Tony Packo's is perhaps the most iconic restaurant in the Toledo area, the place that out-of-town visitors are most likely to want to check out. For vegans, this Hungarian-based restaurant that focuses on sausages and chicken paprikas would seem to be an unlikely place to find vegan food.

The Secor restaurant does have a vegan dog on its menu. We ordered it with vegetarian chili on top. The dogs were tasty, though basically the sausage tasted like a tofurky-style brat, which you can find in nearly any grocery store.  We applaud Packo's for having a clearly-labeled vegan option though. You can take your out-of-town guests here and have something to eat yourself.

Note that currently only the Secor restaurant has the vegan option (let us know if you find it elsewhere). Also, the vegetarian chili is vegan and that is available at all of the Packos restaurants. Finally, there is a great pickle and pepper bar with lots of fun and tasty options to try.   

One of our readers suggested that we try Ya Halla out and we were glad that we did (please keep sending us suggestions!). Ya Halla is a Mediterranean restaurant in North Toledo that has a lot of options for vegans.

We ordered an appetizer sampler with baba ghonoush, sauteed mushrooms and veggie grape leaves as well a falafel sandwich and the hummous with sauteed vegetables as entrees. Make sure to let your server know that your vegan as the sauteed mushrooms would typically be done with butter, but they were able to accommodate us.

We had plenty of food and felt that everything was of high quality and true to classic Mediterranean food form. They serve beer and wine and have created a nice space out of an old fast food restaurant. Toledoans are blessed with lots of Mediterranean options. Ya Halla is a good one!

Toledo has several good Thai restaurants (check out our reviews of Bangkok Kitchen and Rose Thai). Thai restaurants are usually a good option for vegans as many of their key dishes are already vegetarian and can be made vegan with just a few modifications. At Thai restaurants, we always ask whether a dish has fish sauce (we have even seen some places serve "vegetarian" dishes with fish sauce), whether the noodles are vegan (many fresh noodles have egg in them), and we always make sure that egg is held off the dish (as many Thai dishes come with egg).

At Tasty Thai, we had two of our favorite staples: red curry with rice and drunken noodles. In both cases, as is typical for Thai restaurants, you get your choice of type of meat or tofu or vegetables. We typically ask for both tofu and vegetables. Both dishes were very good. The curry dish had a lot of rich sauce and the drunken noodles were a bit oily but that is common with drunken noodles. We also had Spring rolls, which were fresh and served with a traditional peanut sauce.

Tasty Thai had a lengthy section in their menu for vegetarian dishes. Although they do not label which items are vegan or can be made vegan, we suspect many of them can be made vegan, giving vegans lots of options.  

​As mentioned before, Mediterranean restaurants are usually safe bets for vegans in that many of the standard items such as hummus, falafel, baba ganoush, vegetarian grape leaves, tabouli and fatoush are almost always vegan. And fortunately, there are a lot of great Mediterranean options in Northwest Ohio.

We were excited to try Yala Kol Express this past weekend and were delighted with our meals. We ordered a Holy Land Falafel sandwich and a Yala Veggie Combo. The sandwich included tomatoes, pickled turnips, onions and tahini sauce. The falafel were tenderly cooked and the sandwich, served in a thin pita, was lightly baked. The Veggie Combo included hummus, baba ganoush (spelled "ganug" here), tabouli, two falafel patties and two vegetarian grape leaves (served warm) over a large portion of savory rice.

The food was tasty and not overly greasy as is often the case in Mediterranean restaurants (at least to our oil-averse palates). They had olive oil bottles available for those who crave more oil. There were other options as well, including another falafel sandwich and a veggie kabob platter.

There is a Yala Kol (not express) in Toledo that looks to have the same menu as the Express with perhaps a few other options. We loved our meals and plan to be back soon!

One of our readers suggested that we go to Bleak House for their weekend brunch and so we did. We had been to Bleak House before and always liked that there were vegan pastries, though we had never tried their weekend brunch (thanks for the suggestion!).  Their brunch menu rotates, though there is always at least one vegan option.

When we went, the vegan option was labeled “The Best Vegan Cheeseburger in Town,” and to cut to the chase… it was! The patty itself appeared to be house-made with tasty grains, along with vegan cheese as well as lettuce, onion and tomato. What made it especially tasty was a mysterious sauce (likely vegan mayo-based) that added a moistness that vegan burgers often lack.  Last week, that was the only vegan option on the brunch menu, but because we always prefer to have variety, we also ordered a bagel with avocado spread on it.  It was well done and rich.

The coffee was delicious. We ordered a peanut butter dessert bar that was rich and decadent, like a flattened version of a buckeye. There was at least one vegan muffin option as well.

Bleak House posts their weekend brunch menu ahead of time. We can see that this upcoming week, there are vegan waffles as well a BBQ jackfruit sandwich and a heirloom tomato salad. Flying Joe in Perrysburg has stopped their weekend brunches, and as of now, Bleak House is the only game in town for significant vegan options for brunch. We encourage everybody to go out and support their efforts. We loved our meal and think you will too!

We had been to Rose Thai on one of our first dates together several years ago but hadn't been back and were excited to review it from a Vegan perspective. As a bonus, we went with two friends who we met through the Toledo Vegan Meetup group.

Rose Thai has lots of options for vegans, though like many restaurants it is important to ask questions and communicate clearly with the server to make sure that the dish you are ordering is truly vegan. For an appetizer, we had Fresh Spring Rolls made with tofu. Beware that the Spring Rolls on the menu are deep-fried but when asked, they were able to make them without deep frying. They were traditional and served with a delicious peanut sauce (and much healthier than the deep-fried version).

We had pad thai and a vegetable curry dish, Gaeng Pak. For the pad thai, we had to ask that fish sauce not be used and egg left off. The curry dish was already vegan without modifications. Both were delicious and complemented each other well. We were offered salads with our entrees, though unfortunately the dressing had milk in it. Perhaps they would be able to make an alternative if asked. We had more than enough food, though, with our entrees and spring rolls.

We asked about dessert but were informed that the coconut ice cream dessert does have dairy in it, so no dessert for vegans.

Overall, we really enjoyed our meal and would happily return. There are several other curry dishes that are vegan, as well as some other rice noodle dishes. More dishes to try! ​

Koreana Asian Grill & Sushi has a lot of great options for vegans. First off, there is a vegan roll (props for clearly labeling it as such on the menu!) called the Grasshopper roll that we think is simply the best vegan roll in town. It uses spicy Vegenaise and has a mixture of greens and vegetables and was quite delicious and beautiful.
 
The menu is a mixture of Korean and Japanese dishes. We ordered the Vegetable Tang, which is a soup made of veggie broth, tofu and several delicious veggie dumplings. We also had the Chap Chae, which were sweet potato vermicelli noodles served with onions, greens, peppers and carrots and a rich oily sauce. The two of these dishes complimented each other well as the soup was light and the noodles were quite filling.
 
As is traditional in Korean restaurants, a group of small dishes (called Banchan) were also served and included sweet black beans, bean sprouts, broccoli and a greens and zucchini dish. Traditionally, kimchi would be served in this dish too, but the waiter said that sometimes they make it with fish oil and sometimes they do not.  Unfortunately when we went, the batch had been made with fish oil. We were happy that the staff were knowledgeable and conscientious enough to check, though disappointed that we couldn’t try that Korean traditional delicacy.
 
There are many other dishes to try. You could get the vegetable or tofu bibimbap (holding the egg), vegetable udon and several other tofu-based dishes. We look forward to a return visit to try these items.
 
Overall, we liked our food a lot and really enjoyed the creative Grasshopper roll.  The wait staff were very friendly and very helpful in navigating the menu. Also, the atmosphere is quite nice inside and would be a good place to take family or have a romantic date. The bar serves beer and wine, though no hard liquor.  

We ended up at Mancy’s Bluewater Grille on Saturday night because some friends craved seafood. We have had good luck for lunch in having a grilled vegetable sandwich (hold the cheese) and figured that we would be able to get a good meal. From our experience, restaurants with good chefs are able to accommodate a diverse set of dietary restrictions if they aren't too busy.

In these types of situations, the ideal tactic is to call the restaurant ahead of time and confirm that they can provide a vegan meal. We didn’t do that in this situation, and so we asked our server immediately for some suggestions. She went back to the chef and suggested that they could modify the wood-grilled pacific Halibut dish by replacing the fish with an eggplant. We both ordered that dish along with a side of red wine vinegar cole slaw. 

The dishes were pretty good, with lots of fresh vegetables: Espelette pepper, sweet potato, cauliflower, snow peas, pineapple, cashews, sesame and mango-habanero. The slaw was a nice touch, too. Our main suggestion would be to add some starch to the dish as we felt like we needed something besides vegetables (and a few cashews) to sate our appetite.

Vegans won’t be lining up to go to Mancy’s Bluewater Grille, but like in life in general, sometimes you choose and sometimes you can’t choose. If you find yourself at Mancy’s, you should be able to get a good meal.