We were excited to check out the new downtown location today. Same great vegan options and loved the atmosphere.

The Chipotle/Subway model where you pick out ingredients in front of you has been expanded to pitas (Pita Pit), pizza (Blaze, Pizza Fire), sushi rolls (Fusian), healthy bowls (Core Life) and now What the Fried Rice expands that model to fried rice and noodles.

The deal is that you pick your protein (tofu or none for vegans), your veggies (many choices), your grains or noodles (white or brown rice, cauliflower pearls, udon noodles or pad thai noodles are the vegan options) and finally your sauce (yellow curry or traditional soy are the vegan options). 

They cook up your order and it is freshly made. One thing that we liked is that they make sure to fry vegan orders separately so you don't have to worry about your food touching oil or a grill that had recently touched meat. 

There are a lot of vegetables to choose from, most which are traditional for Asian cuisine (e.g., bamboo shoots, water chestnuts, mushrooms, cabbage, basil). We chose udon noodles with yellow curry and a fried brown rice with a traditional soy sauce. We enjoyed both, though there is a fair amount of oil in these dishes.

We enjoyed our meals and thought the portions were just the right size.  There is dining space but it also seems like a lot of their business is take-out.

WTF-R is a local business. We applaud their effort, and think that it is great that they make a strong effort to avoid cross-contamination with non-vegan dishes, something that many restaurants aren't that good at. 

We're excited to return and try more combinations!

Tiger Bakery stands out among the many Mediterranean restaurants in Toledo in that it probably has more diverse vegan options than other places. This is a deli where you order from the counter and there seems to be a rotating choice of options with many standbys. There is some cafe style seating though we have always ordered to go.

They have traditional dishes such as veggie grape leaves, fatoosh salad, hummus, falafel and baba ghanoush. This time that we went, we ordered these dishes, along with several lentil and potato dishes. There are also several hot food options as well.  The dishes are not labeled vegan but each time that we have gone the staff person has been very helpful in identifying which items are okay and which ones are not. 

There is also a limited grocery section with selections of traditional Mediterranean items such as olives, oils and dates.  Finally, we were excited that we found some vegan baklava that a week later, we are still craving more!

Make sure to check out Tiger Bakery and Deli for a wide range of vegan options that are freshly cooked and delicious!

This review is based upon the Central Avenue location.

We loved the newest vegan dish at Registry Bistro. They rotate their menu seasonally and seem to always have a vegan entree. For dinner, we had the Brussels sprouts as an appetizer, followed by their newest vegan dish: Mediterranean “meatballs” with tofu feta and coconut yogurt stewed tomatoes with olives and lemon. For dessert, they still had their vegan chocolate tart with beet sauce.

The appetizer had a large number of fried brussel sprouts, though to be honest, as we have reduced the amount of oil in our diet, we found them a bit too heavy. Others might like them more than we did. On the other hand, we LOVED the Mediterranean "meatballs." They tasted nutty and had a very nice texture and the tofu feta was delicious. We really believe that one of the keys to vegan cooking is creative use of sauces. This one rocked it. The dessert was a nice treat, with the beet sauce really tasting like beets.

With the entree, chef Erika Rapp really knocked it out of the park. We are already planning our repeat visit.

We must admit that we have a soft spot for Registry Bistro and that it is perhaps our favorite fine dining restaurant in the area. In terms of vegan options, chef Erika Rapp always makes sure there is at least one clearly-marked vegan entrée on their seasonally rotating menu. It is always comforting to see a clearly-marked item on the menu as that removes any ambiguity and confusion. For our ideal restaurant experience, however, we would like several choices so that we can both sample a vegan entrée and share our food. Nearly every time, the chef has been able to accommodate us by creating an off-the-menu vegan entrée that is often even better than the dish listed on the menu. The restaurant prides itself by using locally-sourced seasonal vegetables and these spontaneous dishes are often creative mixtures of what is currently available.

The menu is generally heavy on the meats, though we have found the servers to be very knowledgeable about possible modifications that can be made and so there are generally choices between several appetizers and salads. Finally, every time we have gone, they have had a vegan sorbet, often blackberry cabernet, available for dessert. We don't ever expect that there will be vegan dessert options when we dine out and so this is always a nice treat!

This past Thursday, we split a Bibb salad (modified to be vegan), had the vegan-labeled pan-roasted Romanesco “Steak” with Cannellini and Kohirabi Kimchai in a saffron-tomato broth. The “steak” was a roasted Romanesco, which seemed to be a hybrid between cauliflower and broccoli. Finally, they modified a dish that originally had gnocchi and replaced that with lentils with a golden cauliflower puree, along with mushrooms and fiddlehead ferns.

We love how they have refurbished the ground floor of the old Secor Hotel and created an atmosphere that is contemporary, with a space laden with rotating single-artist art shows housed by River House Arts. The cocktail menu has unique takes on classic cocktails (Rachel recommends the Retro-Fashioned!), the craft beer menu has something for all and the wine menu is one of the best in the city. Also, we feel like the prices are quite reasonable for the dining experience that you get. Check it out!

One of our goals at Vegan Toledo is to encourage and support restaurants that are doing a good job, as well as to nudge those that could do better. Until now, we have only published reviews that are based on our own firsthand experience.

The bulk of questions we have been getting lately are about catering and special events for vegans in the area, from vegan wedding cakes to cool venues to host vegans with their omni friends and family.

In order to help these folks as best we can (since we've only bought one vegan wedding cake and don't have huge parties all the time), we are reaching out to our community to learn more about your catering recommendations in the Toledo area. Please consider filling out this brief survey about any recent catering experiences you've had. If you have a catering company, please encourage your customers to fill one out.

Thanks for your help!

There are a lot of great communities in NW Ohio that do not have a vegetarian/vegan restaurant.  Within the last year, Toledo finally got one. Bowling Green, despite its large number of college students, doesn't have one.  But Napoleon does!

We made the drive from Perrysburg (about 30 minutes) on a Saturday to try out Season's Eatings and were so happy that we did.
​
It's a cafe and marketplace as well as a bakery (Kyra's Bakery Connection is located inside the cafe). We ordered two soups, one tomato-based and another that was a vegetable mix that had a nice coriander seasoning. For our next course, we had roasted-celery hummus as well as a chickpea salad, both that were quite good.  There is a chip bar that includes bags of chips that are available for purchase, so it was nice to try out a variety of pitas with the hummus. 

For the main course, we had two burgers, one a broccoli burger and another one made of black beans.  Both were served on freshly made bread and both were delicious. We both agreed that the broccoli burger is likely the best vegan burger we've had in NW Ohio. It had a rich flavor that had a slight broccoli taste as well as rich nuttiness.

For dessert, there was gluten-free vegan brownie that was moist and very delicious!  

This is homemade vegan food with everything freshly made within the cafe. The atmosphere is charming too, with cloth napkins and plates that look like you're eating at home (different colors and shapes).  Everything is vegetarian, though not everything is vegan.  Just make sure to ask as the staff is knowledgeable about their food as they make it!

The marketplace has snacks, trinkets, and food items, many that are from the area and region. We really enjoyed our time at Season's Eatings and will plan to return soon.  Downtown Napoleon is charming; one of the regions best microbreweries is right down the street, Flatrock.  Make it a day trip!

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/