Bandidas Taqueria – Vegan French Toast!

Bandidas has become a firm favourite in my mental list of great vegan-friendly places to eat in Vancouver. Super close to the Commercial Drive Skytrain station and open for brunch, lunch, dinner and late night drinks and food, Bandidas’ clientele (myself included) have been known to rock quite a bit of plaid and ALHs so it feels pretty homey in here, ahem.

Also, vegan French toast. Yes.

Baked Burritos

Bandidas has pretty much introduced me to burritos, enchiladas, and tacos single-handedly (insert puns here). I like that there’s a vegan-friendly place to go and eat without great expense and which has actual protein in the meals! Beans! Beans! Beans! And tofu etc. They have a baked burrito option (Daiya’s available), and I’m pretty partial to the Connie as it contains walnuts, pinto beans and other sources of deliciousness including lots of red cabbage and apple salsa in a red pepper sauce; enough food to last me two meals (I need to remember Tupperware for leftovers when eating here!).

There’s also the Leona Gayle burrito or taco option which includes smoky-sweet chipotle tofu (organic), pinto beans, cheese (sub Daiya), roasted red salsa, romaine lettuce & sour cream (sub vegan). There’s even a roasted yam filling option.

Mix ‘n’ Match Tacos (now now… tsk)

You can do a mix ‘n’ match taco thing and try lots of different fillings (let them know your whole order’s vegan so you can sub sour cream and cheese for vegan versions). There’s also a taco soup, vegan nachos (so. very. good.), and if you stay too long you may turn into an avocado. Fair warning.

Cocktails and Beers at Bandidas

Their cocktails and beers are great too. Lots of local bottled beers, including a nice chocolate porter and a good Tom Collins. Everything is very reasonably priced too and the food’s so filling. Just make sure you love beans as this ain’t really the place for you otherwise. I’ve been on a couple of dates here and despite the tables all being pretty close together it still feels quite private and the lights a little dimmed in the evening making things pretty date-worthy. However, as noted above, depending on the type of date you’re on, you may run into lots of people you know in the qmunity.

Expect a Line-Up, but the vegan French toast’s worth it

There’s almost always a line-up after 6pm so expect a wait and don’t arrive super hungry. Breakfast can be had all day from 9am onwards and I really love the vegan French toast at Bandidas; it has a vanilla coconutty flavour and comes with lots of apple sauce and a ridiculous amount of maple syrup (you can also order vegan bacon and sausage on the side). It’s more like cake than actual toast and is far from being healthy but is a really lovely occasional treat.

Bandidas Taqueria on the Drive is great for vegans as pretty much everything can be veganised. For examples, practically any dish with eggs can be ordered instead with a butternut squash-tofu medley.

If anyone wants to get vegan French toast and coffee at Bandidas let me know! I’m just itching for an excuse to eat there again soon!

Tagged as: restaurants, the drive

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