Pal @halfacat raves about Green New American Vegetarian restaurant in Tempe, so I joined him and the lovely @JLKnapp for lunch.
I chose "The Secret BBQ Chicken Sandwich" pictured above served open faced. The sandwich comes with a whole Kaiser bun, but I just eat half the bun to cut down on carbs. With the chicken comes carmelized onions, peppers, espresso BBQ sauce, and vegan mayo.
I asked the waitress for suggestions and she told me that this BBQ sandwich was named by PETA as the #1 best Faux-Chicken Sandwich in the US. Here's the full Top 10 list. So, out of curiosity I wanted to see just how chicken-like this faux meat made made out of a gluten and soy base tasted.
The sandwich as a whole was very tasty. I would eat it again Could this faux meat pass as real chicken if the eater didn't know? I'd say there would be a pause because you can't tell right away. But after chewing a bit, you get that it's not real chicken. The texture though is almost spot on especially since it is cut thin. Looking at the picture above, the faux meat looks like real chicken.
For appetizer, I got the Crab Puffs. My Asian palate was curious to see how close Green's version would come to the real thing. The puff was alright. I enjoyed the garlic flavor but the texture of the filling was on the too mushy side. It needed some beefing up so to speak to give it more of a "there's some kind of meat in here" texture. In it's current state, I'd call it a "Garlic cheese fried won ton."
And lastly for dessert, @halfacatgot the Orangsicle soynami for all three of us to share. The dessert contains a soy based soft serve ice cream and vegan pound cake. This dessert was awesome to say the least, and @JLKnapp who is not vegetarian said that had she not known, she would not have guessed at all this dessert was non-dairy and non-egg. Excellent sign!
The dessert list at Green looked absolutely amazing, and if I had my way I would have tried one of everything because vegan desserts in the Phoenix area is on the scarce side. But, we have more reasons to go back to Green, and definitely you should check the place out.
Note: All pics taken with an iPhone 3GS
