The Best Thing I Ate This Month That Wasn't A Veggie Burger

The best thing I ate this month that wasn't a veggie burger was the ultimate comfort food: vegan macaroni and cheese!

My friend Michelle wanted to get macaroni and cheese for her birthday, so we met at the 33rd Street S'Mac location. I hadn't eaten at S'Mac since before I started avoiding dairy, so this was my first time trying their vegan option.



I was sad to see that their iconic macaroni styles are not available in vegan versions (I really wanted a vegan version of the masala Indian spiced macaroni!), but you do get to choose from different options to customize your macaroni - so I ordered mine with buffalo hot sauce, tomatoes, jalapenos, and breadcrumbs.

It was delicious! Sasha said she thought the base for the vegan cheese sauce was coconut milk, but it didn't taste coconutty, so whatever else they add to it hides that flavor well and tastes more cheesy. My craving for warm, cheesy comfort food was satisfied. I got the small portion, which was quite filling. I would definitely go back and order it again - I think it's on par with the vegan macaroni and cheese from Brooklyn Mac (although I wish S'Mac offered tempeh bacon in theirs...)

S'Mac
157 E 33rd St
between Lexington Ave & 3rd Ave
New York, NY 10016
(212) 683-3900
(2nd location in the east village - check website for address)

Siggy's Good Food

This place caught my eye for brunch the other weekend because of this sign out front:


Then I looked at the menu and saw a ton of vegetarian food, which sealed the deal. We didn’t see any aliens eating brunch inside, although there were a lot of little alien decorations and signage… I couldn’t quite figure out why, it wasn’t like it was a theme restaurant. It seemed like the owner just really really likes aliens!



The veggie burger is vegan, including the bread (I asked the waitress). The patty was really yummy, it was a nice rich and hearty vegetable blend (the menu said “garden vegetables and black beans”) with a hint of sweetness as well. Mushy, but not oozing out the sides of the bun. Although I was disappointed that the bun was just slices of toast – when I order a burger, I want a proper bun! The menu said “served on soft brioche bun. Optional – on 7 grain, gluten free bun, wheat flax wrap, or over baby greens” and I picked the 7 grain, assuming that was a bun like the brioche and the gluten-free bread options. But apparently I was wrong! I wish the menu was a bit more clear on that, because no one wants a burger on toast… right?



But, at least I was enjoying the taste of the patty. And the toppings were pretty good – there was too much raw onion for my taste, but I just took it off the burger. The hummus was good, and the tomato and greens were nice and fresh. Because it was the weekend and I was having a good day, I splurged and paid extra for tempeh bacon on top of my burger too.

Totally worth it. I love tempeh bacon.



I was very pleased to see so many options both vegetarian and non-vegetarian on the menu, so this place could definitely be a good brunch location to take friends to - and it wasn't as crowded as many of the other restaurants we walked past! No line!
and Aliens eat free!

Cost: $10 ($2 extra for tempeh bacon)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 4       Bun: 2      Toppings: 3

Siggy’s Good Food
292 Elizabeth Street
between Houson St & Bleecker St
New York, NY 10012
212.226.5775

YumVeggieBurger review #113

Barclays Center: Bed Stuy Grill

Who else went to the Nine Inch Nails show at Barclays Center two days ago? I was there, and it was spectacular!



It was my first time at Barclays Center – I generally dislike arena/stadium venues as a rule, but I had GA Standing tickets for this show so I figured it couldn’t be too bad.



We got there early, and it wasn’t very crowded yet, so I went for a walk around the place. There is a whole outer circle food court kind of deal going on, ranging from hotdogs to sushi. As I walked around, I kept thinking “I wonder if they have a veggie burger…”

…and then, believe it or not, I found one!



I had to eat it pretty quickly to get back to the floor before the opening band (Godspeed You! Black Emperor, how awesome!). But I had come to the show straight from work, so I was starving anyway.



I asked the staff if the burger was vegan – the cook herself came out and assured me that the patty was vegan, but they could not be sure about the bun. That’s par for the course, it seems. The bun was whole wheat, but too thick and dense. If you want to be able to take a proper bite out of a burger, the bun needs to be light and soft enough to compress a bit when you sink your teeth into it so you can get both bun and patty in the same bite! I ended up eating my burger in pieces, discarding most of the bun.



The menu said the burger comes with barbecue sauce and cheese – so I asked for mine without the cheese, but I think they mistakenly assumed that meant I did not want barbecue sauce either. So I was sad to miss out on that, but didn’t want to take the time to complain and get the order corrected. I think the sauce would have added a nice balance to the other components of the burger, although the lettuce was quite crisp and the tomato slice exceptionally fresh and juicy!



And the patty itself was great – way better than you would expect a veggie burger from a stadium venue to be! Mostly consisting of rice and black beans, it had a surprisingly spicy kick to it. And it was not too dense or compact like many veggie burgers – I wonder if it was made on site, and not delivered frozen? It seems possible. Or at least, it could have been locally made in Brooklyn! It fell apart a bit as I was eating it, which made for a slightly messy meal (grab a fork!) but it was yummy.

Not a bad start to the evening… and good to know that there are vegetarian options at Barclays Center! And there are probably even more that I didn’t have time to explore – I didn’t even check out the food vendors on the upper levels!



And, like I said, NIN was amazing.

Cost: $8.75 (not bad for a place that sells a bottle of water for $5!)
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 4       Bun: 2      Toppings: 2

Barclays Center
620 Atlantic Avenue
between Fort Greene Pl & 5th Ave
Brooklyn, NY 11217
212.359.6387

YumVeggieBurger review #112

Gaga

My Grandmother Joey, a.k.a. "Gaga", passed away this week. She was an amazing woman, and an important part of my childhood.



She was not a vegetarian, and she did not always understand what "vegetarian" meant when I became one myself (I remember countless times when she would ask me "do you eat chicken?" after I had of course told her before that I do not). But she was supportive of my choices.

We shared a love of Trader Joe's, and she would often tell me about new food items she had found there which were vegetarian. When I lived in St. Louis for my first year of college, she took me out to lunch quite often since she lived in the same city. And she would always tell me "You're a cheap date!" when the vegetarian entrée ended up being the least expensive item on the menu. I also inherited my love of chocolate from her.



She will be missed.

5 Napkin Burger Happy Hour

I’ve been working such long hours that I usually don’t have time to eat anything for dinner before yoga classes. So it seemed inevitable that one day I would end up at 5 Napkin Burger for a very-late dinner after a hot yoga class, since the Astoria location of this restaurant is only a few blocks from my yoga studio…

And, lucky me, by the time my yoga class is over, their happy hour menu is in effect! $4 for veggie sliders? Yes please!



If you recall, I already reviewed 5 Napkin’s veggie burger – and gave it 5 stars. So I was pretty confident I would enjoy their sliders as well…



Oh, sweet deliciousness! These sliders are just as amazingly tasty as 5 Napkin’s full-sized veggie burger. The patties are moist and flavorful, and in case you’re unfamiliar with the 5 Napkin Veggie burgers, that’s not undercooked meat that’s making them look pink – it’s beets! One of my favorite veggie burger ingredients!



They are topped with plenty of pickles, and that yummy, tangy “5N” sauce. Really the only difference between this and the regular veggie burger, other than the size (obviously) is that the sliders don’t come with tomato and lettuce. Probably because there’s no room left for them! And the bun seemed softer and sweeter, maybe a different type of bread. A $4 order of sliders includes two adorable little baby burgers. I also ordered a happy hour guacamole, and that along with the sliders was filling enough for me. But if you wanted to get really crazy, a hungry person could probably eat 2 orders of the sliders (4 total – about the size of a regular burger).

I’m going to go ahead and say these are 5-star sliders, because the full-sized 5 Napkin veggie burger is a 5-star burger, and these mini versions of that burger are equally awesome!

Cost: $4 for two sliders
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Burger patty: 5       Bun: 4      Toppings: 5

Read my original review of the full-sized 5 Napkin veggie burger here.

Five Napkin Burger
35-01 36th Street
Astoria, NY 11106
718.433.2727
locations in Manhattan as well, check website for addresses

YumVeggieBurger review #111

SoL Cuisine Sprouted Quinoa Chia Burger

I was picking up some groceries at whole foods recently, and thought I would try a new veggie burger, so I picked this one out of their frozen food section (I like quinoa and sweet potato, so it seemed like a good bet, even though I had never heard of the brand before).


The frozen burger patty, before cooking


After frying for a few minutes with a little bit of olive oil.


I melted a slice of my favorite Daiya swiss “cheese” on top of the patty, and toasted a whole wheat bun.



It smelled really good when I took it out of the frying pan! But the texture of the patty was odd, it wasn’t grainy or bready or even mushy – which are the categories most veggie burger patties seem to fall into. Instead, it was very smooth, almost like it had some kind of gelling agent in it (I’m not familiar with chia seeds, but I did a little research and it turns out that they form a gel when they react with water, so that explains that!). This is a very weird texture for a burger. There were also very large, flat slabs of onion mixed in, which I wasn’t a huge fan of. I didn’t taste any of the sweet potato that the package advertised.

Overall, it was a disappointment – I was expecting more from a product that sounded so good on the box (vegan, gluten-free, healthy, tasty ingredients!). I don’t think there was any way I could have cooked it that would have made the taste or texture better. The melted Daiya on top was the best part, but I don’t think I would buy these patties again when there are so many better ones on the market.

Has anyone else tried these burgers? What are your thoughts?

Rating: ★ ★ ☆ ☆ ☆
SoL Cuisine
purchased at: Whole Foods in NYC
price: $5.49 for a box of 4

YumVeggieBurger review #110

The Grey Dog

The Grey Dog is my go-to spot near Union Square to meet people for tea, and my sister and I have shared many a cozy drink at its tiny tables (getting a seat can be tricky when it’s crowded though!). But until I met a friend there for dinner last week, I had not tried any of the food. And I hadn’t even realized that they serve a veggie burger!



My first thought was that the burger seemed kind of small, but maybe that was just because it was dwarfed by the massive pile of fries next to it? I substituted sweet potato fries in place of the regular fries – and they were delicious.



The bun was a little dry, and kind of dense. But the toppings were great – really fresh and crispy pea shoots, tomato, and onion. The pesto was quite tasty, (I am a big fan of pesto!). I only wished there was some other sauce as well to balance out the dryness of the bun.

The patty was homemade – a blend of veggies and some hearty grains. It was about average, there was nothing too special about the flavor, but it tasted hearty and healthy. I asked if the burger was vegan, and the café staff showed me this handy little ingredient card that they keep behind the counter:



So the patty itself is vegan, they told me – but the bun is not (contains dairy). They did offer to serve it on a bed of lettuce for any vegans who were interested in ordering it though. And kudos to them for being so well-informed about their ingredients and prepared to answer their customer’s questions! More restaurants should learn from that example.

Note: the veggie burger is found under the “Michigan Sandwiches” section of the menu, not the “Burgers” section!

Cost: $9 including fries
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 3       Bun: 3      Toppings: 4

The Grey Dog
90 University Pl
between 12th & 11th Street
New York, NY 10003
212.414.4739
two other locations in Manhattan, check website for address

YumVeggieBurger review #109

The Best Thing I Ate This Month That Wasn't A Veggie Burger

If you follow me on twitter, you've already heard this - but I am in LOVE with Daiya's new flavor of vegan cheese: swiss!

I used to eat grilled swiss cheese sandwiches all the time - so when I decided to (mostly) stop eating dairy, that was one of the things I missed the most. I had the occasional grilled cheese sandwich made with vegan "cheddar" cheese, but it wasn't the same. So I was thrilled when I saw vegan SWISS cheese at the store!



Of course it doesn't taste exactly like "real" swiss cheese. And the texture is quite different, as all vegan cheeses are. But still - it makes a delicious vegan grilled cheese sandwich!

I buy Daiya at several little health food stores near my apartment, and I've seen Daiya products at Whole Foods as well.
Look on their website to find out where they might be sold near you.

And no, Daiya is not paying me or giving me free stuff to write this. This is just the best thing I ate this month that wasn't a veggie burger :)

Umami Burger

Apparently the recent (just 4 weeks ago) opening of Umami burger in NYC is a big deal – I had personally never heard of the California-based burger chain before, but I did hear people excitedly sharing rumors a few months ago, in anticipation of it’s NYC debut. But then I forgot about it, until my friend Evan worked on a video for Zagat TV about the popular burger place. All the burgers featured in that segment are meat-burgers, unsurprisingly. But Umami has a veggie burger too – and I felt inspired to go try it... assuming, of course, the wait was not 3 hours as I had heard it rumored to be!



I was in luck – I had a couple hours to spare before a meeting, so when I showed up just before 2pm, the wait for a single spot at the bar was only about 10 minutes! Couples arriving at the same time were told the wait for 2 people would be about 30 minutes.



Excited, I sat down at the bar, ready to place my order – from the “Un-Beef” section of the menu! But when I told the waitress I wanted the “earth burger”, she said “we don’t have any left today”. My heart skipped a beat. She must have noticed how devastated I looked at this news, because she then said “Let me double check that though...” and hastened off to the kitchen. When she came back, she said “We have two left!” and I breathed a sigh of relief. I wonder if these veggie burgers are proving more popular than they had anticipated?


The earth burger



The bun was deliciously light and sweet – almost like a pastry. Not soggy at all, and not too thick or dense to bite into, but it still held everything together well. The toppings were delicious – I had never had a burger with chili on it before, but this soyrizo chili was a surprisingly a great addition, and gave it a great spicy kick. The “fresh cilantro crema” didn’t really add much flavor for me, personally. But the guacamole beneath the patty was a nice, cool, creamy note to balance out the spicy chili (and a surprise element, since it wasn’t listed with the other toppings on the menu!) The whole thing was a really awesome flavor combination. Both the sauce and the bun contain dairy, although the waitress told me they offer a lettuce wrap instead of the bun, if you request it (and you could order the burger without the crema topping).



The patty, however, is vegan – an earthy blend of black beans, forbidden rice, and charred corn (although I didn’t really taste much of the corn among the beans and rice). It fell apart a bit, but was large enough that even after pieces fell out, there was still a substantial amount left between the buns. And I ate the fallen chunks with a fork, because they were too tasty to abandon.


Delicious!

Would it have been worth it if I’d actually had to wait in line for three hours? Well, I don’t know about that… I’ve never waited that long for any veggie burger, not even from The Cinnamon Snail on a really busy lunch day! …but it was one of the most delicious veggie burgers I have eaten. Yup, it’s another five-star veggie burger! And I now understand all the hype around Umami Burger...



Cost: $12.00
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ★ ★
Burger patty: 4       Bun: 5      Toppings: 5

Umami Burger
432 6th Avenue
between 9th & 10th Street
New York, NY 10011
212.677.8626

YumVeggieBurger review #108

Burger Bistro

I bought a Living Social deal to Burger Bistro, so before it expired (I have a tendency to wait until the last minute on these things!) I made a trip out to Brooklyn to eat a veggie burger at this restaurant I had never heard of until I saw the Living Social email in my inbox one morning.



The menu was one of those check-the-items-you-want style ones, like at The Meatball Shop (I don’t know where they originated from, but that was my first experience with them). It was exciting having so many toppings to choose from! I picked the veggie burger (vegan), with guacamole, pickled jalapenos, lettuce, tomato, and chipotle mayo (not vegan) – all on a whole wheat bun (which is not vegan - if you want your vegan patty to be on a vegan bun, the only option here is the lettuce wrap). I also ordered a side of house-made chips, because I had Living Social bucks left to burn.



Hmm… my burger arrived with the “frizzled onions” instead of the jalapenos, but I had places to be after my dinner, and didn’t want to be late, so I didn’t complain. The onions weren’t bad, kind of like very fragile onion rings, or pieces of one of those “blooming onion” monstrosities. My burger was already pretty overloaded though, so I ate them separately. The rest of the toppings were tasty too – plenty of guacamole!



The patty was a nice blend of vegetables – carrots, corn, spinach, peppers, soy beans, and herbs. It had a unique flavor that I hadn’t tasted in a veggie burger before, and I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Unfortunately, despite its fried-to-a-nice-crisp exterior, the inside was quite mushy and it smushed together with the plentiful toppings and then oozed out of the bun.

The bun itself was way too dense and thick – trying to wrap my mouth around it only resulted in compressing the patty and toppings more, until they oozed out and I was just left with a mouthful of guacamole-soaked bun. It seemed slightly stale, too. I ate half of it, and then dissected the other half – eating the patty and the toppings with a fork, and leaving the bun on the plate.

My stomach was full the rest of the evening – so I certainly got my money’s worth from my Living Social deal. And that was from the burger alone - the homemade chips I had ordered as a side tasted delicious, but were way too greasy for me to eat more than a few.

Cost: $8.00 for just the burger with lettuce and tomato (total for my burger and toppings: $12.75), chips $4.25 extra
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 3       Bun: 2      Toppings: 4

Burger Bistro
117 5th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11217
718.398.9800
locations in Astoria, Bay Ridge, and the Upper East Side too, check website for addresses

YumVeggieBurger review #107

Burger Club

It’s taken me awhile to check out Burger Club, even though it opened in my neighborhood last year. Why? I’m not sure, it seems like we’ve had a flood of new burger joints opening in the past couple years, and I guess there are just too many other veggie burgers that I know and love in Astoria, so it takes a lot to tempt me away from my favorites…


no, my camera didn’t flip the photo – that’s really how their sign is designed!

But I finally had a chance to stop in here one afternoon, and I was in time for their lunch special, which included their “farmer’s market burger”:



The patty is homemade, which I must give them due credit for. It contained a lot of beans, celery, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, and onions, which all sound great – but it was too mushy. It would have greatly benefitted from being cooked a bit more until the outside was a bit crisp, and some of the carrot pieces inside were not fully cooked either, and were unpleasantly crunchy. The flavoring was actually quite nice though – I ate a chunk of the patty on its own, after it fell out of the bun, and I really enjoyed the way it was seasoned.



The toppings were generous – tomato, lettuce, avocado (a good amount, too, they didn’t skimp like some places do!), sprouts, red onion, and a Portobello – which I, mushroom-hater than I am, even enjoyed! (it was well-marinated). I skipped the goat cheese, but that is one of the toppings that is included, if you want it. The bun (wheat) was a bit too thick and dense to eat with all the patty and toppings inside. And it was surprisingly cold in temperature compared to the patty, as though it had just come out of the fridge, although it looked like it had been lightly toasted on one side.

While the staff told me the patty is vegan (and if you order it without the cheese, the toppings are vegan too), they said they did not know if the bun was vegan because they do not make the buns there. So, eat at your own risk if you are concerned the bun might have dairy in it.

I’ve heard other people mention that this place seems like it is trying to be Astoria’s next Bare Burger, and the similarities are certainly there – Burger Club definitely has an extensive and creative menu, it’s not just another boring burger joint. But Bare Burger’s veggie burger is still superior, in my opinion.

Cost: lunch special - $9.75 (burger, fries, and soda), regular menu - $8.25 for the burger, fries $2.75
Rating: ★ ★ ★ ☆ ☆
Burger patty: 3       Bun: 2      Toppings: 4

Burger Club
32-02 30th Ave
on the corner of 32nd Street
Astoria, NY 11102
718.777.7788

YumVeggieBurger review #106

Foodswings in the news

Wow! I'm catching up on my blog reading, and I just read this post on the SuperVegan blog about Brooklyn vegan restaurant Foodswings being for sale!

I hope this turn of events ends well for Foodswings... not only because they have a plethora of different veggie burger styles on their menu (I reviewed the Buffalo Burger here)...



...But because I really don't know how I would live without their amazing vegan chicken wings and milkshakes. Seriously, almost every time I go to Williamsburg, my friend Michelle and I make a point to either stop by Foodswings or Vinnie's Pizza for our vegan food fix. Not the healthiest vegan food in the world, but oh-so-satisfying and delicious!

So, someone awesome please buy this restaurant, and keep it alive! Please don't deprive me of my vegan milkshakes!