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| - I love meat. Beef, pork, seafood, I love it all. That said, my appreciation for the valley's vegan and vegetarian community over the last few years in particular has grown by leaps and bounds. The lengths to which many of these restaurants have gone to make carnivores like myself feel right at home is pretty awe-inspiring. I'm not sure if they're all hoping to transform me into a meat-free man (not gonna happen), but if their goal is gaining acceptance as a viable and desirable option for dining out, count me as an advocate. Such is the case with Vegan House. An Asian restaurant serving a mostly Thai menu, but not a single animal was harmed in the making of your meal. I was in the neighborhood for a late lunch on Friday so I decided to stop by.
Vegan House is located on Adams Street halfway between Central and 1st Avenues right in Downtown. The interior has a pleasant mixture of wooden furniture and wooden accents inside with both table and booth seating available. The place can seat upwards of 50, but as it was a late lunch, I was one of only a handful of customers so plenty of seating to choose from this time around. I was greeted very warmly by the owners upon my arrival and they were over the top friendly all the way to the end.
I first received a small cup of warm vegetable soup in a miso broth. A nice gesture and it was a nice clean soup, though honestly the broth was a little flat to me. For my main course, I went with one of the chef specials on the menu. The Fish Of Three Flavor had me curious from the first reading. Tempura vegan fish and steamed veggies topped with a sweet chili sauce and served with rice. The presentation of this dish was colorful, albeit slightly weird looking. Came with two rather large pieces of this faux fish, and the way they were formed almost looked like someone stacked two giant pancakes on top of each other and then sliced them in half. Fortunately, the taste wasn't nearly as peculiar as the appearance. The tempura batter was excellent and this faux fish really did have the texture of a light flaky white fish. I asked my chili sauce to be low on the spice scale (I'm a wimp with spice, sorry), and I really liked the mix of sweet and heat. I poured on some of that rice a little at a time to soak up every last bit of that sauce. For dessert, I turned to the FBI. "Say what?" you ask? That's the moniker they use for what the owner described as their most popular dessert item. Fried banana with a side of coconut ice cream. Four battered and fried banana slices, a big scoop of the ice cream and a few dollops of mixed berry sauce. It wasn't too sweet, but a delicious combo and probably one of the healthier desserts I've had in awhile.
Total cost for the food, tax, and tip came to about $27. The price point was pretty fair given the portions I was served. Not everything I had was a home run, but everything was certainly served to me with utmost earnestness. And every dish was a good honest effort to make every meat-free item as flavorful as possible. Nice people, nice restaurant, good food, fair prices. That's something carnivores and vegetarians alike all want out of their dining experience. Props to Vegan House for continuing to expand my horizons on meat-free pleasures.
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