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!