Week 11 - Hibiscus...A Crepe Delight!

Hibiscus - Kensington Market

Welcome back to Week 11 of "The Lazy Vegan Challenge Blog"!!

It saddens me that my blogging days are nearing to an end as Week 12 will be my final post, thus concluding this vegan challenge. But fear not! As I've mentioned in my "Week 7" post, I'm sticking to being a vegan after the challenge is over! I just won't be as lazy as a vegan anymore, because this blog assignment has really made me become a broke vegan. But reviewing vegan restaurants all over Toronto was really quite the adventure, as it enabled me to explore the city in areas that I've never been to and I had a lot of fun doing it! :)

For Week 11's featured restaurant, I visited "Hibiscus" in the Kensington Market area. It's a very tiny cafe that serves soup, salads, and most importantly, CREPES!! They can probably seat at most a total of 12 people in there. I went there on Good Friday and was lucky to even get a table for myself and my date.

Buckwheat Savory Crepe - $9

We both ordered the Savory Crepe that was stuffed with tomato, basil, spinach and mushrooms, wrapped in a buckwheat crepe. Sounds simple, right? But yet was it soooo amazing!

The entire time we were stuffing our faces, we didn't speak to each other at all. We just kept nodding in approval after each bite at the simple deliciousness.

Not everything on their menu is vegan though, as each non-vegan item would be labelled as so.

Mango Soy Smoothie - $4.50

The weather on Good Friday was a nice warm spring weather, which resulted in a nice spring-like smoothie!

Here, I got a Mango Soy Smoothie, which went very well with the savory crepe. A glass of red wine probably would've also been an excellent choice as well...but unfortunately that was not an option.

Banana & Nutella Sweet Crepe - $8

Normally when one goes to a crepe place, they either have a crepe as a meal or dessert. Well that day we had it as both! How could we not when there are not many vegan crepe options in the city!

So my date and I each got a Sweet Crepe with bananas, dark chocolate and roasted hazelnut topped with chocolate brownie ice-cream and strawberries. 

I have to admit, this was the healthiest tasting crepe dessert that I had ever tasted, even with the brownie ice cream smothered on top. I can't wait to go back to try their Apple & Cinnamon Sweet Crepe.

 I give Hibiscus a 5/5. Their options on the menu aren't much but it's still a treat to have a vegan crepe resto in the city. Plus their staff is super friendly (even though they close at 6, they let us stay until 7. That was very nice of them).


**All photo's are taken by me from my iPhone :)


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Week 10 - Bunner's Bakeshop...the Vegan Indulgence!!

Bunner's Bakeshop - Dundas St W & High Park

Welcome back to Week 10 of the Lazy Vegan Challenge Blog!!!

This week is a vegan review special, because I didn't do the ordinary traditional vegan restaurant....I did a bakery! "Bunner's Bakeshop", which is one of Toronto's sweetest, most delicious bakery's for that matter!

Now when I originally created this blog, I told myself that this would strictly be a vegan restaurant review blog featuring photo's of vegan dishes and desserts only. Absolutely no human beings or faces! However, with only 4 cupcakes being the featured food for this week's review, I've decided to make the exception of including TMFM along with my cupcakes (The Many Faces of Melànie). TMFM goes back a long way...way back in social media history. But this is more of a modern version and well, I'm not the focus of this topic, the cupcakes are! So I hope you enjoy the visual indulgence of this sweet delectable cupcake phenomena.

Since Week 1, when I first decided to make the topic of my blog about Toronto's best vegan restaurants, I immediately was given a ton of suggestions from friends as to which restaurants I should try out, and Bunner's Bakeshop was one of the first few. Ever since being on the challenge and being the extreme sweet-tooth type of gal that I am, I had been dying for some vegan sweet goodness.

So with all that being said, you can see how excited I really was when I finally got my hands (or teeth in this image) on a bakery box of cupcakes, brownies, and other sinful treats. I couldn't help but share this photo, because I think I actually look like a bunny here.

Cherry Chocolate Cupcake

The first indulgence....

The first cupcake I tried was a Cherry Chocolate Cupcake. I was reluctant to try this at first because I usually stay away from anything cherry flavoured, thanks to Tylenol for ruining that for me. But normally when it comes to sweets or desserts, I will usually tolerate the flavour. And boy was I happy I made the exception for this cupcake!

The Cherry Chocolate flavour is not a usual on their menu so I was glad that I gave it a shot. The cupcake was topped with vanilla icing and the inside was filled with cherry goodness. Every bite melted in my mouth...

Lemon Cupcake

This cupcake here on the right was a Lemon Cupcake. I was also reluctant to try this one as well, afraid of it being too sweet for me (I know I know...after all that talk about being an extreme sweet-tooth). But I was sure glad I did try it.

It wasn't too sweet at all. The base was vanilla and the lemon icing just added the right amount of zing to it....if that even makes sense. Definitely loved it!

Red Velvet Cupcake

Here, I am purposely trying to seduce you with this Red Velvet Cupcake in the photo on the left. Everybody loves red velvet.

This is their most requested cupcake, which I am not surprised. There's not much I can really tell here except that if you also love red velvet, then you should really just get them from Bunner's considering how much healthier it is with it being milk, egg and gluten free!

Mmm....red velvet.

Double Chocolate Cupcake

I saved my favourite for last, which was their Double Chocolate Cupcake.

I had to keep myself from buying 10 of these because I tried one before visiting Bunner's and at the time I almost shoved the entire cupcake in my mouth like a 3-year-old who wouldn't have known any better because that's how good it was.

The bottom base is chocolate topped with rich organic cocoa frosting sprinkled with chocolate bits on top. What more could a chocolate lover ask for?!

You can guess that I've already rated Bunner's Bakeshop a 5/5, although the only thing that saddens me about this bakery is how far it is located from me. If you live in the Junction area, then you are one lucky Torontonian. Though if I lived in the Junction area, then I'd probably be changing my name from "Lazy Vegan" to "Fat Vegan" because I'd eat cupcakes and sweets day and night!

Oh, and just to clarify, I did NOT eat all these cupcakes in one sitting! Cheers!


**All photo's are taken by me from my iPhone :)


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Week 9 - Green Earth Vegetarian Cuisine

Green Earth Vegetarian Cuisine - Broadview & Gerrard St E

Welcome back to Week 9 of The Lazy Vegan Challenge Blog!

On a very snowy day....my featured vegan restaurant for this week's lazy dine-in was at "Green Earth Vegetarian Cuisine" which is on Broadview & Gerrard St East. It was a bit of a travel to get to but definitely worth it (although I did accidentally put in the wrong address on my phone in Google Maps and ended up walking half a kilometre before arriving there)! The location is more of in a residential area so I didn't expect it to be as busy as my previous vegan dine-in experiences. That didn't change the sweet, warm welcoming greeting by the staff when my vegan date and I entered the restaurant!

Crispy Wonton - $4.25

We literally had the entire restaurant to ourselves but it's a small space and I'm sure all the locals were fine staying in at home on that blizzardy day.

We started with an appetizer ; the Crispy Wontons came with a side of sweet chili sauce. They were delicious!  I'm usually resistant  when it comes to anything with the word "chili" in it, just because I can't take anything spicy, but this sauce was more sweet than anything and really added flavour to the wontons.

Buddha Burger $8.95 / Conchiglie Ripiene $9.95

After our starter, we had a hard time deciding what to order for our main entrées. They had a lot of options! My date decided to go with the Buddha Burger which included green peppered flavoured soy protein patty served with onions, tomato, pickle, cucumber dressing ketchup and mustard. The burger was very flavourful and is perfect if you're opting for the "comfort food" kind of taste or craving.

For myself, I got the Conchiglie Ripiene which are pasta shells that were filled with spinach, tofu, textured vegetable proteins served with marinara sauce. It was definitely different for me since this was the first vegan pasta dish I've ever ordered (as a vegan) but I was definitely most pleased with the taste! The portion didn't look like much but those pasta shells were actually pretty big and were quite stuffed. After the third shell, I was full.

Almond Chocolate Cake - $4.75

And of course, we had dessert after, just because the selection looked enticing on the menu. We settled with a simple Almond Chocolate Cake, which tasted like pure chocolate heaven.

Based on the friendly staff, decently priced menu, and the taste and portion of their food, I rate Green Earth a 5/5. It probably helped that my date and I were the only customers in their restaurant that day but hey, what can you really complain about when you enter smiling and leave smiling? :)






**All photo's are taken by me from my iPhone :)


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Week 8 - The Lazy Vegan eats at Vegetarian Haven

Vegetarian Haven - Baldwin Village

Welcome back to Week 8 of the Lazy Vegan Challenge Blog!!!

I had always been hearing all this hype about this specific vegan restaurant, so I couldn't wait to try it out. For this week's review I visited the "Vegetarian Haven" that's located in the Baldwin Village (closest to University & Dundas St West). It was a Friday evening when my date and I dined in, so I had to make reservations in advanced. Yep, they're a fancier resto. The moment you walk in, you can feel that it's more of an upscale restaurant than the other traditional "chill and relaxed" vegan restaurants I had visited so far. 

When we entered, we were kindly greeted by the hostess who introduced us to a lovely display of their "main special" for the evening. I thought the display looked fantastic. 

Singapore Seitan - $13.49 / Salmon & King Prawn Special

So the fabulous two dishes that you see in the photo on the right, starting with the entrée in the far back, is the Singapore Seitan and "Special Of The Day". The Singapore Seitan had tender slices of their succulent seitan cooked in a sweet and spicy pineapple peaunut sauce, served with purple rice and vegetables.

I had the Special Of The Day which was their famous 'salmon and king prawn' (made with soya protein and konnyaku root flour) served with their fresh rice noodles and mix of vegetables in their house-made Szechuan sauce. The Singapore Seitan was amazing but the special entrée that I ordered was 10x better! I kept saying after every bite "Oh my gosh...this is sooooo good!"

Matcha Green Tea Latte - $4.50

Our server was excellent. She was super enthusiastic, more than I would normally expect from a waitress at any restaurant these days. She was very knowledgeable about the particular ingredients we asked about and was honest about her preferred dishes.

I honestly cannot wait to come back here to try out their other selections. Their portions are massive and every plate that I saw pass by ordered from other tables smelled incredibly delicious and looked absolutely mouth-watering.

However, we did have an unfortunate exit experience. A different server had brought our bill to us without asking first. I had a Veg.ca discount card which should have been applied to the bill, so I took it out and just as I was about to apologize for not mentioning the discount card sooner, I was rudely interrupted with the question of whether I was paying by card or cash. My date and I exchanged glances as we hadn't yet decided and when we didn't give an immediate response, she impatiently repeated herself. Rude!!! At that point, we couldn't wait to leave, which was really disappointing because the evening was going so pleasantly well until the bill was brought to us.

I really wish I could give Vegetarian Haven a 5/5, but because of the end experience, I rate them a 4/5. Like I said, I cannot wait to come back to try out the rest of their menu but my advice to my readers: do not expect a consistent level "excellent service".

**All photo's are taken by me from my iPhone :)


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