In my opinion, pretty much every restaurant is vegan-friendly.
Since adopting plant-based eating six months ago, I’ve gone to lots of restaurants and always found something I can eat. Sometimes I have to ask for modifications, and a few times I’ve gotten a few side dishes instead of an entree, but I’ve never gone hungry.
When I first went vegan, I thought eating out might be tough. Since I’ve found that isn’t the case, I thought it would be fun every now and again to post about a restaurant I’ve found that has lots of options for vegans.
Since I’m the only vegan in my family, 99.9% of the restaurants I eat at aren’t primarily vegan or vegetarian spots. But they are popular restaurants with all kinds of vegan options on the menu.
One such restaurant is Beast and Bounty.
This beautiful eatery is located in the newly built Ice Blocks development in midtown Sacramento.
My husband and I went there on a recent Friday evening and had a wonderful time. But before you even get there, I’d highly recommend booking reservations a few days ahead. This place is definitely drawing a big crowd and for good reason!
First off, the decor of the restaurant is beautiful. It’s got a very light and modern vibe. There is both indoor and outdoor seating. We sat inside at a table for two, but there are also long tables to accommodate large parties.
Even though the restaurant just opened, the service was great. As soon as we sat down, the waiter came by and asked if either of us had any food allergies or if we were vegan or gluten-free. I’ve noticed this happening at more and more restaurants in the San Francisco Bay Area and its interesting to the see the same approach starting to enter the Sacramento market.
While my husband eats vegan most weekdays, he tends to eat some meat starting Friday evening and through the weekend.
With that in mind, he told the waiter he was open to anything. I let the waiter know I was vegan, and he was great about pointing out their pretty expansive vegan options. I’d say there were about ten items that were clearly vegan on the menu, no substitutions needed. If you are a vegetarian, you have even more options available.
We decided to go big and get a pizza instead of an appetizer, knowing we would bring half home.
We went with the Summer Vegan Pizza which was absolutely amazing. It’s made on a thin crust and had cherry tomatoes, squash, corn, pesto, and mint. It also had two kinds of vegan cheeses. One was a smoked ricotta made with nut milk. The other was listed as parm, but I think it was nutritional yeast (for those not familiar, it’s a great, non-dairy way to naturally add a cheese taste to anything).
When it came to the main course, I was having a hard time deciding what to pick. So I did what I always do in that sort of situation… I asked the waiter.
He was super helpful and suggested picking two entrees, but getting the small size for each.
That worked out great for me. It was also a nice departure from my standard Friday-night ritual of ordering a veggie or impossible burger.
Thanks to the waiter’s advice, I decided to go with the Cast Iron Cauliflower and the Blistered Shishitos. They were both absolutely amazing!
The Cast Iron Cauliflower had a light vegan cream sauce (but just a drizzle) over roasted cauliflower, garlic chips, parsley oil and some of the best raisins you could ever imagine.
The Blistered Shishitos was equally as good but totally different. While the Cast Iron Cauliflower was a little sweet, this was deliciously savory. It was corn polenta, with a small amount of vegan queso, fire water onions (they had a little kick, but very little) and a pickled radish.
I’d highly recommend getting two of their entrees, in the small portion size. This way you get to taste a couple of things and the portion size is perfect. If you’re like me, you’ll also have plenty of room for an appetizer or a dessert.
My husband did pretty much the reverse of me and went straight meat.
He had the Grilled 16 oz 28-Day Wet Aged Ribeye. Of course, I didn’t have any, but he said it was amazing. He took half home and had enough for a complete other meal.
All said the food and the experience at Beast + Bounty were perfect. It’s a great place to celebrate something or just enjoy a yummy meal.
Have a place you want me to review? Please leave it in the comments below! Happy eating!!
