Red Orchid's China Bistro

Red Orchid is my favorite Chinese restaurant in Charleston.  The menu reminds me of P.F. Changs and I LOVE PF Changs!   They have great vegetarian and vegan options.  Tofu is on the menu along with a lot of vegetables.  The food is great and the prices are great as well.  

Red Orchids is located in West Ashley on Sam Rittenburg Blvd.  Click here for the menu.

For starters, try the vegetarian lettuce wraps.  They are tofu and vegetables stir fried in peanut sauce and spicy sauce.  Then you spoon a bunch into a lettuce leaf and gobble it up.  They are so very good.  I can eat the mixture without the lettuce!

Here is a picture of my General TOFU!  It is cooked perfectly and taste great.  If you eat meat, you would never know it's not chicken.  I also got a spring roll.  I am not sure that their spring rolls are vegan.  (the wrapper may have egg in it?!)  Check with your server or pass on the sides. 

Fast and French

Gaulart & Maliclet French Cafe  AKA: Fast and French

This is one of my favorite restaurants in Charleston.  They are a perfect lunch spot because the food is wonderful, the people are great and the prices are so affordable. 

This is a quaint little place located on Broad Street in downtown Charleston.  It is a small restaurant that is always hopping! 

Fast and French has vegetarian options on the menu as well as the specials.  They have lots of veggie sandwiches and vegetarian soups and gazpachos.  Their vegetarian sandwiches do tend to come with cheeses melted over them.  Vegan options are available just by telling your server that you are vegan.  My server's girlfriend was vegan, so he had lots of suggestions!!!

I order the cold vegetable sandwich.  It came with mushrooms, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes and lettuce.  It also came with a creamy dijon sauce that I substituted oil and vinegar for (thanks to my server) and it was very good! I have never been disappointed when I eat here.  The options seem to be endless.  Usually they have a lot of soup options too.



While eating there, I met a man who has been vegetarian for 30 years and has eaten at Fast and French for 15 years!  He has never been disappointed either.  It was neat to hear how he has benefited from eating vegetarian for that long.  He also spoke of how much more difficult it was to eat this way 30 years ago.  We should all be thankful for all the choices we have these days.  I can't wait to say that I have been vegan for 30 years! 

Five Loaves Cafe

Five Loaves is a place that I have eaten at many times and realized I needed to blog about it so that you can all know what a great restaurant it is. 

Five Loaves Cafe is located downtown on Cannon Street as well as in Mount Pleasant on Johnnie Dodds.

http://www.fiveloavescafe.com/

They are locally owned and operated and actually a sister company to Sesame Burger.  Click here to see that blog post.  Five Loaves makes their foods fresh and have a wide variety of veggie items and many that can be made vegan. 

I have had the Spicy Garden burger (sans melted cheddar and the yogurt sauce).  It comes cucumbers, lettuce, tomato and onions.  It is super!

I have also had the Fresh Vegetable Stir Fry with diced tofu, spicy hoisin sauce or thai peanut sauce, cilantro & a touch of coconut.  mmmmmmm good!

There are many more items off the menu that can be made vegan by substituting a few items. Click here for their menu to plan your next visit.  They also have daily specials and daily soups!  As always, you can tell your server that you are vegan and they will customize your dish!  You can't go wrong with Five Loaves! 

Sesame Burger

Sesame Burgers and Beer...doesn't sound like a vegetarian or vegan friendly restaurant does it?  However, the menu boasts "many vegetarian dishes"!!  They have specials that are vegetarian and vegan as well as items on the menu. 

They are located in Park Circle in N. Charleston as well as in the Citadel Mall in Charleston. 

http://www.sesameburgersandbeer.com/

On the menu under sandwiches; they have all the types of sandwiches listed. On the right, you can choose what you want on the sandwich, by choosing under pictures of a cow, chicken, turkey and beans. 

You would think that having people see a picture of a cow or chicken or turkey as an option for their sandwich might be visual enough for the person to choose the beans!  But oh well..at least they acknowledge vegetarians and give cruelty free, healthy options. 

I did the build your own:

I chose the black bean cake, with lettuce, grilled onions, grilled zucchini and BBQ sauce.  It was yummy!  One cool thing about Sesame burger is that they make their condiments in house.  You can tell that they are homemade. 

Oh and their napkins are made of 100% recycled material!  YIPPEE!

Dell'z Deli

Wall of signatures

Today was the 7th annual Louie's Kids Yoga Marathon!  We did 108 sun salutations in the Marion Square park downtown Charleston!  It was a lot of fun for a good cause.  All that yoga will build up quite an appetite!  So all the yogis headed to Dell'z Deli!  Dell is an amazing chef that has a cafe on the corner of King Street and Cannon Street!  It is crazy affordable and amazingly good! 

Dell and her crew are very friendly and personable.  They use the freshest ingredients and most dishes are vegan friendly.  It is great to eat a restaurant where there are so many choices, you don't know what to get! The only good option is to visit often and order as much as you can! :) 

I was told by a friend to try the SNOBBY JOES!  It is a wrap with vegan crumbles in sloppy joe mix with avocado, vegan cream cheese, sprouts, cucumber and more!  It was very good! (and very good for you) It came with tortilla chips and a strawberry!  

Others ordered a veggie pizza and vegan BLT with seitan "bacon".  Here is the pizza! (with vegan cream cheese on the side)

Great Food, Great Company, Great Times!!  Go see Dell! 


Me and Dell!



Ladles Homemade Soups

Ladles is a restaurant that serves soups, salads and sandwiches.  They are located in West Ashley and soon in Mount Pleasant!  http://ladlessoups.com/

I LOVE soup! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!  Recently in Charlotte, I ate at an all noodle place called "Nothing but Noodles".  I thought it was the best place on earth.  Now there is a soup restaurant!  You can imagine how excited I am.  Imagine if the noodle restaurant and the soup restaurant were next door to each other.  mmmmmmmm!

So, back to Ladles...  It is a pretty good place.  They have daily specials of about 10-15 soups, out of which about 3 are vegan and many are vegetarian.  They have many different ways to order the soup.  You can order just one bowl of soup and a roll, all you can eat soup and salad, bottomless soup bowl or soup sampler.  I suggest the all you can eat or the sampler!  The soup is all made right in the back and is very fresh and flavorful. I ordered the Garden Vegetable soup and it was delicious!  I only ordered one bowl and it filled me up nicely. 

If you like Soup....Go to Ladles! 

My hubby enjoying the Garden Veggie!

The Flying Biscuit

Vegan on the Road....

I was in Charlotte, NC and I ate at my all time favorite CHAIN restaurant, The Flying Biscuit. 

http://www.flyingbiscuit.com/

I love this restaurant because:

They have a lot of VEGAN options right on the menu and

They have organic ingredients

I have had many of the items.  They have tofu scrambles, black bean burgers, tofu BBQ wraps and more.  You can pretty much substitute tofu for eggs in any of the dishes.  They have sides of morning star soy items. 

I typically do not eat the "mock meats" but I was curious about the soy sausage.  In case you ever get a hankering for a sausage biscuit, definitely try their Morning star soysage. 

For breakfast, I had their Mexican wrap!  It is tofu (substituted at no extra charge for eggs), Peppers, onions, tomatoes in a wrap with a yummy tomato salsa on top.  I got it with a side of potatoes!  It is pretty spicy, but a perfect combination of flavors. 

GO TO THE FLYING BISCUIT!  So far, I have eaten at the ones in Atlanta, GA and Charlotte, NC.  We need one in Charleston for sure!

Jack's Cosmic Dogs

Jack's Cosmic Dogs is a very eclectic and neat place to eat hotdogs.  It is located in Mount Pleasant and now in Folly Beach too.  It is the perfect spot to eat a late lunch sandy and wet after a day at the beach.

You may be asking "what in the world would a vegan eat at a hotdog place?"  Have no fear...you can get any of their signature dogs with TOFU!  All you have to say when you order is "VEGEROID IT"

The serve all of their dogs on a large sesame seed hotdog bun.  Their french fries are cut directly from a potato and are delicious! 

I get the Tofu dog with mustard and jamaican relish!  It is very yummy.  So check out Jack's after a day in the sun...and don't forget to vegeroid!

Long Point Grill

The Long Point Grill in Mt. Pleasant is a part of a local chain of restaurants. The others in the chain include; Mustard Seed, Uno Mas and Boulevard Diner.  They are all yummy and have an abundance of Vegetarian and Vegan options! 

Check them out at Dine with Sal

Every night at Long Point Grill, they offer different specials on a hand written board.  This is where you will usually find great options that can be altered to your preference.  I actually did not find anything on the menu that was vegan friendly.  I altered a great dish however and this is what I got!

This was a linguine with shrimp and Parmesan cheese.  I asked for the linguine without the shrimp and add extra veggies! 

The pasta had a lemon, garlic sauce topped with spinach, roasted tomatoes, asparagus and onions.  It was pretty and yummy!

Definitely give them a try as their menu changes often and they can adapt any dish to your liking!

Starbucks

"Tall, Java Mocha Shake with Soy Milk, No Whip"

Starbucks can get a bad rep sometimes.  People think they are sell outs, pretentious, wasteful even.  But Starbucks is actually a pretty good company.  They are definitely on the "green" wagon!  Their plastic cups are made from 15% less plastic (it's a start).  They give you a discount if you bring in your own reusable mug and they sell a great selection of reusable mugs and water bottles!  Starbucks also sells fair trade coffee!! 

They recycle, conserve and are charitable in many different causes!  You can check out Starbucks Responsibility for more information. 

My favorite thing is that you can make a frappuchino or hot coffee drink any way you want it.  So, by adding soy milk instead of milk and saying no to whip cream, you can have a great cruelty free refreshing drink on a HOT Charleston August afternoon!

Enjoy!

Cypress

My favorite part about going to a fancy restaurant is the trust you can have in the chef to make a great vegan dish!  We went to Cypress and I didn't even have to open the menu.  All I said to the waiter is "I'm Vegan" and he said "VEGAN RISOTTO!"

This risotto was so creamy, spicy and full of vegetables.  The portion was huge and of course was certified vegan and local! 

If you don't like risotto, they also have a great Ratatouille.  It has eggplant, zucchini, squash and much more! 

Cypress has an awesome ambiance.  They have very cool lights, a two story wine rack and comfortable seating.  Definitely check out Cypress!

Here is their website with some great pictures and a menu!

http://www.magnolias-blossom-cypress.com/

Lost Dog Cafe'

My all time favorite place to eat lunch is in Folly Beach, SC!

 Lost Dog

The Lost Dog Cafe is awesome! It is a quaint little beach restaurant.  It is dog friendly with little dog bowls everywhere for thirsty pups!  They have a great outdoor patio covered by palm trees. The best is eating lunch and then walking to the beach!!!

Lost Dog has a lot of vegan options! 

My FAVORITE dish is the:

BOB BARKER Black Bean Burger!

Everyone knows that Bob Barker is a friend of the animals!  So it is fitting to have the best cruelty free burger named after him.  It is a homemade black bean burger that is large and very good.  It is served on a kaiser roll with....MANGO salsa!  It is a perfect blend of tastes!  I like to get it with a side of homemade hummus and bagel chips.  Yummy and filling!!!

Other great options are the Very Berry Spinach Salad (sans feta cheese) and the quesidilla without meat, cheese or sour cream! 

Definitely check out Lost Dog and then go walk off lunch on the beach or pier! 

Kaminisky's Desert Cafe'

 

Check out Kaminsky's online

Kaminsky's is an awesome little desert cafe' in downtown Charleston!  We love going there after a nice dinner!  They have a cozy little seating area with a whole menu of coffee drinks galore and a huge display case of freshly baked deserts ranging from cobblers to eight layer cakes. 

This is not a vegan cafe' however, have no fear...Kaminsky's can whip up a mean vegan coffee drink!  They have SOY! 

This is my drink that they made me.  It is called a "Grasshopper".  It is steamed Soy Milk with mint and chocolate.  It was very yummy!!!!  Kamisky's saves the day with non dairy warm beverages!

FIG

Tonight we went to a restaurant on Meeting Street called FIG.! We have been wanting to go this place for awhile now.  It is the name we have chosen if we have a baby girl!  So, of course I wanted to go eat there and take a picture of the sign (just in case)!  Check out Eat at Fig.

F.I.G. stands for "Food Is Good".  And yes it is too!!  Everything we ate there was wonderful and vegan friendly!  (all you have to do is ask!)  FIG uses all local ingredients from local farmers.  It is fresh and sustainable. 

To start, we ordered the John's Island Tomato Tarte Tatin!  They were roasted fresh tomatoes on top of caramelized onions.  The onions had this wonderful sweet tastes and were crunchy and paired so nicely with the slow roasted tomato on top.  Yummmmy!  It was paired with a goat cheese tompanade, but you can ask for it without or just leave it on the side and not eat it. 

For my main dish, I asked the chef to make a vegan vegetable platter!  And boy did he!  This is what came on my vegetable sampler; heirloom eggplant camponata; leeks; pan roasted okra; Anson Mills Farro Piccolo and Sauteed rapini. 

The leeks were sweet and caramelized to perfection!  The okra was halved and pan roasted just enough to bring out the flavor but they stayed light and fresh.  The sauteed rapini was like collard greens without all of the fat added to southern greens!  The heirloom eggplant companata had tomatoes in it, eggplant and what tasted like a balsamic vinegar taste.  And last but not least, the Farro Piccolo!  It had peas, lima beans, corn, tomatoes and more in it.  It was a very yummy little side.  All these samplings mixed together were the perfect variety of tastes and the perfect amount of food! 

FIG's menu may look a little vegan unfriendly, but just ask and they will whip up some tasty, flavorful treats!