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You would think Italian restaurants would be a natural fit for vegans, but in actuality most handmade pasta includes egg. We decided to check out Ciao to see how they could accommodate vegans and communicated with them in advance. Their gluten-free penne was vegan and so we headed out last Saturday night and figured if nothing else, we’d have a good bottle of Italian wine.
So we both ordered the pasta, one primavera style with a garlic and oil-based sauce with lots of vegetables including asparagus, peppers and zucchini. The other was a tomato-basil based sauce with broccoli and mushrooms. We had salads as starters—a simple salad with greens, oil dressing and tomatoes. At each step of the way, we stressed the importance of holding off all cheese, as it has been our experience at many restaurants that cheese (and added oil) is often added to the plate as a default. We did have a nice bottle of Italian wine to complement our dinner. All of their desserts were non-vegan, so we shared a glass of port-style wine from California. (Thank you, Uber!)
To be honest, this wouldn’t be a destination stop for us, though we were happy to get a vegan meal. There is comfort in knowing that if somebody really wanted to go to Ciao, you could have a pretty good meal. And good wine!
So we both ordered the pasta, one primavera style with a garlic and oil-based sauce with lots of vegetables including asparagus, peppers and zucchini. The other was a tomato-basil based sauce with broccoli and mushrooms. We had salads as starters—a simple salad with greens, oil dressing and tomatoes. At each step of the way, we stressed the importance of holding off all cheese, as it has been our experience at many restaurants that cheese (and added oil) is often added to the plate as a default. We did have a nice bottle of Italian wine to complement our dinner. All of their desserts were non-vegan, so we shared a glass of port-style wine from California. (Thank you, Uber!)
To be honest, this wouldn’t be a destination stop for us, though we were happy to get a vegan meal. There is comfort in knowing that if somebody really wanted to go to Ciao, you could have a pretty good meal. And good wine!
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