El Palote (Mesquite)

Overall rating: 8.5

This was an interesting review. Our opinions were fairly mixed to say the least. El Polote is a Little Mexican kitchen turning out tacos, burritos & tortas as well as a variety of baked goods. For more information, click on the video below.  The video review does go into more details but keep in mind that the review takes everything the restaurant is into account.

Food: We all thought the food was acceptable to good but there are 2 factors that weight against it overall. The 1st one is with it being the 1st of its kind (A vegan Mexican restaurant), the comparison that has to and will be made is to other normal Mexican restaurants. As pointed out in our video review, the taste is similar but still different. The other factor is it is more expensive then a normal Mexican restaurant and in some cases, other vegan restaurants. Even if the taste was excellent, that is a factor that should be mentioned and considered.

Customer service: While there wasn’t anything bad about their customer service, it wasn’t anything spectacular either. We did point out how it would have been nice to have a tutorial of what foods taste like what. While that’s seen as a bonus, the other vegan restaurant’s (Which are their competition to a certain degree) staff are very well informed and accommodating in helping you order for the 1st time based on your taste buds. It wasn’t a deal breaker but it would have been nice.

Atmosphere: Very good atmosphere overall. It wasn’t loud enough to the point where we couldn’t hear each other talk. The T.V volume was also just the right noise to where if you wanted to watch it, you could but it wasn’t loud enough to interrupt conversation. A good experience here.

Overall: The food was decent but pricy, customer service was average and the atmosphere was good. Our universal advice is to have an idea of what you want ahead of time and expect it to be more pricier then a typical Mexican restaurant. It definitely is worth a try but one should be aware of the factors mentioned in this review ahead of time.

Meatout 2018

We had a very fun time at Meatout 2018! It was full of demos, presentations, vendors and services that educate or are in support of a plant based diet. On top of this, we got to see Rapper Grey, a vegan rapper interviewed and perform live. The footage of both are below.

Rapper Grey's Interview

Rapper Grey's live performance

Genghis Grill (Our 3rd Anniversary)

Every since the veggie outers was started in 2016, our anniversary is always held at genghis grill in addision. Since we have reviewed it twice, i'll let our video review do all the talking here and you can visit our 1st 2 reviews (Review 1, Review 2) for anything left out. Overall they did take a few steps back from what we normally expect. For details, click on the video review.

Sankofa Kitchen (Duncanville)

Category: Vegan Friendly

Overall Rating: 9.3

Website

Sankofa Kitchen is an African culture kitchen with a variety of vegan options available.  

Food: They offered a separate vegan menu  which is always a plus in the food category. As said in the video review below, we greatly enjoyed the food. If we were to give out an MVP food award, it would definitely be the nachos. We agreed that the texture and taste was the closest we’ve experienced to quote on quote real cheese (They even beat Spiral Diner in cheese quality although Spirals has more stuff on top of the nachos).  The base of it was coconut and the nachos we had were very tasty. The rest of the food was good as well.

Atmosphere: The overall feel of the place was smooth and laid back. They had a mix of Jazz, R&B and soul music playing in the background. It was loud enough to be enjoyable but low enough so that we could still hear each other talk. The restaurant also had various art and pictures all over it, giving it a strong cultural vibe. It was enjoyable both visually and music wise.

Customer Service: This was one of the best customer service experiences we’ve had in all our months since we started in January 2016. One of the founders shared the origin story of how the restaurant came to be which was inspiring. On top of this, their eyes were literally glued to our table to see if we needed anything. When we got there, our reservation was already setup and she informed us of the Vegan menu and the most popular entrees on the menu.

In all 3 areas, they were strong. This makes them a strong candidate for visiting them in the future. For more information on them, be sure to check out their website.

Mellow Mushroom (Arlington)

Category: Vegan Friendly

Location: Arlington

Overall Rating: 8.5

Mellow Mushroom is part of a pizza themed pizza chain that offers many veggie toppings. It has Daiya vegan cheese, tofu and tempeh for pizza and sandwiches. They have many locations across the DFW. There is one in Fort Worth, Arlington, Mansfield, Flower Mound, Frisco, Mckenny, Rockwall, Denton and Southlake. There was a Dallas location but they closed down as of a few months ago. They are all basically the same except for the restaurant style which will fall into 1 of 3 categories (Some have a combination of them). Some have a traditional restaurant setup with a kid like fun theme. Others have a setup more similar to a lounge (Including a bar). The last type of Mellow Mushroom is the setup that includes a roofed outdoor patio that you can request to sit in and has a somewhat sophisticated theme. The menu at all of the is the same. Based on the difference in settings, some may rate higher on the atmosphere for you depending on your taste in environment. It should also be mentioned that some have their vegan items on a completely separate menu. The Mellow we visited is the location in Arlington.

Food: We definitely found the food to be delectable. One thing that we all saw to be a plus is the vegan cheese was on the pizza very well. The overall texture of the pizza in crust, cheese, veggie and meat replacer kept up well. They had a range of flavors for their meat substitutes including BBQ, jerk, pesto, curry and teriyaki. The crust is what is known as crummy in the sense of have that trail of crumbs on it like the pizza you see at dominos. If that’s an issue for you, it should be mentioned here.
 

Customer Service: We had 2 experiences here. One was the experience with the whole restaurant. The other is with our individual server. The experience with the whole restaurant was very good. They were very cooperative with us making our reservation and despite them being packed at the time of our meetup, we were still seated in our reserved spots within 5 minutes of our arrival. It should be noted that different Mellow Mushrooms have different reservation policies. I’ve personally been to multiple locations including the one in McKinney and Southlake. Southlake’s location said that they don’t do reservations on the weekends and the party can’t be more then 25. If you have a big party, call ahead of time to see that location’s policy. The Arlington location we went to allow reservations all days of the week. Our experience with the server was not as good. He was somewhat unprofessional in the sense that he was kind of stern to be a server. He also forgot to bring one of us our change back. While the  1st hiccup can be overlooked, the last one is unacceptable.

Atmosphere: For this location, it was a hybrid between a fun style place to hang out and a lounge like setting. They played music in the background that set a night out on the town, hanging out theme. We found it enjoyable. We were also shocked that despite them being packed, the restaurant was VERY clean.

Overall: Food was great. Customer service was good on the restaurant’s end as a whole but poor on the server end. Atmosphere was nice. Not too loud and had enjoyable music in the background. They are definitely a candidate for a second visit. Side note: Some locations have an online service where you can build your own pizza online; selecting the vegan cheese, veggies, size and meat substitute and you can arrange a time to pick your pizza up. This can be very convenient if you have a taste for pizza but don’t have time (Or don’t want to) wait. Check the website of the location you want the pizza from to see if they offer it.