This post could have been awesome!
‘San, Sarah, and I all went out to try a new-to-us restaurant tonight, called “Hogtown Vegan,” at 834 Bloor Ave. W., which is right near Bloor and Ossington. Hoo boy was it ever delicious! Imagine if I’d taken photos of the food or of the menu with my handy new camera (which even features a “gourmet” mode)! This post would be awesome. Instead, you’ll just have to trust me. If you’re curious for some awesome vegan eating, check it out.
‘San and I split the “hogtown wings” (crispy fried tofu “wings” in buffalo wing sauce or BBQ sauce) with the buffalo wing sauce, which also came with a lovely vegan “ranch” type dip and some carrot slices. The texture was lovely — very dry and firm — and the coating was nice and crispy. The flavour wasn’t all that in-your-face, and the presentation wasn’t made to mimic “wings” at all, but they were really nice.
For my main, I had the philly “cheesesteak” with fries: “slices house-made seitan, sauteed onions and peppers, topped with “cheese” sauce on a sub bun”. It was delicious, while being the least astounding of the entrees, I would say. To me, a cheesesteak has sauteed onions and *green* peppers, with provolone cheese. They used onions and *red* peppers, and their cheese sauce was aimed somewhere more in the cheddar range. So it didn’t have the flavour I was expecting for a cheesesteak. Also, it was ridiculously messy. That said, it was very tasty, and the seitan had a lovely soft-not-soggy sliced texture going for it. All in all, very nice, just not exactly what I was hoping for. Oh, also, the fries were delicious, and I had them with Sarah’s tartar sauce (she doesn’t like tartar sauce), which was also nice. They carry Blue Sky soda, so I had a root beer. As always, Blue Sky is a little less flavourful than I would ideally want from a soda, but nice for what it is.
‘San had the “unchicken and waffles”: “breaded, deep-fried soy chicken on fluffy waffles, smothered with maple butter, served with collard greens and molasses sweet-potato mash”. She reported that it was delicious, and it looked great. The batter on her chicken looked really crispy. She said that it had a pretty good imitation of chicken texture (she’s an omnivore), and the flavours were lovely. She especially liked the collard greens.
Sarah was going to be the biggest challenge in some ways, as she’s the almost-a-pure-carnivore of our group. She got the “phish and chips”: “beer-battered tempeh ‘fish’ sticks served with house-made tartar sauce and fresh cut fries”. The tartar sauce, which I had as mentioned above, was bang-on. The fish *looked* just like real fish-and-chips fish, too. She started making really-surprised sounds shortly after starting in. Eventually I tried a bit. It really seemed like fish and chips to me, but bear in mind that I haven’t had fish and chips in probably well over a decade. Sarah, however, is a connoisseur of fish and chips and declared that while she’d probably choose good *real* fish and chips over it given both options, that it was a close call, surprisingly tasty, and that she really enjoyed it a lot.
Also, the service was lovely.
About the only complaints I can make is that for a Monday evening, there was a line-up, and it’s the kind of place where people just commandeer tables and sit for hours upon hours after their meals are done. (At least one group had had their bill settled and take-out boxes on their table before we even arrived, and were still sitting there taking up a four-person table by the time we left two hours later, even though there had been a line of people waiting for most of that time.) Also, I think we were the only people there who weren’t over-the-top hipsters, so you have to sort of be able to look past the affected ennui if, like me, you prefer to actually enjoy your meal rather than just somehow enjoy it “ironically”. But none of that is something you could call directly attributable to the restaurant, per se (although they probably don’t hurt with the selection of classic R&B, folk, and jazz classic records displayed prominently all over the walls, none of which you would catch them actually *playing* in a million years).
All in all, I’m looking forward to going back, although I may try to find a time when it’s less busy. It seems that we hit right when their dinner rush was in full swing (I think we arrived around 7:45pm), so maybe in future I’ll aim for a 6pm or so mealtime if I’m heading out there. Their brunch sounds tempting, but brunch is nutty in Toronto even at places that *aren’t* serving great food at reasonable prices, so I’d hate to see what this place winds up looking like.
