A significant hole I’ve noticed in Coronado’s culinary scene is the lack of vegan or vegetarian restaurants. HappyCow, an app for finding vegan and vegetarian food near you, revealed that while many restaurants on the island have options on their menu to accommodate dietary restrictions, there isn’t one restaurant dedicated to the cuisine.
While I’m not vegan or vegetarian, I happen to know one very well. For the sake of the column, I recruited my partner, Sunny Mangiameli, to help me review a fare I am not so familiar with.
After reviewing multiple restaurants’ vegan offerings, we decided on Garage Buona Forchetta due to its wide selection. The “cucina vegana” section didn’t seem like a second thought, as it often does, but rather a natural extension of the already expansive Italian menu.
“You can tell when a restaurant puts a vegan option on the menu to say that they have one,” says Sunny, “So when there is a dedicated area in the menu, and it aligns with the cuisine of the restaurant… that’s a lot more than most places.”
Sunny, a San Diego native, has been vegetarian for almost 15 years and vegan for almost 10. Originally, Sunny said, the choice was made out of concern for animal welfare, but now it has expanded to environmental and health reasons. All this to say, Sunny is the real vegan deal.
The red neon lights illuminating the exterior of the restaurant buzzed and the sounds of a bustling dinner service bled into the street corner. Large and varying Halloween decorations were propped up, dotted along the street.
We sat under a covered patio, located in the back of the restaurant. Diners near us chatted amongst themselves, and then with other tables. One of my ears singed from the patio heater, the other was working hard to eavesdrop on a family near us.
Our waiter, and many others, were Italian. Shouting orders and asking questions to each other in Italian, it felt comfortable and welcoming.
I was excited about the waiter’s shirts, each incorporating Buona Forchetta into popular phrases. My favorite? Forchettabouddit.
We decided on the piera pizza (pesto, grape tomatoes, caramelized onions, mushrooms) and the ravioli vegan (asparagus filled raviolis topped with julienned veggies). After a short wait our meal was delivered and we wasted no time.
Normally I am not keen on vegan cheese. I feel it can be oily and stick to the roof of your mouth in an unsavory way, but this vegan cheese was different. This pizza was great. The grape tomatoes burst into your mouth on impact and the high volume of caramelized onions and mushrooms drizzled in pesto made for a rich meal. The crust was thin, but the perfect mix of pillowy and dense. I downed two pieces of pizza before a word came out of my mouth.
Sunny agreed, this pizza was amazing. Enjoyed by both carnivore and herbivore alike, it was a strong testament to Buona Forchetta’s commitment to the vegan menu.
The ravioli vegan didn’t pack as strong of a punch. The first note I made in my journal? This tastes vegan. Under salted and room temperature, the flavor profile was two-dimensional and majority veggie. It was almost reminiscent of a baby food puree. This was more in line with my expectations of vegan offerings at a non-vegan restaurant.
While the ravioli was weak, ultimately we both felt satisfied and happy with the selection. Getting to choose between pasta in many forms, pizza, salad and tagliere at a restaurant not necessarily catered to dietary restrictions isn’t so common. Plus the pizza and Italian waiters made up for it.
Located at 1000 C Ave., Garage Buona Forchetta is open seven days a week. Check out their website for more information.
