What to Eat in Pittsburgh

Despite being avid carnivores (just check out any of our other posts, or our posts on What to Eat in Birmingham for evidence), we love a great vegan meal. When we lived in Manhattan, we had several vegetarian and vegan friends who took us to two spots that set the bar high. Franchia is a well-known vegan Korean restaurant that serves on-point, authentic versions of Korean standards. Despite the centrality of meat to Korean food, the fact that they pull it all off without meat isn’t even something that crossed our mind during one of the most amazing meals we had on the island. And on our last night living in the City, we ate at Candle 79. This was the first time we’d ever had what I would consider to be an upscale nouveau-American vegan meal, where the fare was hearty, did not consist purely of salad, and where we left feeling stuffed and amazed at the chef’s creativity.

These experiences sparked our interest in dedicated vegan restaurants, which understandably laid dormant during our six years in Birmingham. Even though Bham has a strong food community, it still has a ways to go in terms of vegan offerings. Even supposedly vegetarian items were typically laced with pork fat. Great for us, terrible for our veggie and vegan friends.

So of course, we have been on the hunt for amazing veggie and vegan places here. We’ve found several that we love, and even have our favorite dishes: B52’s tofu scrambles and chocolate bonbons, Apteka’s….everything, Zenith’s brunch buffet, especially the Tofishy sandwich, and Spirit’s brunch buffet (except, they do have bacon). I’m sure at some point we will write about each of these – they all deserve the attention, and most are pretty well known in this town. But one place that cried out for some time in the vegan limelight was Onion Maiden.

I found Onion Maiden in the food-version of online dating – Yelp. Nothing to be embarrassed about there. Right after we moved here, we made a friend named David who, despite being vegan and frequenting all the places listed above, had never been to Onion Maiden. We went and declared it a success. When he moved away, he introduced us to another friend named Eric who was also vegan and also had never been to Onion Maiden. So we decided to go back with vegan and friend-of-the-blog David. This is the story of that trip.

Onion Maiden is situated on Warrington Avenue in Allentown, a Southern hillside neighborhood. It’s right down the street from another very non-vegan favorite about which we’ve also blogged, Leon’s. The outside is modest, and channels the restaurant’s heavy metal inspiration.

 

Inside, the space is cozy, and very thoughtfully composed. The two times we’ve been there, it’s been crowded, but not so packed that we couldn’t get a table. We always see families with kids, which I think is a reflection of the laid-back atmosphere.

Here are some interior shots. Not sure why this one won’t display upright; just turn your head 90 degrees and you’ll be fine.

We looked expectantly at the eclectic menu and noticed a few things right away. There’s clearly an Asian influence throughout, but that’s not the central theme of the menu. They make their own cashew cheese, which features prominently in several dishes. They also have some items that are just intriguing – like, you know they had to get creative. Most of the dishes seemed fairly light, we reasoned. We would have one of everything (not literally, but it definitely felt like it).

Of course, we had to get the Bunno. They come two per order. Adorable, soft little buns filled with savory enoki mushrooms. I could make a meal out of two orders of these.

 

Next up, the coffins.  Scallion pancakes of any sort are my guilty pleasure. These were filled with the intriguing jackfruit. I have to be perfectly honest, I am aware that jackfruit is sometimes used as a meat substitute, especially in dishes that would call for pork BBQ, but I had never experienced it. I would say that here, the jackfruit stood on its own two feet. It was slightly sweet, with a robust texture that fulfilled its hearty duties in the dish. It did not however resemble meat, which is A-OK. It mixed beautifully with the fried pancake and the rest of the savory flavors it was stuffed with. I could also make a meal of just this. And since it’s served with kale, I would feel good about doing that.

Our next item falls into the category of intriguing. The item were drawn to here was the deviled eggs. And the idea of putting a cheese and egg plate on a menu at a vegan restaurant seemed bold.  Plus we had to try the cashew cheese.

I mean, just look at that gorgeousness. First, the cashew cheese was a great consistency, and spread well on the bread. We ate it topped with apple chutney and apples. But the eggs. I mean, come on, they are gorgeous. Here’s a close up:

This tasted like an actual deviled egg.  It was incredible. We were a bit in awe, and had to ask the server how they do it. The “yolk” is made of tofu, which we guessed. The white part is made using agar and nut milk for coloring. I mean, how creative can you get. It was essentially a work of art.

On to the bigger dishes. The fist full of curry with tofu. This was a nice light version of coconut tofu noodle soup with tons of fresh herbs and lime. Definitely on par with anything we would get at our favorite authentic Thai restaurants. And so beautiful.

 

Next, The Woods. This is a delicious tofu and kale salad with the inventive addition of “ginger pesto” and hearty mushrooms. Would definitely order this again.

Lastly, Straight to Hell. Having lived briefly in Vietnam, and living in the Vietnamese neighborhood in Philly, we are basically obligated to eat anything even remotely Vietnamese-inspired when it is offered. As a non-vegan, one of the things I don’t typically like about vegan Vietnamese food is the inability to easily replicate the sweet/salty fermented flavor of fish sauce. This bowl is served with a light dressing that while visually resembling fish sauce, and having a slightly sweet flavor, does the job of pulling the whole dish together. It doesn’t apologize for not being fish sauce, and it really doesn’t need to.

Phew, that was a lot of food. All of it was light, but the sheer quantity of what we ordered meant we were stuffed. But we knew from our last visit that we had to try the desserts. Eric and I went up to the case in the front to look at the offerings. From past experience at Onion Maiden, I knew the cheesecake was a must. And then we saw an adorable chocolate peanut butter thing, and we knew we needed both.

Friend-of-the-blog Eric and I both discussed our mutual dislike of regular cheesecake, and mutual love of vegan cheesecake. It’s something about the consistency. In this version, the cashew cheese layer is firm and creamy, without any of the cream cheesy softness or saltiness. It’s topped with a slightly sweet adzuki (red bean) layer, which is in turn topped with fig preserves. I mean just look at it.

The cheesecake was only matched by this super dense and rich chocolate peanut butter thing. At that point in the meal, I was too comatose to even take mental notes on what this was called. Whatever it was, it was amazing. Obviously.

We all agreed, Onion Maiden really delivers. Mr. Foodie and I really felt that it has as seat at the table with our NYC faves. In a city where many (most? all?) of the other exclusively vegan restaurants are confined to one or two trendy areas (which we love….. not knocking them at all), it’s really refreshing to see this degree of unabashed creativity off the beaten path.