Imagine Vegan Cafe — Restaurant in Memphis

Ok, so if you have covid and can't taste food or are geriatric and can't taste food then this is the place for you. I ordered the chicken and waffles and the mozzarella sticks now of course being vegan none of that is what it says it is. The mozzarella sticks were by far the only thing with substance and flavor. The chicken with the waffles was tasty at the smallest portion as that is the only place where there were spices of any concentration. The waffles tasted like they were made with Jiffy pancake mix. The waffles were heavy in the stomach as is that pancake mix. On the entry of the building it does say that they are looking for cooks and servers so I can only imagine the poor soul they have in the kitchen assembling these dishes has no concept of herbs and spices. From my meal it seems like either this was pre-made and purchased or poorly thrown together from partial recipe as again I reiterate there was almost no flavor. My friend and I joked that maybe we had contracted covid as we were unable to taste anything or rather it had no real taste at all. My friend got the macaroni and cheese which I have assembled substantially better from vegan boxes at home. I can only hope that with time and experience the poor soul in the kitchen will learn what salt is. Or one could hope they discover MSG to help them and making these dishes actually palatable. It should be noted that I enjoy vegan food quite thoroughly and cook vegan and pescetarian at home quite often as I cannot eat cheese so the mozzarella sticks if that's all you want fantastic vegan option that is amazing if you want pigs in a blanket if you want the potato skins if you want fried zucchini or hush puppies don't get that here or maybe once they get a new chef. I had to take a day and really think about giving a review the place had excellent ambiance you couldn't sit and dine inside. I understand the fear at this time with covid and much of the restrictions being released and I don't even mind that I needed to wear a mask even being fully vaccinated. However that there was no seating to eat or that I spent $30 got the chicken and waffles mozzarella sticks and no drink. I do applaud the fact that they did not use styrofoam but rather a paper-based product for my to-go container. It should also be noted that the wonderful lady there to take my order was quite pleasant. One thing I did not like is there was no on-site menu I had to browse the menu on my phone. This would not normally be a bad thing however the website and mobile form was designed for a full size computer screen so I had to zoom in this is preposterous. Maybe in time and experience the chef will get better or figure to cut portion sizes and adjust the menu items as for the price based on the flavor this reviewer says it was not worth it. I will let it be said is that for $9 the mozzarella sticks totally worth it. The price for my waffle and chicken however $1.50 is what it should have been charged. That said had they made the chicken sticks smaller not so fat they would have actually had flavor instead of having the breading on the outside being the only thing with flavor be diluted based on the sheer Mass of stuff you...

Imagine Vegan Cafe is a casual 100% vegan comfort food restaurant in the Cooper Young area of Memphis. It’s a crazy and unusual experience, as a vegetarian, to be able to order anything from a restaurant’s menu rather than having to hunt for what is available for us. They specialize in fake meat offerings using familiar to use brands that we typically buy in markets at home such as Gardein, Beyond Meat, Follow Your Heart etcetera.

I opted for the barbecue sandwich because I wanted a good southern experience. It was delicious! It came on a warm bun with some kind of soy-based barbecue meat topped with coleslaw. I found it very satisfying. They served it with barbecue beans which were also delicious and spicy, and I substituted greens for the fries it would have come with to round out the southern meal experience. (In this case they were out of their seasoned greens so they made a similar offering for me using kale as the base which I was perfectly happy with.)

My wife had the Southern Staple (do you sense a theme here) which came with brown rice topped with black beans, seasoned greens and garlic sauce. It also normally comes with cornbread but it wasn’t gluten-free, so she got sweet potatoes on the side instead. Overall she fell in the dish needed some kind of extra sauce or gravy or something to complete it. She thought it tasted good mixed with some of my barbecue beans and that the sweet potatoes were very satisfying.

It was also relatively inexpensive for a table-service restaurant. Both of our dishes, including substitutions came to less than $20. They also gave me, FOR FREE, one of the croissant wrapped hot dogs which I really wanted to try but didn’t want to order a whole plate of them. It’s also known as “dogs in a blanket”. It was very sweet of them to not charge for this!. The Dog in a Blanket was very similar to what we might make at home…taking a standard veggie dog and wrapping it in one of those tubes of crescent roll dough or you can get in the refrigerated section of most markets. Dipped in mustard it was just as tasty as I make it home.

They also have desserts, vegan cheesecake’s, vegan ice cream and other sweet choices.

No alcohol is available at the restaurant. There are a lot of choices here for the vegetarian and a slew of items labeled gluten-free right on the menu which was helpful to my wife. I love a good orgy of fake meat and liked what...

As a vegan it's always refreshing to eat in an all-vegan restaurant where one doesn't have to ask a million questions or wonder if the server/kitchen really knows when dishes are truly vegan. Imagine Vegan Cafe manages to be a great combination of all vegan, yet down-to-earth with home-cooking favorites. No "weird" vegan offerings, no pretentious vegan vibe. Don't get me wrong, that stuff is all fine, but I'm glad places like this exist where I could take my mom and not have to explain that seitan has nothing to do with the devil.

Imagine Vegan's menu has several pages of great-looking choices. We started with the appetizer sampler. They were out of the dogs-n-blankets so we got double potato skins as well as chicken tenders, buffalo tenders, and hush puppies. Everything was great! It came with a convincing vegan sour cream and a tasty vegan ranch.

For our entrees, the wife ordered the chicken & bacon sandwich. Both the "meats" were tasty and the sauce was mayo-y. I ordered the southern plate which had collard greens and beans over rice with a garlicky sauce and corn bread. It was super flavorful and tasty.

Our server was very friendly and our food came out quickly. Everything was hot and as described on the menu. I could not get over the PRICES. I don't think I saw anything on the menu over $10 and most things were $8.99 or less. Imagine Vegan Cafe is a great deal for anyone looking for vegan home cooking with kid-friendly favorites like mac & cheese, omnivore-friendly favorites like the Beyond burger, and tons of treats to delight vegans like cheese sticks and milkshakes. We will definitely be back the next time...