Restaurant Review: Toasted, Winter Park, FL

Every time we travel up near Orlando  we make a point of having a meal at our favorite vegan restaurant in that area: Ethos Vegan Kitchen. But, on this particular day it was so jammed up with folks waiting for a table, upwards of 30-40 minutes, and we were so hungry, we decided to look around.

Siri brought up the next restaurant in the list, Toasted. What? How could this be vegan? It’s a grilled cheese and burger place. But, to our pleasant surprise, Toasted offers a full selection of creative vegan grilled cheese sandwiches, burgers, salads and even rosemary truffle cheese fries! Yes, you read that right.

And here’s the thing…this is not Daiya or Follow Your Heart brand or even Chao cheese substitute. It’s something different that I have never tasted before and even in my forays into homemade cheese–I have never experienced a cheese substitute that tastes and has the mouthfeel of real melted cheese like this one. It’s a blend of pea protein and coconut milk, says the menu. And the bread is baked in-house!

I ordered the Fireball grilled cheese sandwich with sriracha and fresh tomatoes and slices of jalapeño. Boy, was it spicy and so, so good. The bread was crisp and buttery on the outside, without a hint of sogginess. The cheese, hot and melty, even better than I remember the conventional slices to be.

Steve had the grilled vegetable and cheese sandwich. It was delicious, too–full of grilled, seasoned mushrooms, peppers and onions. And the rosemary truffle fries were one heck of a treat. As you can see by the photo, they look like real cheese fries and they tasted even better with the fresh herbs. Fantastic!

Oh, and the iced tea is brewed and tasted so fresh.

The service staff on this day were a group of energetic, pleasant, young adults. Ordering takes place at the front counter, you pour your own drink, the food is brought to your table when ready and they come back and clear away.

I have the feeling that next time we are in the neighborhood it may be a difficult choice between our usual vegan restaurant and our new favorite veg-friendly restaurant, Toasted.