The Chapel

I was recently at The Chapel for my birthday. We initially thought we were there for the $5 martini happy hour (where "martini" is used loosely, and included all sorts of lovely cocktails), but it turned out everybody was hungry and we were thrilled to see that The Chapel has a reasonable food menu too.

I started with a Baby Mae "martini", which was a delicious drink made with tequila, cardamom and grapefruit juice. For my meal, I ordered a South-of-the-Border burger off of the extensive burger list, all of which can be made with a garden burger.

It was a very decadent burger!!! It was so saucy and delicious... there seemed to be three types of sauces on the well grilled patty: some tasty spicy salsa, some sort of green chili mayonnaise, and some chipotle type mayonnaise. The burger also had grilled pepper jack and lettuce and tomato. I usually shy away from too much mayo, but my goodness, it was delicious in this application.

I don't think I'd go here for dinner specifically, but it was a pleasure to discover that a real dinner could be had in the middle of happy hour, and I give them a huge thumbs up for the veggie burger option!

Burger King

Ok, let us skip the part about how Burger King isn't exactly a great place to eat and just say this: It is important, as a vegetarian, to know where you can find reasonable sustenance even in less than ideal settings. And Burger King, bless its tiny beefy cooperate heart, has a veggie burger.

I don't know why the bottom bun seems to have disappeared, I am sure it was there.

And you know what else they have? A strange and possibly innovative idea called Apple Fries, which are fresh apples cut to look like french fries. With an order of Apple Fries, you can trick a kid into eating a boring hippie apple by disguising it as something fun and awesome. I was intrigued by the decadence of eating a nice supply of peeled apples and got myself an order.

This is what the Apple Fries are supposed to look like:

This is what the fresh order actually looked like, complete with caramel sauce in a ketchup packet:

My snobbery dials were turned way down. I was not being an elitist foodie and was aware of my choice in eating where I was. And still, those apple sticks tasted like total crap. How Burger King managed to take a sweet, fresh, delicious apple and process it and impregnate it with additives to the point where it tasted like a small stick of poison is a sad truth beyond me. I ate one thinking maybe I just needed to get used to the flavor, but there was a chemically bitterness in those apple sticks that I couldn't get past.

I did manage to salvage some worth from the caramel packet.

Mana'e Goodz n Grindz

I just got back from Molokai, Hawaii where I stayed with some friends on their farm/food forest. We mostly cooked healthy, delicious fresh food every night, but took a brief excursion to the land of the deep fryer one day at Mana'e Goodz n Grindz on the east end. The group was looking forward to fried chicken, chicken katsu, french fries, and a special mustard/mayonaise dip. I was looking forward to whatever I could find that was vegetarian, and was really excited to see a veggie burger on the menu.


The garden burger was freshly grilled and served on a soft warm bun. The fries were hot and crisp, and the special sauce was tasty. We ate outside at a picnic table under the shade of a large tree. There aren't a ton of restaurants on Molokai, and this one was a nice treat made especially appealing by the vegetarian option. Thank you sweet Kathy!

Mana'e Goodz n Grindz

Burgers, sandwiches, plate lunches
At Puko'o
808-558-8498
Mauka side Hwy 450 east 15.8 miles

Red Mill Burgers

I am a Seattle native and hadn't been to the much loved Red Mill Burgers before today. I think this is not only because I have been a vegetarian since I was a little girl and burger joints tend to fall off my radar, but also because I've primarily lived in the southern parts our lovely city and haven't experienced much neighborly proprietary feelings towards the place (located on Phinney Ridge and in Magnolia).

Anyhow, a friend recently told me that Red Mill has a Veggie Burger section of menu, and today gave it a go. I was pleased, off the bat, to see the veggie burger section of the menu had multiple options: a standard veggie burger with basil mayo, a veggie burger with caramelized onions, and the one I chose, the Verde Veggie Burger with jack cheese, house sauce (slightly smoky mayo-type sauce) and a big fire roasted Anaheim chili.

The bun (kaiser roll, actually), was soft, the fixings were real (as in, green lettuce, fresh juicy tomato), and the big slimy slightly spicy green pepper was no joke. It was a good veggie burger for sure.
I was pleased, as always, to see a satisfying vegetarian option at a burger joint. Thank you Red Mill.

Bent Burgers

I am happy to report a change for the ol' Seward Park (Columbia City, Lakewood, Genesse, etc) neighborhood: The oft changing restaurant on the corner of Dawson and Wilson might have finally found a long term resident, Bent Burgers.

This poor corner has long had the taint of unsuccessful bistros and breakfasts joints, and somehow the idea of a reasonably-priced burger place just feels right. It's about time!

The decor is well coordinated with lots of handmade urban art and a super hero theme.
The staff was friendly, the owner was hanging out in the shop, and Garden (as well as beef, chicken, turkey) Burgers are featured on the menu. I enjoyed the list of additional toppings and added jalapenos to my burger for $0.50.

They also have hot, fresh fries, both potato and sweet potato. The fries came with fun house-concocted sauce: Mae Ploy Ranch (ranch with sweet chili sauce and spices).


I've got my fingers crossed for this place!

Heidleburger

Well, the unintentional Tofu Hunter veggie burger quest continues, this time in the outdoor sports heaven and pseudo-Bavarian vacation spot, Leavenworth, WA.

There are a couple of places to get burgers in Leavenworth (plenty of people wanting burgers after their varied and vigorous recreating), but Heidleburger is my favorite because it is cheaper and less of an ordeal than the others. They have a reasonable menu with multiple vegetarian options: plain garden burger, south of the border garden burger, Teriyaki garden burger, and grilled cheese. I got the south of the border garden burger which comes layered with a couple of slimy slices of roasted mild pepper.

It's not the greatest burger I've ever had. It is definitely a little heavy on a sweet mayonnaise sauce for my taste, but I was hungry enough that it was absolutely still edible. (Got to remember to make a special request for no sauce next time!).

In addition to fries, they also sell tater tots, which are mighty tempting in their grease ball glory.

One thing to be aware of is that later in the evening, close to closing time, they can run out of gardenburgers. I was lucky enough to get the last one.

The Elysian

Sometimes I feel like the sort of celebratory meal that involves dressing up and savoring plates of exquisitely prepared fancy ingredients. And other times I feel like the sort of celebratory meal that involves drinking a 5000 calorie coal dark beer and eating a giant mound of french fries.


The Elysian brewery on capital hill recently colluded with my vision for the latter. True to a typical Seattle brewery, the Elysian has a ton of vegetarian (and vegan, and gluten-free!) options. I chose the black bean burger with pepper jack, red pepper aioli and skinny cut french fries.

It was a Friday night and this place was packed!

Greenlake Bar and Grill

After a recent swim at Even's Pool, a friend and I took advantage of the early spring sunshine and went for afternoon happy hour on the patio at the Greenlake Bar and Grill.

The Greenlake Bar and Grill has an extensive happy hour menu, with vegetarian items ranging from $2.99 (french fries, hummus, rice and beans) to $5.99 (veggie burger with fries). In between items are salads, $3.99, pie, $3.99 and grilled cheese and soup, $4.99. There is a one drink minimum per person.

We made quick work of retrieving the calories we'd left a the pool. I had a veggie burger with fries and a well-tequila with strawberry lemonade ($3.99), and she had a salmon burger with fries ($5.99) and a different type of fruity drink.

I found my meal to be about average, but the ambiance was delightful, both entertaining and calming in the sunny afternoon. I don't spend enough time hanging out at Greenlake, and was a little surprised by the reality of the parade of fit, clean, fashionable exercisers doing their thing all around. We were surrounded by elements of urbanity, restaurants, bars, cars, lots of people, etc, but all of the dirty stuff had been scraped away leaving just a gleaming, safe-feeling, eco-conscious bubble of Lulu Lemon, coffee-to-go, and high-class jogging strollers. Nothing to say here that isn't already well ingrained in the minds of the stereotype-aware Seattleite, but it felt both wonderful and weird and left me thinking long after I left.

Thanks J for the great swim, lovely afternoon, and food photography skills!

Gustav's

A lovely weekend in Leavenworth to loosely celebrate a friend's birthday recently landed us at Gustav's, one of two burger joints in town, for dinner. We chose Gustav's over the no-frills Heidleburger because it has an awesome rooftop deck that is just perfect for hanging out in the evening sun.

It had been many years since I'd eaten at Gustav's and there were some changes, most notably that fries now come with the burgers.

I ordered a pepper jack veggie burger, which was composed of pepper jack cheese, roasted red pepper and chipotle mayonnaise.

The burger was tasty, but in a serious "grass is greener" moment I found myself a little disappointed about the french fry situation. The past annoyance of having to buy a separate order of expensive fries to accompany a somewhat expensive burger at least ensured a giant, piping hot basket of french fries. The new "fries included" scheme instead provides just a meager few luke-warm french fries along side the burger.
Now I know I probably sound sort of gross being so concerned about the french fries, but dinner in town in Leavenworth usually comes after a physical day and the french fries are a highly anticipated event. That and on this particular evening, the birthday boy was really looking forward to the feeling of over-eating with an emphasis on fried potato variations, so I felt especially sensitive.

As much as I love kicking back with a beer on a rooftop deck, and I think my Leavenworth burger preference is definitely Heidleburger, where the veggie burgers are just as good (and way cheaper), they have both tatertots and fries, and you can eat outside on picnic tables, on the grass, or wherever you want with whatever libation you have. AND, as we discovered on the way out of town the next day (still on the bday boy's quest for the fried potato overload), Heidleburger now has a "Chipotle" option for it's burgers that was spicy and delicious.

Sorry Gustav's! I want to love you but your little nemesis Heidleburger keeps getting in the way!

Blue Moon Burgers

Blue Moon Burgers is a great burger option for a mixed vegetarian/omnivore group. The menu goes like this: there is a large list of burgers with catchy names and varied flavors, and you can get any of them made with a beef patty, chicken patty, salmon patty, veggie patty, or black bean veggie patty. Nice!

I had a Southwest burger with a black bean veggie patty. It came covered with pepper jack cheese, battered and fried jalapeno slices, spicy mayo sauce, lettuce, tomato, and sweet red onions, and pickles.

My dining companion and I split an order of fries, which were also quite delicious. They were skinny, well seasoned, and greasy as little crusty oil filled straws.

Blue Moon Burgers is an easy win for a mixed group, assuming nobody is offended by a fryolater.

The Counter

I was recently an evening guest of some friends up in Ballard, an area that feels ever more like an adventurous trek from my increasing southern/central Seattle world. We started our activities at the giant LA Fitness mega-gym, where, among other activities, I got to watch one of my hosts do some special pushups while balancing on free weights. It was quite an evening, and we all felt as though we'd really earned our detour into the strategically abutted temptress The Counter on our way out of the gym.

We started with a a "50/50" order of fries with half potato and half sweet potato. We had our choice of dippin' sauces and chose Buttermilk Ranch, Roasted Garlic Aioli, and Sweet BBQ sauce. The quantity was not disappointing, and the fries were tasty (the sweet potato fries, which seemed to be lightly battered, were the favorite.)

The Counter is a "build your own burger" restaurant where you can really get yourself into burger trouble by getting greedy and losing track of complimentary flavors. I based my burger off of a 1/3 lb veggie burger, and topped it with horseradish cheddar, grilled onions, jalapenos, mixed greens, tomatoes, and chipotle aioli. Pretty tasty!

If any one of us could have mustered even a semblance of an appetite after this feast, I could have been convinced into topping it all off with a milk shake. Instead, we let a good thing be and waddled off into the night.

Thank you D & W for the lovely evening!

By's Drive-In

Ok ladies, this one is for you. By's is a burger joint in Sodo. It is no longer a drive-in. In addition to all of the regular meat burger options and fish and chips, they have a decent veggie burger on a whole wheat bun and better than average fries with skin on, soft insides, and a good brown crispness outside.
You know what else they have? Men. For the duration of my lazy paced meal, I was the only women (with the exception of the sweet Grandmothers behind the counter) in the very busy lunch time rush. Reasons aside, the place crawls with the less-fair gender and I suspect it would be a good place to go if you're looking to casually and spontaneously find a gentleman caller.

Who did they have? Construction workers of every age, shape and color. Bike boys with rolled up pantlegs and beards. Hipsters with glasses and low tight jeans with clean shoes. Professionals in expensive clothes and black jackets. Just about one of every kind of typical Seattlite eating a burger and sucking on the straw of a thick shake waiting for the lady of his dreams to waltz in and order a Lou's Special (bacon burger, fries, soda, about $6). Twas not I, but it may as well be you.