Monday, December 05, 2011

Vegas for Vegans - Pura Vida

Black bean burrito
If you've been reading posts about my recent travels (thank you!), you'll know that my main travel companion, T, is vegetarian on the 1st and 15th of each lunar month. We happened to be in Vegas on one of these days - you'll know that we had dinner at Bartolotta, and that the Wynn is vegan and vegetarian friendly. But when I decided to set our GPS to Pura Vida, I had no idea it was a vegan "bystro". It was just sort of on the way to the outlets (I don't gamble, but I use/lose my money in other ways). In fact, T didn't even have to be vegetarian that day. The reason we came was because I saw pictures of pancakes on Yelp. Pancakes and shopping! How delightfully frivolous!


"Coffee" they even gave us an extra bit because there was to much froth in one of them!
There were no pancakes that day. Because pancakes are served for brunch on weekends. And it wasn't till after we were seated that we also discovered it was a vegan restaurant (posters and plaques with the word "vegan" on them proudly adorn the walls). Serves me right for not reading things properly. But despite all this, we did end up having a very good meal.

Side salad (with the mac n' cheese)
I'm not one to say no to any sort of veg (obvious jokes aside), and a nice big plate of undressed spinach, cucumbers and carrots etc. is just what I needed after days of unhealthy/dodgy meals (the drive down Big Sur, via Pismo Beach, then eastward through the desert isn't something I'd do again - I mean, pastries from Big Sur bakery and the In-n-Out at Barstow made nice snacks, but if anyone talks about coffee in Carmel, or the Cracked Crab at Pismo Beach in front of me I will throw up a glass of hot milk (for the former) or an entire box of Old Bay (latter) on them).

Blue corn tortilla chips with chickpea salsa
The salad was actually T's but ironically she doesn't like those veggies very much (who's the occasional vegetarian again? teehee - please don't kill me), and I ended up polishing the plate. In the meantime, seeing as I had no side salad, the sweet staff brought me some tortilla chips to nibble on.

Mac n "cheese"
I'm not sure what they use instead of cheese (something soy-based, I'm guessing?) but it was hearty and cheesy (and also just as heavy as a non-vegan mac n' cheese!). The portions were actually what I'd call 'normal', which was refreshing too.

Burrito again
My burrito was stuffed to the gills with roast potatoes, black beans and all manner of herbs and spices that made it an incredibly filling tongue party. It doesn't look that big, but I could actually only finish half of that (and ended up having the other half after shopping. What? It's hard work!).

Not the Vegas you know, hey?
A lovely departure from all the glitz of The Strip, and the other stuff we'd been eating in general. If I'm in Vegas again, I'm gonna make sure I come on a weekend to get those pancakes.

Pura Vida Bakery & Bystro
1236 Western Avenue
Las Vegas, NV 89102
USA
+1 702 722 0108
Closed Thu


View e_ting in Las Vegas in a larger map

1 comment:

  1. it does looks tasty and although I´m not vegan nor vegetarian I also love to include at least one `healthy´meal when I´m traveling and eating my way through my destination. thanks for the tip.

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