Toronto Vegan Food and Drink Festival 2017 Recap

We had a great day stuffing our faces on Saturday with friends at the 3rd Annual Vegan Food and Drink Festival. We didn't try absolutely everything at the festival, but here are some pictures of the food we did eat. 

We started the day off with Tofu Benny Waffle Fries from Champs Diner. We bought early bird tickets and at first we were so afraid that there would only be local vendors, thus, there would be no point in coughing up ~$14 for tix. Luckily, there were out-of-towners at the event and Champs (from Brooklyn, NY) was one of them! We have been lusting after some Champs' grub for a while since we've been following them on Instagram. I thought this was pretty scrumptious, definitely in my top 3. The benny sauce was sooo good and the ham had that true ham flavour!

Next up was Arlo's from Austin, Texas! They were at the festival last year and we were so happy to see them return. We love this burger! Look at that bun - it looks like a real egg bun! There are surprisingly quite a few vegan joints in Texas, we'd love to go there one day and try them all. 

These slices are from Virtuous Pie. LOL I just noticed the fork in the foreground of this shot. Yes, we brought our own utensils to the festival. The pizza was okay, nothing special.

Root beer float from Sweet Teeth. We missed the waffle sundaes they were serving last year. We didn't have any of this but our friends said it was the most delicious root beer.

The Buffalo Cauliflower Wings from No Bones Beach Club in Seattle were so flavourful and so was the dip! Plus 10 points for presentation!

OMG! These were probably my favourite of all the food we ate. Vegan pierogi from Pierogi Me! The Sundried Tomato Cheddar ones were soo amazing!

While pricey ($3 a pop) these macarons were really well-done, flavour- and texture-wise. The strawberry flavour was our favourite.

Rescue Dogs Fat Mac using the special sauce from Apiecalypse Now! here in T.O. I must say the dogs from Rescue Dogs are super tasty.

OMG! These doughnuts were amazing!! So fluffy and soft! I could've eaten a dozen myself, haha. These are from Glory Hole Doughnuts. They're on Queen West but I've never tried them before.

Uhhh here's the dud of the day from Snackrilege. It was a Voodoo Doughnut with Tofurky slices, Chao cheese and tofu slices. Super disappointing. It was cold and the doughnut seemed stale, which it probably was considering they traveled from Portland, Oregon. We've always wanted to try Voodoo Doughnuts, but I don't think this was a fair test.

Oat & Mill Chocolate Peppermint Patty ice cream sundae. I was pleasantly surprised by this ice cream. Considering it's made from oats, the ice cream was fairly creamy. It was still on the more icy side of things.

The big controversy of the day was the Impossible Burger, which is supposed to taste like a beef burger. It does taste and look like a real meat burger, but I wasn't a fan. I actually prefer to see veggies, grains or beans in my burgers. Neither of us was ever a fan of real meat before going vegan, so this wasn't something we were interested in. We found out after the festival that the burger was tested on rats, so that's ironic and questionable, ethically. 

Another vendor from Texas was V-Eats. This is their po-boy and it was good! I think it would've been better with a different, maybe softer, bun but the mushrooms themselves were great.

The Fairly Frosted Strawberry Chocolate ice cream sandwich was a festival special. I wish we had let the ice cream soften up a bit more before eating it but I couldn't resist. This was a great flavour combo.

We needed a little something to wet our whistle by the end of the day. This is the Pineapple Slushie from Chill Pops and it definitely did the trick.

Coconut Curry, Citrus Squash and BBQ Lentil dumplings from Steambox Dumplings. It took forever to get these and I'm not 100% sure it was worth the long wait, especially considering they are located in Toronto. They were also pretty tiny but the flavours were really delicious, particularly the Citrus Squash. 

This sign ticked us off because it appropriates First Nations culture and that is just so not cool. Ugh!

So, the festival is over for another year. There are definitely questionable things about the festival like the sign above, there were corporate vendors (i.e. Ben & Jerry's and Hellman's both owned by Unilever) yet the tickets were still expensive and there wasn't really any entertainment. The good thing is that it provides an opportunity to try vegan places that aren't accessible everyday like Arlo's, Champs, V-Eats, etc. And of course if you have great company, that makes it fun!