Veggie Grill-Updated Review

Veggie Grill
200 S Lake
Pasadena, CA 91101
626-535-9561

A couple doors down from Dupar's Restaurant, which used to be Hamburger Hamlet, is Veggie Grill.  Veggie Grill is a chain plant based restaurant.  There is no meat products in their food.  You can enter Veggie Grill from the back parking lot or from Lake Ave.  It's a good sized restaurant with a long section of tables for two, as you enter from the back and tables that can seat larger groups in the front.  You order at the counter and your food is brought to you.

Crab cake sandwich, $9.95, Crispy ''crab'' cake, spiced tartar sauce, pickles, tomato, lettuce, red onion on a whole wheat bun, with a a choice of side, I got the tomato basil soup, which was more appealing than Yukon gold fries or cole slaw.

The crab cake is made with a soy protein and was indeed very crispy, with good flavor.  Of course, it didn't have the same texture as a crab cake made with real crab, but this was good.  But, they could have put more tartar sauce on the sandwich, it was fairly dry.

The tomato basil soup was seasoned perfectly and creamy. 

Mac and cheese, $4.45.  The macaroni was cooked perfectly.  But, the "cheese" sauce was so chalky and dry.  Not good at all.  Portion size was very small and not worth the high price.

Service was good.  I got my order quickly.

Veggie Grill is pretty good in my book.  I won't rush back, but I wouldn't rule out going there if in the area.  Though, I would not order the mac and cheese again.

Update August 22, 2017:

Beyond Burger, $12.95. Burger by Beyond Meat, American "cheese", grilled onions, house made sauce, tomato, iceberg lettuce, sesame buns.  Beyond Meat is a 100% plant based, non GMO, veggie patty.  In other words it's a better veggie burger than that genetically modified Impossible Burger from Umami!  Veggie Grill has carried the Beyond Burger for about six months and is such a great seller, it now has a permanent place on their menu!!

This was very tasty, full of flavor, well seasoned veggie burger.  The toppings were fresh.  I really liked the thousand island house made sauce.   It was so good, I almost ordered another burger!!  It's a steal at $12.95 with your choice of fries or the soup.

Service was good.  But, for whatever after I ordered they suddenly got a rush of people.  They didn't handle it well, as some people were waiting a long time for their orders.  Maybe somebody called in sick, but it seemed as though they were understaffed.

I loved the Beyond Meat burger and I like Veggie Grill, so I'll return soon!