The Hogtown Vegan ✔✔✔✔✔
- Tyler Andrew
- Aug 5, 2016
- 4 min read
The Hogtown Vegan Comfort food is Beast and Feast's bedrock for food. This far into our travels, we've sampled many forms of finger-lickin' fried Chicken and melty Mac n' Cheese. But never have I visited a Vegan restaurant, let alone expected to find one that serves the kind of food it does. Vegan Comfort Food? This will be interesting! The Hogtown Vegan promotes itself as a vegan restaurant, but sells itself with its take on comfort food classics. Mac N Cheese, Philly Cheese Steak, "Pulled Pork", "Chicken and Waffles"....Sorry, its actually called "Unchicken and Waffles", and it's been grabbing attention the attention of both Vegans and non-vegans in the GTA. This dish has even held a spot in the Top 10 Best Chicken and Waffles in Toronto in BlogTO. It's ranked number 10, but still to be included in that ranking is impressive for impersonating food. Being a consumer of all foods, including animals, I figured this would be an interesting change for me to try the vegan version of the comfort classic, that also happens to be a fan favorite of this page. The menu was very intriguing. So many food's listed on it that seemed inconceivable to serve veganated (#Veganated). A prime example was this were their Chicken Wings, so we ordered 10 of those, half with BBQ and half Buffalo flavored. These are the only two flavors they offer, so I figured we'd try them both. When they came out, they were just as I predicted, NOT chicken wings. I'd be more on board with the concept if they called them "Boneless Wings" because those actually are a thing, and would resemble these much more than an actual chicken wing. These were unchicken soy strips that were breaded and covered in the two sauces I mentioned. The taste of the mock wings was great! I mean, you're mostly tasting the sauces and the tender breaded "meat" just acts as a pleasant craft to carry and chew that flavor. It didn't taste exactly like chicken, but the texture was close enough for me to continue eating happily. The Chipotle Mayo dipping sauce it came with was the best thing. I'd eat the table cloth if it was covered in it. The food arrived very shortly after the appetizer. Which on a side note here is bonus about Vegan food. It comes out very fast, which is great when your consumer bikes for 2+ hours prior to dining. Okay, so I ordered the Unchicken and Waffles obviously, and had to accompany a comfort main with a comfort side, so Mac and Cheese was my go to. The Unchicken and waffles also came with sweet potato mash and collard greens. The Collard greens were a first for me, but i'm very familiar with their place in a comfort kitchen menu's. GARLIC! And lots of it in there. But I love garlic so that wasn't an issue. What was however was it being very under seasoned. They must have gotten garlic powder confused for salt or something, cause it was definitely missing salt, and heavy on the garlic. The sweet potato mash was a pleasant contribution of flavor on the plate, adding that root vegetable sweetness, and having those natural sugars sweeten up the rest of the plate (outside form the syrup over the waffles). The waffles were a corn based waffle. Dense and soft as opposed to light and crispy. And on top was the same chicken they used for the "wings" but without the buffalo or BBQ sauce to cover it. Without the sauce I could identify a bit more flavor from the soy strips. Again didn't have a strong chicken flavor, but it would be like describing a new food you haven't tried before and affiliating it with a chicken flavor because you didn't really have another way to describe it. The chicken also tasted like it was baked rather than fried cause it was lacking that crunch factor.The overall dish was a good chicken and waffles. Not the best, but I can see why it holds a place in Toronto's top 10. It's tender, its tasty, all the flavors work together. The Mac N Cheese was tasty, but like the chicken it still couldn't convince me. It had a packaged cheese powder kind of texture and taste too it. Doesn't matter how good you're vegan cheese is, it can't replace that stringy, ooey'gooey, sharpness that real cheese offers. But still very delicious! My sister got the pulled pork sandwich which was good as well. The soy used had good texture to it and the BBQ sauce they used makes the sandwich was it is since most pulled pork sandwiches succeed with the sauce quality and flavor. She upgraded her fries to Chili Cheese fries which were very tasty! I highly recommend getting them for yourself. The "beef" on the fries was the most convincing meat product I tried. We were very temped to try their dessert, but the portions were so generous at this place that we were so full from our meals. I had to eat half my sisters sandwich and a good amount of her fries which was my reasoning for filling up. I had eaten so much soy that day I swear I was gonna start lactating. The overall experience there was great for my first full Vegan meal. If I was a vegan this place would be a sanctuary for me to find my comfort food fixings. However, I have to be thankful for the fact that I am not also at the same time, cause even though there food was very delicious, I couldn't say it was better than non-vegan versions. The Hogtown Vegan breakdown: Pros: - Delicious food! - Didn't miss the meat - Quick service - Generous portions - Good price Highlight? Chipotle Sauce for wings Cons: - The resturant atmosphere seemed a little sub par (Decor and paint job needs updating) - Collard Greens denied of salt. RATING: Budget✔ Experiance✔ Aesthetics✔ Size✔ Taste✔ The Hogtown Vegan nailed all five ✔✔✔✔✔'s
Comments