Garden Cafe in Orlando, FL

Garden Cafe is a vegetarian restaurant in Orlando that serves mostly Chinese food. The restaurant is located just outside of downtown on Colonial Drive in an old Pizza Hut building. The menu was interesting, with sections for different types of meats regardless of this being a vegetarian restaurant. This initially was a red flag for me, but I got over it. Vegetarians that try really hard to find substitutes to the meats that they no longer eat is something that I can understand, but I wish restaurants like this would embrace their food for what it is rather than pretending it contains meat.

Garden Cafe's lunch specials were a good deal. They were a few dollars less than most of the other items on the menu. I had the mixed vegetables in curry. This consisted of zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, and mushrooms with a soy based meat substitute that had a similar color and texture to chicken. Brown rice was served on the side. As an omnivore, I really did enjoy this meal. It didn't seem like Garden Cafe was trying to overcompensate for the lack of meat like I've noticed at other vegetarian restaurants, nor did they charge far more than what the meal was worth since it was vegetarian. The flavors were nice and the meal was really filling.

I'd gladly return to Garden Cafe. After the demise of Udipi Cafe in Longwood, Garden Cafe takes my top ranking for vegetarian restaurants that I've tried in the Orlando area!

Grass Root in Lakeland, FL

I had lunch at an organic vegan restaurant called Grass Root in Lakeland. Located in a little house off Florida Ave, I was interested to see how Lakeland did vegan food...

I ordered their burrito off the raw section of the menu. This burrito was filled with avocado, tomato, onions, and something that resembled a meat-free version of ground beef. It was all wrapped in a romaine lettuce leaf and topped with a vegan creamy sauce and fake parmesan cheese.

The burrito was tasty enough, but it wasn't the best value in my opinion. Many cheaper sandwiches on the menu came with sides, but yet this burrito that cost almost $10 was served looking lonely on a big plate. Perhaps I would have loved this place if I was vegan, but as an omnivore, I wasn't too impressed. There was too much focus on the menu about making non-meat food taste like and resemble meat. I've been to vegan restaurants that don't try to make their food something it's not, and some of them have awesome food. Unfortunately, Grass Root wasn't one of these. Food was okay for what it was, but not worth going out of my way to return for...

Vegfest in Orlando, FL

I'm not a vegetarian, but that didn't stop me from ending up at the Central Florida Vegfest in Lock Haven Park to check out the food choices! Most of the local vegetarian/vegan restaurants had booths set up, along with a few more that were new to me. Places to try I suppose...






Was I inspired to eat a vegan diet after my trip to the Vegfest? Later on, I ended up eating dinner at Keller's BBQ if that answers your question...

Raphsodic Cooperative Company in Orlando, FL

I visited a vegan bakery in Orlando on 17-92 called Raphsodic Cooperative Company. I had a Wasabi Almond Brownie. It tasted a lot like a normal brownie with the wasabi flavor kicking in as an aftertaste. It wasn't noticeable that this was dairy free. Pretty good...

Udipi Cafe

I really like Indian food. All of the spices and flavors mix together in a unique combination that makes Indian food really distinct, but it seems the majority of Indian restaurants in the United States all seem to have a similar menu to one another.

And then I tried Udipi Cafe in Longwood, FL. They serve vegetarian South Indian food (as opposed to the more common North Indian food?) which was really different from any other Indian food I've tasted (perhaps I don't know what to order). I visited Udipi Cafe for their $7.95 lunch buffet and was very pleased with the food.

The meal starts with everyone being served a dosai. Dosai are sort of like crepes stuffed with a potato filling.

From the buffet, I tried a bit of everything. The white mound up front is a idli, a rice/lentil cake. It was bland alone, but good dipped in some of the other food items. On the left there are two deep fried falafel-like balls made from sweet potatoes. And then there are several other dishes on the plate (most served over rice or roti/naan) that I can not name, although they were all delicous.

I went back to the buffet and sampled all of the soup-like dishes as well as some seconds on a few of my favorites.

For dessert, I tried this doughnut/cake soaked in yogurt:

I was stuffed after my meal of vegetarian Indian food. When leaving Udipi Cafe, two people in a Uhaul truck pulled up and headed into the restaurant. One of them pulled out a camera and took a picture of the front of the restaurant before entering. Was it a fellow food blogger?

Pita Pit in Downtown Orlando

I ate at the Pita Pit on Orange Ave in Downtown Orlando. I ordered a chicken souvlaki pita and had no complaints except that the setup of available toppings for the pita was a little confusing. I didn't realize that some sauces and cheeses were available until halfway through my meal.

Eating at The Pita Pit was also a good people watching experience. All of the restaurant employees showcased all sorts of piercings, tattoos, and dreadlocks. Over in one corner of the restaurant, there was a group of vegans eating their meat/dairy free pitas. Every so often, the vegans would go bother the tattooed employees with some vegan food related question. About halfway through my meal, a man entered the restaurant who I paid no attention too until he sat down and started singing what sounded like a Gregorian Chant. The chanting made me think of Catholic churches, and it then clicked that this man looked a whole lot like Silas from the Da Vinci Code. His whole meal, he looked angry and kept on sneering at the group of vegans. When going home after eating, I noticed that he had returned to his post on a street corner holding a sign about how the world is ending and we are all going to hell. Definitely an interesting crowd in the Pita Pit.

Lake Mary Chipotle

I brought home takeout from the Chipotle in Lake Mary, FL. I had a vegetarian burrito, stuffed with rice, black beans, roasted peppers & onions, hot salsa, corn, cheese, sour cream, guacamole, and lettuce, all wrapped in a tortilla. The burrito was huge, and I'm guessing there was probably a day's worth of calories in there, even though it's a healthy vegetarian burrito.


I really wouldn't mind getting meat in the burrito, but then it's a trade off with the guacamole. They charge over a dollar to put a little scoop of mashed avocado in a meat burrito, which really isn't worth it in my opinion. If given a choice between meat or guacamole, I would choose the guacamole over meat any day.

Ethos Vegan Kitchen

I ate at Ethos Vegan Kitchen in Orlando, FL. I am not a vegan, but it's fun to venture into the non-meat, non-dairy, animal product free world of vegan food.

I ordered the Udon Asian Odyssey, which was supposed to be Udon noodles with assorted vegetables. If you look at the picture below, those definitely aren't Udon noodles on the plate. Udon noodles are thick, round noodles that somewhat remind me of fuzzy worms when cooked. What was served were wide, flat noodles that seemed more along the lines of chow fun. I wouldn't have had a problem with the chow fun noodles if I was told that is what I was ordering, but I was expecting some udon. I'm guessing either Ethos was out of the udon and made a substitution without informing the customer, or they are assuming that the average vegan doesn't know much about Japanese noodles. I really don't like it when I order one thing, and get something else.

I also found the noodles to be way too salty. I love salty foods, but the amount of salt in here was over the top. Besides from the type of noodle problem, the pasta seemed like it would have been really good if it wasn't for the salt. Instead, I had to eat some bread and drink lots of water to counter out the overpowering salty taste.

While I have my complaints, I did think Ethos was better than some of the few other vegan/vegetarian restaurants in Orlando that I've tried. They have a long way to go before they can compare to Angelica Kitchen though...

Chipotle Vegetarian Burrito

I had a vegetarian burrito from the Chipotle in Lake Mary, FL. Here are two fun Chipotle facts that most people don't realize.
1- They don't use real cheese. They instead use a soy-based tofu cheese so it's vegan friendly.
2- It started out as an independent restaurant. Then McDonalds bought Chipotle's and expanded it all over the country, and has since sold the company.

NYC Angelica Kitchen & TKettle

After eating a very meaty lunch, I had the complete opposite for dinner. I ate organic vegan food from Angelica Kitchen in Manhattan's East Village.

I ate a Dragon Bowl, which consisted of rice, tofu, lentils, kale, zucchini, carrots, and some wonderful seaweed. This was served with a tahini dressing. I know many meat eaters would look away in disgust at this meal, but it really was delicious. Everything was good, with the exception of the lentils which tasted very bland. I'm not sure what the shredded purple seaweed that was used in the Dragon Bowl was called, but that is some of the best seaweed I've ever tasted. It was by far my favorite flavor in the whole Dragon Bowl.




After finishing dinner at Angelica Kitchen, I had dessert at Tkettle. They served what they called bubble tea (although I think the correct name is boba tea), and other variations on the idea, along with some actual food. Boba tea is very cool stuff. It is a type of tea that originated in Taiwan that is filled with floating tapioca balls. I ruined my vegan dinner by ordering a avocado milkshake. They blended half of an avocado, milk, and ice, and then poured the milkshake over the tapioca balls. An avocado milkshake is definitely not a combination that I would have thought of, but it wasn't bad. Drinking it without sucking up the tapioca balls left it tasting like it needed some salt, but with the tapioca, the milkshake was very good...