiladas:vegetarian enchilidas at Curras
Vegetables:Veggie Meshi – at the Eastside King
Chicken Dish: #51 Veggie Chicken at Mr. Natural
Wild-Game Dish: vegan duck in a can at MT Supermarket
Veggie Burger: Bouldin
Vegetarian Dish: Popcorn Tofu Po’boy
Bargain
Dish: frito pie at wheatsville
Restaurant: consious cravings

BEST ETHNIC OR SPECIALTY RESTAURANT

Mexican (non-Tex-Mex): Mr. Natural
Tex-Mex: Iggie’s Texitarian
Taquería: Chi’Lantro
Central/South American: Habana
Italian: Asti Trattoria
Cajun/Creole: I am always stuck dinking beer in that situation!
Middle Eastern: The Flying Carpet
Indian: G’raj Mahal
Chinese: Get Sum Dim Sum
Japanese: Uchi
Korean: Koriente
Thai: Titaya’s Thai Cuisine
Vietnamese: Sunflower Restaurant
Other Asian: Java Noodles
American: The Vegan Yacht
Vegetarian/Natural Food: Counter Culture
French: Blue Dahlia Bistro
Other Ethnic
Type: Ethiopian
Restaurant: Aster’s Ethiopian Restaurant

OTHER STUFF

New Restaurant (Opened in 2010-2011): conscious cravings
Chef
Chef Name: Sue Purr
Restaurant Name: Counter Culture
Service/Waitstaff: Counter Culture
Full-Service Bakery/Pastry Shop: Sugar Mama’s
Grocery Store: Wheatsville
Ethnic Market: Fiesta
Patio/Beergarten: Vivo
Street Food
Street Food Dish: The Freeto Burrito
Street Food Vendor: the Vegan Yacht
Decor: Snackbar
Romantic Dinner Spot: the Clay Pit (the basement)
Sunday Brunch: Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse
Fast Food: Dog Almighty
Takeout: Whip In
Delivery: Hao Hao
Wine List: Uchi
Mixologist:
Beer Selection: Black Sheep Lodge
Buffet: Aster’s Ethiopian
Happy Hour/Deal
Happy Hour Deal: beer &liquor $0.50 off. As well as $0.25 bean tamales. Other discounts on assorted appetizers as well. Vegan Queso
Restaurant: Gueros
Late Night/All Night: One Love Kitchen
Place to Take Kids: Whole Foods
Place to Take Parents: Vivo
Restaurant Within 60 Miles of Austin: Promise Pizza
Place We Wish Were Still Open: fete accompli
Any Other Restaurant Worth Noting: Somnios, local food with vegan options and a fried stuffed avocado
Food Event: Vegan Bakesales!

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The Steeping Room at the Domain

Update 5/31/2018 The Domain location is closed, there is a newer location at 4400 North Lamar

For the longest time I had been avoiding “The Domain”. It’s not like it’s very hard to avoid since I don’t ever go shopping and live in South Austin and it is really far north. But, there have been a few times it has come up (like when my mom comes to visit) that I had to actively avoid it. When they built the large outdoor shopping mall it was touted as being a high end shopping mall for a certain kind of luxury shopper. Having an inherent hatred of shopping, things that are expensive, driving across town, and perfume it just isn’t my scene. But I kept hearing about this little tea shop called “The Steeping Room” that was very vegan friendly that I had to try it.

I’m so glad I did. As shopping malls go, I actually liked the domain. It had all the normal stores but since you can walk around outside it doesn’t suck your soul out as much and I am not coughing, sneezing, and crying from the department store’s perfume.

The Steeping Room itself was a nice little cafe with a little bit of outdoor seating and a kind of fancy chain feel if you know what I mean, pleasant. It was very bright inside with lots of white and little tables. The place was packed when we went and they immediately brought us their extensive tea menu that had a thousand different kinds of tea with lots of information about tea. My friend and I chose the Earl Grey because we are fans and it was described as “the best earl grey tea you will ever have. I think it was! Then we ordered dinner. I got the Buddha bowl which was rice, lentils, baked tofu, sweet potatoes, greens, and for the sauce I chose the cashew cream sauce. It was pretty good, very healthy and filling but a little lacking for me. The tofu was really dry and the bowl reminded me of one I had at Blossoming Lotus which was especially good. Maybe I should tell the steeping room about soy curls because I liked them much better in a bowl like this!

They also have lots of different vegan options for dessert, or I guess they usually do but when we went it was just a vegan cupcake which was fine by me!

The cupcake was perfect! The frosting was luscious and creamy and the cake was moist and delicious. I definitely recommend the Steeping Room. Especially if your mom is town or you like shopping. Or live north. And as a word of warning, if you stare at this picture of the cupcake long enough you might go into a trance that only a cupcake can revive your from so LOOK AWAY!

Veggie Heaven - Austin Vegetarian Restaurant

One of the cookbooks I got for Christmas is Brian Yarvin’s A World of Dumplings. So far it seems like a great book although I have only made one recipe so I can’t say for sure. It is broken into sections by region and every area of the world is covered. Best of all, it is really vegan friendly for a non-veg cookbook. Although a lot of the wrappers have eggs in them Yarvin usually points out what vegan wrappers would work instead and offers many vegetable fillings. The downside to the book is that I have been reading it a lot and I get so hungry for dumplings that it is hard to be pleased by non-stuffed-in-dough food. It is time consuming to make dumplings every day so sometimes you have to go to Veggie Heaven where they will make one for you. We had a steamed bun and pot stickers!

Veggie Heaven is a restaurant that has reached near mythical status with some of its devotees. It is a tiny place by UT campus with maybe 15 tables all scrunched together and a menu that has probably a hundred options on its numerous pages. Although the service isn’t their strong suit if you are looking for numerous options from Protein 2000 to Hawaii taro to the lucky seven Veggie Heaven is the way to go. You can even get a T-shirt. It could take years to try everything. They even have vegan Bubble Tea and Thai Iced Tea!

This time I tried the “Beef” bowl and it was really good. I have never had noodles from there before but I will seek them out from now on. The bowl included udon noodles in a brothy sauce with many different kinds of vegetables and a very unusual but really tasty beef substitute in addition to some fried tofu. It was so good and dare I say; somewhat healthy for restaurant food.