Eating Out*: Garden City Vegan Options

*Pre-COVID

I realised I said that I had finished all my actual eating out posts, but then I remembered I had this folder I had been collecting of vegan food options at Garden City. Westfield Garden City is a large shopping centre (what my US friends would call a mall) that is near me. It has been there since I was born, but has gone through multiple upgrades over the years. The most recent a few years ago where they build a whole new section. So it is pretty big and has a lot of shops, including a lot of food shops. And there are many vegan options to be found. This post only coveres a little bit of what is available.

Perk's Kitchen is a cafe in the fancier area of the mall near the theatres, so not in a food court. They used to have a few vegan options, but then moved to having a whole vegan section on their menu. I had the works burger, with a chickpea patty, hashbrown, mushroom, fried onions, tomato, spinach, BBQ sauce, avocado, and gherkin. It also had chipotle chutney on it, but I got them to leave it off. It came with fries, and it was pretty good. I was excited that they offered vegan milkshakes, and I got a strawberry one. But they don't have any vegan ice cream at all, so instead they blended it with soy milk and ice which led to a sadly icy cold but watery drink.





Speaking of milkshakes, New Zealand Natural introduced two flavours of vegan ice creams. While they have had vegan-friendly sorbets, thish was the first time you could get actual ice cream. The two flavours were Almond Raspberry and Chocolate Oat. You could get them as a scoop or as a thickshake. I got both of them as thickshakes and they were awesome, but the almond raspberry one was my favourite.





Zambrero has always had a nice range of vegan options (minus the dairy, but they give you FREE GUAC!!!!), and a while ago they upped their offerings with vegan cheese and vegan sour cream. Zambrero is one of my favourite Mexican chains, because they have a lot of really fresh options. They also have some silly 'super foods', so you know me. I enjoy getting their Vegan iQ Burrito or burrito bowl, which has black rice, pinto beans, lettuce, guacamole, their iQ salsa (I don't know, it has silly things in it), and lime. Minus the jalapeno, and with the mildes trezigo sauce. The last few times I have also had some vegan sour cream with them, for funsies. One day I will get the nachos with vegan sour cream and vegan cheese.





Speaking of Mexian, Mad Mex is another chain that has restaurant at Garden City, and they also introduced vegan cheese. I got a small burrito with Veggie Tofu Rancheros and Vegan Cheese but oh my god it was so spicy (even though they claimed it was mild) that I was on fire.



Kinn Thai is a restaurant in the fancy section near the cinemas. It has a couple of vegan options. I haven't actually eaten there, but we did get delivery from there one night. I got the Tofu Puffs with Tamarind Sauce, and the Asian Green (veggies and tofu with a mushroom sauce). Meh. The tofu puffs were undercooked, the batter was still stretchy and raw. The sauce was nice though! And the Asian Green was perfectly fine, but was small.





One of my favourite placed at Garden City is Bun Vietnamese Street Food, which is located in a section called 8 Street, a special food court that has a lot of Asian street-food style operators. I have eaten there, but I have also had them delivered several times. The following photos are from delivery, and include their delicious vegan lemongrass tofu rice paper rolls with hoisin sauce, and their amazing vegan pho! They also have a bunch of other vegan options, that you will see in future posts about eating at home.





I've spoken about Grill'd on the blog a number of times. They are a burger chain and they have several vegan options including the Beyond Burger, vegan cheese, and vegan mayo. I prefer their garden patty to the Beyond, and my favourite burger is the Garden Goodness Burger (made vegan with subs for the dairy) and with pineapple and pickle added. It is huge, my poor jaw. Also a side of their amazing chips. I am always happy to go to Grill'd!



Finally, a sweet option to end this post. San Churro is a chain that, no surprises, sells churros. And other sweet things. Their churros are vegan! And they have an option of cookie butter dipping sauce or a vegan chocolate dipping sauce! They have a couple of other fun vegan things as well. I just got some churros and cookie butter dipping sauce, which were delicious.



As I said, this is just a smattering of options. Other places that come to mind include Sushi Sushi (my favourite sushi place), Hungry Jacks, The Pancake Manor (that I really have to try), and so many more!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



One very sleepy little Dim Sim, who was sitting up but struggling to stay awake. Just curl up and go to sleep my love!