Grumpy's has really upped their vegan choices. They still have their sweet potato vegan burger on their regular menu, but they have been having lots of vegan specials. When we went recently, three of the specials were vegan. We tried them all!

The Magpies Vegan Grilled Cheese had dairy-free mozzarella, vegan pesto, a healthy amount of spinach and tomato served on sourdough bread. The Vegan BLT had eggplant bacon, lettuce, tomato and vegan mayo on toasted sourdough bread. They had a Beyond Meat Burger as well.  

The Grilled Cheese was both of our favorites; we are partial to pesto and so often in restaurants it is not vegan. The pesto had a rich taste and the good amount of spinach was a nice touch, too. The Vegan BLT was delicious too, with the eggplant bacon as a nice surprise, thinly sliced and marinated in a rich sauce. We did like the Beyond Meat Burger too, but the Grilled Cheese and Vegan BLT were truly creative.

Last time we were there (during the summer), there were no vegan desserts. This time, they had a vegan sugar cookie and a vegan brownie, both freshly made and a nice modest portion, so that you can decide whether you want seconds or if you want to exert control and stop at one!

We hope that all three of these vegan dishes get put on the regular menu. It was a great lunch!!!

Grumpy’s is one of Toledo’s classic downtown lunch spots (33 years in business), winning lots of awards for their burgers. Although most of the menu is off-limits to vegans, they do carry a Homemade Sweet Potato Vegan Burger that comes on a whole wheat bun, with avocado, red onion and Dijon mustard along with a side of baked kale chips. The burger was tasty and we appreciated the avocado as a nice touch (we subbed tomato for red onions for one burger).   

As vegans, veggie burgers are often a mixed bag with many of them not being vegan. Often wait-staff are unclear whether there is egg in the veggie patty or in the bun. We appreciate Grumpy’s having a special burger for vegans (they have a separate vegetarian, non-vegan burger as well).

We were told that some of the salads could be modified to be vegan and so you could have other options as well. Grumpy’s has a lot of baked goods, cookies and pies. Unfortunately, none were vegan (hint, hint).

We just wanted to update our review of Yer Mom's House of Eats as we had a chance to go back for lunch and found that they had greatly expanded their vegan options. They had two vegan soups, a roasted garlic and tomato soup and a harvest bisque. We ordered both and enjoyed them a lot. The harvest bisque had a unique savory taste that reminded us of the spices prevalent from a Thanksgiving dinner along with slivered almonds, which was a nice touch. The roasted garlic tomato soup had bits of quinoa in it along with a hearty garlic taste.

There are lots of additional vegan options, including tacos, a quesadilla that is vegan, several sandwiches and several bowls. This time we ordered the Vegan Back to Cauli sandwich and The Other Vegan Bowl. The sandwich had curried cauliflower, hummus, smoked quinoa and some other delicious toppings whereas the vegan bowl had curried cauliflower as well as other roasted vegetables, greens and rice noodles.

We love how they keep expanding their menu and rotating soups. It's well worth a trip to downtown Toledo for lunch. They have expanded their space (right across from the Main Library) and are thinking about expanding to have limited evening hours. We hope that they do!!!

We had Blaze Pizza a while ago when traveling in Orlando and were excited that they opened a restaurant in Toledo. It's very simple to get a nice vegan pizza. The dough is vegan and the red and spicy red sauce are vegan. They have vegan cheese and a host of vegetable options, including traditional ones such as mushrooms, basil and sauteed onions as well as some other neat ones like roasted garlic and zucchini. You choose the toppings as a worker adds them to your pizza.

And then they put it in the high temperature oven for 180 seconds and finally they call your name. There are some vegan last minute add-ons that they can add to your pizza including arugula, buffalo sauce and balsamic drizzle. When they found out we were vegan, the workers automatically changed gloves and worked diligently to avoid cross-contamination with meat products. 

We each ordered our own pizzas and found that the 9-inch build-your-own was a nice and filling lunch. Blaze Pizza is very similar to Pizza Fire. Although others may have done a side-by-side comparison, we found them comparable in taste, price and both had vegan cheese! Blaze seemed to have slightly more vegetable options and we liked the roasted garlic. Pizza Fire had fresh basil growing in-house and we liked that touch. Overall, both were delicious!

Peta has a nice entry on how to order vegan at Blaze: https://www.peta2.com/vegan-life/vegan-options-at-blaze-pizza/