It seems to be vegan month here at andyville. My pal Cameron decided to drop by the ‘hood for dinner, and after seeing the Netflix documentary, The Game Changers, by James Cameron, has been vegan for a month. I wasn’t sure where to take him (though Yulli’s on Crown Street is always a good bet). So, Google then tells me that Bad Hombres, which I went to over 2.5 years ago, is now a vegan restaurant!

I’d noticed it, still going strong, whenever I walked down that way, past my gym at Anytime Fitness. My experience before, as you can still read below, was mediocre. I liked the idea, but it just wasn’t comfortable. So, it was great to be able to completely revise my opinion (and my blog-review). Tonight’s meal was delicious, with great service and a good atmosphere.

The thing is: I think it’s a great idea for the planet for all of us to eat less meat. And in order to do that, restaurants are going to need to serve delicious food so that people are eating vegan food for pleasure rather than being virtuous. And Bad Hombres is accomplishing that mission quite nicely.

Crispy eggplant tacos with small diced pieces of pineapple and a squeeze of lime was all kinds of excellent in terms of a flavour and texture combo. Really delicious. The fries, with a fake cheesy sauce, were crisp and moreish. Our main was oyster mushrooms in a black bean sauce that came with tortillas. It had a beautiful smoky flavour and was a substantial serving and we were both really impressed.

Add to that an interesting wine menu (we opted for the skin-contact chardonnay) and it was a great night. It was awfully noisy when we came in (at about 8pm) but quietened down. Nice, friendly service and we even got some advice on eating vegan from our waitress at the end. The only thing that was weird was that our table was sticky. Like everywhere. I don’t think it was dirty, but the tackiness of the red paint was off-putting. Or maybe someone is telling me I shouldn’t rest my elbows and arms on the table while I eat!

(This should be a blog post instead of a review, but Zomato's platform, as usual, is malfunctioning and no amount of requests to the helpdesk is working)