When I think of Magic Bars, or let’s get real--anything magic, I think of this song:

Amiright?!

And so I present: Dance Magic Bars! (like magic bars, but with a little David Bowie song thrown in for pizazz!)

I didn’t realize there was another name for these bars until I read Jenna’s blog yesterday with the recipe for her grandma’s “Hello Dolly'” bars. Turns out Magic Bars and Hello Dolly bars are THE SAME THING. That didn’t really blow my mind because I had never heard of Hello Dolly bars, but it might blow yours if you have. The more you know and all, right?

Reading her blog inspired me to make a vegan version. With relatively few ingredients, I thought it should be easy. They turned out surprisingly well and very good for my first time.

Traditionally, the ingredients are graham crackers and butter for the crust, and sweetened condensed milk, coconut, walnuts and chocolate chips for the magic top part.

(Mmmmmmm Coconut, get into my mouth!)

I knew I had to veganize a sweetened condensed milk, and I had to find a replacement for the graham crackers (vegan graham crackers, WHERE ARE YOU???).

Coconut Milk is so friggin’ versatile—and DELICIOUS—I started with that as my base. I knew what a great thickener it is based on my vegan bailey’s recipe. For the sweetener, I wanted to stay away from basic white sugar and agave, and I thought maple syrup would be too rich (and I haven’t jumped on the Stevia bandwagon yet), so I used coconut sugar that my roommate and I discovered at a local co-op.

After simmering on very low heat for a very long time, it had thickened up enough for me to be happy with it, and it was a pretty golden color.

I then went to work on the crust. I used walnuts and cashews for the base, and added a little coconut oil for moisture and a touch of maple syrup for sweetener. The crust turned out great—way better than I thought it might from my random measurements.

I patted the crust into a 9x9 baking pan, and it made it to about an inch from the edge. I’m sure it could even cover the whole bottom in the future, but I wasn’t sure how liquidy and goopy the ‘condensed milk’ would make the whole thing. (Spoiler Alert: it worked out perfectly and didn’t get soggy or goopy at all.)

Onto the nut mixture went dark chocolate chips, big pieces of coconut flakes, shredded coconut, chia seeds (I wanted to add as much a health aspect as possible to this decadent little thing) and walnuts. Then I realized what a dummy I was. I didn’t see peanut butter ANYWHERE. Who makes something chocolatey and coconuty without adding peanut butter?? Not this girl. I added 2 heaping tablespoons to the ‘condensed milk’ mixture, stirring in to the slightly still-warm pot. Then that got poured over the whole hot mess. I added a sprinkle of sea salt and a topping of coconut sugar for good measure.

Then I baked.

While cooling, which I knew from reading Jenna’s recipe was very important to the integrity of the bar, I took a walk to the local Goodwill to look for cute summer dresses or skirts. I did find a few cute things, thankyouverymuch.

When I got back to the house, the Dance Magic Bars had cooled, so I cut them and stuck 'em in the freezer.

Then I ate one.

Oh Lord.

For a hodgepodge gluten-free vegan treat I made up spur of the moment, I am extremely pleased with these.

Heck, I’d be pleased with these even if I actually planned them to be this good.

If I were to make them again, I’d possibly add a little less coconut oil to the nut mixture, but they’re glorious the way they are. I might also add dried cranberries if I had them on hand and was feelin’ sassy.

Vegan Dance Magic Bars

(Note: You better like coconut.)

Vegan, Gluten-Free, Soy-free

Crust

• 1/2 cup walnuts
• 1/2 cup cashews
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon maple syrup
• sprinkle sea salt

In your food processor, process the nuts, oil, maple syrup and sea salt until well blended. It should form into a ball easily.

Vegan Peanut Butter Sweetened Condensed Milk

• 1 can full-fat coconut milk
• 1/4-1/2 cup coconut sugar, depending on how sweet your sweet tooth is
• 2 heaping tablespoons of creamy organic peanut butter (without palm oil, if you’re feelin’ hip to the orangutans’ plight)

In a small saucepan over low heat, heat the coconut milk and coconut sugar for 90 minutes, until a thicker consistency and a caramel color. If you don’t have that long to wait, or if you’re an impatient person, I probably could have taken it off heat at 60 minutes and it would have done the job just as well. But that’s just speculation; I can’t guarantee this recipe will work as well with a shorter simmer time.

Remove from heat. Stir in peanut butter.

Magic Bars

• 1 recipe nut crust
• 1 recipe peanut butter sweetened condensed milk
• 1 tablespoon chia seeds (optional; they don’t serve a benefit I noticed, I just like them for their nutritional value)
• 1/2 cup chocolate chips
• 1/2 cup coconut flakes and/or shreds
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• sea salt and coconut sugar to sprinkle on top

Bar Assembly:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

In a 9x9 pan, use your fingertips to spread the nut crust to cover the bottom. No need to oil the pan; the coconut oil in the nut mixture prevents it from sticking.

Sprinkle chia seeds over the mixture, followed by chocolate chips, coconut and walnuts. Pour the PBSCM over the entire mixture. It’s okay at this point to pick a covered chocolate chip out of this mess to ‘test’.

Sprinkle sea salt and coconut sugar over the entire mixture and place in the oven. Bake for 35 minutes minute. Let cool for an hour.

Cut into pieces and stick in the freezer until ready to eat, ie immediately.

Notes:

The bars hold up really well, especially if you cut them into smaller pieces.

If you don’t have coconut sugar, DON’T PANIC. I’m sure you can use vegan white sugar, brown sugar or maple sugar (Hello, Trader Joe’s!) instead. I’m not sure how agave or maple syrup would change the texture, but if you try it leave a note in the comments and let me know.

Of course, peanut butter is optional, but only if you’re extremely allergic to peanuts.

On a recent wintery day (my birthday, which was actually eons ago, in February), my roommate and I went to Blossoming Lotus for lunch. It’s a short walk from the house, and with raw, vegan and gluten-free options, it’s an easy choice when we’re hungry.

Note my Our Hen House bag by my side.

I started with a cup of coffee and soy milk.

And we shared two entrees. The wraps here are big, and filling, and perfect to split if you’re with a dining companion.

The first is a wrap with lots of veggies and white bean spread. You can put white bean spread in anything and I’ll eat it. (Michele from Vegtastic Voyage recently made her first white bean spread. I’m hoping she’ll share with me next time.) Bo Lo’s white bean spread is reallllly good, too.

Yurm.

The second wrap we shared is always extraordinarily delicious. With bbq soy curls and greens, I easily demolished my half. This is exactly what I crave when I crave Blo Lo.

I am, in fact, craving it right now just looking at this picture.

My other posts featuring Blossoming Lotus:

Blossoming Lotus Lunch with Friends

Blossoming Lotus Brunch

Note: I think I like writing about Blo Lo so much because the natural lighting in there lends itself so easily to photographs.

Oh, hello.

I made vegan no-bake birthday cake balls last week and I CAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT THEM.

You probably need to make these ASAP.

 You know when you make something and it turns out SO GOOD you’re kind of shocked? If you’re an experimenter in the kitchen like I am, you know exactly what I mean.

This has happened to me twice this month. (The second time is a future blog post. Hint:  it’s called Maple Bourbon Popcorn.)

I was puttering around making my raw brownie bites at my roommate’s request (I will be posting the recipe soon for those, too. I call them Nessy Balls. And because I am 12, it makes me giggle.) when I remembered we had yellow cake mix in the cupboard left over from my birthday smoothie craving.  I just knew I had to incorporate them into my balls.

Ha.

Duncan Hines brand is inadvertently vegan, but judging by the long list of ingredients, not remotely ‘healthy’. That’s okay. If you’re going to indulge in anything yellow cake-flavoured, these balls are definitely a better choice than actual cake mix cake. Sweetened with dates and with only a handful of ingredients, they take less than 10 minutes and while I’m not sure if they’re completely raw (I can’t speak to whether everything in the mix is raw), these are most definitely no-bake.

Quick and easy, just the way I like my balls desserts.

Vegan No-Bake Birthday Cake Balls

1/4 pitted dates

1/4 cup raw unsalted cashews

1/3 cup vegan yellow cake mix

1 teaspoon vanilla paste or extract

1 tablespoon coconut oil

1/2 tsp sea salt

Sprinkles, for garnish

Place dates, cashews, coconut oil, vanilla paste and cake mix in a food processor. Pulse until processed, about 2 minutes.

Roll into balls and coat with sprinkles.

The coconut oil adds much-needed moisture to the mix, and adheres the sprinkles to the balls, so make sure not to skip it. Some recipes for bars or balls that call for dates and nuts blend them separately, but I like having little chunks of dates and cashews in these balls, so this recipe calls for blending all together. Feel free to experiment for your personal taste preference.

Refrigerate when done, and eat chilled. 

Makes 12.

In addition to eating at fancy-pantsy vegan restaurants all weekend at The Wynn, our wedding party group definitely did some random snacking and drinking throughout the casino.

In no particular order, here we go.

We didn’t spend too much time by the slots, but when we did, I stuck to the nickel slots. One time I was feeling all high roller-y and did the quarter slots. I lost my $5 immediately.

I did win $2 on Friday night, though (before adventures at the Playboy Club and after seeing Jonathan Davis—of Korn fame—spin at a nightclub. Who am I, again?).

Proof: (and proof I rocked some pretty hardcore sparkles)

When I was at the slots, my go-to drink was a vodka press. For those who have never been to Vegas, cocktail waitresses offer you free drinks while you’re gambling. Just don’t forget to tip!  A vodka press is a shot of vodka, half 7-up and half soda water. With a squeeze of lime, it’s refreshing and easy to drink. 

Vodka Press. You can see my pretty gold nails and Millie’s pretty pretty wedding dress in the background.

On Millie’s wedding night, while everyone played Pai Gow or something at an actual table with an actual dealer, Millie and I took a walk and stopped for a drink at Parasol Up, a beautiful little bar with an intriguing cocktail menu, still in The Wynn.

I really really wanted to to order The Parisian Apricot (Cognac infused with apricots, Tahitian vanilla and star anise) but our server swayed us. She said, “Can I tell you something? Can I be honest with you? That drink is…. TERRIBLE. Do not order it. Order something else. Anything else.”

She was so adamant and we so appreciated her honesty that we both changed our minds. I’m still so intrigued by the description, though….

Doesn’t that Apricot Sour sound SOOOOO GOOD? Minus the egg whites, of course. Well, we will never know. 

I ended up ordering the Sinatra Smash instead. As a rule, I stay away from whiskey and bourbon (trust me, it’s in the best interest of everyone around me, unless you want me kissing and loving on you all night), but this drink sounded divine. Muddled blackberries?  Crème de Cassis? (Crème de Cassis is a blackcurrant flavored liquor, and I go nuts for blackcurrants.) Yes, please!

Probably the most disappointing experience was had at Brunch on Sunday morning. Hold on, I take it back. DEFINITELY the most disappointing experience was had Brunch on Sunday morning.

Don’t be fooled by the beautiful displays of fruit, flowers and vegetables.

Brunch at The Buffet is all-you-can-eat, and at about $35 a pop, that’s not too bad, for Vegas standards.

Apparently, though, even though every single other restaurant and café in The Wynn has a separate vegan menu (which I will reiterate: IS AWESOME and was not taken for granted AT ALL all weekend), the brunch buffet does not have a separate vegan menu. And unfortunately, we all had to pay up front to find this out. The offerings were very disappointing (roasted potatoes and cantaloupe for $35? No thanks!) and though the Chef was very nice and very accommodating (thank you, sir!), we just couldn’t stomach paying so much for so little.

We each got refunds and headed out to the pool instead. No big loss, really. Several people ordered the vegan chicken and waffles again from The Terrace Point Café, but I just headed to a little café and ordered a blueberry muffin and an iced coffee. The cost came in at just under $10, which seemed like such a good deal at the time. It’s amazing how quickly I acclimated to shelling out the big bucks all weekend.

Before we departed Sunday night, I enjoyed a nice solo cup of coffee at Parasol Down, a café that offers a beautiful view of a waterfall and even includes a periodic light show.

Ha. Weird. It was a cool light show though. It was a whole bunch of morphing faces set to that song from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. (THIS song.)

One of my favorite items all weekend—and most affordable—was a little vegan croissant sandwich set at a café (the same one I got my blueberry muffin and iced coffee from). I believe there was a tuna salad and a chicken salad flavor, and you get one of each with your order. At under 10 bucks, it was a good deal and they were actually very very good.

So cute!

I shared this with a gal in the wedding party. We each had half of one. The tuna was my favorite.

Before dinner on Saturday, the bride and groom wanted a little snack, so we stopped at a café (I don’t remember the name). I ordered a drink that was DELCIOUS.

The Fresca was made with Passion Fruit vodka, muddled mint, passion fruit puree, lime juice, club soda and a splash of Campari.

YURM. It has my name written all over it.

(My name is Janessa Wynn, didn’t you know?)

The peeps I was with HAD TO try the Wynn cheeseburger combo. This was on almost every menu and includes a fast food style burger, fries, and a chocolate shake for $9.

Cute!!

The Matzo Ball soup was incredibly bland and boring—do not order it if you stumble upon this café and want soup. Seriously. The salad in the background was also fairly bland and not inspiring.

Oh look, another vodka press!

Catching up on the other posts?

Part One: Vegan Dining at Switch Steak House

Part Two:Vegan Dining at the Pool and Terrace Point Café

Part Three: Vegan Dining at Sinatra

Part Four: Vegan Dining at Wing Lei

On Saturday Night in Las Vegas after the wedding, the bride treated the whole group to dinner at Wing Lei, a beautiful Chinese food restaurant in the Wynn with a separate vegan menu (like all restaurants in the Wynn).

The restaurant itself is elegant and dramatic, set with pomegranate trees and a beautiful sculpture. The service was phenomenal, and the meal mouthwatering.

Something about ordering wine in a fancy restaurant with fancy glasses really appeals to me.

There were 9 of us, and though not all of us are vegan, most are and we decided to share an assortment of appetizers and entrees.

Each appetizer comes with 5 bite size pieces, so we each tried one item.

I sampled one of the little morsels on the right, the one with the orange sauce on top. Truthfully, I don’t remember what it tasted like, but I remember liking it. That’s what happens when you wait a month to write a recap, I suppose.

We ordered an array of dishes for our entrees. I was in charge of gathering suggestions and ordering. I think there was a total of 6 entrees for 8 of us to share, plus the two appetizers. It was certainly enough for those of us with small-average appetites.

The tofu dish was very popular among those friends of mine who like soft tofu and bok choy. I am not one of those people, but I really enjoyed the flavors and the sauce. I prefer my tofu to be crispy. Fry it if you got it, folks.

This Gardein dish was simple and lovely and my favorite. Kung Pao sauce, red and green bell peppers, and peanuts— I think this is the one we liked so much that we ordered another plate.

The fried rice was okay. I like fried rice, but never go nuts for it, and it tasted just like fried rice you’d get at any Chinese food restaurant in the world. I’m not sure how you can make fried rice taste more special than it is, but at a higher price point, maybe some Gardein thrown in or larger chunks of vegetables would have brightened this dish up.

The chow mein was nice. I love noodles, so enjoyed this dish. It tasted like a traditional Chinese chow mein—oily, salty and satisfying. Again, the dish could have been brightened up by a few more vegetables or Gardein, or even a little extra spice, but noodles > rice, so I enjoyed this dish just fine.

The little Gardein nuggets were good, though I’d pass on the lemon sauce if I ordered it again.  I don’t know what to compare them to do from a traditional Chinese menu. The breading outside coated a chewy—in a good way—inside. The lemon sauce was unnecessary; I would have preferred perhaps a peanut sauce or spicy chili sauce.

We finished the meal with a cup of coffee before dashing off to catch the late showing of Zumanity at New York New York. (Which was great and fantastic and funny, by the way. No pictures allowed, unfortunately.)

Catching up on the other posts?

Part One: Vegan Dining at Switch Steak House

Part Two:Vegan Dining at the Pool and Terrace Point Café

Part Three: Vegan Dining at Sinatra

Know who’s classy?

This guy.

(source)

So when faced with dinner options for our last night in Vegas, we knew which restaurant to choose.  (Go classy or go home, you know?)

It didn’t hurt that the menu listed a Gardein Marsala with gnocchi. Didn’t hurt at all. Marsala is traditionally a dish made with mushrooms, chicken and marsala wine.

You had me at wine.

The restaurant (actually located inside the Encore, The Wynn’s sister hotel) was old-fashioned and swanky.

Sinatra’s started us out with a bread basket and Earth Balance. We were all STARVING—a long day at the pool sipping on bloody marys will do that to you—and devoured this bread basket—and a second un-pictured basket after this one.

The menu looked so good. So good. Parmigiana is traditionally a baked dish with layered cheese and tomato sauce, and eggplant or animal pieces (like veal—gag—or chicken). I couldn’t decide between the Marsala and the vegan Parmigiana.

So I started with the Caesar salad.

Oh my stars, this was so good. So good. I passed it around the table and we all agreed: this Caesar is AMAZING. I loved loved loved it. I loved the presentation, I loved the taste and I most definitely loved the croutons.

The marsala gnocchi sounded amazing, and the waiter told us that the couscous was Steve Wynn’s favorite.

So what did I choose? I went for the Parmigiana. Color me spontaneous, but I just couldn’t resist.

Guys, I admit the picture doesn’t do the dish justice.

But—it was very nice. It was basically 2 thick Gardein pieces covered in vegan cheese (though what kind?? It didn’t taste like Daiya) and smothered in red sauce and baked. Simple, basic, expensive, tasty. I liked it. It was a very filling dish, too, so if you’re wicked starving, and not craving any vegetables, definitely order the Parmigiana.

I also had a few bites of my friend Betsy’s penne pasta with red sauce and ‘sausage’. It was fantastic, though such an easy dish to recreate at home I don’t think I’d choose to order it again.

In the picture below you can see the Marsala dish in the foreground. I had a bite, and it was very very tasty, though it didn’t taste quite as good as it sounded and a smaller portion than my friends were expecting. It’s pretty hard to go wrong with creamy mushrooms, wine and gnocchi, though.

gimme.

This is the couscous. I didn’t get the chance to try it, but it looked beautiful and my friend Kerri said it was lovely. I think she was craving vegetables (apparently the celery from the poolside Bloody Marys didn’t cut it for her) and this was the most vegetable-laden entrée.

I wholeheartedly suggest Sinatra’s for fine Italian vegan dining if you’re in Vegas. Especially if someone else is paying or you just won some scratch at Pai Gow. The Caesar Salad is worth the trip alone, and all the entrees we tried were good enough you could drag your grumpy father-in-law or picky little sister and everyone would find something they liked off the vegan menu. Plus, there’s wine. We found an affordable bottle of white that was crisp and clean, and a perfect accompaniment to the meal.

Missed the other Wynn Dining posts?

Part One: Vegan Dining at Switch Steak House

Part Two:Vegan Dining at the Pool and Terrace Point Café

All five of the pools at The Wynn do not allow you to bring in outside food. Killjoys. And the Cabana Bar, located at the far end of the pools, by the ‘European-style’ (read: topless) has a small menu but none of the options are vegan.

So what do you do if you’re starving and need to eat while sunbathing? (Tough life.) The Terrace Point Café does take-out.

Hold on. Did you see what I see?

Chick’n and Waffles. Hells yeah. At 20 bucks a pop, this is significantly more expensive than Hungry Tiger Too’s dish, but I couldn’t resist. Neither could several other members of the elopement party I was with.

(For the record, my friend Kerri had the tempeh tuna salad sandwich and thought it was lovely.)

We placed our orders and were told to come check back in 20 minutes.

While waiting, I ordered a WATERMELON MIMOSA.

It was rather lovely, but I thought a splash of citrus would make it even better. Or know what else would make it better?

Drinking my watermelon mimosa in the sun, by the pool.

Much better.

The chicken and waffles were pretty feckin good. The waffles had scallions in them,  but they were still sweet waffles. It was odd, but only in a very very good way. The chick’n was breaded Gardein, and man oh man, I could eat that every day.

It came with sides of Earth Balance and maple syrup. This is a before shot, but I should tell you I most definitely drowned my waffles.

The waffles were SO GOOD, but I could only eat half. It’s a pretty hefty portion, and if you don’t have a huge appetite, sharing this would be ample for two people.

On the second day, I just snuck in a vegan blueberry muffin I had bought at a café. No picture, as it was a sneaky breakfast and I was trying to eat incognito.

Part One:  Vegan Dining at Switch Steak House

On my recent trip to Vegas for my very close friends’ elopement, the group was asked to stay at The Wynn with the bride and groom, who are vegan. The Wynn is one of the most expensive casinos in Vegas, so I had to have a few nice chats with my wallet and explain that this weekend was going to be about hedonism and credit cards, not about pinching pennies. The most exciting part about staying at The Wynn: the owner, Steve Wynn, went vegan in 2010 and with the help of Tal Ronnen created separate vegan menus at each and every restaurant in the Wynn.

I am not the type of person to go all out and spend boatloads of money on fancy food and fancy drinks*, but this was a special occasion and a once-in-a-lifetime event. Sometimes you just gotta spend $35 on your entrees and $15 on your poolside ultra-spicy Bloody Mary. Especially if two of your bests friends are eloping!! Guys, I threw myself on the Vegas Vegan grenade, and I’m here to tell you about it.

*usually

Before I went, I remembered a Super Vegan post I read a few months ago that linked to a PDF attachment of most of the vegan options at The Wynn. I read through that in preparation and drooled all over myself. Again.

Once we arrive at The Wynn, I flipped through the information books that every hotel has. THIS hotel has a separate vegan room service menu. Holy Moly. I could tell this trip was going to be awesome.

That’s Roger, my panda speaker, in the background. 

The vegan room service menu included breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks. I sampled the nachos and chicken fingers after a 3am dance party. The nachos were more like chips with lots of dips, and superbly good.

For dinner the first night, a few of us took the bachelorette to Switch Steak House, a contemporary steak house with walls and ceilings that transform, literally, throughout the evening. The walls rise and new walls rise up and colored lights play on the tables. The ceiling folds and shows a whole new ceiling. I wish I had a picture for you, but it’d really have to be more of a video to show you how the whole room transformed.

Note: Many of the menus at The Wynn are labeled “Vegetarian” even though they are completely vegan; we were told the purpose is to not scare off people who are scared of things like vegan food. Vegetarian is more familiar and not as threatening. Eh, I’ll take it.  I get it.

The complimentary fresh bread basket and Earth Balance was brought out.

The pretzel sticks are AMAZING—I have an itch for vegan soft pretzels and I scratch that itch whenever I can.

I chose a lime, mint and Ketel One Vodka cocktail for my evening dinner delight. It was delicious—tart, sweet and minty. It was about $15, the going price for cocktails at The Wynn all weekend.

We ordered one each of the appetizers—Caesar Salad, Tofu Carpaccio and Breaded Oyster Mushrooms with remoulade.

The Oyster Mushrooms with the dipping sauce. These were good, and really rich. I could only have a couple. None of us could finish the order. But the large portion and fantastic taste and texture meant a perfect shared appetizer for the group.

The tofu carpaccio was probably the lowlight of the meal. Honestly, I don’t know what carpaccio is*, but this dish was slabs of cold tofu with tomatoes, bitter greens and a basil sauce. This one didn’t do it for me.

*Okay, I just Wiki’d ‘carpaccio’. EWWWW Gross. Raw pounded meat slabs?? No thanks, the tofu is sounding much better now.

The Caesar salad was divine. I’m a sucker for Caesar salads, though I always thought they were nasty before I was a vegan. This one was tangy, crunchy and had just the right amount of black pepper. Romaine is my favorite salad lettuce. If you like Caesar salads, I had an even better one on my last day in Vegas, which will be another blog post. (Hint: It’s at Sinatra’s.)

A close up of the Oyster mushrooms. I like this picture because it looks the little mushroom is getting a piggyback ride from the bigger bottom mushroom.

Moving on:

The lentil meatloaf with grilled asparagus and carrots and what looked to be pearl onions (I didn’t eat the onions. Pearl onions are weird.):

The meatloaf, shared between 4 people, was chewy and savory and tasted eerily similar to what I imagine meat-meatloaf tastes like, in a really good way.

The meatloaf was served with mashed potatoes, which tasted so wonderfully buttery and smooth and potato-y and perfect. Yum. Get these if you eat here.

The polenta cake wasn’t my first choice—I thought the pot pie sounded better—but I’m always down to try something new. (As long as it doesn’t have eggplant, naturally. I’m not crazy.)

It was good, especially with bites of the mushrooms, lentils and pea sauce, but had a sort of fishy taste overall (seaweed?). We finished it, and happily, but it wasn’t the star of the evening’s meal by any means.

Finally, we had to indulge in dessert. We chose bananas foster, because who doesn’t like cooked bananas and ice cream?

This was a hard dish to share with 4 people, but I bet as a couple it would have been lovely. Or if it would have been served in 4 tiny cups for each person, but that is probably asking for too much. A girl can dream.

The server wrote ‘Congratulations’ on the plate, which was a sweet touch.

Overall, dinner at Switch Steak House was on point. It’s a delight to eat out and know you’re getting quality vegan food. You may not like everything you order (and at high price points you may want to stick to the familiar) but it feels so great to be able to sit in a swanky restaurant with swanky friends eating swanky vegan food. My favorite items of the night: the Caesar Salad and the Vegan Meatloaf with mashed potatoes.

This bill, for  4 drinks, 3 appetizers, 2 entrees, 1 dessert and 4 coffees came to $200, plus gratuity.