Vadees is an Indian restaurant in the lower Lonsdale area that I found through a brochure that mentioned their vegan options. Whenever a restaurant mentions this, I always have to go try it. Their menu has a V next to each item that can be made vegan, and there are quite a few Vs. (This doesn’t show up on their online menus though.)
For starters, they have vegan samosas filled with potato and peas. They came with a tamarind chutney and a cilantro chutney.
They have a “make it a meal” option that comes with what you see below (except that I substituted roti for the naan bread, as the naan is not vegan). The small veggie curry is coconut milk based.
This was $4.95 and was practically a meal on its own. Do note, though, that they don’t have a substitute for their honey salad dressing, so if you don’t eat honey, they will bring it to you dry! Some oil and lemon or vinegar would be a nice suggestion.
We got a baigan bartha (roasted eggplant with peas, onions, and cilantro) and a black lentil stew.
Here’s another look at the baigan bartha:
What I liked about this restaurant — aside from the many Vs on their menu — is that mild means mild. I’m pretty wimpy when it comes to spices, so I really appreciate this! However, do be sure to tell them you are vegan so that your food is not prepared with cream or butter. This goes for the roti too — they will put oil on it for you instead of butter.
On my three visits to Vaades, I found that I had to check with them a couple of times to make sure that what I was getting was in fact vegan. They did put a curry in front of me one time that had cream in it. Another time, the black lentil stew was unavailable because it had been made with cream that day. However, they will always have other vegan curries to chose from, and I always leave satisfied and with a substantial amount of leftovers.