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Vegan Toledo

Vegan Toledo Blog

The Displaced Chef

10/31/2016

1 Comment

 
The Displaced Chef
Food Truck
http://www.thedisplacedchef.com
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Update: The Displaced Chef closed its Perrysburg restaurant and is now exclusively a food truck. They posted the following on Facebook on 12/03/18:
"It is with a heavy heart that we have decided to close our restaurant. Some unforeseen things happened, and it was just too much for our little business to handle. We still have our food truck and will continue to run it. Thanks for the opportunity to show you what Cuban food was all about."

The Displaced Chef’s theme is “bringing a little taste of Florida to Ohio.” Chef Matt has a passion for Cuban-inspired food and started off in the Toledo-area with a food truck. There is now a restaurant in Perrysburg and we were excited to see what options there would be for vegans. 

Although the menu, not surprisingly, is heavy on meat options, the vegetarian platter is a good choice for vegans with a healthy dose of black beans, yellow rice, green peppers, onions and sweet plantains. We found the platter to be filling and delicious.

There are also several vegan sides. We tried the Fried Yucca tossed in Mojo Sauce as well as Tostones. The yucca tastes like a potato and the Mojo sauce is a traditional Cuban marinade of garlic, olive oil and citrus. The Tostones are unripened plantain smashed with garlic and then fried. There is also a yucca dish sautéed with lemon that we haven't tried yet.

We love the sweet plantain and consider The Displaced Chef a place that we’ll come back to from time to time.
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Kengo Sushi & Yakitori

10/30/2016

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Kengo Sushi & Yakitori
38 S St Clair St, Toledo OH 43604
www.kengotoledo.com
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We went here to celebrate with a birthday boy who loves sushi. We’ve always had good luck finding vegan food at sushi restaurants though we were a little intimidated at Kengo’s chalkboard menu, because it looked like there wouldn’t be any veggie rolls. Kengo prides itself on fresh fish sushi and sashimi and the menu reflected that.

Fortunately, when we talked with our server, she informed us that they have an off-menu vegan roll and we promptly ordered several of them—Japanese pickled radish was the primary ingredient, at least on that day. Also, they specialize in Japanese grilling and so there were several options that were of the sides-type portions. We devoured the roasted corn and enjoyed Shishito (Japanese sweet peppers), Shiitake mushrooms, Brussels sprouts and baby bell peppers.

Clearly, Kengo is a place that caters to fish and meat lovers, but the good news is that you can get a filling vegan meal. Kengo is extremely charming; we felt like we were in NYC with the cramped space (only 23 seats), the highly-curated beer and drink menu and how the friendly staff called out greetings when you enter and when they only had one left of a particular item.

With the small space, we did end up waiting with drinks along the back hall—it was a Saturday night—but it moved pretty fast and they even brought complimentary edamame over to those of us who were waiting. A nice courtesy.


We had a great time here! Not a lot of choices for vegans, but well worth a visit, especially with your foodie friends!
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Element 112

10/23/2016

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Element 112
5735 Main St., Sylvania OH 43560
www.element112restaurant.com
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We had a friend visiting this weekend and wanted to do something special. Element 112 had done well with the Toledo City Paper dining-out awards and so we wanted to see what their chef could do vegan-wise. The web site suggested that they could handle different dietary restrictions if you called ahead and so we made reservations a day early, alerting them that 2 out of our 3 dinners would be vegan. We were excited that they could accommodate vegans as their online menu didn’t look very vegan-friendly. From our experience, good chefs can always accommodate if given notice.

They offer a Chef’s Tasting Menu with a 6-course meal based on chef’s preference. They were able to offer a vegan-version and so our friend got the regular version and ours was vegan. We enjoyed our meal (pickled carrots with mustard, brussels sprouts and apples, spaghetti squash with balsamic vinegar, cauliflower with tomato and truffles, tomato and eggplant with smoked miso and apples with pecans). For many of the courses, the vegan portion was a modification of the dish served to omnivores, but some of our courses were unique.

This is a nice option for vegans who want a “wow factor” experience. The food was generally tasty and healthy, with taste coming from unique flavors and not relying heavily on oil and salt. Also, they have a nice wine menu and do tasting pairings designed to match your dish. This was a nice experience to get various wines chosen directly to complement each dish. One note—our dessert contained honeycomb. We flex with honey and so that we were able to eat it—but for many vegans, this surprise would have been disappointing. The lesson, always be clear about your specific dietary restrictions.
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The Flying Joe

10/22/2016

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The Flying Joe Coffee Shop
2130 Preston Pkwy (Levis Commons), Perrysburg OH 43551
theflyingjoe.com
We've removed our earlier review about the amazing weekend vegan brunch options because they are currently not available at The Flying Joe. They do typically still offer at least one vegan baked good and have great drinks and a lovely atmosphere. We're hoping they bring back the vegan brunch items soon!
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The Grape Leaf Diner

10/8/2016

10 Comments

 
The Grape Leaf Diner
909 S McCord Rd #6, Holland OH 43528
http://grape-leaf.com/
There are a lot of great Mediterranean restaurants in Toledo; always a safe bet that you can find a vegan meal. We ordered takeout last weekend from The Grape Leaf Diner and enjoyed our meal.

We ordered the two vegetarian combos that included hummus, tabbouli, grape leaves and spinach pie (which is not vegan--it was enjoyed by our non-vegan diners), baba ganoush, a fattoush salad and falafel. (NOTE: their rice is not vegan or vegetarian--it has chicken stock in it--you may substitute it with fries, hummus or more salad on their lunch platters or dinners.) We also ordered a side of fries, cooked with a nice garlic taste. In addition, we had two falafel sandwiches to share.

Highlights for us included the fattoush salad, nicely dressed and served with crispy pita chip pieces, the fries which were tasty (but of course not healthy) and the hummus, which had a nice taste.

They have a nice dine-in facility but for us the take-out was perfect that day. There are also two Grape Leaf Express locations (in Perrysburg and Toledo on Monroe) that have similar menus, with slightly fewer options (e.g., no baba).
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