Veg On The Edge - Santa Cruz — Restaurant in Santa Cruz

Do NOT eat here. I have never posted a negative review, however, I feel it's important for folks to know there are many other places to get decent vegan food.

I am old school--as in was a vegetarian for 30 years and now a vegan for 10 years. I know vegan food inside and out because I run an ingredient household. We make just about everything from scratch including oat milk. So when I say don't eat here, I mean it.

While the owner may be well intentioned, the food does not reflect much care. You order from a kiosk; the food sits in large stainless containers; and what you get to eat is room temperature at best. We ordered the Ope Epa. We also ordered the plantains. I've lived all over the world and have eaten many a version of fried plantains. These were overfried, soggy, and covered in a sweet sauce that rendered them inedible. The Ope Epa was a salty mush, which made distinguishing even the peanut flavor impossible.

I ate 1/3 of the Ope Epa and one bite of plantain. Done. There is absolutely no point in eating bad food. It is great that plant-based options are now more readily available than when I started (the only choice then was a bowl of iceberg lettuce and a tomato.) But with so many ethnic options (Sampa's Brazilian comes to mind,) or any Indian, Ethiopian, or Thai restaurant, why settle for this? Even Walnut Street Cafe has a great tofu scramble with a variety of ingredient options.

The general public is being asked to eat substandard vegan options and to accept them as normal and, worse yet, good tasting.

Don't be fooled. Be more demanding. And don't chose Veg...

I want Veg on the Edge to be successful. The owner is incredibly kind. When they first opened I would have given them 5 stars. They had a red stew-type dish that was amazing that’s no longer on the menu.

The problems: They are out of a lot—& a lot of the time. Mostly rice. Case in point: Today, with their new wraps menu, my friend got the marinated tofu quinoa wrap. Exhibit A: They were out of quinoa; brown rice it is. Wrap delivered—no tofu & two dime-sized squares of red peppers (the menu leads you to believe there are all kinds of veggies in the wrap). Exhibit B: The whole wrap was brown rice. The guy even tried to front like, “there’s tofu in there.” Friend said, “I’m happy to be wrong;” opened the wrap; all contents fell out; zero tofu. So the guy took the plate and put 3 pieces of tofu on top of the now inside out wrap.

This felt like an extreme version of typical Veg on the Edge. Out of items. Mostly rice. $10.25 (not including tip and tax) per wrap. 45% spinach tortilla 45% rice 10% essence and color of other vegetables or protein

For the record, I had the Suya wrap and it was also mostly tortilla and rice (pic is of 1/2 the Suya wrap)

I can’t wait to update this review and give them 5 stars. I would LOVE to have a decent vegetarian spot...

This is my first ever review so this shows how disapointing this visit was. I was excited to come to a vegan restaurant as I like to support the cause. Yet, this was very disappointing for a number of reasons. Firstly, their website does not cite the correct prices. The prices for the burger we ordered was $2 more than the website stated. Website states $10.50, but it was $12.50 at the venue. Secondly, the burger was pretty poor to say the least. The Beyond Burger patty was nice (its a great burger patty) but the onion ring (yes 1 tiny onion ring) was burned and the BBQ sauce tasted more like buffalo sauce and again was a tiny portion. For a second, I thought they had forgot the BBQ sauce. The cashew cheese was also a tiny weeny portion (common trend here). Finally, the side of potato balls was a joke. Three tiny measly quarter size potato balls. They sell these potato balls seperately as a half size (6 balls) or 12 balls. So, they effectivey give a 1/4 portion as a side. They serve this on a side plate! That shows you how tiny the portion is. May be the owner is trying to cost cut to save money. I am sympathetic to this but $12.50 for a burger with such tiny amounts for sauce and cheese (vegan), and a pathetic sized side, it is a...