At Sushi Samurai, the totally vegan sushi restaurant on the high of Queen Anne, I dug into my konjac-root salmon and neatly rolled dragon roll. The fake fish was fantastic, nothing exceptional. However the meal as a complete was one in every of my favorites on a mission to suss out town’s finest vegan meals. Veganity apart, Sushi Samurai was one of many few eating places that began by getting the basics proper: the rice was completely cooked, the roll was tight, the nori nonetheless crisp.
Elsewhere, I encountered oddly dense udon noodles, a collection of sharp and unbalanced sauces, and so very many under-seasoned greens; issues that don’t have anything to do with an absence of animal product. I’m not anticipating each place (or anywhere) to custom-craft an ideal substitute for brief ribs or hand-paint fats strains on their fake-on. I’m speaking about not neglecting the basics.
Seattle deserves higher vegan meals. Seattle’s vegans, although surprisingly few in quantity, deserve the sort of choice of vegan eating places present in Portland, the Bay Space, and New York. What set Sushi Samurai, Wayward Vegan Cafe, and the others incomes a spot on our listing of the perfect vegan eating places aside had a lot much less to do with if or how they sidestepped animal merchandise and way more to do with specializing in taste and execution of the fundamentals.
When folks make the choice to turn out to be vegans, they don’t immediately lose their style buds. They’ve chosen to prioritize their ethics, dietary decisions, or private preferences over looking for taste at any value. However that doesn’t imply they’ve forgotten it exists.
So why use horrible tortilla chips if Juantonio’s (RIP Juanita) are already vegan? Did anybody hassle to style that bitter soy queso earlier than they despatched it out? The method for cooking udon noodles or dried spaghetti doesn’t change if the sauce shuns fish-based dashi or rooster inventory. So far as I do know, salt, pepper, garlic, and MSG, constructing blocks of simple taste, all qualify as vegan. And—sorry to be grumpy—what makes perturbingly gradual service a requirement at most vegan spots? Is attentiveness a dairy product?
Seattle has a a lot decrease vegan inhabitants (by quantity and proportion) than many cities within the US (33 of them, to be actual), however that appears like a cop-out justification for the mediocre restaurant choice. A terrific vegan restaurant turns into a vacation spot for omnivores. It doesn’t need to survive on the few present vegans if it appeals to a wider viewers—and the perfect ones may even encourage extra folks to be vegan-curious.
The shared function of the perfect vegan spots on our listing was a culinary focus: sushi, Mexican meals, Thai meals. It’s begin. However a metropolitan space of 4 million folks deserves extra. We deserve locations like Mirisata serving wealthy, colourful Sri Lankan rice and curry in Portland, Vedge’s fashionable love letter to the vegetable in Philadelphia, and the menu of inventive ‘tinis and weenies by Lion Dance Cafe at Oakland’s Tallboy.
I get that vegan eating places typically attempt to be the whole lot to their vegan audiences, with large menus to fulfill all cravings. I get that I, an individual who can get virtually no matter I need within the metropolis (besides, for some cause, Burmese meals), am not the first viewers. However I like the chance to eat much less meat for well being and sustainability causes, and to eat nice meals with vegan mates. I wish to throw my eating finances at intricately spiced lentil fritters and silky vegetable broth soups. I wish to sip aquafaba cocktails over plates of french fries coated in cashew cheese. And since non-vegan cooks can’t appear to cease dropping their fries into the identical oil through which they simply cooked a rooster, Seattle wants the vegan eating places it deserves.
