Four new restaurant guides went up this week, plus one question worth asking every time a menu says “vegetable soup.”
Four worth a look. Sarku Japan, the mall-food-court teriyaki spot, has a Vegetable D’Lite bowl and tofu teriyaki, though you’ll want to request the sauce on the side. Naf Naf Grill goes further than most fast casual chains: the Veggie Feast platter is fully vegan, built on falafel and hummus. Flame Broiler keeps an Organic Tofu Bowl on the regular menu, not a secret-menu workaround, it’s been there since 2016. And Peter Piper Pizza, the family-entertainment pizza chain, backs its California Veggie pie with an actual salad bar. See all four on our restaurant guide page.
Nothing got pulled this week. Good news, for once.
Here’s a trap that catches even careful vegetarians. A soup labeled “vegetable” doesn’t mean vegetable broth. Plenty of kitchens build their vegetable soup on the same chicken stock they use for everything else, because it’s already simmering and nobody thought to ask. Same goes for rice pilaf, risotto, and beans that “just taste better” cooked in stock. The fix is one sentence: “Is that a vegetable broth, or chicken?” Servers know the answer immediately. They just don’t offer it unless you ask.
If you’re restocking the pantry, our brands page rounds up the products we actually trust: meat alternatives, broths that skip the animal fat, the stuff worth the extra dollar.
Eat well out there. See you next week.