Two locally-owned restaurants offering good vegan options

Bandit Burrito

Today I had the pleasure of eating lunch at Bandit Burrito in Johnston on Merle Hay next to Pagliai's Pizza.

My vegan friend Crystal had told me about the place so I decided to check it out on her recommendation. They have your usual burrito fare much like what you would find at Pancheros or Qdoba, but fresher and far superior! If you've never been to the aforementioned places, think Subway but for burritos instead of subs (and actually good unlike Subway).

You can skip the meat and add grilled veggies, onions and peppers, guacamole, many different kinds of fresh salsas made in-house. The options are many!

This isn't some chain. This is a locally-owned joint of which this is the only location. Apparently the owner worked at a burrito joint in Ames that was popular and decided to open his own burrito place here.

The place was doing awesome business at lunch today. A lot of people were eating in while many others were getting it to go. Very popular place!

www.banditburrito.com You can also become a fan of theirs on Facebook.

Fong's Pizza

Fong's is a hugely popular pizza joint downtown on 4th Street across from The Lift and down from Java Joe's. If you're familiar with King Ying Low, it's in their old building. King Ying Low was Des Moines' oldest Chinese restaurant dating back to the early 1900's. Within the last couple of years, it closed and Fong's opened keeping the Asian-inspired theme going. There are Asian-themed cocktails and pizzas. They have a huge beer selection. The place is very popular with the downtown bar crowd.

I made a suggestion on their Facebook page one night that they should look at having vegan options, and they responded right away saying that they're going to have vegan and gluten-free options in their next menu printing! How cool is that?! I had eaten there a few times back when I was eating meat and dairy and loved it. I can only imagine how good it'll be. They said they would have multiple options, so that'll be great!

www.fongspizza.com You can also become a fan of theirs on Facebook.

It's really nice to see that locally-owned places are being so smart and keeping vegans and others in mind! Much better than a lot of the chain restaurants where your only options are to order a fruit plate, some steamed veggies and some rice. I ate at Village Inn recently and had a less-than-stellar Boca Burger. At least there was something for me. :)