Trang Viet Cuisine, Tampa, FL #2

It's amazing how different one visit can be to another. I guess that's the testament of a good chef -- consistently good; not good sometimes, but bad at other times. I thought about this a lot during my second visit to Trang Viet Cuisine in Tampa. The first visit was so great that we couldn't wait to eat here again. But, this visit just turned into a disappointment and now I feel torn!

We arrived at Trang Viet on a Wednesday afternoon immediately after flying into the Tampa airport. This is not a vegan Vietnamese place, but they have a lot of vegan dishes!

I decided to try some new dishes and maybe this is where I went wrong. I started with the V3 Vegan Summer Rolls, which were filled with vegetarian fiber, fresh herbs, lettuce, and rice noodles. But, they had very little flavor. The peanut sauce helped, but they had little flavor otherwise.

For my entree, I ordered the V42 Vegan Noodle Stir-Fry with yellow noodles. This stir fry had carrots, broccoli, onions, and tofu with noodles in a light sauce. The problem was that it just wasn't very good. I just sat looking at my dish and wishing for something different.

Chris ordered what I ordered the last time, the V35 Vegan Lemongrass Beef Noodles, but this time he didn't like it.  He also didn't want to finish it because it lacked flavor. Where were the flavorful sauces these dishes needed?

We were both disappointed with our meals and with it being about 25 minutes from the airport, we felt like we went out of our way for nothing. Oh, and once again, the wine was pretty awful. Can't they just buy one good wine?  I'm not sure that we will return, but then again, with the lack of vegan options in Tampa, who knows. Sigh.

Previous review
May 7, 2015

Trang Viet Cuisine
1524 East Fowler Avenue
Tampa, FL 33612
(813) 979-1464

Carrabba's Italian Grill, Tampa, FL

We arrived at the airport in Tampa around 11 a.m. in the morning and were starving. I looked around and saw very few restaurants that I thought would offer vegan options. Then I saw the chain restaurant Carrabba's Italian Grill and wondered if they might offer a nice pasta dish. It appeared that there were only a couple options, but as hungry as I was, a couple simple pasta options was all I was looking for.

We were seated immediately at a big booth inside the dark airport restaurant. The tables and chairs were of a dark wood and the accents were in red. On each table was a bottle of San Pellegrino so I guess that influenced me to order a San Pellegrino. How is it that that water is so good?

At Carrabba's, the fresh pasta are made with eggs so you just need to inquire as to which pasta dishes can be made vegan with the dry pastas (penne, whole wheat spaghetti, etc.).  The bread that they serve is vegan as is the herbed olive oil mixture. We enjoyed hot bread as we waited for our entrees.

First came the Italian salad that comes with the meal. As it seemed that none of the dressings were vegan, I just requested olive oil and vinegar. I was unimpressed with the presentation of the salad. It was just some greens topped with carrots, onions, tomatoes, and two olives. It really wasn't anything special.

But, my entree, to my delight, was much better than expected! I ordered the Tag Pic Pac and replaced the tagliarini pasta with the whole wheat spaghetti. This was a huge bowl of spaghetti with fresh tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, and basil. It was simple, yet delicious.

In most airports, there are few vegan options at sit-down restaurants so I was very pleased to discover Carrabba's. The pasta, though overpriced at $13, was very fresh and very good. The service left a lot to be desired, but overall, I'd say it was fine. I think this is a great option in the Tampa airport.

Carrabba's Italian Grill
Tampa International Airport
4100 George Bean Parkway
Tampa, FL 33607
(813) 396-4061

Trang Viet Cuisine, Tampa, FL

At least once a year, I fly into Tampa on my way to Zephyrhills. By the time Chris and I arrived, we were hungry -- really hungry. So, we headed to Loving Hut. Unfortunately, though, Loving Hut was closed this day and I really wanted a vegan meal before heading to a non-vegan-friendly place. We hit Yelp and found Trang Viet Cuisine and I'm so glad we did!

Trang Viet Cuisine is a family-owned Vietnamese restaurant that has been in business for nearly 20 years. It is not a 100% vegan restaurant, but it is incredibly vegan friendly boasting four pages of vegan options to choose from! I was so excited. The walls of the dining room are adorned with pictures of flowers and beautiful green trees are placed throughout the dining room. It is a very casual place that you could feel comfortable wearing whatever.

The vegetarian menu clearly indicates if items are vegan and our waiter was able to answer any questions we had. I found it so hard to choose! With 11 vegan appetizers, eight vegan salads, nine vegan soups, and over 20 vegan entrees, it is like a vegan paradise.

We started with an order of the spring rolls, which were filled with imitation meat and sweet potatoes fried in a spring roll shell. They were delicious. We also tried the Southern Vietnamese Rolls filled with shredded tofu, potatoes and imitation pork wrapped with fresh herbs in rice paper. These rolls had so much flavor and were so much better than the typical spring roll you'd get in a regular Vietnamese restaurant. I was very impressed.

For my entree, I ordered the V35 -- Vegan Lemongrass Beef Noodles (Bun Bo Sa Ot), but instead of noodles, I had rice.  This was vegan beef sauteed with lemongrass and onions served over rice. I also requested that they add other vegetables so they added some broccoli for me. The vegan beef had a nice texture and the sauce was very good. They also made it super spicy for me.

That said, Chris' entree was my favorite of the night. He ordered the V48 -- Vegan Central Vietnamese Noodles (Mi Quang). We didn't realize that this was basically an entree-sized soup, but regardless, it was amazing. The yellow rice noodles were topped with imitation meats, rice crackers, peanuts, and scallions. The broth was incredible as there was so much flavor.

Unfortunately, we did not have room for dessert as we were very full by the end of the meal. The service was great, the food was fantastic, and the prices were extremely low at only $9.50 for each entree. I can see why Trang Viet Cuisine has been in business for so long. I can't wait to come back for more. Thanks for a great experience!

Trang Viet Cuisine
1524 East Fowler Avenue
Tampa, FL 33612
(813) 979-1464

Taco Bus, Tampa

OMG! How had I not heard of Taco Bus until now?! Imagine roaming the streets of Tampa seeking nonexistant vegan food all hours of the night until you finally collapse from a lack of tasty morsels. Then out of the corner of your eye, you see Taco Bus to the rescue! With its four locations including three in Tampa, Taco Bus is growing quicker than you can say, "tacos, please." And the best part is that they have tons of vegan options!

On my first visit to the downtown Tampa location, I was a little disappointed to find that the bus was merely part of a short bus made into a storefront with a full restaurant behind it because I really wanted to see the real bus. On the other hand, I was glad to have a place to sit down and eat.

Taco Bus offers an extensive menu. First, you choose "Your Favorite Way." This includes options for tacos, burritos, quesadillas, salads, Mexican sandwiches, tostadas, and plates. Next, you choose your filling. Vegan options include grilled tofu, vegan "steak" strips, tempeh, butternut squash or just rice, beans, and veggies.  Then you choose the veggies you'd like: tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and/or cabbage.

Additionally, they even have a vegan food facts page that details what is vegan and what isn't. The Mexican rice, refried beans, corn and flour tortillas, red and green salsas, and guacamole are all vegan as are the vegan tamales!  I am so thankful for this page as many of the people working there do not speak much English. In fact, their slogan is "Broken English, Perfectly Spoken." Ha!

I was so overwhelmed with the choices that I just ordered two tacos--one with grilled tofu and the other with tempeh.  They were both better than I could have ever expected. The tofu had this amazing spice on it and it was grilled so well as was the tempeh. I mean, they were both very good. And they were topped with fresh veggies. I put lots of hot green salsa on them and went to town.

I also ordered the refried beans. These were just so-so.

I had such a great experience that I headed to the original East Hillsborough location a couple nights later. Now, this is a serious operation. There was a brick and mortar restaurant along with a white take-out bus and a yellow bus that opens for the late hours so you can get your taco fix 24/7. There was a long line for the take-out bus so I went inside.

Again, I ordered two tacos--this time with butternut squash and steak strips. The butternut squash was okay, but it didn't have much flavor. The vegan steak strips were seasoned like the tofu and tempeh and again, were very good.

I also tried one of their pineapple drinks, which was a bit too sugary for me.

I am so thankful to have found Taco Bus. For $6, I had a better meal than I've ever had in the city of Tampa along with great servers who truly spoke perfect broken English. Taco Bus, you are a godsend.

Taco Bus (several locations)
913 East Hillsborough Avenue
Tampa, FL 33604
(813) 232-5889

Whole Foods Vegan Donuts

I've often thought how wonderful life might be if only Whole Foods sold vegan donuts. Come to find out they do. And not only do they sell vegan donuts, they actually make them in house at many Whole Foods in the nation. Why doesn't mine?  Well, life isn't always fair. But, I will enjoy them whenever I travel.

The purpose of this post is just to give everyone out there some hope that perhaps someday your Whole Foods will offer them too. In San Ramon in East Bay (northern California), they only sell vegan donuts meaning they don't sell non-vegan donuts. They don't have to because they are that good. And they sell several varieties. They are all cake donuts and all are delicious.

Blueberry cake donut

In the only Whole Foods in Tampa, which has, by the way, no vegan restaurants, they sell regular non-cake vegan donuts. I should mention that it is extremely hard to find non-cake vegan donuts. They exist, but they are hard to find. They even had raspberry-filled donuts.  I chose the chocolate frosted one and while I did find it to be a bit dry, it was still good. And I loved the chocolate frosting.

I love having the option to buy vegan donuts in Whole Foods and really hope all Whole Foods will sell them soon. Go to your Whole Foods and request them now (and bring my pics). :)

Loving Hut, Tampa

Zach and I were flying into Tampa so I figured we'd hit the Loving Hut for lunch. Loving Hut is an international chain of restaurants of which each is independently owned and operated by a member of the Supreme Master Ching Hai International Association. Each restaurant has distinctively different menus, but all are focused on Asian cuisine.  This one had a huge sign posted with a picture of their cult leader and a message stating, "The ice that melts too fast. The climate that changes too quickly. Be Veg. Go Green. Save the Planet."  The website of www.suprememastertv.com is listed as well.

I actually think they all have the same sign. I hate to say anything negative about this wonderful chain, but the more I see these signs and the pictures of the cult leader in the restaurants, the more I think that this could really frighten people away. I mean, the sign is just weird and creepy and really doesn't make complete sense unless you think long and hard about what it is trying to say. To the average non-vegan, it just gives them a reason to think vegans are weird. But, despite the signage and pictures, I absolutely love the chain. So, on to the review.

The decor is always the same -- a yellow and white front counter with a dessert case and refrigerated case from which they sell their mock meats and this one was no different. We were seated at a table in the back of a fairly empty restaurant. This restaurant closes from 3 to 5 p.m. each day and we arrived 15 minutes prior to their break in service.  Keeping that in mind, we ordered quickly.

We started with the jumbo drumsticks, which I only ordered because they looked so incredibly odd. They basically took a bunch of mushrooms, breaded them, then fried them into the shape of a drumstick. It was quite amusing.

The end of the drumstick was actually the head of a large mushroom and upon biting into each one, we found that were filled with enoki, king mushrooms, and other seasonal mushrooms as well as soy protein. Not too bad for $4.50. They were served with ginger sauce with peanuts.

This was the end of the "drumstick."

For my entree, I ordered the Savory Eggplant dish. This was a typical Chinese-style dish that consisted of eggplant, silken tofu, and onions in a mushroom sauce topped with sesame seeds. It was pretty good except that they served it with long grain brown rice, which I don't really like. I much prefer short grain brown rice with my Chinese dishes. The combination of long grain rice and Chinese food just doesn't go well, in my opinion.

Zach ordered the Noble Philly Sub, which was loaded with soy protein, onions, peppers, carrots, cabbage, and mushrooms and topped with spicy cajun sauce. The sandwich was good and incredibly filling.

We were pretty stuffed after eating all of that food. But, the desserts were so tempting. So, I took a Chocolate Pie to go. It was made with silken tofu, chocolate chips and vanilla and was delectably satisfying.

The Loving Hut restaurants usually serve good food though some are better than others. I enjoyed this meal, but prefer the menu at some of their other locations over this one. The prices are incredibly cheap. The sandwich was $6 while the eggplant dish was $9 -- a great deal considering the generous portions. I'm looking forward to visiting more restaurants in this chain soon. I just wish they'd tone down the Supreme Master messages a bit.

As a side note, I had to laugh as I noticed that directly across the street was the House of Meats. Ironic, huh?

Loving Hut - Tampa
1905 E Fletcher Avenue
Tampa, FL 33612
(813) 977-7888

Queen of Sheba, Tampa

There don't seem to be many vegan options in the city of Tampa. Unfortunately, the best restaurant I had been to in Tampa recently closed to the public and has since been exclusively catering. So, I did a little research and found that there was an Ethiopian restaurant in Tampa -- Queen of Sheba. Given the limited options, we decided to give it a shot. Plus, we love Ethiopian cuisine. DC has more Ethiopian restaurants than any other city in the country and the cuisine is very good. So people from DC generally have a pretty high bar for this cuisine and I am no different. I told Zach before we went in that because it is the only Ethiopian restaurant in Tampa, my guess is that it is not that good. You can get away with not having very good ethnic cuisine if you are the only restaurant of that type in town because most people won't know any better. But, Zach and I do. And, unfortunately, my suspicions were correct.

Sorry - it was dark!

There were only a few occupied tables when we entered. We were seated near at the window in front of a fairly small, casual restaurant.  It appeared that only one person was waiting on all of the tables and she seemed fairly busy. I didn't recognize any of the wines on the menu so when our waitress approached us, I inquired about them and found that they were all of South African origin. That explains why I didn't recognize them. I went with a Pinot Noir that was, surprisingly, not that bad.

As we continued to peruse the menu, we noticed that they specified that all the vegetarian items were also vegan. I don't usually see the word "vegan" on an Ethiopian menu so I thought that was great.   I noticed some unusual items on this particular menu like a beet-based dish, which I was excited about. We decided to go with the Chef's Choice, which is described as all of the vegetable dishes on one platter.  Unfortunately, though, that is not the case. Our waitress informed us that we'd be served a sampling of whatever was available so instead of all 12 dishes, we may only get to sample 9-10 dishes. Seems like false advertising to me. She also mentioned that in addition to our sampler platter, we'd be receiving two appetizer spreads as well.

She immediately brought out a basket of injera, which is a spongy bread made from teff. She also brought out a thick, spicy paste and a spread made of jalapenos. Although it seemed odd, we assumed these were the appetizer spreads because she didn't say they weren't. In Ethiopian culture, you do not use utensils, rather, you tear off pieces of the injera and use that to pick up the food -- you sort of wrap the spreads in the bread. When we picked up the injera we were immediately taken aback by how hard it was. We tried it and it was hard and dense - the opposite of how it should be. When we inquired as to whether we could get better bread, the waitress mentioned they were cooking more and she'd bring some more out. She seemed frustrated in general. I mean, the injera was so bad, we could barely eat it. But, we sucked it up and tried the two spreads with the injera anyway. The first one was a paste that didn't taste like it should have been eaten alone. The second one, a jalapeno spread, also seemed like it should have been mixed into food rather than eaten alone. I stopped eating them until she came back to the table with our platter.

When she placed the platter down, she pointed out the appetizer spreads -- so they weren't the items that were first placed on the table. I figured as much, but I would have appreciated her mentioning that. What we first tried were spreads/spices that should be mixed into food. She also brought new injera, which was a much better consistency. Unfortunately though, the hard, bad injera was underneath all of our dishes on the platter. They typically lay one big piece of injera down on a platter and scoop each of the dishes on top of it. One of the best parts of Ethiopian food is getting down to the bottom of each dish so that you can eat the injera that has soaked up all the juices of the dish. In this case, that wouldn't be an option because the bread was hard and dense. Oh, well.

So, we tried the appetizer spreads first -- the first one, Azifah, was made of whole lentils blended with diced onions, green peppers, jalapeno, mustard and olive oil. I really liked this one. The other one was Buticha, which was crushed chickpeas mixed with olive oil, diced onions, garlic, hot pepper and mustard. This was our favorite.

Then, we tried the entrees, which were spread out all over the platter.  We first tried some of the lentil-based dishes and they were terrible. Typically, Ethiopian food is cooked with many delicious spices -- many with berbere - a spice mix. This food tasted like nothing - no spice and no taste. When we finally got our waitresses attention, she didn't seem to  understand what we wanted. All we were asking for was more spiciness -- she kept asking if we wanted new food. We said we'd like to have spicier food. She finally took the tray back. When she returned, I was speechless. Instead of giving us better dishes, the chef took dry spices and sprinkled them all over the dish. Really? I couldn't believe it. And he doused some of the dishes completely in dry spice -- didn't even mix it in! Wow. We tried them and they were almost inedible. It was the worst Ethiopian food we'd ever had in our lives.

There was even one dish that was supposed to be fava beans, but instead it was kidney beans. When I asked the waitress if they had the fava bean dish, she said these were the only beans they had and she didn't know which ones they were. Well, I know that fava beans aren't red or shaped like a kidney bean. It was all very disappointing. The only thing that was good was the green salad in the center of the platter, but I guess it would be hard to mess up a salad. The kidney beans and chickpeas were incredibly overcooked as well. The cabbage dish that is usually very light was doused in berbere.

Soon thereafter someone called and we heard the waitress tell them they'd be closing the restaurant at 8:15 p.m. because they ran out of injera. That is like a Mediterranean restaurant running out of pita bread!  In the end, we ate some of it because we were hungry, but I think Zach said it best when he said, "Was it edible - yes. Was it good - no."

Finally, the waitress brought us the check and seemed very upset. She said that the owner and chef had been out of town for a few weeks and the person cooking actually wasn't a cook at all. Maybe it was someone who usually prepped. In any case, she told us that everyone has been unhappy with the food and she was very frustrated as well. The owner prepared a bunch of food before he/she left and this person was just heating it up. The waitress ended up trying to make good by only charging us half of our bill. That was really nice and we appreciated it, but the damage was done. I won't ever return to this restaurant and now that I've read other reviews online, I'm not convinced the poor quality of the food was only due to the owner's absence. Still, I would not recommend this restaurant.

Queen of Sheba
3636 Henderson Blvd.
Tampa, FL
(813) 872-6000