The Gentle Crumb + Eco Refillery (previously The Vegan Pantry) — Restaurant in Barrie

This is my first experience with a vegan restaurant and could be my last. Not sure where all the great reviews come from but it may be comparing to other vegan restaurants instead of restaurants in general. When we walked in we stood in line for five minutes before being greeted by a smile-less lady. She didn’t ask if we had been there before so at first we didn’t even realize there was a restaurant seating around the corner. You are required to order, pay, and tip before receiving your food. It wasn’t overly long for food delivery but this is when it went further downhill, the fries (a ridiculously small portion) were cooked very poorly. Some fries were shrivelled from over cooking while some were raw in the middle. The $5 upgrade of a jackfruit poutine was gross but that wasn’t cooking just personal preference of not liking fruit and fries together. I order a jalapeño burger and my wife order the rib-less sandwich. They obviously messed up the sauces because my wife’s sandwich was on fire spice wise and mine was not so we had to trade sandwiches. After the food was delivered and including our exit out of the building we never saw anyone who worked there again. They didn’t ask how are food was, where we could have complained about the mix up of spice levels, the poorly cooked fries, or the distaste for the jackfruit poutine. They never stopped by to ask if I wanted another beverage, and when we were finished we just got up and left, no one asked how our meal was or said goodbye or thank you. This meal with two drinks and two cookies was $57. An absolute ripoff. I can understand if it’s tough to cook vegan food, or if having fresh ingredients cost more, but if you can’t cook French fries you better hope you have unbelievable service. Unfortunately service was just as bad as the food. We planned to bring home and try the lasagnas, panzerottis, baked goods and more, but after the poor food and service we couldn’t convince ourselves to spend another dollar there. I was really hoping for a great experience as I wanted to start having less animal protein in our diets but this was a big let down. I gave two stars because the bean burger patty itself was decent, I actually liked my wife’s Robles’s sandwich (nice sauce), and the flow water and craft root beer were good. Hope this review helps this establishment work on their service and food...

I've been here four times. I have been insanely disappointed all four times. I kept going back because plant based options have been scarce in the area, and I love supporting local. But I can't support something that I feel is horrendously overpriced and barely palatable.

The first time I got a brownie/Blondie thing. It was dry, crumbly, insanely sweet, lacking flavour. I never finished it.

The second time I got a special - a crumbly bean burger, watery and fake tasting "chocolate" sundae, and overly sweet lemonade. After this experience, I sent a lengthy private message to them, letting them know my disappointing experience, and I got a "Thanks for the feedback".

I decided to try one more special before writing them off, and ordered a poutine (with a pumpkin spice sundae which was much better than the chocolate one, and the lemonade was marginally better as well). Half of the fries were completely burnt to a crisp. The gravy was completely lacking any flavour at all - my two year old refused to eat it. A two year old... refusing to eat fries.

The only reason I went back was because I was asked to buy a vegan cupcake and sweet for a guest at my neice's birthday. I got a cupcake and their version of the "Ah Caramel" which was shamefully overpriced, and can barely be considered an alternative (and again, SO SWEET I threw most of it away). The cupcake never got eaten as the child it was meant for said that it was "Yucky" after taking literally one bite.

The store is cute, the staff is pleasant enough, but the food is actually terrible, and gives plant based/vegan eating a bad name. As someone who is a plant based eater, I know just how easy (and SO CHEAP) it is to make extremely flavourful food without bland, store bought dairy alternatives. I can't figure out why an actual restaurant is relying on...

Tried this restaurant for the first time today and was absolutely wowed by how good the food is.

My husband had the banana cake and loved it saying the frosting was amazing. I had a rocky road like cake with marshmallow and peanuts held together in a nuttella like dark chocolate batter that was just melt in your mouth good.

I had the jalapeño burger and it was delicious with its light spicy flavour and the cheese I couldn't believe it was vegan it's so delicious and my husband had the pantry burger that was just out of this world good with its thick meaty bean burger and the vegan mayo was so creamy and flavourful. All the lettuce, tomatoes and other dressings were deliciously crunchy and fresh and the bun was so good I couldn't believe it was gluten free.

The jalapeño popper with the jackfruit sauce was so good. The sauce totally made the dish perfect with its sweet fruity BBQ like flavor.

The fries were not as crispy as I liked but my husband loved them. They were real hand cut potatoes and were fresh and tasty.

The portions are generous and we made 2-3 meals out of the burgers and fries and jalapeño poppers between the two of us. My hubby has eaten a 1/3 of his banana cake and I only managed a 1/4 of mine so there is plenty to enjoy for tomorrow. Everything came to roughly $100 but we bought alot and I feel like it was worth it since the lasagna is large enough to feed a family of 4 generously and the cakes are huge.

We also bought there cauliflower BBQ wings a and lasagna to try tomorrow and if they are even a fraction as good as the burgers I can't wait to try them.

Nothing was over salted or tasted fake. It was real food that tasted good and I felt good after eating it.

Bottom line: we will definitely be...