Bouldin Creek Cafe

Since the discovery of the Lazy Smurf blog, our restaurant craze has reignited.  There are apparently all of these vegan friendly places in town that just take a little searching to find.  One of her strong recommendations was the tofu scramble at Bouldin Creek.  So today, on our monthiversary, we had an early breakfast out.  It opens at 7AM so we had to wait outside until it opened, I guess not everybody is such an early riser..  This seemed to be true for our server.  She looked like she had just woken up and even commented on how it was too early in the morning for so many questions.  Despite how early it was, the coffee was somehow old.  We are talking sour, burnt, and old.  Thankfully before we could stomach our first cup she started making some fresh coffee which was 100% better.  Although they cannot really lose points here, they use unfiltered tap water, which tastes disgusting in Austin.  Now the menu is very vegan friendly, noting that almost anything can be made vegan and there are even a few vegan "meats" to choose from.  At the coffee bar there were some vegan desserts, cookies, cupcakes and a creme filled cookie sandwich.  It was really easy to incorporate the tofu scramble since almost everything comes with it, so Shannon got the sweet potato pecan tamale with a side of facon (fake bacon).  Miguel got the tofu migas with a side of their homemade soy chorizo and a potato hash cake.  Shannon was much more impressed with this array of food.  Although we both agreed the facon, soyrizo and potato hash cake were not worth the extra money, the migas and tamales were outrageously good.  Apparently the cook decided to make the migas a different way, using fresh tortillas rather than chips, it was great.  Miguel thought the soyrizo was too sweet, the bacon was just a piece of tofu and the tofu scramble was salty.  Shannon thought the tamales were sweet and delectable and the migas and tofu scramble were almost creamy from the coating of nutritional yeast and spices.  The tortillas were just the plain store bought kind.  In case you are wondering why the tofu scramble could be considered the best in town, it is because of the unconventional preparation.  The tofu is crumbled, then coated, heavily, in a mixture of nutritional yeast and spices until a lot of the moisture is soaked up.  Miguel did not like the lack of moisture.  Overall, although we had differing takes on this place, we probably won't be back.  The bad service left a bad taste in Miguel's mouth which unfortunately started before he even took one bite of food.  The server started out sleepy, served us horrible coffee which she didn't refill until our food arrived, then went on to talk about us to her co-workers, and topped it off by calling Miguel "hun" (his favorite name next to "chief" lol).  The final draw was the $25 bill, that is an extremely expensive breakfast for 2 people, even with additions.  The horrible coffee turned out to be $2.50, which is pretty steep.  At this point Bouldin Creek will be recommended but it seems an explanation is in order.  If something is "recommended" it is because it has vegan options and the food is not horrible, for a better gauge of how enjoyable your visit might be refer to whether or not we will be back and why.

Recommended
http://www.bouldincreek.com/menu.asp

The Onion

We got a free coupon in the mail for a large, 3-topping pizza at the Onion.  We walked on over after work to claim this alleged pizza and were not disappointed.  First off, this place looks really cool.  The whole vibe reminded us of underground, ninja turtles style.  The people working there were nice and they are very accommodating for vegans.  It came as a pleasant surprise when the woman taking our order offered us an extra free topping.. since we weren't getting cheese and all.  This is a refreshing change from some other places in town who charge for substitutions.  The tomatoes looked thick and juicy so we added them on in place of the cheese.  The pizza was great, the crust was bread like and the sauce was almost spicy.  We added our own spinach,  daiya and "parm" at home to compliment the artichoke, pineapple, tomato, jalapeno pizza that was ordered.  Overall, it was a great pizza, definitely a cool hang out, and a laid back spot for vegan pizza orderers (finally).

Recommended
http://onionbaby.com/

Biscuits and Groovy

We had been craving some biscuits and gravy and Shannon had heard about this vegan friendly trailer so finally the urge forced into the line last Sunday morning.  Shannon got the classic plate of vegan biscuits and groovy, which were very good.  The gravy was creamy and delicious and the portion size was huge, very filling.  Miguel got the ultimate platter, with every vegan meat and cheese he could fit on his biscuits.  They were to die for!  We both agreed Miguel's were the best, the bacon even tasted scarily like real bacon.  We will be back again for sure.  The poor guy running the trailer, alone, for the morning was swamped (omelet guy didn't show) and shorting himself.  He was giving everybody discounts to make up for the wait time since he had to make and take 20 orders on his own.  They have french press coffee but we opted for some coffee from the shop around the corner so we wouldn't have to bother him.  The outdoor seating and atmosphere are great but we were annoyed by the high school kids who started smoking at the end of our meal.. ruining the last delectable bite!  What is with all the smoking around trailers?  People are eating!  Anyway, anything but the wamellette and french toast can be veganized, they have a lot of hearty replacement options. 

Recommended X 10
http://www.iwantbiscuits.com/

Concious Cravings

It was inevitable, this veggie trailer stationed 2 blocks from our house, boasting amazing veggie food, we had to try it someday.  Saturday was the day.  Miguel had been fighting this place for weeks because the wrap is not so appealing to a hungry vegan.  All our doubts were shattered as soon as we bit into the delectable black bean slider wrap.  MMM!!  It had an indian spicy flavor, it was creamy from the black beans and it even had daiya cheese.  We ordered a side of baked rosemary fries and they just made the whole thing better.  Wow, yum, etc.  We are kicking ourselves for not trying this earlier but of course now we are happy to have found it.  We will be back everyday forever (exaggeration).  Another great note, we shared the wrap and the fries and were stuffed so after our Go Local card discount we paid less than $7 for a hearty, delicious meal.

Recommended
http://www.consciouscravingsaustin.com/Conscious_Cravings/Welcome.html

Leaf, Perla's and Coat and Thai

Some coworkers were in town so a lot of eating out was warranted.  For lunch we had Leaf, for dinner we had Perla's and for lunch the next day we had Coat & Thai.
Leaf:
First off, leaf is very vegetarian friendly.  Not only because they have salads, but even the veggie ones are delicious.  As for vegan, the options are more limited but just as delicious!  The Strawberry Fields salad is to die for.  It is like foraging through a delicious forest.  It includes strawberries, candied pecans, sunflower seeds, red onions and baby spinach.  Even without the dressing it is heaven.  Avocados were added topping off the texture.
The asian chicken salad without the chicken, avocados added, was amazing.   Crunchy, and sweet, it hits the spot when your in the mood for sesame sauce.
The greenbelt, add avocados.  Originally this seemed like an amazing salad but after the Strawberry Fields blew it away.. it can only be described as good.

Perla's
After a filling lunch at leaf, Perla's is the perfect place to nibble on some vegan snacks.  We shared a sampling of sides and a salad.  Miguel was craving the iceberg salad so we ordered the salad without meat and had them use an iceberg wedge instead of the spring mix.  It had mint, almonds and radishes.  One thing of note, Perla's serves tiny dishes.  Even the meat eaters we ate with had tiny lumps of fish on their plate, although they claimed to be full afterward.  The best side, as agreed upon by everyone at the table, was by far the brussel sprouts.  They have a lemony flavor with some spiciness thrown in.  Basted in olive oil, they require no modifications to be vegan.  The asparagus was pretty good but could not compare to the brussel sprouts.  This is probably because they normally come covered in hollandaise sauce.  The spinach was really good, with fried garlic on top.  The second best side was the hand cut french fries.  It seems weird that any french fry would be that much more delicious than the last, but these are some gourmet, nicely textured french fries.  The cocktails seem very interesting but are not as tasty as they sound.  The Pimms Cup tasted like pure alcohol, the dry martini tasted like rubbing alcohol, the Peace N' Quiet tasted like alcohol but had a nice after taste.  The non-vegans ordered dessert and it was grueling to watch.  They said the pear bread pudding was the best they'd had, and the pistachio macroon looking things made us envious.  A quick note on the rest of the restaurant, the atmosphere is great, the server was nice but got things wrong a lot.  He seemingly forgot to write down Miguel's entire order and forgot to bring Shannon's drink at all.  In case it matters, he also snuck a peak at the tip while he was taking our plates, it was not very subtle sneaking.. some may consider this rude.

Coat & Thai
We went here for a light lunch and a light lunch it was indeed.  The chicken cashew (with tofu instead of chicken) was not great, still good.  It seemed too easy to make at home and it relied too much on soy sauce for flavor.  The rice was good, well cooked and moist.  There was a very small portion but the cashews and veggie's seemed fresh.  We may go back to try the curry but only maybe.  They did have a lot of vegan options since you could replace any meat with tofu.

Overall, all are recommended for light eaters.

http://www.leafsalad.com/menu_big12.asp
http://www.perlasaustin.com/
http://coatandthai.com/

Dog Almighty

Now this was a great groupon, vegan hotdogs?  Heck yes.  So we have $10 to spend at Dog Almighty and although everything seems so cheap it was easier than we thought to go over this.  First items of note, they have Pecan Porter and Maine Root Beer on draft.. and Lone Star, but who cares?  Also, the have Diet Dr. Pepper!  Scoring points.  They have 2 types of vegan hotdogs you can get, the regular one and the beer brat, more points.  They also have veggie chili, yay.  The only thing they are missing is vegan cheese, but they are trying right?  They are trying to cater to vegetarians, not vegans.. that's OK.  So Miguel ordered a Hyde Park dog (chili and mustard) with a beer brat, he fell in love.  Shannon ordered a Slacker Dog, which includes any and all toppings you want (she got chili, horseradish, onions, and jalapenos), with a regular dog.  This was a waste since it costs about a dollar more and the extras were not pricey enough.. whatever the hot dog was delicious.  We both agreed that the beer brat was much better than the regular dog.  In order to tip the scale we got chili fries which were good and ddp's for both of us, why?  Anyway, it was a great meal.  The only downsides were the lack of vegan things (like the cupcakes) and the location.  It seems like a place with so much potential and the atmosphere could be greatly improved by being in the city so that sitting outside doesn't include a spacious view of a parking lot.  Overall, great place for vegans and carnivores alike, we will be back.

Recommend
http://www.hotdogalmighty.com/menu.html

Third Base

Since Groupon/Living Social/Urban Dealight are our new things, we eat at the restaurants they offer most of the time.  Last Sunday our living social deal led us to Third Base, a sports bar on West 6th.  It is an OK location, decent atmosphere.  There is pool, darts, and shuffleboard inside along with 10-20 big screens inside and out.  It was a beautiful night so we opted for outside.  The patio is crowded and the tables are not in the best condition, oh yea and the servers can't really see you.  It took about 20 minutes of trying to chase the outside server around and finally asking the bartender to catch her for us before we were even noticed.  Our server was not very knowledgeable and seemed offended that we would ask so many questions.  We asked for 2 waters with no ice and got a soda and a water.. with ice ??.  It took a good 15 minutes between each time she would check on us (we started timing her after a while).  So she brought us waters after 15 minutes, then we order our nachos and asked some additional questions that she had to check on.  5 minutes later she let us know our nachos were put in before letting us know the answers to our questions.  When I asked about this she said in an almost rude way that they were already in so I couldn't change them.  She seemed to be the type of person that would have told us off by now if she were not our server.  We took this opportunity to order our portabella burger with 2 wing sauces on the side.  She was very confused about this, so I tried to explain that we cannot eat ranch or cheese so we would like sauce for our burger and she gave this very blank stare and walked away.  Again, it is hard to explain the sort of confused, angry, frustration her face was portraying.  15 minutes later, we got our cheeseless nachos with black beans, guacamole, sweet corn, pico de gallo and soggy chips.  10-15 minutes later she came to check on us, then another 7 minutes later we got our burger with only one sauce and it did not seem to be either of the sauces we asked for.  It was good but there was something off, Shannon noticed a freezer burned taste and Miguel thought the mushroom had an odd texture.  It was still pretty good with the random sauce on it.  The fries with the "cajun" seasoning were average, it was just a shake of season salt.  We still had a couple dollars left on the deal so we ordered some chips and salsa for dessert although they do have a fresh fruit cup as well.  She didn't come to check on us until after we were done eating for a while so waiting another 15 minutes for the chips and salsa, both which are premade, was a little ridiculous.  We are going on an hour and a half of trying to eat a couple easy items at a sports bar.  Overall the server ruined the experience more so than the food, because it was not bad.  It did not feel like a friendly place for "our kind", face it, no sports bar is.  We will not be back, but mostly because we hate sports!

Do not recommend.