meet on main

"the lovely" not so lovely. my partner and i came here after some vegetarian friends mentioned it. we ordered the lovely and 'ish and chips. the former, i believe, suffers a similar problem that plagues a lot of vegetarian rice bowls - it was simply too soggy. the dishes here all boast quite an impressive list of ingredients, at least linguistically. the lovely contains almond satay sauce, carrot, kale, tofu, roasted peppers, and coconut bacon. the abundance of sauce, however, drenched the dish into a gooey mush, and not thegoodkind (ie. curry). we experienced a similar downside to vegetarian rice bowls in montreal, where vegetarian restaurants abound. as a chinese person with a particular perspective and preference on rice, i find that, out of a desire to induce palatability and flavor, vegetarian rice bowls overcompensate by using an excessive amount of sauce, which, while acceptable for pasta, fares less ideally for rice. the other dish, 'ish and chips, was basically a battered tofu stick with fries. i actually enjoyed it somewhat, if not just for the novelty. i personally can't get enough of tofu, but ultimately this dish lacked flavor, which could not be remedied by the tar tar sauce. we most likely would not be going back.

this place is one of my meatless monday mainstays. why, you ask, do i keep coming back? it's the food. i've never had any items on the menu that i didn't like. from the hot chiggin things to their burgers, and their salads. even the so-called bacon in my burger tasted like smoky, crispy bacon. their burgers and fries are some of the best out there period - asgoodas any beef burger as far as i'm concerned. plus, the burgers come with addictive fries and garden salad with super fresh mint vinaigrette. definitely one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants.

but, it seems as though the wait for the food is getting longer and longer each time. even service is touch and go recently. service used to be very attentive.

c'mon man! pick it up, don't let success get to your head. i don't want to downgrade my rating on the next visit.

this one is for those too timid to try a new vegetarian restaurant. if you are like me, you fear that any vegetarian meal won’t satisfy, that you will be left feeling like something was missing… meat perhaps, though this restaurant would be the one to bring you in. this was vegetarian cuisine for the carnivores. and let’s just say, they have made advances in the meat faking department. faux meat sogoodthat i forgot i was having an all vegetarian meal, and that some of it was even vegan.

i may sound brutal but unfortunately, i had quite a horrible restaurant experience here. my girlfriends and i came in around 2 pm and didn't get seated till about 2:15ish (this is okay. i have no qualms with waiting for that short amount of time).

we all ordered our hot beverages of tea and coffee with our sides of almond milk and soy milk. we got those orders on time .. the only concern we had was that it all seemed that they were limited with their mugs and the soy and almond milk we ordered. our waitress came by and said we had to wait for a bit because mugs had to be washed and the almond and soy milk were served in teeny-tiny dip containers (which definitely weren't enough for 4 people)! we had also asked for honey and the waitress said they didn't have any so instead we asked for brown sugar (again, this part was just a concern .. not a definite issue).

we all placed our orders andgoodthing i ordered some garlic fries for all of us to share (which, by the way, tasted amazing!) because after placing our orders, our food didn't arrive until an hour or so later! we couldn't believe it! we were all starving and we've asked our waitress twice to follow up our orders and other than her wry smile and sounding empathetic, she says that the kitchen was taking awhile because there were a lot of customers who have allergies and they're trying to make sure they get the orders done correctly. after about 15 minutes, another person approaches us (we assume it's the manager) and apologizes to us for the delay. after that long wait, we finally get our order. i had ordered "the lovely". it was alright..i wouldn't go back for that but definitely for the fries.

in the end, although me and my friends were disappointed with the service, they did end up taking off our drinks and the fries off our bill. for that redeemable act, i'll give them 4/5.

meet on main is a vegetation pub foodesqe diner kind of restaurant in the trendy area of main street. there's alot of flavour in the food and they do a prettygoodjob of making vegetarian pub food. surprisingly their 'chiggins' do resemble chicken in texture. we had the hot chiggin' things which packed quite the punch with their buffalo wing sauce. the first couple pieces weregoodbut unfortunately it became too salty and the meet burger though juicy and flavorful, it wasn't much different from a mushroom melt except for the fact that the patty is vegetarian.

the best item? sweet chili cauliflower bites! these little balls of goodness were lightly battered, crispy on the outside and well dressed with a sweet mildly spiced sauce. this would be the one thing i would go back for.

is it worth a try? if you like pub food, yes!
would i go again? maybe... and if so, i'd probably try something a little less saucy and i'd get the cauliflower again.

wow. this is the vegetarian place of my dreams. juicy, smokey, and meaty burgers that i just crave. also reallygoodchiggin wings and fried cauliflower. extensive menu with burgers, salads, fries and other fun stuff like mac and cheese and stroganoff. hip atmosphere with interesting art on the walls.

first vegan restaurant i've ever been to. excellent service, very attentive.goodbeer & cocktail selection. the food was amazing! i had the portobello stroganoff - totally amazing & not overly saucy at all. my friend had the lovely which indeed looked lovely, & tasted deel-ish too.

i can't wait to come back & try one of their desserts. first restaurant i've ever been to where every single dessert is gluten free.

thank you! i will be back!

finally!goodveggie eats in the mainstreet hood. i'm a pescatarian but am always on the hunt for vegetarian restaurants so when i heard about this place opening up i was super excited! tried their blue & bbq burger, comes with blue cheese, whiskey bbq sauce, salad and fries with aoili, the burger was definitely interesting in taste and quite large in portion. also tried the kale salad this was cooked with scallions in a miso sauce, done very nicely! and the quinoa and yam salad with raisins, carrots, kale, yummy goodness! must try their drinks next time, love this funky place!

worth a try for non-veggies/vegans. although i'm not vegetarian or vegan, i had dinner here with a group that included a vegan and a celiac. they were delighted to be able to order almost anything on the menu. many online reviews have mentioned the poor service here, but we had excellent service. our server said it was her first shift but she was attentive, pleasant and efficient. all our drinks and food were served promptly. as some point, the manager or front of house guy took over our table. he was very accommodating about splitting the bill for us. we started with the basic fries which came with a chipotle faux-mayo which was delicious. the lovely was one of their rice bowls with kale, peppers, broccoli, tofu and brown rice covered in a gravy. it was verygoodbut there wasn't that much tofu or veggies in it. friends had the mac and cheese, beet salad, deep-fried cauliflower. everyone liked their dishes. the cauliflower was heavily battered and tasted okay, but the texture was a bit spongy. it's also a bit overpriced at $8 for six or seven pieces of cauliflower in batter. the rice bowl and pasta portions are not huge (but the bowls they come in are) but enough to be a satisfying meal, and the prices are reasonable enough in this day and age, but some might remark on the price vs. the smallish portions of not-so-expensive ingredients. the two desserts i tried were the rice pudding and churro balls and chocolate ganache tart. the pudding was a tiny portion. i was supposed to share this with someone and she'd basically eaten it all in two bites, but it came with small scoops of ice cream and two churros balls which were good. the chocolate ganache cake was tasty and not overly sweet, but the crust is really dense and solid so you have to practically chip away at it. overall it was agoodmeal and i'd come here again.

meet on main meet on main has casual fare reminiscent of the dishes at the foundation and naam. after a burst of more higher end vegetarian restaurants, such as acorn, parker and heirloom, it’s nice to see a new, super casual vegetarian hangout with comfort food. the satay and mayo fries were like new york fries with an asian-y soy-based peanut butter sauce (although they use almond butter) and chipotle mayo. the crispy cauliflower tasted like sweet chilli chicken. things tastegoodwhen fried and cauliflower fries well. the el revolucion bowl had a light flavour, which works here. the meet burger is gardein patty i’m told. i thought it would taste normal because i eat many different types of veggie burgers and i regularly eat gardein burgers at home. however, meet house smokes the burger, which makes the difference. the lovely bowl had tofu, kale, broccoli, roasted red pepper and coconut bacon. the sauce is like the peanut sauce you get with vietnamese salad rolls but less sweet. it’s kind of like the foundation’s spicy peanut. the broccoli gave it agoodcrunch. it was my favourite bowl and i would get it again.  we enjoyed all of the dishes, except the harvest bowl. the harvest bowl  was too heavy and rich for our liking. we found that it had an odd mix of flavours with quinoa, grilled veggies, vegetarian italian field sausage, and curried sauerkraut drenched with an overpowering house made gravy. with the ingredients swimming in a pool of gravy, everything just seemed like mush. i didn’t finish this dish, which is a big deal for me because i have a tendency to eat what’s in front of me, even if i don’t like it and even if there’s a lot of it. it just did not jive with my friends or me. although attentive for the most part, the service was also very casual. we demolished all of our dishes except the harvest, which we had barely eaten by the end of our meal, and told our server that we didn’t like it and we didn’t want it packed. she responded with a bright “ok” a

great veggie comfort grub!. my husband and i went here for the first time today and it was excellent! we shared a 'meet burger', fries with curry mayo and spicy wings. chased it down with a cool bohemian beer. the setting is colourful, artsy and unpretentious. the servers were down to earth and attentive. we really enjoyed the food and the vibe here. the only downside was the obnoxious yuppie couple beside us who rudely complained about the (excellent) food to the waitress and loudly complained about her friends all while texting people on her phone. these obnoxious health conscious entitled snobs really grind my gears lately; they seem to be haunting all the nice veggie spots lately and ruining anythinggoodabout these places. i felt so sorry for the sweet waitress who had to deal with her, but she handled herself so we'll and professionally. i was super impressed-i would have not been so elegant if i were in her place. that twat aside, this place is a great new addition to vegetarian vancouver! thanks meet on main!

tvp yuck!. it is really hard to tell what kind of food this restaurant sells because they make no mention of their food philosophy nor do they mention on their menu that they do not server - burgers - they serve texturized vegetable protein. agoodvegetarian restarants i have enjoyed had not had this item on their menu. the chicken shaped substitutes tastedgoodfor the first two and then tasted like tvp, soy like fake meat.

the other dish was a sloppy bowl of food that really didn't have much flavour. the corn fritters weregoodthough, although raw in the middle. even though this place has just opened, the menu is a miss! the fries aregoodthough, but not enough to build a menu around. this concept needs help....sorry.