Eating out with Baby – Vegetarian Haven

I will gladly admit that I am a carnivore and absolutely love meat…no meal is complete without the addition of meat and usually (and quite unhealthily) I tend to have more meat than anything else on my plate. Hey it’s protein right? All that said we ventured out to Vegetarian Haven on Baldwin Street one evening in celebration of my mom’s birthday. She’s a vegetarian you see, and we thought it would be a nice treat for us to hit up one of “her restaurants” versus her getting modified options at ”our restaurants”. We were fully expecting a dodgy looking spot with a hippie vibe where we’d be eating bland dishes but the online reviews got us through the door.

On arrival we were greeted and the Little Monkey was given a booster chair which was perfect for her (she was about 11 months at the time). As most of us skeptically perused through the menu, we soon realized that everything actually sounded delicious….”hmm … these guys have a way with words. The food’s still going to taste crappy. It has no meat!” is clearly what we all (except for my mom ofcourse!) thought.

While we (skeptically) awaited our food, we ordered some fun smoothies- Matcha Green Tea and Cookies and Cream. I love tofu drumsticks… ever since I discovered them years ago at Kings Cafe in Kensington, any chance I get I devour my way through this chicken-wannabe dish and the Vegetarian Haven one was just as delicious. We also sampled their “King Prawn” & Oyster Mushroom Tempura– no there were no real prawns in here, it is a vegan spot after all. Instead the ‘prawn’ was made with  konnyaku root flour and to be honest – I could have been fooled. There was no fishy taste but the texture was definitely bang on!

As we joked around (mainly at the expense of our mom) killing time our  mains arrived. I’m glad we didn’t order too many appetizers because the portions were huge! I’m a sucker for curry noodles so my brother and I each had the Spicy Coconut Curry ‘Seafood’ Souper Bowl which was indeed spicy. Loved it! Perfect fusion of East Asian flavours. The hubs got the Spicy Bali Stir-fried Rice Noodles and my mom got the ‘Seafood’ in Clay Pot. Every dish pleasantly surprised us and to be honest, us meat lovers did not miss the absence of meat on our plates. As for the Little Monkey – she dipped into everything (I was careful not to give her anything too spicy) and mainly noshed on the tofu and veggies that were on our plates.

The service was friendly, they were a bit busy so we had to wait around (which was fine for us) and we did have the mishap of a server tossing a tissue she brought from another table into my brother’s half eaten dish (which he fully intended to pack up and they applogized) but other than that, they were attentive and ensured that the Little Monkey was well taken care off. The spot is a bit narrow but they were able to store our heavy duty stroller at the back for us without any issues. I for one will definitely be back and writing this post has me craving some good old vegan food. Hah! Did I just say that? Don’t worry.. it’s a really nice spot and not the crazy hippie cafe I was initially expecting!