Believe in the meatless meals of Veggie Grill

PHOTO by RICK POON

Veggie Grill has meat on its mind. It’s a topic that makes for awkward thoughts, no doubt, as the restaurant definitely isn’t dreaming about the usual fantasies of flesh. Instead, the place is far more focused on mulling over the finer points of taste and texture, figuring out how to pick apart the sinewy strands of protein and somehow tie them back together meat-free.

It’s an important process, considering Veggie Grill’s finest fake meats come from proprietary blends. The chillin’ chickin’ and veggie-steak, says the menu, are formed from the restaurant’s unique vegetable protein, a meatless mix that the place begs you to “taste and believe.”

And believe you should. After all, the restaurant doesn’t even bother with the well-worn stereotypes of vegetarian cooking—there isn’t a single raw wrap rolled here. What you get instead is one of the smartest menus ever to strip away meat, a simple list of salads and sandwiches that have all gone vegetarian. They’re genuinely happy meals that are still every bit as satisfying as their meaty muses.

There are a few options at the restaurant beyond the salad and sandwich set, but most just serve as sides. The chili (red and white beans blown up big enough to be mistaken for coin currency) is always a good choice, though admittedly an overlooked one. But it’s hard to set aside space for the chili when the pre-eminent order is Veggie Grill’s sweetheart fries, sweet potato spears that tag along with a cup of chipotle ranch. Sweet potato fries are nothing new, but Veggie Grill turns in a supreme version, one that sees the sometimes-limp fries actually turned crisp.  And if you manage to make room for the chili, just take it over the fries—together they make the healthiest chili fries around.

Only three options exist for Veggie Grill’s salads, but they all eat extremely well. Of at least some surprise, though, is the baja fiesta salad, which even opts out of the restaurant’s mock-meat. But that salad nevertheless makes an excellent entrée, tossing together romaine lettuce, papaya, avocado, roasted corn salsa, quinoa, cucumber and cilantro with a ginger-papaya vinaigrette. Though the dressing helps bind everything together, it’s the avocado and papaya that stand out, chunks of which eventually pair up for creamy bites. For an even more filling mix, there’s the chop-chop chef salad, which adds tempeh, veggie-steak and chillin’ chickin’ into the mix with the same roasted corn salsa and that sweetheart-bound chipotle ranch.

Although the salads are plenty big for any appetite, the sandwiches are the culinary cornerstones of Veggie Grill. And easily the best meal between a bun is the Santa Fe crispy chickin’ sandwich. The sandwich takes the restaurant’s presumably patented chillin’ chickin’ and cuts it into a fat patty, then fries it and piles on lettuce, tomato, red onion, avocado and southwestern-spiced vegan mayo—the whole thing is so tall it nearly teeters. But what’s most remarkable about the sandwich is that it keeps a crunch that’s almost never found in such fake meat. Not only does the sandwich best its fellow vegetarians, but it tops even the most perfect poultry, too.

Among other hand-held meals, the Bali bliss and island getaway sandwiches take things more tropical, grilling slabs of tempeh into what eats like a couple of teriyaki-glazed burgers. Veggie Grill even takes on the torta with its carne asada sandwich, which is stuffed with shaved strips of that veggie-steak.

It’s with this most accessible model that a lot has come of Veggie Grill since it nudged its way in next to a Trader Joe’s nearly two years ago. For one, the restaurant picked up a second space in El Segundo, dropping its menu off out under the flight paths of LAX. And in a few months, there’ll be a third branch, too. But it’s this spot just across from UC Irvine that’s still Veggie Grill’s original statement, a place where even the most ardent burger backers will eat their words.

VEGGIE GRILL 4213 CAMPUS DR | IRVINE 92612 | 949.509.0003 | VEGGIEGRILL.COM | OPEN EVERY DAY 11AM-10PM | FOOD FOR TWO $20-30 | BEER, WINE

Tags: Food, irvine, vegetarian, veggie grill