I attended the grand opening of 24 Carrots expansion on Dec 15th, 2013. They have moved to the SW corner of McClintock and Guadalupe. I was thrilled to see a steady line coming through the door. The amount of interest in new vegan restaurants excites me to no end. The food revolution is in full force people! We will get to a place of health and compassionate living in our society no doubt.
24 Carrots is my 2nd review since launching my vegan food critic gig last month. I am excited to feature this new expansion. Sasha, the owner, has been in business for several years and continues to expand. If you are health-conscious, I encourage you to support this restaurant and watch it grow fiercely!
My mother joined me for lunch and agreed to split two entrees. I will be reviewing both the Smokey BLT and the quesadilla. The Smokey BLT exceeded all expectations. The faux “bacon” was flavored wonderfully and had some spice to it. I cannot tolerate a lot of spice so luckily the tomato, avocado, greens and aioli cooled the spice a bit. The sandwich was easy to eat (1st date-approved) and had just the right amount of everything for a purely satisfying sandwich. The sandwich came with chips and salsa which we didn’t eat because the salsa was too spicy for our taste. I’m sure it was delicious if you can handle a bit of spice. With that said, if you are sensitive to spice as I am, you may want to ask about spiciness of dishes when ordering. I saw a friend in the restaurant that ordered a noodle dish that was quite spicy to his taste even though the menu did not indicate any spice to this dish. Word of caution…
I am also thrilled to see that Sasha has put gluten-free options on just about every entrée on the menu. This is important as gluten-free is not just an allergy concern these days but important to avoid for those health-conscious individuals that know how our food is grown today.
Moving onto the quesadilla. When I chose this item and indicated gluten-free, I assumed it would come on the gluten-free brown rice tortilla’s that you see in most grocery stores (even though I had hoped it was be homemade). From experience, I know that these tortillas have a rubbery texture and are a bit hard to eat. They tend to be hard to digest for me. But I ordered it knowing this would be the case as it sounded good to me. The result? The tortilla had just the right amount of “cheez” and full of delicious lightly cooked vegetables. I give it a thumbs up but will likely avoid it in the future due to the gluten-free tortilla option. For those of you that don’t need a gluten-free option, this is likely a great choice. With that said, my husband loves those tortilla’s and would enjoy this entrée.
A non-vegan friend of mine mentioned that he tried 24 Carrots before the grand opening. He got the breakfast burrito and was amazed at how good vegan food can taste! The look in his eyes told me it wouldn’t be long before he jumped on our vegan love train. Just a matter of time my friend…
For final notes, the owner, Sasha, came around to greet the patrons which I thought was a nice touch. Looking online at their menu, I noticed that it changes weekly due to local food choices. I love this concept! And, I’m excited to visit again soon before the menu changes again because there are new items that sound delightful. I am excited to find new items each time I visit!
24 Carrots gets 4.5 out of 5 stars for this visit. I thought it was an incredible lunch and experience and the only downfall was the gluten-free tortilla which was my mistake in ordering it. I am definitely going back very soon as there are so many items I’d like to try including a variety of fresh juices. I have also setup a lunch at 24 Carrots with my free diet support group on January 2nd. Come join us if you’d like. http://www.meetup.com/Plant-Based-Living/events/155851302/
Web listings for 24 Carrots:
https://www.facebook.com/24Carrots
http://www.24carrotsjuice.com/index.html
If you have visited 24 Carrots, please tell me your experience!