Garlic Fries in Berkeley

Earlier this Spring, I was on a day trip through Berkeley with a friend.  We had trekked across the Bay on BART, and were on a quest for vegan pizza at Bobby G’s. Everything else in between that and home was by random chance or grumbling “feed me” messages from our stomachs.

Smart Alec’s was one of those stops.  We happened to be across the street, realized we were hungry, and thus decided to refuel on the most delicious vegan “air baked fries”.

Catering toward Cal Berkeley students, Smart Alec’s is cafeteria-style food (burgers and soups), with many vegetarian and a few vegan options. There are still a few folks who are long-time members of the veg community in the SF Bay Area that begrudge Smart Alec’s decision to stray away from being an entirely vegetarian restaurant.

The order shown here was a large, all for the princely sum of $1.99. Fresh garlic is an optional choice, and is a must-have for those of you who like garlic, or are worried about vampires. Side note, Saturn Cafe, a veg restaurant open until the wee hours in Santa Cruz, also serves fries with fresh garlic.

In all honestly, and hindsight, I should have gotten a small, or split an order. But sometimes those “feed me” messages from my tummy overwhelm the rational part of my brain that should be responsible for making decisions like portion control.

Tags:berkeley, restaurant, review, vegan food, veganmofo 2009

Vegan Pizza by the Slice: Bobby G’s

To the envy of all the people who live in San Francisco, the best vegan pizza is in the East Bay.

First, of the two entirely vegetarian pizzerias in the Bay Area, one of them is in the East Bay.   Oakland’s Pizza Plaza became an all-veg pizzeria a few years back and has a wide selection of vegan pizzas on its menu, or you can entirely create your own vegan combo.  They use Follow Your Heart vegan cheese and offer a wide selection of faux meats, too.  Tony Tutto Pizza opened more recently in Mill Valley.  However, while it is entirely vegetarian, it does not (yet) offer a vegan cheese.

Second, while there are a couple of mixed restaurants in SF that offer vegan pizza, I think for ease and choice of vegan pizza, East Bay wins the prize with 4 restaurants offering excellent vegan pizza choices:

Lanesplitter (which has locations in Albany, Berkeley, and Oakland), Fellini , and Bobby G’s Pizzeria.

After hearing favorable feedback about Bobby G’s, the newest in the preceding list to offer vegan pizza, I had to make a trip to the East Bay to try it out for myself.  And I was not disappointed.  It was scrummy!

Amazingly:

1) You can order vegan pizza by the slice, and each slice can be like a mini pizza (i.e. you can have whatever toppings you want on each slice!)

2) Vegan pizza is available in their lunch special, how cool is that.  I always hate going to restaurants and feeling left out when they don’t have any vegan lunch specials.

Anyways, provided with the first-in-my-lifetime opportunity to have vegan pizza by the slice with whatever toppings I wanted, I could not refuse.  I chose to have different toppings on each of my three slices:  first, olive and pineapples; then spinach (I figured this was in lieu of ordering a salad ); and being the fungi lover I am, mushrooms.

Overall, the proprietary tofu ricotta was yummy, and just the right balance of toppings too.   Let me repeat myself again:  totally scrummy!

You can also make your own mini combination, as my fellow pizza lover did, and they offer a vegan salad, too.  Note, while the combo pizza slices may look more festive, my singular topping slices were excellent and in no way lacking.  I think all 3 slices cost me about $10 + tax/tip.

I would definitely return again, and bring a large to-go container with me

Tags:berkeley, pizza, restaurant, review, vegan food

Vegan Brunch in the San Francisco Bay Area: Fellini

Brunch is one of my favorite meals.  Maybe it’s because so often during the week I’m rushing to work and my default breakfast staple is toasted whole wheat bread.  And on the weekends, it’s nice to have a more leisurely breakfast — especially when there’s no shopping, cooking or cleaning up required.

Living on the mid-coast Peninsula, if it’s not vegan brunch at home, then I have to travel further abroad, like the East Bay.  Brunch at Fellini’s in Berkeley makes that very easy, since it’s only a couple of blocks from North Berkeley BART.

Fellini offers 7 different vegan/vegetarian brunch items, ranging from french toast at $7 to scrambles to florentine or benedict at $9.  And, as a nod to the concerns of veg*ns, the veg*n dishes are prepared in pans dedicated to their veg*n food.

On past brunch visits to Fellini’s I’ve alternately enjoyed the florentine or benedict.  This time I decided to try the Tofu Veggie Scramble.  I would not make that choice again.  I found the scramble pretty boring, and a tad on the salty side, too.  It wasn’t a total disappointment, though, as the accompanying house potatoes were delicious.

Tags:berkeley, restaurant, review, vegan food