Vegetarian Haven

Vegan, Gluten Free, Bistro
June 24
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  • Food
  • Ambience
  • Service

Overall

17 Baldwin Street W
Toronto, Ontario

I think I have found one of my new favorite restaurants in Toronto – and I’m a little upset it took me so long to find it! I have been missing out all this time.

Vegetarian Haven was pretty much perfect. To start, they have a menu so appealing that you can’t narrow down to choose a meal. I had to order a smoothie, appetizer, entrée and desert – and I don’t regret it one bit. Although, my hips do. 

The ‘Chocolate Rocket’ smoothie, highly recommended by our server, was decadent and delicious. It was creamy, refreshing and completely vegan. Perfect for a summer day. My friends were nice enough to let me taste their drinks and both drinks were also great! They ordered the ‘Fresh Lime Ice Slushy’ which was extremely refreshing and the ‘Ginger Grenadine Almond Milk Chiller’ which reminded  me of a strawberry milkshake. The ‘California Avocado Temaki’ came next and those didn’t disappoint either. They are packed with veggies and apples and come with a creepy dipping sauce that complemented them perfectly. I think I devoured them in one bite. 

I ordered the ‘Curry Pad Thai’ as my main course and I was expecting it to be amazing at this point, since everything else was so good. What do you know – it was! So. Good. Although I was expecting more of a Thai coconut curry flavor, I was happy to have what I could only compare, from my experience, to Jamaican curry. It was really delicious. 

Portion sizes were perfect. They weren’t huge, but there was more than enough food to feed a healthy appetite.

When the time came for desert, my friends and I were so taken aback (in a good way!) by how many fabulous options there were, we couldn’t decide on a what to get. The desert menu at Vegetarian Haven is flawless. Imagine vegan, gluten free paradise, because that’s exactly what we were in. We ended up choosing 3 deserts to share between the 3 of us and there was definitely a hierarchy of what we liked best. 

At the top, we LOVED the ‘organic Chocolate Brownie Banana Split Belt Buster’.  It came with fresh fruit, bananas, the most delicious gluten free brownies and a choice of 3 vegan ice creams. Our server recommended her personal favourite of ‘vanilla almond bark’ – vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered almond chunks – so we chose that one. It was the perfect combination for the banana split. I do warn you that although this desert is amazing, it does come at the hefty price of $13.49 CAD. (Photo below)

Second on our list was the chocolate cake. It is gluten free and of course, vegan. The slice was well portioned and very decadent. Taking the gluten out of cake always runs the risk of leaving the cake dry and flakey, but this cake was moist and chocolatey. If I were to order it again, I think next time I’d order it with a scoop of the vanilla almond bark ice cream. 

Last on our desert list came the ‘Fried Apple Fritters’. I ordered these because I thought they would resemble more of an apple crumble. I was mistaken; they are apple wedges, deep fried in a gluten free batter and are absolutely delicious. In my opinion, they didn’t compare to the other 2 deserts, but if you’re not a person who loves rich, chocolatey deserts, the apple fritters would be right up your alley. 

Both the apple fritters and chocolate cake are more reasonably priced at $8.99 CAD and $7.99 CAD, although still expensive.

I was really pleased to find that Vegetarian Haven has an outdoor patio. For some reason, very few vegan restaurants in Toronto have patios, which is a little peculiar to me; Toronto winters are so harsh, a little summertime sun is always loved in the warmer months!

We enjoyed our meal outside, but I took a few minutes to check out the scene inside the restaurant and loved what I saw. It was intimate and calm, with a warm ambience. I will definitely be coming here in the colder months. 

The service was also fantastic. I like how passionate our server was about certain meal options. She gave us the low down on everything and was extremely knowledgable about all of their dishes. All of our food come in a timely manner. 

Prices range on the more expensive side with meals ranging from $12.99 to $18.49 CAD and appetizers from $4.50 to $8.49 CAD.

 

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Positives
Friendly staff, amazing menu, great patio, incredible deserts. 
Negatives
Expensive, no free parking, no alcohol license 

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